Tuesday, October 26, 2004

john peel - r.i.p

i just read the news on the net. one of my all time heroes has passed on. i just couldn't believe it at first. this is the saddest i have felt ............since last few days ago.
i remember the first time i came across his show on an old radio barely picking up the signal all the way from london via the bbc world service. the sound came fading in and out but what these young ears could pick up changed my life. before him i was listening to crap like the bee gees and sheena easton. out of nowhere came this weird sound pouring out of the radio in dribs and drabs. it was the cocteau twins with a track from their ep 'echoes in a shallow bay' . it was like nothig that i have ever heard and it just rearranged my head. from that day onwards there was just no compromising when it came to music. it was on the egde or nothing.
years later i actually sent him a postcard and best of all he replied! i still remember the day i received his postcard written in a strange elongated skeletal style. in it he thanked me profusely for tuning in to the show and hoped i continue to dig what he was playing. a 'thank you' from god himself! i was speechless! i owe my life to this guy and he is thanking me instead!
i have to admit that i have lost touch with his show for close to 10 years now. but when i made the jump to broadband recently the first thing i did was surf over to the bbc website and listened to the webcast of his shows on the british radio 1. after all these years still as cutting edge as ever.
and now he is gone. truly the day the music died.

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