Topic: Peel Sessions

[SteveDave]

A fun bit of business- I lost the tape of the first Peel session my band did from 2001. I wrote to the BBC asking if I could get another copy and was told it’d be £60. At the same time I asked a 6 Music DJ about the same session and within a week they DM’d me asking where they could send the CD.

[Pranet]

Yes, our singer roadied for them in their early days - Simon their drummer played on our first single a bit later on when we were drummerless for a while, and we supported them on the first leg of their 'Bizarro' tour after that. Please don't apologise for not having heard us, not many other people did either - there are bits and pieces on Youtube but I've finished spamming this thread!

God, those Polvo / Josef K / Fire Engines sessions were glorious, and I've only scratched the surface.

I'd forgotten that I had asked about this until just now because I was pissed when I posted, but I've checked Greenhouse out on youtube and you were good- the revival starts here. Some of the song titles do ring a bell so I probably did hear you back in the day.

[non capisco]

That Big Country session can fuck off, an all.
John Peel's taste went a bit wonky around 1983/84. He even played a Pete Waterman- produced record around that time. Played a record by  Wham! just the once, too.

I remember being quite surprised when the TOTP repeats got to 1983 and Peel sincerely said during one of the chart rundowns "the excellent Wham!". I've no beef with Wham! and think 'Everything She Wants' is a belting single (it wasn't that one) but I was a bit surprised to hear that Peely was evidently an early adopter.

[Pingers]

I've listened to all the sessions of the bands whose names start with numbers - next up, the letter 'A' (this is going to take a while, isn't it).

The best of these for me Clive, were the first 14 Iced Bears one and the first 70 Gwen Party session - diminishing returns after that I'm afraid, the second and third disappoint, and there's a strangely formulaic quality to the ostensibly avant garde music. They needed to be much better at programming drum machines. It'll be a while until I'm back with my views on A - talk among yourselves.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Ha! Lightweight! I'm already halfway through the " B" s! ( not been skipping sessions either  even listened to that fucking Big Country session)
Highlights of the 'A' s for me  Clive:
Add N to (X)
Adam and the Ants ( seriously, quite reminiscent of pre- Britpop Blur on occasion)
A Witness
Altered Images ( The brace of sessions inspired me to listen to their final one, featuring their exemplary versh of " Song Song Blue")
Au Pairs ( memories flooding back, still got their debut album somewhere).

[Pingers]

Looking forward to all of these (apart from Big Country). The A Witness session is good but doesn't give a full account of how fucking great they were. I have an enduring love for A Witness that I don't think will ever dim.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Well, I've been working my way through these Peel Sessions (The Spinners consider rewrite), listening to every darned one of 'em, and even going so far as to supplement the sessions by bands I particularly favoured with other sessions by those very same bands ( Cocteau Twins and Eton Crop, for example; there is but one session by top Dutch Sound Of Eightiesindie Purveyors The 'Crop on that list, and the lads recorded 5 of the feckers, which I made sure I tracked down and listened to, I recommend you do the same if You're also trying this at home, the 1986 session in particular is a joy to hear, and also recommended is their 1988 session which contains a particularly good version of the Nightingales' " Paraffin Brain", just imagine me telling you all this in a John Peel voice), and I even went so far as to supplement the " C" section with a session apiece by two separate, disparate bands benamed The Crabs, one from 1978 playing the patented 'Punk " sound that had developed by that year, and another from 1981, a jolly little early Bananarama - like ensemble of whom eagle- eyed readers may spot a song in that session repertoire that they may well not have got away with in these more enlightened times.
Now, having reached the end of the E section with a bracing session by Extreme Noise Terror, I find myself , not unnaturally, facing the Fs,  starting with a tempting looking session by F.S.K from 2004, but then seeing no less than * four* sessions by fucking Fairport Convention, immediately after which comes one by fucking Family. Relief of some sort comes in the form of some perky power pop by Fingerprintz from 1978, and then some proper old school indiedin from Fire Engines from 1981, but if I'm going to stick to my avowed intention to listen to all of these blummin things, then I'll have to subject my ears to all that folk rock and bland 70s rock before I get to those great bunches of lads. I've got the fucking Flying Pickets to look forward to in this section, too. Ah, well, it has to be done, I suppose.
I wonder how far the boy Pingers has got in this intensive Peel session listening venture?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Fucking Fleetwood Mac, too ( pre- Stevie Nicks and all that bollocks, but, still....)

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

And fucking Free. Fucking Hell.

[Twonty Gostelow]

Any Flintlock?

[Puce Moment]

You have Gallon Drunk to look forward to.

[Pingers]

I wonder how far the boy Pingers has got in this intensive Peel session listening venture?

Almost nowhere I'm afraid. These days, if I'm not working I'm either drinking or stoned or wondering how long I have to wait before I can be. In theory that should lend itself to a Peel session binge but for some reason it doesn't, I feel odd. I do plan on getting back to them though. E sounds good, F quite a bit more challenging

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Hope I don't rouse Barry's ire by bumping this thread, just wondering if Pingers was still committed to listening to every Peel session on this 'ere thing, or indeed any other music- listening CaBbers giving it a go? I was quite devoted to it for a while, but abandoned it around the Summer time. Have decided to recommence the listening project , but had lost my place, so just dived in randomly to the " F" section, on Fun Boy Five ( I *had* already listened to that session, as it turns out, so that means I 've listened to that fucking Fleetwood Mac session, at least. Must have expunged all memory of it from me brain).

Pingers? Anyone else?

[chveik]

Hope I don't rouse Barry's ire by bumping this thread, just wondering if Pingers was still committed to listening to every Peel session on this 'ere thing, or indeed any other music- listening CaBbers giving it a go? I was quite devoted to it for a while, but abandoned it around the Summer time. Have decided to recommence the listening project , but had lost my place, so just dived in randomly to the " F" section, on Fun Boy Five ( I *had* already listened to that session, as it turns out, so that means I 've listened to that fucking Fleetwood Mac session, at least. Must have expunged all memory of it from me brain).

Pingers? Anyone else?

The Fours Brothers session (the band from Zimbabwe) is very good

[jobotic]

This Youtube channel also has a load more Peel sessions, most of them in really good quality.

Including one Moonshake did in 1992 where Dave and Margaret sang each other's songs. Wicked.

Love Quickspace's If I Were a Carpenter


I bought that Butthole Surfers session on a bootleg 7" from the bloke who sold piles of gig tapes at Camden market. Also a cassette of Fall sessions, some of which were too fast. My girlfriend at the time got a bootleg 10" of Pussy Galore's Exile on Main Street. We were so cool but, alas, she was cooler than me.

[Sin Agog]

Always liked it when he had F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle) on doing their cheery post-punk schlager thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZuHwLopFLo

[jobotic]

Yeah, lovely.

I have their Tel Aviv album from years later - very different but really good too.

[jobotic]

Got Don't Look in the Freezer by Dr & The Crippins going through my head now, as it has on and off for 32 years now.