I think I'm playing this at the wrong speed

[liadnan]

Strangely, I honestly don't remember ever feeling such shock and sadness at the death of someone I didn't know in person as I did today when I saw the Standard headline on John Peel, on arriving back into London this afternoon. I thought he had years yet.

Edited to add that Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance has a tribute, with a link to an mp3 of Teenage Kicks: there are worse ways to commemorate him than to play this.. loudly. (Link from Phil). And vast numbers of tributes at the BBC. Though, as Phil said, I think Joff was bang on when he wrote in an email:

"The best thing about John Peel, the very best thing, was that even though he deliberately put himself on the cutting edge of music and played bands years ahead of their time, he never once made the slightest effort to be 'cool', or make any of his listeners feel even slightly out of the loop. In an industry filled with pretension and posturing, from the avant-garde indie kids to the ghettoer-than-thou hip hop wannabes, he stands out as someone who truly wanted to simply bring more music to more people."

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems to be going around. The gweepy music folks are continuing to boggle and discuss.

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

That was my reaction too, I picked up a Standard at Euston. One of my close friends L produced his show for several years on Radio One and only ever had good things to say about him.

My sympathies are with his wife - I can only imagine the buraucratic nightmare of bringing a body home from Cusco!

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

*Bureaucratic