The late great John Peel was the champion of the obscure and unheard. The DJ that, for decades, introduced generations of
teenagers to new music and gave hundreds of bands their first mainstream broadcast and whose In Session recording are the stuff of legend and spawned an entire series of their own.
Astonishingly, it’s 5 years since his passing and a new generation has grown up not knowing what it was like listening to a DJ who would play Bloc Party and then Ivor Cutler, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and then Bong-Ra, Linton Kwesi Johnson and then The
Misunderstood. Universal Music, with the full approval of John’s family have taken on the unenviable task of trying to recreate one of John’s shows.
This lavishly packaged hard back book style 4cd set contains singles and Peel session recordings by some of John’s Favourite artists .The big players and the one hit wonders. The chart toppers and chart bottomers.
Disc 1 highlights include The Misunderstood, the only band John managed and the band that performed one of his all time favourite gig; "If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966. My god, they were a great band!” and the recently discovered Peel Session version of Free’s Walk In My Shadow, long thought of as destroyed after its first broadcast. This is one of 4 unreleased versions on this disc, the others are by John Cale, Medicine Head and the Boomtown Rats. Alongside many long deleted rareities.
Disc 2’s highlight has to be John’s only appearance on record, singing backing vocals to Altered Image’s Song Sung Blue. It sits alongside unreleased recordings by Elvis Costello, The Cure, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Julian Cope and Soundgarden .
Disc 3 Features unreleased recordings by Hole, Thievery Corporation, Marxman, Tiger and Justin Berkovi .
Disc 4 Has 9 unreleased recordings by Bloc Party, Mercury Rev, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Bong Ra, The Datsuns, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Hellacopters, Soledad Brothers and Your Code Name Is; Milo.
The artwork features rare and unseen photos alongside recollections from some of the biggest and smallest artists to appear on John’s show. Artists such as Jarvis Cocker, Block Party and Mercury Rev all contributed.
