Classic interview
John Peel at BBC Maida Vale Studios
22/09/04
I could (or rather should) have cut this interview down in length, but leaving out as much as i have already pains me. John Peel has a story and an anecdote for almost everything in life. Hopefully you will find something within this interview as funny, enjoyable, random or as strangely relevant as i did... So you turned 65 recently?
I did yes, and well, you know, I'm tired, i have to admit. The new schedule i have to keep (seeing as you don't know much about the programme) [this refers to my lack of awareness of how you get tickets for this evenings gig and my general innocence of all things connected with the show] is quite hard - you wouldn't think 1 hour would make that much difference but it really does Do you travel back home every night?
No no no, i used to years ago. Years ago i did 5 nights a week and commuted every day so would spend 20 something hours of the week in a car and my health started to break down because of not getting home until gone 2 o'clock. But the main thing was at that time, we had 4 young children, and they weren't seeing much of their daddy and their daddy wasn't seeing much of them. I got the BBC to change my schedule but obviously they're not at home any more so its not so much of a problem. How do you go about choosing the records? Do you listen to them all first?
I do yes - I spend more time than is entirely healthy putting programmes together. I even type up the running order myself which the BBC requires: title
artist
composer
publisher/record label
cat. no
title of record
track number Which goes back to the 1950's - and they don't really need to know that but they used to be played by enginners in different rooms, so you'd sit in the studio and say "heres a track by..." and the engineer would have cued it up but were deemed to be incapable of looking to see what track number it was, and this is a hangover of it, some kind of church ritual that still has to be observed. So i do all of that but its therapeutic in a strange kind of way. At least i know its all correct because i do it myself - although i did get something wrong last night - so even if i do make mistakes in the course of the programme, the information i give out [for the BBC archives and website] will be right... When do you get the time to listen to all of this?
Well it goes on all the time - when i'm at home i listen to records which is obviously something i like doing. Whenever i go through the mail or open a box or records i hope there'll be a new Teenage Kicks - when i first heard these guys [Little Killers] from America, you could tell from the strumming and boisterous guitar (which i've always liked).... yeah, it goes on all the time really... You have a lot of other commitments with radio 4, the voiceovers....
Well i don't really. Radio 4 is what makes me come to London - if i didn't have to come down for that then i probably wouldn't have to come down here. I'm not a city dweller by nature and get terribly home sick in a rather sad and sickly way, but i come up on a Tuesday and do that nights programme, then on Wednesday i do interviews for the radio 4 programme and in the afternoons other things like, today it was voiceovers and an interview about a car for the daily telegraph and something for Q magazine, and then tomorrow i have to be back in again at 9 to go through the Radio 4 programme, write a 3000 word script and record the show, that finishes about 5 o'clock and then i drive home and do Thursday nights programme from home. [at this point Louise (the show's producer and general glue holding it all together) and Mark (winner of the BBC talent search last year who syphons the good from the ugly for John amongst various other roles) enter and give John his dinner from threshers (red wine and a pasta dish) - and Andy thankfully brings in a corkscrew] Now there is a man that understands the totallity of his function, and of course this is entirely necessary due to my diabetes.... How long have you had it?
Well you don't really know do you but i was diagnosed on September the 11th. I'd just come back from the surgery and switched on the tv and the first footage of the planes hitting the world trade centre came on, then the phone rang and the doctor said i had to go straight to West Suffolk hospital - which was a bit scary. I was put in a ward on a drip and they kept me there for about 3 days while they stabilised me. It was the last time i was the youngest person in a room... you discover how flatulent old geezers are, it was just disgusting - they were too lazy to get up and just shat themselves - i had to say i'd discharge myself if they didn't open the window Has it changed much about your life?
Not really no, slightly better really. I know now why i get tired and also why i get grumpy in the afternoons. You don't think of me as grumpy do you? [all of crew go "no John" except Louise who says "you're exceptionally grumpy"] Fuck you! [talk moves to discussion about "Grumpy old men" (BBC2 show)] well, as i always say, if you were genuinely grumpy, then you wouldn't do the programme. When they phone you up and say "we've got this programme and its called Grumpy old men - want to be in it?" you just say "piss off". So its more like "Rather agreeable old men"... Are you in the new series?
No i've been dropped from it. Obviously there’s an infinite number of grumpy old men and so they've gone for a new bunch, and i guess at some stage they'll have to get round to "Grumpy old women". None of us were genuinely grumpy but i was the only one who was genuinely old.... [sipping wine] god it does make life easier.... i often wonder if i'm an alcoholic, both my parents were but they were sufficiently well off that nobody called them that - [in posh tone] "enjoys a drink". I did have a week off it recently just to prove to myself that i can do it I gave up for a month to try and save some money for a flight to New Zealand
Oh its really good - i'm terrified of flying but i was offered a free trip, and i took mountains of tranquilizers and off i went. When you arrive in Auckland, you think "this is as wonderful a place as i've ever been". For me, there were amazing second hand records shops, all of the records that were on sale when i was a kid are still there on sale! lp's from the 1950's, it must be where they all end up when no-one wants them at all! The only other place i've been like that was Nairobi, and they had all these great bars [in NZ] where they were playing Jimmy Reid records , i love Jimmy Reid records, and the food was great and the wine was good. I remember thinking "i've dreamt of a bar like this?" and we went down to the beach where they filmed "The piano" and it was spectacular, black sand everywhere.... So you weren't tempted to stay there?
Well no, cos after a while it started to seem a bit dull, and whilst i don't want the tension and the stress, you miss the edge to it and it all felt too easy. The shops were really good if you liked shopping, i mean i'm not really one for shopping, unless its got records in it, but then you could go down to the quayside where the yacht races are and there are all these great little restaurants on the edge of the sea where the sun shone, and you can take a little boat across the harbour to these little islands.... and we were there with all these interesting people like Lynn Barber (the journalist) and this author who'd just had his first book out, i can never remember his bloody name, really nice bright bloke, and we just had a really, really good time. Sheila and i are going to Peru in October, i'd be a lot happier if you could drive. I get so frightened of flying, i wake up in the night thinking about it.... You played Status Quo - Deep Down at All tomorrows parties this year - was that a token ironic record or are you a fan?
I always do, its a really good record to dance to. I played it at Tribal Gathering the other year and about half the people there left the tent in disgust. I hate the snobbery that goes with music, the one i'm trying to find is the one that goes "whatever you want, dur dur dur, whatever you like..." cos i want to put that one in the box as well but i can't find it on vinyl - 45 is what i want. But i like to mix things up a bit and i played it at The Big Chill this year. Its the only time i've been somewhere and they've said "could you play some dull records as we're getting worried about the crowds reaction", and it wasn't me, just the records i was playing, but it was bizarre, like a revivalists meeting. With Status Quo, everyone looks at each other in disbelief and then goes "fuck it, its a great record to dance to". [engineer enters and asks to kneel at John's feet to fix some equipment] well, you're just a face in the crowd to me! It’s amazing isn't it? You'd think at the BBC all the equipment would work.... you may find yourself kneeling in some feta cheese mind you. perhaps we could sell it on ebay.... I've just had to give my car away and i've had this Mercedes 190 which i've done about 650,000 - and i mean 650,000 - miles in. I've had so many adventures in that car that i really felt bad about getting rid of it and i was tempted to sell it on ebay but then, you know, i couldn't be bothered. I keep avoiding ebay because once i start getting into those rare records, i can see nothing but trouble. I could spend myself into a depthless prison. I nearly did once (the only time i've ever got into a record auction), there was an Elvis 45 on sun, which would be worth a fair bit by itself, but all the members of the band had signed it - "DJ Fontana (drums), Bill Black (bass), Scotty Moore (guitar)" and Elvis had written "Elvis Presley (singer)" and i thought that’s really sweet and that record belongs in my collection! I got a mate of mine to go along and keep in touch by phone and sadly i don't have the financial reserves people imagine that i do. I have 4 unemployed children, and i got up to £3000 before i pulled out. I don't know what it went for in the end but its probably in a bank vault in Tokyo or something. But i thought that’s such a lovely personal touch.... I really wanted that record. Is your wife musical?
Yeah, but in a very different way. She was very ill 6 or 7 years ago, had a brain hemorrhage and very nearly died which was a nightmarish experience for all of us, her especially, and she's not a shy woman at all but she is too modest. People say she has too little self-esteem but she's plucked up the courage to join these choirs and start singing and it’s been really good for her, very therapeutic indeed. She really enjoys it and sings quite prettily. She’s probably more musical than i am actually.... Have you ever been in a band?
No. well i say no, i was almost in a skiffle group when i was in the army. It was almost a skiffle duo, and the other bloke who was in it when i mentioned him on the radio said "if you ever mention my name on the radio again i'll take you to court"! So it obviously scarred him.... Did you start out on Radio Caroline?
No Radio London, Carolines rival. We were anchored about a mile apart off the coast of Felixstowe and it was quite nice. Johnny Walker, a man i've always had a lot of time for and is still on radio 2, used to row over and see us sometimes. I really like him a lot. Will you do this forever?
Well i don't want to do anything else or retire, most of the people i know who've retired dropped down dead within 5 minutes. The thing is i never liked television and i've always told my children set your sights low, find something you like doing and if you can make it a living out of it, then go for it. You see so many people driven mad by ambition, desperate to get ahead and stomping all over their friends. Its a brutal world, it seems self evident to me but when they're grieving over failing some exam or other i say "but if you end up somewhere that you're happy, then you've got there equally by not passing that exam as passing it". If i'd done my a-levels and gone to university i could be an accountant in Cheshire. The power of negativity.... let me just check i'm playing the right track here.....
Damn, how does this work? Hang on a minute......
Ooh i'm glad i got up now, I just found a piece of cheese..... Many thanks to the frightfully charming Mr john peel (OBE) and all his family and colleagues who made this possible (and it was quite a few of you due to my rarely functioning mobile phone, a faulty email account, John not knowing his own mobile number or on what road the studio could be found...)
- John Peel had a heart attack whilst on a working holiday in the Inca city of Cuzco in Peru on October 25, 2004. He died with his wife Sheila by his side.
Teenage dreams so hard to beat – The Undertones | 
