In honour of the fact this mix is the fiftieth in the series, I decided its theme should be John Peel's Festive Fifty. Despite having never actually heard Peel's radio show, its legendary status has been with me and I've always respected Peel and what he stood for: namely, playing the music that he loved and championing the bands he loved even if no one else did. As significant as his radio show and Peel Sessions were, his yearly Festive Fifty remains a massive legacy that others copy the world over, and it has been continued in his honour since his passing in 2004 (most recently picked up by Internet radio station Dandylion Radio). In many ways, Peel is the godfather of music blogs.
I tried to take a track from each year's Festive Fifty from 1976 to 2003, and while running through all these lists, I realized just how much brilliant music Peel championed, and I also noticed how faithful a fan he was. For most years, he had no qualms about picking several tracks from the same bands, and of course, The Fall made the most appearances - that unabashed love of music, in the face of bandwagon jumping, hype machines and arty posing, is something that really connects with me. Not to mention running through all of the Festive Fifty lists is like getting a panoramic snapshot of the music scene through three decades, encompassing punk, post-punk, electronic music, C86, shoegaze, Britpop and even grunge. For the most part, I owned a large chunk of the music featured on each year's Festive Fifty, but the exceptions came in for the late 90s for some reason and for Peel's favourite The Fall - I've never really taken to The Fall, and thus don't own any of their albums; regardless, I figured it wouldn't be a true tribute to John Peel without a track by them, so I included one that I happened to have on a Peel compilation album. Unlike most mixes I make, this one will follow a semi-chronological order rather than be based on some sort of subjective system. As a side note, I've included the Unknown Pleasures version of She's Lost Control as opposed to the later re-released single version. This mix is called Long Live Peel.
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Complete Control - The Clash
Boredom - Buzzcocks
Are Friends Electric? - Gary Numan and The Tubeway Army
She's Lost Control - Joy Division
O Superman - Laurie Anderson
Requiem - Killing Joke
Eat Y'self Fitter - The Fall
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Kangaroo - This Mortal Coil
Never Understand - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Frans Hals - McCarthy
Suedehead - Morrissey
Kennedy - The Wedding Present
Therese - The Bodines
Sexuality - Billy Bragg
French Disko - Stereolab
Babies - Pulp
If Fingers Were Xylophones - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Abba on the Jukebox - Trembling Blue Stars
Windowlicker - Aphex Twin
Painting and Kissing - Hefner
Chinese Whispers - Melys
Green Grass of Tunnel - Mùm
2 comments:
I like this, nice post, some old tunes I've not heard in quite a while, and, I must admit I found myself kind of missing the festive 50 this christmas as I wondered if ay good music had come out this past year (it has). Thing is, peel didn't pick the tunes in the 50 they were voted for by listeners which explains the dominance of certain bands at certain periods. The man himself was always threatening to drop it as he felt it bacame quite predictable and he favoured 40-50 when the more unusual choices would sneak in to it.............
randomly found this, and am in love with this mix.
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