The betrayal of the legacy of John Peel

John Peel is one of my all-time heroes. Through his show I discovered artists as various as Napalm Death, The Bhundu Boys, The Wedding Present and Grandmaster Flash. Since his death a couple of years ago I have become increasingly annoyed at how his memory and legacy is represented.

The variety of the music he championed was extraordinary, but the 'guardians' of his memory are too often much more conservative. Take the 2007 John Peel day which was celebrated by a host of gigs by new and unsigned bands across the country. Nothing wrong with that, but where was the grindcore, the hip-hop, the reggae, the African music. Glastonbury now has a John Peel stage dedicated to upcoming bands. Again, nothing wrong with that, but the acts are mostly quirky indie bands.

It's becoming increasingly clear that the memory of John Peel is out of step with today's 'narrowcast' culture. Instead of being celebrated for his commitment to heterogeneity and difference, he is celebrated only for his commitment to novelty in one section of the musical world.

Comments

[Graeme]

Absolutely. The great thing about John Peel was how wide-ranging his tastes in music were--I aspire to that myself, but fall far short.

For what it's worth, I've been trying to keep his legacy alive in my own small way by having John Peel Day tributes on my own blog. The first time I did it with a video of Napalm Death; the second time was with an Extreme Noise Terror video.