Musical Space: John Peel

Musical Space

Allow me to bring to your attention the British DJ John Peel, whose posthumous 80th birthday is this Friday. Peel worked for an offshore pirate station outside of London before moving in 1967 to the BBC, bringing with him an attitude of independence and iconoclasm. For 37 years he programmed music he thought people should hear, regardless of charts or market research, and in doing so defined what it means to be a music curator, and what can happen when a truly good one comes along. The quantity and quality of music that John Peel discovered for his listeners is staggering. He always managed to find the bands that were inventing new genres. With Pink Floyd it was psychedelic rock; with T. Rex it was glam. When punk rock was just coming across the pond, he was the first to play The Clash on the BBC. And in spite of a large number of complaints, John Peel was the one to introduce London to reggae and hip hop. To make his show even more relevant, he invited bands to play in the studio live