About the Collection
John Peel's collection contains his favourite records from a career spanning nearly 40 years of opening ears. From the 60s to the 00s, these records aired on John's Radio London and BBC shows often provided the first plays for bands - many of whom would go on to achieve great fame.
With so few DJs having the freedom of their own playlist or appetite to experiment so widely, it was frequently John who introduced us to music that otherwise would have had no outlet in the mainstream. Consequently many of the sea-change moments in music - from Psychadelia to Reggae, Electronica, Ska, Punk, New-wave, Hip-hop, Trance - were brought to the attention of the UK public via these very pieces of plastic.
About John
Early championing of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Specials, Neu, Kraftwerk, The Smiths, Pulp, etc, etc, make these records both the source of - and an enduring chronological catalog of - one man's tastes that became a nation's, leaving an indelible mark on the culture of our time.
The John Peel Archive - a History Of Music, Society and Culture
We are currently working towards making John's collection available to the public, so that you can explore it to your heart's content. Ultimately, we'd like to:
- Enable exploration (& especially serendipitous discovery)
- Listen, see, "smell" the music and how it came about
- Curated by John, explained by the people who were there
The Team
The project is run under the auspices of the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts with ongoing development by S0c13ty - along with the invaluable assistance of the Ravenscroft family. The original video content was created by EYE film & TV and the BBC, with photography by The Photo Unit.
- TWITTER: @johnpeelarchive
- Project lead: James Leeds
- Archival: Leon Nockolds
- Dev: Iain Lowery (social) / David Pye (vinyl encoding) / Leon Nockolds (front-end) / James Leeds (coding)
- Film & Photography: Dave Guttridge (photos) / Alex Black (Interviews & Research)
LOGOS HERE