I had been listening to Icelandic rock band Írafár on the way home from work (maybe one of the few bands John Peel hadn’t played on his Radio 1 show – although please disprove me if I’m wrong). I stopped to hand in my repeat prescription form at the doctors and then just let Radio 4’s PM continue on. At first they were were talking about a loss to the Radio 1 schedules of a rebel character. Then they started talking about John Peel, but and I thought, gee he hasn’t died has he, but it wasn’t for five more minutes before they actually revealed that he was.
I was dumbfounded.
Truly, a great presenter both on Radio 1 in his late night show, and on Radio 4 with Home Truths. With Alistair Cooke a few months ago, 2004 is a sad day for broadcasting the world over. And this, the death of John Peel, all the more shocking for his relatively young age.
I think I heard it pretty much as it came out – I was listening to the tail-end of Jezzer Vine’s lunchtime waffle on R2 and it was the lead story on the news. And as a Fall fan I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have gone unmentioned if Jezzer had known beforehand.
Heartbreaking stuff.