Battle of the Peel Sessions

[naughty boy]

I quite like some Monochrome Set but they're kind of annoying, don't you think?

This one is an all-time fave, I have to say. Fucking A

[Rayge]

:)

I quite like some Monochrome Set but they're kind of annoying, don't you think?

I liked them a hell of a lot, bought a run of singles from He's Frank on. They weren't annoying in small doses, but at album length, Bid's personality got on my tits a bit. Still, like Felt, the appeal of the band to me wasn't so much about the moody bollocks of the frontman, so much as the guitar sound. Lester Square was a star - really liked this one:

[naughty boy]

Yeah!

(that was the other track my mate Tony put on a mixtape for me)

[Deebank]

I don't think anyone would argue that Peel's programmes contained nothing but good music. He'd play some really terrible shit, and I never understood why as he himself didn't show much enthusiasm for it! just a mumbled, indifferent 'that's new on the Disque Crepuscule label and it comes from Brave Flaxen Quartet of Leeds' after the track was played.

BUT - it wasn't so much about the music as it was his warm, friendly manner, and that wonderful voice. It's no exaggeration to say he felt like a pal. For many years I'd come home from the pub around eleven and go to the kitchen to eat and listen to Peel's show. And although it's been nearly 15 years since he passed, I still miss him. Just another thing that disappears completely from your life as you get older, to be replaced by, well, nothing.

When you think that Peel was always - well certainly in the '80s - fighting for the survival of his show he really has triumphed post mortem.
Radio 6 Music is pretty much The John Peel Channel. That is his legacy.

His son is a regular presenter (and even has a hint of the old man's presence from time to time).

Obviously some of the DJs are more Peel than others (Gideon Coe, Marc Riley and Ravenscroft Jnr) and like the great man himself's shows, it's not all brilliant, but there's always something of interest.

It does mean I'm always going to need to get a DAB in the car from now on.

[naughty boy]

Yeah, R6 is something he kind of gave birth to, for sure.

It's interesting that the likes of Coe, Radcliffe and Maconie play pretty much wall-to-wall greats (MR's Out On Blue Six was one of the greatest radio shows ever - only lasted a year or two) - it's like they took the style of Peel but removed all the unlistenable bollocks.

In a way, it's understandable why JP's slot was threatened - he didn't exactly keep it user-friendly! But, as I said earlier, it's like it didn't even occur to him to play the stuff his audience wanted.

[Darkness_Fish]

:)

I quite like some Monochrome Set but they're kind of annoying, don't you think?

Absolutely, they were properly annoying, you can see how much Bid influenced Morrissey in being a smugly superior cunt. Must have been harder in the 70s/early 80s, though, being a smugly superior Indian cunt. It was all part of their aesthetic though, and I give 'em plenty of leeway for being one of the few bands who could be properly witty.

[Deebank]

It’s not exactly an original observation but Peel Sessions were often a lot better than the standard recordings.
Lots of the PS versions of Fall songs are much better but the one that springs to mind most is The Beloved - pre acid house they were a kind of NO/JD tribute outfit.

They did an excellent session which I taped. It was great - massive bass sound, crepuscular, moody atmos.

I bought their LP on the strength of it and it was crack. Piss weak - everything good edited out.

[naughty boy]

Sounds like The Shamen...

[Kinkhurt]

This one is pure gold. You're listening to working notes for what would be the Damned's finest vinyl effort, Machine gun Etiquette. At this point you can still hear the 3-chord wonder version of the Damned, but the muso-chops are coming.The session has some keyboards dubbed on, but they are underlying support rather than the weaved into the sound versions you get on the album. The Captain is pulling a blinder on this session, great guitar work on Burglar and Looking at You, especially. On the album the guitar lines on Looking At You are fab, I remember trying to rip those off and failing and figuring out the chord voicing's on Smash It Up (Pt 1), cool trick once you know it. Had the Captain done a Robert Johnson and sold his soul on Croydon High street ?
I rate this Damned lineup as being the best (I hear Ward is back playing bass with them nowadays). I saw them a couple of times on the tour that Peel mentions with the Ruts supporting. It was nasty, plenty of skins coming for the Ruts, we were not friends.

[Deebank]

Sounds like The Shamen...

The Beloved were more indie than The Shamen.

I've said before that the Shamen were an odd bunch. They had all the technology - state of the art light show, projections, Dalek's Handbag bass guitar and Colin Angus wore that weird Dune Freemen suit thing - but no tunes at all. ALl the gear but no discernible talent. I went to see then in this incarnation and it was like they were independently wealthy and The Shamen was their hobby or something
.
Then they took some Es and that was no longer a hinderance and, to be fair, they were great for a few months... And then Mr C joined

[Deebank]

There was/is a definite magic at work in Maida Vale.
I was lucky enough (like Yomp! Anyone else?) to record a session in the studios - not a Peel Session I hasten to add. One of the engineers liked our band and offered us an unfilled slot on a Sunday.

We pissed away the session really. We dashed off our 'good song' and then our other guitarist spent hours fucking about with (real not samples) tape loops trying to put together some sound collage type thing - the 48 tracks offered at Maida Vale meant this was his only opportunity to mix loads of loops live - this was in the days before DAWs and that sort of stuff. Needless to say it was formless toss. We mixed the good track too and it sounded awful. We left late and very dispirited.

The engineer chap asked us if he could remix the good song though and a couple of weeks later he sent us the tape which was brilliant. He stripped it right back took out most of our sludgy guitar, pumped up the bass and drums and put my extemporised guitar noodlings front and centre

I still have a cassette somewhere but nothing to play it on.

[The Modernist]

but the one that springs to mind most is The Beloved - pre acid house they were a kind of NO/JD tribute outfit.
.

I knew a few of them. They were massive New Order fans.

[Deebank]

but the one that springs to mind most is The Beloved - pre acid house they were a kind of NO/JD tribute outfit.
.

I knew a few of them. They were massive New Order fans.

No shit!

Check out the bass player chanelling Hooky...



Great sound though.

[yomptepi]

I think my Missing Presumed Dead session was better than the transmitters session. I'll have to upload it.

[Deebank]

Very sad to say ace Peel Sessions producer and DJ Mark Radcliffe posted on Twitter that he will be out of action for a while due to cancer.

[naughty boy]

Might be worth starting a new thread.

I hope he gets better soon. He's a lovely fella and one hell of a DJ - possibly our best.

This tweet sums up how I feel.

[clive gash]

His Out On Blue Six was a proper eye-opener, an hour of mind (and overdraft) expanding goodness at a point where contemporary music was flagging. Too much Genesis though.

Get well soon.

[naughty boy]

His Out On Blue Six was a proper eye-opener, an hour of mind (and overdraft) expanding goodness at a point where contemporary music was flagging.

Fuck yeah.

https://www.mixcloud.com/colin-hayes3/o ... radcliffe/

(Genesis-free)

[naughty boy]

(bit of Gentle Giant tho')

[The Modernist]

The Scarlet Party! I'd forgotten all about them.