John Peel remembered

300+ gigs across the UK for John Peel Day

14 Oct 05 - More than 300 gigs took place across the UK last night to mark John Peel Day.

It was in honour of the late DJ who died last year. The October 13 events mark one year from his final Radio 1 show.

International gigs were also staged - Peel fans remembered the DJ at events in Spain, Germany, Italy, USA, Holland, New Zealand and Canada.

His widow Sheila watched bands play in his honour in Liverpool. She said her late husband would have been touched at his fans' devotion.

She said: "I think everybody would know what he'd think. He'd be enormously humbled by it and I wouldn't quite believe it was going on would he? He'd just be absolutely gobsmacked."

Former Undertone Feargal Sharkey, the man responsible for Peel's favourite ever song Teenage Kicks, said the commemorative gigs were what John would have wanted.

He told 6 Music: "I think he'd have been pleased about the mad eclectic, very vibrant mix but I would like people to remember John for this unbelievable mixture of music and sounds and often nauseating noise that he brought into all of our lives but in reality, made our lives all that little bit better."

Blur's Damon Alburn had more mixed reflections on the day, saying: "It's always difficult when a movement is born out of someone's death. It's fantastic that he's not going to be forgotten, but I'd much rather he was still alive."

Meanwhile, The Smiths' Mick Joyce said that his band owed everything to the great man. He told 6 Music: "He was a massive influence on The Smiths. He was the gateway, the portal towards being a mainstream success."

John Peel Day was launched with a special tribute gig in London on October 12.

Perennial Peel favourites The Fall kicked off the gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in a style of which the veteran DJ and broadcaster would have approved.

Frontman Mark E Smith's performance was equally awkward, irreverent and mesmerising as he mischievously interrupted his band members from playing their instruments and mumbled into two mics. Even hardened Fall fans found it difficult to make out the setlist, which included recent single I Can Hear The Grass Grow and Sparta FC.

Nashville-born folk-country singer Laura Cantrell mixed her set with anecdotal tales and tearfully dedicated her song Two Seconds to the DJ. She described Peel as a "legend in his lifetime".

The eclectic line-up also featured Detroit's Jawbone, who performed several instruments at once -  including the guitar, harmonica and drums. Reggae outfit Misty In Roots switched the mood and tempo with their uplifting, feel-good sounds.

"A legend in his lifetime"
Laura Cantrell on Peel

Super Furry Animals performed favourites such as Slowlife and Zoom, dressed in glow-in-the-dark space-age boiler suits.

During the set, frontman Gruff Rhys jumped into audience, and ambled around the auditorium singing from underneath a crash helmet.

A host of big names took the stage throughout the evening to pay their tributes and recount their own Peel anecdotes - including Jarvis Cocker, Robert Wyatt, Griff Rhys Jones, Jo Whiley, Mark Lamarr and Delia Smith.

During the intervals, big screens above the stage also projected short tributes from Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Jack White, Underworld's Karl Hyde and Billy Bragg, mixed in with pictures of Peel at work and home.

Close friend Feargal Sharkey paid the final tribute of the evening - and announced headline act New Order, who played a six song Joy Division set: Transmission, She's Lost Control, Shadowplay, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere - and ending with the rarely-played live track, Warsaw.


Kellie Redmond