E D I T O R I A L . 1 3

12th November 2004

JOHN PEEL

DJ ergo git.

This works almost universally – apart from John Peel.

Think Chris Evans, Steve Wright, Simon Bates, Jo Whiley, Paul Gambuccini...

I’m not writing about the private man. I didn’t know him and, despite the assurances of his friends and colleagues that what you heard was what you got, I wouldn’t presume to say.

Leave that to his wife, Sheila, and to his kids, for whom having the Nation’s Favourite Bloke™ as their Dad must have been pretty grim, at times. Though kitchen table conversation was probably a real dream, at others.

On Peel’s death, the London Evening Standard got a quote from Chris Tarrant.

For bathos this has only recently been matched by Channel 4’s ‘UK Music Hall of Fame’, in the 1950s segement of which Carol Dekker of T’Pau presumed to pass comment on Billie Holiday.

Christ Tarrant is a git. His only redeeming feature is, he knows it. All through his career, from Tiswas to Who wants to be a Millionaire, this has been his schtick – ‘I’m a git. I’m in your way. But to get to the stuff you want (entertainment, a million quid) you have to get past me.’

It’s worth reading Simon Garfield’s The Nation’s Favourite, if only for the story of Peel plotting to ambush and mug Simon Bates in the BBC carpark after the Radio 1 Christmas Party.

Peel hated things worth hating.

Even DJs I like and respect, Andy Kershaw, Steve Lamacq, Mark Radliffe – no, actually, it’s only Andy Kershaw. Even Andy Kershaw has quite a bit of git about him.

And I think that’s necessary. It gets him into (and probably out of) interesting and dangerous situations.
Through it, he earns the respect of some pretty tough musicians.

Go to the outposts of music (not ‘world music’ – music where it’s made, wherever), and shit-hot guitar player is often also pimp, hustler, warlord or king.

Don’t get me wrong, now Peel is gone, Kershaw is the great white hope.

His honesty on Channel 4 News in quoting Peel’s final dissatisfaction with the BBC (his new, later timeslot was ‘killing him’), while serving his own interests, was admirable.

But it took a git not to evade the question.

So, how did Peel avoid being DJ-ish?

It’s a small point, but you could never imagine him singing along, on mic, with a song he’s playing.

Steve Wright does this all the time.

Most DJs, in their heart of Heart FMs, think we’re there for them and not for the music.

They are wrong.

Peel knew that, on the deepest level, people hate DJs and think they are gits. Tell us what that great song was and then shut the fuck up.

That’s what we want. That’s what he did.

He told us what that great song was and then he shut the fuck up.

Bless him.