John Peel: Festive 50 1997.

As 1997 was slap bang in the middle of my student days, I spent many a night listening to Peel (rather than learning something about economics) and many a grant check on the music he played (rather than the world famous floozies of Nottingham). Some of his fans were even more prestigious than me. In 1997 the newly crowned Prime Minister Tony Blair called him "truly a radio legend". Peel later refused to meet him.

In the run up to John Peel Day I will, rather unimaginatively, be posting selected entries in 1997’s Festive Fifty. A particularly poor tribute since Peel himself always hated doing the Festive Fifty (the tracks were predictable and not unrepresentative of the show's scope) and he often threatened to stop. This may be why in 1997 he didn’t bother playing numbers fifty to thirty two. The full list with the tracks I’ll be posting in bold:

1. Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha
2. Mogwai - New Paths To Helicon
3. Helen Love - Does Your Heart Go Boom
4. Period Pains - Spice Girls Who Do You Think You Are
5. Belle & Sebastian - Lazy Line Painter Jane
6. Novak - Rapunzel
7. The Fall - Inch
8. Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin'
9. Clinic - IPC Subeditors Dictate Our Youth
10. David Holmes - Don't Die Just Yet
11. Blur - Song 2
12. Belle & Sebastian - Dog On Wheels
13. Hydroplane - We Crossed the Atlantic
14. Stereolab & Nurse with Wound - Simple Headphone Mind
15. Bette Davis & the Balconettes - Shergar
16. Arab Strap - Hey Fever
17. The Fall - I'm A Mummy
18. Spiritualised - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
19. AC Acoustics - I Messiah Am Jailer
20. Stereolab - Fluorescences
21. Hitchers - Strachan
22. Bis - Sweet Shop Avengerz
23. Secret Goldfish - Dandelion Milk Summer
24. Prolapse - Autocade
25. Dreamcity Film Club - If I Die, I Die
26. Stereolab - Miss Modular
27. Delgados - Pull The Wires From The Wall
28. Propellerheads - Velvet Pants
29. Hybirds - Seventeen
30. Prolapse - Slash/Oblique
31. Angelica - Teenage Girl Crush
32. Junior Reid - Mashing Up the Earth
33. Stony Sleep - She Had Me
34. Ash - A Life Less Ordinary
35. DJ Hype - Peace Love and Unity
36. Blur - Beetlebum
37. Verve – Sonnet
38. Panecea - Stormbringer
39. Velodrome 2000 - Charity Shopping
40. Vynil Junkie - Can't Forget
41. Idlewild - Chandilier
42. Cuff - Evapourate
43. Starkey Banton - Symposium
44. Ivor Cutler - Goosie
45. Underworld - Moaner
46 Cornershop - Sleep on the Left Side
47 Pulp - help the aged
49 Velocette - get yourself together
50 Propellerheads - take california


As a more fitting tribute here’s Ronnie Ronalde played at the wrong speed:

Ronnie Ronalde – Mocking Bird Hill (33 1/3 at 78)


Read a Peel interview from 1997.




Other Radio News

I recently found out that my new favourite radio station, Splash FM, made this blog ‘Website of the Day’ at the beginning of August. If anyone was in the Worthing area on 1st August and listening to Simon Osborne at 8:50am, I’d love to know what was said about what will henceforth be know as ‘The Internationally Famous in Worthing, Shoreham and Lancing We Love 1997’ (or TIFIWSALWL97 for short).

Also, WL97 is now one year old.