Record Mirror

Record Mirror was a British weekly music newspaper, published between 1954 and 1991. It became popular in the 1960s, featuring colour pictures and full UK and US singles chart listings, and was one of the four leading music weeklies of the '60s, alongside New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Disc & Music Echo. Later Record Mirror went through a number of relaunches and changes of ownership before closing in 1991.

Links to Peel
Writers with Peel connections who worked for the paper included Tony Hall and Charlie Gillett. Peel himself never wrote for the paper, but was interviewed for it in 1974 and in 1986 (see link below).

Peel mentioned

 * An article from the issue dated August 10, 1968, entitled "From The Underworld - Underground Groups by Derek Boltwood", mentions many of the groups who were part of Peel's Top Gear playlists but often gained greater recognition in the US and Europe than at home. The writer blames lack of exposure on the BBC for this situation: "John Peel does give valuable airspace to so-called uncommercial sounds - and strangely enough his programme is one of the most commercial on the radio...". Marc Bolan of Tyrannosaurus Rex remarks that airplay on Peel's show aided the chart success of their single "Deborah".
 * in the December 7, 1968 issue, David Griffiths' review of Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall includes a mention of "pleasant compering by John Peel", who was "quite comical", expressing his own ideas on who should appear at the Royal Variety Performance.
 * In the issue for the week ending 13 September 1969 the paper carried a front page article announcing programming changes at Radio 1 in the coming autumn. Peel's Top Gear was to move to Saturday afternoons for a 3-5 pm slot, with Johnnie Walker's show being brought forward from 1-2.55 pm. It was also noted that Peel would lose his Wednesday evening show.
 * In the issue dated 30 August 1975 the "Who, When and Where" section (p.20) carried the news that late night rock was returning to Radio 1 at the end of September - in stereo - and that Peel would be presenting an hour-long rock show from 11 pm until midnight Monday through Friday. The show was to begin on Monday 29 September together with other Radio 1 schedule changes.
 * The issue dated 05 June 1976 (p.10) features an "easy as pie" DJ Quiz, with question 3 regarding John Peel, namely "Who's his (Peel's) fabbest football team?".
 * Issue dated 30 September 1978: the News section (p.4) carries further news of Radio 1 schedule changes as from 11 September, including John Peel's show now running from Monday to Thursday only "with a new show between 10 and midnight on Friday featuring live rock and records".
 * In the 1979 Readers' Poll, published in issue dated 12 January 1980, Peel won both the Best DJ and Best Radio Show categories. The same issue featured an interview with producer John Walters talking about Peel. It's not clear whether Peel himself was unavailable for the interview or whether he had refused to do it.


 * On page 2 of the issue dated 3 January 1981, Record Mirror ran a news item about Peel leaving Radio One to join Capital Radio. In a "lucrative" deal Peel would be given the station's breakfast show slot with four hours of programmes seven days a week. Peel is reported to have said that he new job would give him "security for my wife and family, something I would never have got with Radio 1". Radio 1 Controller Derek Chinnery described the move as "night time robbery". Record Mirror 1981-01-03 Peel quits Radio 1 for Capital.JPG same page also ran news stories about David Bowie buying his own theatre and a new supergroup involving Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe and members of The Police. Although a casual reader would find them competently written, all three "news" items can be considered as fake . The article may well have been intended as parody or satire; it seems improbable that Derek Chinnery, who according to Peel "disliked me intensely, and took every opportunity to let me know that this was the case",would have been upset at the DJ's departure . Peel's presentation style and playlists had little in common with the pop radio breakfast shows of that time, and he certainly wasn't "an influential voice among... the housewife audience", as the article claims. What's more, the notion that Peel's deal with Capital would involve a tie-up with a clothes manufacturer seems particularly bizarre, given his lifelong indifference to fashion. John Walters firmly denied the Peel to quit Radio 1 story in a brief article in NME dtd. 31-1-1981 (which also previewed the BBC2 Arena documentary "Today Carshalton Beeches....Tomorrow Croydon").
 * 1984 Readers' Poll: no.4 in Best DJ category (after Wright, Read & Davis although ahead of Powell, Long & Jensen).
 * 1985 Readers' Poll: no.2 in 'Least Offensive DJ' category (after Wright and one place ahead of Long).
 * 1986 Readers' Poll: no.2 in 'Least Worst DJ' category (Long at no.1).
 * Issue dated 12 November 1988: in the review of the Wedding Present's album Ukrayinski Vystupy v Johna Peela, contributor Tim Nicholson comments that, "John Peel must be a proud man to have fathered such a crazy notion..".

Links

 * Wikipedia: Record Mirror
 * John Peel article (4th Oct 1986 issue): part 1 / part 2 (via Cactus Mouth Informer blog)