Me

Me was a section in the Disc & Music Echo during the late 60's, where celebrities were asked their reactions on various people or topics, some related to music and current affairs. Me was the predecessor to Reaction, which was used in the Melody Maker during the 70's. It is not known when Me started or how long it lasted but by 1969, it seemed to have been abandoned.

Links to Peel
Peel appeared in the Me section in Disc & Music Echo, published on 5th October 1968, where he was asked questions about his life and various topics:
 * S-l1600.jpgSTART: I was born on August 30, 1939 in West Kirby, Cheshire, about ten miles from Liverpool.


 * FAMILY: I was brought up in the country while my Dad was away being a soldier in North Africa and my brother, Francis, slept until he was about five. (I've also got another younger brother, Alan.) I was very lonely and shy. It still scares me to go into a room, where there are more than ten people, yet I don't mind compering shows in front of an audience, it's funny.
 * EDUCATION: public school, with a lot of emphasis on sport which wasn't really me. One of the things about public school is that you try and destroy your friends the whole time with nasty epigrams - anyway I didn't care for it. My house master was great though.
 * RADIO: I so wanted to communicate when I was young that radio seemed the answer where I could communicate without being seen. So I went to America and worked on radio stations there, playing basically blues and then about three years ago I started playing album tracks and things I liked and were good and weren't getting any other exposure. I was able to develop this at Radio London. Now I've got "How It Is" on television.
 * NAME: My proper name is Ravenscroft, which was shortened to Ravencroft in America - don't ask me why. Radio London decided to call me Peel. I wanted to call myself "Helen Llewlyn Product Nineteen" in the States but they didn't like the idea.
 * DISC JOCKEYS: I am very opposed to the cult of the DJ. It's one of the most foolish things that ever happened. DJ's are essentially a non-creation - it's like getting a book and reading the numbers at the bottom of the pages. I really don't think that the majority of people who listen to the programme get involved in the John Peel thing - all they have to do is look at me when I go places to see how ungroovy I am and they would be rapidly disillusioned.
 * FANS: I used to get a lot of fan letters deifying me - it was really weird. I get about 250 letters a week now. There was a time when I tried to answer them all. They're not fan letters saying I'm fab though, thsnk goodness. I've had a threat on my life, but what can you do. Perhaps I'll be martyred.
 * POP SCENE: There are some good things sneaking into the hit parade - the album charts are best, there are a lot of good things there, but singles charts don't project anything.
 * LONDON: The whole swinging scene thing is a myth which is designed to entertain the tourists and the half-witted. Your average swinging London club is half as much fun again as going to the dentist. It's very sad, I'd sooner go to a working man's club in Yorkshire, at least the people are real.
 * UNDERGROUND: I don't know what the Underground is. I'm not part of it. Perhaps it's just an attitude, you can't pin it down. The reason I write for International Times - which is like any of the underground papers, it's quality fluctuates - is that if somebody reads my column and then goes on to read something of worth it's served its purpose. I'm not trying to put anything over at any time. It's like the John the Baptist thing - "don't look at me but at what is coming behind me."
 * POLITICS: I don't believe in discrimination between groups of people. If I was going to discriminate it would be against politicians. They should be put into camps where they can pay all the silly games they want to and destroy themselves and not everybody else.
 * MARRIAGE: It's lovely...no... I can't think of any reasons why a man should get married. I can think of lots of rEasons for women but not for men. The American attitude to marriage is even more disgusting than the cult of the DJ if that is imaginable. My first girl friend was when I was four and she gave me an adjustable spanner for my birthday. I didn't really go out with a girl until I was 21 because I was so scared of them.
 * AMERICA: I just went over to see if it was as vile as I had heard ad having spent seven years gazing around me in disbelief I decided it was even more so and left.
 * HEALTH FOOD: I've been a total vegetarian for about a year now. It's not a religious thing, but I wouldn't like anyone to doe for me and it's a sort of extension of that.
 * FUTURE: It should worry me, but it doesn't. In a year's time I will probably be driving a bus. If the BBC tell me to go there won't really be anywhere else to go.