War

War is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations...a period of such armed conflict". 

John Peel was born on 30 August 1939, a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War but admitted to not remembering much about it, beyond being carried out to an air-raid shelter and seeing a German plane fly low over his garden. His father served in North Africa: as a result, JP saw little of him for the first six years of his life.

National Service
Peel made an early application to be called up and entered the Royal Artillery: not through choice but because, as he explained in Margrave, he was only submitting to the inevitable (only those born after the outbreak of war were exempt). After initial training on Salisbury Plain, he obtained a compassionate posting to Ty Croes Camp on Anglesey (due to his parents' divorce and wanting to be close to where his brother Alan was posted). Peel later claimed that he learned little during his time in service and never saw military action:

"'I certainly didn't go in there with the intention of, I had no choice actually, with the intention of trying to kill anybody, and I was grateful that nobody seemed to be interested in killing me at the time either.'"

Pacifism
See also: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

JP embraced hippie ideals during his final year in the USA, while he was working on KMEN. He was shocked by an encounter with a former acquaintance recently returned from Vietnam, who expressed violent pro-war sentiments (as described by Sheila Ravenscroft in Margrave Of The Marshes). The "escalation" of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s caused a polarisation of opinion among the American public and Peel was on the side of those who opposed the war. On his return to Britain he expressed his anti-war feelings on the Perfumed Garden and during his early BBC programmes, which sometimes got him into trouble with his bosses at Radio 1. He joined in some protests (including, ironically, a violent anti-Vietnam War demo in Grosvenor Square, London on March 17, 1968) and promoted pacifism along the lines of the slogan "make love, not war," but, like many hippies, kept his distance from the more militant protest groups of the late 1960s. Later in 1968, he pre-recorded a Top Gear show in order to avoid being caught up in possible violence when a much larger demonstration against the war took place in London, on 27 October 1968.

BFBS
British Forces Broadcasting had an influence on British radio generally in the post-World War Two era, being one of the few available outlets in the 1940s and '50s for aspiring radio presenters, who, after completing their National Service, sometimes found work on the BBC, Radio Luxembourg or the pop pirate stations. Later BFBS would feature DJs already familiar to their audence from domestic radio, so in common with his contemporaries such as Tommy Vance and Alan Freeman, Peel regularly made shows for the armed forces: this association ran for nearly thirty years. He once related that during the 1982 Falklands conflict, one seaman liked his shows so much that the ship habitually gave him the tape copies (as he was the only one to show interest).

Effect on Peel's shows
Armed conflicts were invariably covered in great detail by the BBC, and Peel's show reflected happenings broadcast on the news, either before or during his show. During the first Iraq war of 1991 (in which his former colleague from Radio London, Keith Skues, served, as a Royal Air Force public relations officer), he had to endure his programme being interrupted every half an hour for news bulletins: typically, he noted that this was "entirely deserved" but admitted it made planning his show rather difficult.

In 2003, Peel voiced his opinions of the second Iraq war, on his German FSK radio programme, something he would not have been allowed to do on his BBC Radio One shows:

"'As you might imagine there has been an amazing amount of hypocritical nonsense about the, well the, recent war in Iraq. In my own opinion, it is a continuing war and will continue for a long time in one form or another and the newspapers of course, have been interesting to say the very least, some of them are desperate, some of them are pro-war, others are extremely anti-war.' "

Plays
This is a tentative list of tracks played by Peel that either mention a particular armed conflict or have a general pro- or anti-war message together with the first known TX. Songs that are not directly concerned with the above are not included. In some cases, songs were broadcast as sessions before an official release: in these instances, the BBC version takes precedence.

The list includes both contemporary material referring to twentieth-century wars and songs dealing with historic conflicts, most of them from the folk tradition and written from the point of view of ordinary soldiers or sailors, or the relatives or sweethearts they left behind.

Please correct any glaring omissions.


 * Mark Arm: Masters Of War (7" - The Freewheelin' Mark Arm) Sub Pop 06 July 1991
 * Band: 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (LP-Anthology)' (Capitol) 05 February 1979
 * Belle & Sebastian: 'I Fought In A War (LP-Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like A Peasant)' (Jeepster) 13 June 2000
 * Jan Berry: 'The Universal Coward (Compilation LP-Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die)' (New Musical Express) 15 November 1988
 * Black Sabbath: Walpurgis (War Pigs) (Sunday Concert version) 26 April 1970
 * Blossom Toes: Peaceloving Man (session) 27 October 1968
 * Bolt Thrower: Eternal War (session) 04 September 1990
 * Billy Bragg: 'Between The Wars' (session) 20 September 1984
 * Billy Bragg: 'Island Of No Return' (live at QEH) 09 December 1999
 * Brinsley Schwarz: What's So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding (session) 25 July 1974
 * Eric Burdon & The Animals: Sky Pilot (Part 2) (7" - Sky Pilot) MGM 21 January 1968
 * C-Company Featuring Terry Nelson: The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley Rebel Yell
 * Captain Beefheart: Veteran's Day Poppy (album - Trout Mask Replica) Straight 18 December 1993
 * Clash: English Civil War (7”) CBS 21 February 1979
 * Leonard Cohen:  The Partisan (LP - Songs From A Room) CBS 16 December 1980
 * Elvis Costello: Oliver's Army (LP - Armed Forces) Radar 02 January 1979
 * Country Joe & The Fish: The Fish Cheer & I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag Rebel Yell
 * Dan: Army Of Fools (session) 11 July 1988
 * Dickies: 'Eve Of Destruction (7")' (A&M) 02 August 1978
 * Doors: 'The Unknown Soldier (7"-The Unknown Soldier / We Could Be So Good Together)' (Elektra) 19 May 1968
 * Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Rebel Yell
 * Bob Dylan: Masters Of War Rebel Yell
 * Electro Hippies: Mega-Armageddon Death (session) 20 July 1987
 * Eton Crop: Gay Boys On The Battlefield (session) 15 November 1983
 * Farm: 'No Man's Land' (session) 27 April 1983
 * Frankie Goes To Hollywood: 'Two Tribes' (session) 02 December 1982
 * Dick Gaughan: Farewell To Sicily (session) 21 November 1974 (Full title "The 51st Highland Division’s Farewell to Sicily")
 * Paul Hardcastle: 19 (Extended Japanese Mix) (12") (Chrysalis) 26 August 1985
 * Jimi Hendrix: Machine Gun (LP – Sound Track Recordings From The Film "Jimi Hendrix") Reprise 05 July 1973
 * Jack The Lad: Gentleman Soldier (session) 20 March 1975
 * Jam: 'Little Boy Soldiers (LP-Setting Sons)' (Polydor) 06 November 1979
 * Johnny And Jon: 'Christmas In Vietnam (Compilation CD-Bummed Out Christmas)' (Rhino/WEA) (JP: 'Well, the message in all of that seems to be, "Kill a Commie for Christmas."') 27 December 1999 (BFBS)
 * Killing Joke: Wardance (session) 29 October 1979
 * John Lennon: Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Only At Christmas
 * John Lennon: Imagine (single) 10 April 1975
 * Lightnin' Hopkins: Vietnam Blues Pts 1 & 2 (LP - Move On Out) Charly R&B 22 July 1987
 * Barry McGuire: Eve Of Destruction Rebel Yell
 * Motorhead:  Bomber (7") Bronze 11 December 1979
 * Nic Jones: The Island Of Helena (session) 11 July 1972
 * New Model Army: 'Falklands Spirit' (session) 04 January 1984
 * Men They Couldn't Hang: 'The Green Fields Of France' (session) 12 July 1984
 * New Order: Love Vigilantes (LP - Low-Life)' (Factory) 08 May 1985
 * New Order: Vietnam (v/a CD - War Child - Hope) London 30 April 2003
 * Phil Ochs: Draft Dodger Rag Rebel Yell
 * Phil Ochs: Talking Cuban Crisis Rebel Yell
 * OMD: Enola Gay (session) 21 April 1980
 * Plastic Ono Band: Give Peace A Chance (7")' (Apple) 29 June 1969
 * Prince Far I: No More War (session) 04 July 1978
 * Red Crayola: Hurricane Fighter Plane (LP – The Parable Of Arable Land) Radar 23 October 1978
 * Rudees: Give Peace A Chance (7")' (Pama) 04 August 1996
 * Sgt. Barry Sadler: The Ballad Of The Green Berets Rebel Yell
 * Siouxsie & The Banshees: Poppy Day (session) 16 April 1979
 * Southern Sons Quartet: Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (LP - American War Songs 1933 - 1947) Trikont 19 July 2001
 * Steeleye Span: Female Drummer (session) 27 June 1970
 * Steeleye Span: General Taylor (concert) 26 September 1971
 * Steeleye Span: Lovely On The Water  (LP – Please To See The King) B&C 24 May 1973
 * Stiff Little Fingers: 'Wasted Life' (session) 13 April 1978
 * June Tabor: 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' (session) 10 March 1975
 * June Tabor: Dancing At Whitsun (session) 10 March 1975
 * June Tabor: The Fiddle And The Drum (session) 22 February 1977
 * June Tabor: No Man's Land (session) 19 July 1977
 * June Tabor: Plains Of Waterloo (LP - Airs And Graces) Topic 01 September 1976
 * Tackhead: What's My Mission Now? (Fight The Devil) (LP - "Tackhead Tape Time") Nettwerk 16 May 1988
 * Joe Tex: 'I Believe I'm Gonna Make It (Compilation LP-Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die)' (New Musical Express) 06 December 1988
 * This Heat: The Fall Of Saigon (session) 22 April 1977
 * Turtles: 'Eve Of Destruction (LP-It Ain't Me Babe)' (White Whale) 12 October 1999
 * Robert Wyatt: 'Shipbuilding (7")' (Virgin) 23 September 1982
 * XTC: 'General And Majors (7")' (Virgin) 20 August 1980


 * Footnotes