John Peel and Pete Drummond - Top Gear - 1st. October 1967

That original Radio 1 lineup in full.
Drummond front row, third from left, Peel front row, extreme right.

To bookend the recent posting of the final Top Gear, we rewind eight years to the very first of Peel's Top Gears. This is not quite the first ever Top Gear, but it is the first on which Peel appeared. In fact this show, which Peel co-DJed with Pete Drummond, was Peel's first ever show on Radio 1, having played his last show on Radio London a couple of months earlier.

The Beeb really put the boat out for this one, as the session guests were (The) Pink Floyd, Traffic and Tomorrow.

This will probably be the most "DJ-ish" Peel you've ever heard, as he attempts at times embarrassing Smashie and Nicey-style "matey DJ chat" with co-host Drummond: very un-Peel. But its worth bearing in mind that John was only on a 6-week contract at this stage (only employed by the Beeb at all thanks to the championing of Bernie Andrews), so probably felt he had to toe the party line. At least to start with...

Interesting to hear JP refer to his current abode as 'Peel Acres' about 15 minutes in, as he was yet to move to Suffolk at this stage, and was currently living in a London flat.

Download (60.5Mb, 44 mins, 192K)
Recorded from 6music's rebroadcast about 18 months ago (from DAB). From memory, I believe I owe thanks to Pinball at Cook'd and Bomb'd for this MP3. Far better than my own crappy stream capture.

Tracklisting

• The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Devil's Grip
• Tomorrow - Real Life Permanent Dream (session)
  
• Nirvana - Pentecost Hotel
• The Pink Floyd - Set The Controls (session)
• Tim Rose - Morning Dew
• Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit
• The Velvet Underground & Nico - Sunday Morning
• The Pink Floyd - Reaction in G (session) [fades after 30 seconds]
• [**Edit**]
• Tomorrow - Colonel Brown (session)
  
• Amen Corner - World of Broken Hearts
• Traffic - Paper Sun (session)
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Yellow Brick Road
• Big Maybelle - Every Day I Have The Blues
• The Move - Kilroy Was Here
• Skip Bifferty - On Love
• The Pink Floyd - Flaming (session)
• Tim Rose - Fare Thee Well [fades after 1 minute]

Note: Looks like the date is wrong in the filename, as apparently the show was broadcast on the 1st., not the 11th. of October '67. And you can't seem to rename your uploaded files with divshare, so I'm trusting you, gentle reader, to rename it after download. I care about these things, you know.

John Peel, 18th. January 1982

Another request, this time by Entrailicus at the excellent new Fades in Slowly blog: here's 30 minutes of a Peel show from early '82.

An interesting one historically, this, as Peel recounts the impact Elvis, Little Richard and Captain Beefheart had on him when he first heard them. In fact John plays three tracks in a row to celebrate Beefheart's recent birthday and deadpans, "I'm sure that all of my [Radio 1] colleagues paid him fulsome tribute".

Play/Download (27.5 Mb)

Tracklisting

• Trailer for Adrian Love's Talkabout
• Cornerstone - Progressive News
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Diddy Wah Diddy
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Grow Fins
• Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Dirty Blue Gene
• The Lone Ranger - Collie Dub
• The Milkshakes - Bull's Nose
• Pink Industry - Tomorrow (session)

Festive 50, 1983

JP shares a joke with his great mates from Radio 1

In response to a couple of requests, here's a repost of the Festive 50 from 1983. One of my own personal favourites, this one.

Nearly all Peel links are intact.

Download Part 1 (50-28) (95.0 Mb)
Download Part 2 (27-1) (115Mb)

Tracklisting

Note: DivShare seems to have truncated the filenames. They should be called "John Peel's Festive 50 1983 - Part 1 - 50 to 28.mp3" and "John Peel's Festive 50 1983 - Part 2 - 27 to 1.mp3" respectively. Not that it really matters, I suppose.

John Peel's Top Gear, September 1975 (final show)

Peelie presents the final "Top Gear" show, before moving to the night time show the following week. There's session tracks from the various acts to have graced the show over the eight years it's been on the air, and plenty of Peel memories, reminiscences and regrets. (Fortunately, Peel turned out to be wrong about the Bonzos and Pink Floyd sessions being lost, as they're now very much out there.)

Weighing in at about 54½ minutes, this is a longer version than the MP3 that's been doing the rounds, and I think, slightly better quality. It's a new encode, from a tape supplied by Colin Ellis, that I put together last week. Colin's C90 had about 45 minutes of the show, and I've spliced in the 9 minutes or so from the previous MP3 that were not on the tape. You'll notice the join a couple of times, where the sound quality goes from tinny (tape) to muddy (the old MP3) and back again.

In this version, you get to find out what the first record ever played on Top Gear was, as Peel reprises it at the end of the show. You'll have heard him announce that on the previous version, but you never got to find it out as the recording ran out too soon. Oh, and I've no idea whether that intro was just something left on the tape or what, but I've left it on as I quite like it!

There should be more to come on the Karavan this weekend, including a repost of the '83 Festive 50 (by request).

Play/Download (50Mb, 128K MP3, 54:35)

Tracklisting

• [WTF?]
• Peel Intro
• Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown
• Tyrannosaurus Rex - Ride a White Swan
• Joe Cocker - Delta Lady
• Peel recalls the history of Top Gear and looks forward to his new nighttime show
• Pink Floyd - Daybreak
• Randy Newman - Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear
• Peel bemoans the BBC's wiping policy and has a rant about Gardeners' Question Time (!)
  
• Bonzo Dog Band - Monster Mash
• Fairport Convention - Percy's Song
• Jethro Tull - Bouree
• Maggie Bell/Stone the Crows - Hollis Brown
• Led Zeppelin - Traveling Riverside Blues '69
• Technical problems
  
• Brief Snippet of Tyrannosaurus Rex
• Bonzo Dog Band - Tent
• Bob Marley & the Wailers - Concrete Jungle
• Fairport Convention - Si Tu Dois Partir (AKA "If You Gotta Go, Go Now")
• Peel thanks everyone and divulges the first record ever played on Top Gear.
• [That first record, which I won't spoil]
• Peel signoff
• Keith Emerson and the Nice - Top Gear Theme
• Pips