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Oct. 26th, 2004 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietI met John Peel, once. It was the launch do for Oxford Sound City, autumn 1997 - I was invited along because I'd gotten IMSoc involved. I introduced myself, told him about our club night (Acetone, back then, just relaunched), gave him a flyer, and asked if he'd DJ for us during Sound City week. He was lovely, said he'd think about it, and chatted amiably for a bit before I excused myself. I suspect I came across as more of the gushing fangirl than at the time I flattered myself I'd managed to avoid being. He didn't, unsurprisingly, DJ for us, but he did read out our flyer on the radio during the Sound City coverage on that Tuesday evening. I was washing up in the kitchen at the time and *screamed*. I still have a tape, somewhere.
We saw him at ATP this spring, chatting to a group of lads on the way down to the beach. And then went to listen to his late-night DJ set - which I have to confess wasn't great. It was a classic John Peel set, and on the radio would have been fantastic, but it didn't fit the late-night-dancing thing. I can't remember now whether he screwed up the rpms on any of them...
I didn't listen to his show as much as I'd have liked to. But whenever I did - mostly back when I was in college - he was interesting, and interested, and enthusiastic. I always found something new and good. He clearly loved music, and life, and wanted to share that. And it was infectious, and, as has been shown today, it led to a great many people feeling a connection with him. He touched a huge number of people. Hell, I even enjoyed Home Truths, because it was him, and listening to him was always a happy experience. Pete said that this afternoon they played on the radio an extract from him talking at his 60th birthday celebrations, where he said how happy he was with his life - his family, his job, the fact that people sent him *free music* all the time! - and how he couldn't think of any way in which it could be better. That joy always came through. And it is right that he should have been so happy, because he made the world better.
I've spent most of this afternoon on the edge of tears. We've lost one of the good people.
We saw him at ATP this spring, chatting to a group of lads on the way down to the beach. And then went to listen to his late-night DJ set - which I have to confess wasn't great. It was a classic John Peel set, and on the radio would have been fantastic, but it didn't fit the late-night-dancing thing. I can't remember now whether he screwed up the rpms on any of them...
I didn't listen to his show as much as I'd have liked to. But whenever I did - mostly back when I was in college - he was interesting, and interested, and enthusiastic. I always found something new and good. He clearly loved music, and life, and wanted to share that. And it was infectious, and, as has been shown today, it led to a great many people feeling a connection with him. He touched a huge number of people. Hell, I even enjoyed Home Truths, because it was him, and listening to him was always a happy experience. Pete said that this afternoon they played on the radio an extract from him talking at his 60th birthday celebrations, where he said how happy he was with his life - his family, his job, the fact that people sent him *free music* all the time! - and how he couldn't think of any way in which it could be better. That joy always came through. And it is right that he should have been so happy, because he made the world better.
I've spent most of this afternoon on the edge of tears. We've lost one of the good people.
