Peel Night – Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 12th October 2005

The Fall were first on, at 6.30. Any danger that the combined efforts of Frank Skinner, BBC Sport production dept et al have driven MES into the harsh spotlight of mainstream popularity were quickly dispelled - the place was at least half empty (and actually reamined so for much of the night). Jo Whiley, after some indulgent reverie about her kids, her life, her job and oh yeah, how J Peel had some relevance to them, introduced Jarvis Cocker, who introduced The Fall, who played:

Pacifying Joint
Theme from Sparta FC
I Can Hear the Grass Grow
Blindness

If I remember correctly. It was, after all, four hours ago, since when I've seen Laura Cantrell, Jawbone, Venetian Snares, Misty in Roots, Super Furry Animals and New Order, who played a Joy Division set. So give me a break.

Fall were fine, in the circumstances - miminal knob twiddling, usual MES keyboard interference in Blindness, usual inability to sing the Grass Grow verses in tune. All good.

I thought it was sold out...??

Anyway, I'm very jealous!

Was it filmed?

The Fall were on first????

I thought it was sold out...??

Anyway, I'm very jealous!

yeah

what happened to sold out?


YOU CAN'T LIE TO US AT THE FALL FORUM..... BBC


WE HAVE INSIDE REPORTERS

Probably lots of media knobs got free tickets but decided not to use them when they saw the bill. Or perhaps they all arrived late, expecting the artists to do the same.

There were a few tickets on eBay last week - I was in two minds to rashly splash out around £100 for one - but decided against it. Strange that it was only half full.

there's been no sincere effort to honour peely by the BBC... I think it's fuckin disgustin meself.

The BBC PR men can go paint themselves in a corner for all I care.

There are a couple of nice pics of MES here.

got about five seconds of 'blindness' on this morning's Today programme, as well as being acknowledged as John Peel's "abiding love",
though amongst those interviewed they weren't to be heard.

Conversation this morning :
Me: Blimey, the Fall went on at 6.30.
Wife ( who loathes The Fall - and under immense pressure has agreed to accompany me twice to see them so I could have a drink - and has become highly agitated at how late they come on stage ): What, in the morning ?

Good pictures.

I didn't realise that Misty in Roots were on.
I thought they had split up. I still play their first album, some of the best reggae ever.
Is there due to be a Live Peel Day album released.

What was Delia Smith doing there?
What's with the motorcycle helmet and Super Furry Animals?

Hair Dye alert.
Can you picture MES sitting there with a towel around his shoulders for half an hour whilst the dye does its work ?
Does Mrs Smith help out?

couldn't agree more. i reckon they're glad that he's dead - it saved them having to sack him.

'peel' day?! he wouldn't have wanted a fucking 'peel' day anymore than i'd like a 'chunks' day!

i bet he'd be happy with the elton john charidee single though.

I was at the John Peel gig last night and id like to add my comments. Ive mixed feelings about the whole show. Actually, im really acuetly fucked off at the same time. Mark Lamaar was the only one to spout the utter truth '...lets face it, half the people here never listened to his show anyway...' followed by embarrased gasps from the audience. But i completly concur. When the Fall hit the decks the place was half full and as someone else pointed out, did remain so for the majority of the night - fact. We also got half the venue dedicated to V.I.P D-list celebs who obviously got all the free tickets from having a passing interest in the gig. Like usual the real fans, the likes of us of whom spend every last penny for the absolute love of music - made purely in the mould of that giant of a man Peel - the ones who would rather go skint (and usually do) rather than miss out on a new record release were the ones who had to lump up the money just to be there, because we cared, we listened and we wanted to pay tribute to the late great John. But we were unfortunatley the minority. Nothings changed. The only time the place began to fill was for the Super Boring Furry Animals. I stayed. The fact that although i didn't like this particular band, we all respected John's taste in music regardless and thats always been the case when listening to his show. That wasn't the sentiment of otheres no matter how you cover it up. It was a treat to hear New Order play a purely Joy Division set. The Fall, Laura Cantrell, Jawbone, Venetian Snares were great, of course. Misty n Roots were ok. Great to see Jarvis and Robert Wyatt and top marks for the effort but this night just didn't feel fitting whatsoever for me. The absolute irony is of course the BBC attempting to pay such a hommage to the man. If only they had done so whilst he was still alive...

What did they play?

What did they play?

Transmission / She's Lost Control / Shadowplay / Love Will Tear Us Apart / Atmosphere / Warsaw. Which confused many of their footballfan fans, but was great.



Jon - M Lamarr had a point but he and Griff Rhys Jones and f'in Whiley all managed to talk about themselves. Robert Wyatt was the best speaker, IMHO. And I liked Super Furry Animals!

Definite element of freebie BBC tix etc not being taken up, though it was much fuller for the last two acts, so I think a lot of this was indeed N.O. 'fans' who couldn't be arsed to watch any other band.

Wow - they played Warsaw ? Nice one....

Peel show pic

- this is more like it. However the whole tribute thing looks very similar to the Peel tribute that the BBC last year. Very similar bands and rather safe. Unlike a Peel show....

you said everything i would have-i got a ticket from steve and watched from the half full "vip" section-i think half six in london meant alot of people would still be on the way from work-and it did fill up later on for sfa and new order.

the fall were tight i thought and sound was good-didn't last long enough.

new order felt a bit too much like nostalgia-and watchin all the bbc luvvies was starting to make me queesy-so i left before they'd finished.it just didn't seem right somehow.

good to see jim watts teching for em though.

thought venetian snares was great.

Had the BBC been serious about it, instead of just wanting to be SEEN to honour JP, they could have had the show in Manchester or Liverpool, sell tickets to real fans, and broadcast the whole thing live on BBC 3 or 4, or whatever...typical of them to stage it at a totally inappropriate venue and just give us radio "highlights" the next day. Just because London was more convenient for all the media-luvvies......makes me sick.
The BBC have no idea about music, that's why TOTP is dying painfully, and all the classic TV concerts of UK bands from the 70's onwards are from FOREIGN TV!! (Rockpalast etc).

Andy Kerhsaw's at it again....




KERSHAW: "PEEL WOULDN'T LIKE PEEL DAY"
Finally in John Peel related news, former Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw has again
had a dig at his former employer, this time in relation to their John Peel
Day proceedings. He has told reporters that John wouldn't have appreciated
the fact that the flagship components of the day are based around
established artists that Peel championed, rather than the newer artists he
would be championing now if he was still alive.

Kershaw: "John wouldn't have liked it. He'd think it was maudlin. He would
also object on the grounds it was nostalgia-driven. He'd think we ought to
spend less time doing stuff like this, and more time ploughing through
stacks of records looking for the next new band". Kershaw, of course, caused
a little controversy around the time of Peel's death when he blamed Radio 1
for contributing to the DJ's ill health by shifting his radio show into a
later time slot. He told Channel 4 News: "I said to him [that] he didn't
look too good. And he said, 'No, I feel terrible.' He had been diagnosed
diabetic a couple of years ago, and he was also finding it really hard that
Radio 1 had moved him even later into the night. Marginalised is the correct
word. [It] pushed him from 11pm to one o'clock in the morning and he
actually said, 'It's killing me.'" Asked about those comments this week
Kershaw said "I'm not going to go down that road again", but added: "It's
all on public record. I don't retract a word of what I said because I was
merely reporting what he said to me."

Radio 1 live events boss Jason Carter, who is coordinating Peel Day, again
denied that there was any tension between the DJ and the station in the
months before his death. Carter: "There was no suggestion from Peel's people
that he was unhappy with the new time slot at all. I know the controller of
Radio 1 sat down with him personally to discuss it. So far as I know he was
perfectly happy about it."

Having looked at this picture, I think there's been a mix up. Surely this was a Tribute Night for Richie Benaud.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/johnp...qeh/page4.shtml

Lovely pics indeeed - he really does lend himself to close up photography doesn't he. I see that he was dressed very casually for the J Peel do. He was in Robert Palmer attire in Burnley last Sunday.

She was his neighbour at home and they were pals.