1988 Festive Fifty

Shows

 * 20 December 1988: #50-#42
 * 21 December 1988: #41-#32
 * 26 December 1988: #31-#21
 * 27 December 1988: #20-#11
 * 28 December 1988: #10-#01

Comments

 * If the previous year's chart was 'ridiculous', this year's marks the beginning of John's dissatisfaction with the entire exercise (he labelled it 'conservative'). He noted that very few recordings of black music had made the Fifty, and that by and large it was 'young boys strumming guitars' (a phrase he would use many times subsequently).
 * One record, by the Cocteau Twins, was never played by JP on the radio before, and was their last entry in the Fifty.
 * A playlist mistake on the first night meant that he had to play catch-up over the next two shows.

John Peel's Festive Fifty 1988

 * 50: Public Enemy, 'Night Of The Living Baseheads (LP-It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back)' (Def Jam)
 * 49: Wedding Present, 'Don't Laugh (12 inch-B side of Nobody's Twisting Your Arm)' (Reception)
 * 48: Happy Mondays, 'Wrote For Luck (7 inch)' (Factory)
 * 47: Darling Buds, 'Shame On You (7 inch)' (Native)
 * 46: Primitives, 'Crash (7 inch)' (RCA)
 * 45: Pixies, 'Bone Machine (LP-Surfer Rosa)' (4AD) ('Where Is My Mind?' played in error)
 * 44: New Order, 'Fine Time (7 inch)' (Factory)
 * 43: Mega City Four, 'Miles Apart (7 inch)' (Primitive)
 * 42: Flatmates, 'Shimmer (7 inch)' (Subway Organization)
 * 41: Loop, 'Collision (12 inch)' (Chapter 22)
 * 40: Fall, 'Guest Informant (LP-The Frenz Experiment)' (Beggars Banquet)
 * 39: Pixies, 'River Euphrates (LP-Surfer Rosa)' (4AD)
 * 38: McCarthy, 'Should The Bible Be Banned (12 inch)' (September)
 * 37: Shalawambe, 'Samora Machel' (Peel Session)
 * 36: Fall, 'Jerusalem (LP-I Am Kurious Oranj)' (Beggars Banquet)
 * 35: Stump, 'Charlton Heston (LP-A Fierce Pancake)' (Ensign)
 * 34: Pooh Sticks, 'On Tape (LP-Alan McGee)' (Fierce)
 * 33: James, 'What For (LP-Strip-mine)' (Blanco Y Negro/Sire)
 * 32: Spit, 'Road Pizza (12 inch)' (Nailed For Sound)
 * 31: Mudhoney, 'Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More (7 inch)' (Sub Pop)

Availability

 * Some of the shows on the date pages are edited, and one is nearly complete, but at two different sources.