Melody Maker

Melody Maker was a UK weekly music paper first published in 1926. Initially aimed at dance band musicians, it covered not only pop music but jazz (and, later, folk music) and was regarded in the 1960s as the most serious of the British pop weeklies. Besides its main news and feature pages, the paper included a large advertising section, with gig listings, ads from bands seeking to recruit new members, and offers of musical instruments for sale.

When Peel joined Radio 1 it was the pop paper most sympathetic to the music he played on Top Gear and featured pieces on many of the artists he admired.. In 1968 he was frequently mentioned in the paper, and its readers' letters page often published letters from both fans of his programmes and detractors (see below). But by the end of the decade Melody Maker was thriving, gaining a large circulation by concentrating on the "underground" and "progressive" rock favoured by Peel's audience. This reflected the paper's tradition, going back to its dance band origins, of praising skilled, serious musicianship and mistrusting the more ephemeral, novelty aspects of pop.

In 2000 it was merged with the New Musical Express, the paper which had challenged its pre-eminence in the 1970s by hiring younger journalists (some of them from the underground press) and adopting a more irreverent approach to the music scene. Peel never wrote a regular column for MM, as he did for rival publications Disc & Music Echo and Sounds, although he took part in some of the paper's opinion features, such as the record review series Blind Date (in early 1968), was interviewed from time to time, and did contribute occasional pieces.

As discussed with John Walters on Peeling Back The Years, Peel's victory in the DJ section of MM's 1968 readers' poll over Tony Blackburn may have helped to cement his position at Radio One. Walters commented:

"You look down a fairly straight poll – obviously the Beatles were in there and so on – and there was John Peel, and the top radio show was Top Gear. And I remember within Radio One people were absolutely astounded. And it was sort of resentment mixed with a reluctant acceptance that things had changed and that you had been a key part of it changing. After 1968 you were being seen as a figure of importance and influence."

Peel would eventually win the MM award 11 times.

In the December 1994 edition of the Melody Maker, Peel was featured in the Rebellious Jukebox section, where music celebrities choose records that have made an impact on their lives. Peel choose twelve records ranging from Frankie Laine to Elastica.

On his show of 05 May 1997, which featured Blur's visit to Peel Acres, Peel showed off to the band his 1931 Christmas double issue of MM and also recalled a piece he did for MM's 50th anniversary, noting that the lead article of the first issue had been about whether there was still a place for the banjo in the modern dance orchestra.

1968

 * March 30: Blind Date
 * September 28: New Blind Date
 * November 23: "A Day In The Life Of John Peel". "Every Sunday at 3 p.m. an estimated two million listeners tune into Radio One to hear Top Gear....It is probably one of the most popular all-music programmes on Radio One, certainly as far as MM readers are concerned, for this year it was voted the top radio show in the 1968 Melody Maker Pop Poll, with Peel as the top deejay" (read more)

1970

 * July 18: JOHN PEEL: What's wrong with Radio One? The fact that you can listen to it for an entire week without learning anything that relates to what's going on. I don't know whether it originates from the producers or where, but... (read more)
 * November 14: Reaction (Peel gives his opinions on various people and topics).

1971

 * April 24: In the three years since he first won the Top DJ title in the MM Poll, John Peel has been mocked and worshipped. Today he wipes the slate clean... (read more)

1967

 * November 11 From "The Raver" column: "John Peel asked by pop magazine for a short, clean joke for their Christmas number replied: "How about Tony Blackburn?"
 * December 2 From "The Raver" column: "Fantastic response to gOD poll from readers. Votes went to Eric Clapton, Tony Coe, John Lennon, Roland Kirk, Ginger Baker, John Peel, Donovan, John Coltrane, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Mavis Greebstabling, an undiscovered drummer from South London called George Jeffrey, and Edwin Bulstrode"
 * December 16 From "The Raver" column: "John Peel played Captain Beefheart's "Electricity" on Top Gear. Yes John, it's "Safe As Milk"!"
 * December 30 "Old Dawbarn's Almanack". Bob Dawbarn's comic predictions for the music scene in 1968, including the replacement of Radio 1 DJs by much older, established BBC presenters; "November: Radio One replace John Peel with Jack de Manio".

1968

 * February 10 Mailbag - readers' letters: "It is said that the most common mistake made by would-be deejays is repetition. Yet every week on Radio One's Top Gear, John Peel, while playing great material by groups like Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and the Chicken Shack, gets on my nerves with his repetition of the word "nice""...
 * February 17 From The Raver column: "We gather John Peel likes Tyrannosaurus Rex"
 * February 17 Mailbag - readers' letters; "BBC's Radio One has recently received adverse criticism, However, one show shines through. Top Gear is always alive and progressive and John Peel is the only deejay with real knowledge and understanding of the type of music he presents...."
 * February 24: Focus On Folk, Folk News section by Karl Dallas: "By the way, Pentangle were beautiful, as John Peel would say, on Top Gear last Sunday. Come to think of it, I think he did say it."
 * February 24: Mailbag - readers' letters: "Why pick on Peel?", one letter supporting Peel, one attacking him ("The bulk of Mr. Peel's Sunday afternoon show consists of the most unmusical releases of the week....").
 * March 2:  "Radio One - Swinging Or Just Plain Square?" Interview with Radio One "chief" Robin Scott. Asked about JP, he previews Night Ride ("different from Top Gear") and says "I have a great respect for him - and that's why I put him on. He is one of the few people who can communicate and generate an interest in a wide range of subjects from progressive pop to modern poetry"
 * March 9: Mailbag - readers' letters: "The case for and against John Peel" 
 * March 16 "Once again - is it folk?" Karl Dallas interviews the Incredible String Band. "I went down to the BBC's Aeolian Hall to talk to them, after they had finished recording a John Peel Night Ride appearance....compared with the average Radio One definition of folk one can only be glad they are getting an airing with John Peel."
 * March 30: Full-page review of Donovan's Royal Albert Hall concert by Bob Dawbarn: "Compere John Peel looked happy, possibly because Tyrannosaurus Rex had shared the first half."
 * March 30: The Raver column: "Deejay John Peel is planning a radio programme on suggestive lyrics in pop songs and hopes to get Cliff Richard, Mick Jagger and Mick Farron [sic], of the Social Deviants, to take part" (Link as above)
 * June 15: Singles reviewed by Bob Dawbarn. Spooky Tooth: "Love Really Changed Me"; "...I wish it luck and lots of plugs. John Peel will play it anyway."
 * July 20: Focus On Folk, interview by Tony Wilson with "Roy Harper, folk's one-man Mother": "What I'd really like to do is form a thirty-piece band with the Mothers, the Floyd, the Nice, Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Liverpool Scene, Peel and me, and have the total PA all arranged in a big free space somewhere and just play for two days solid."
 * October 5: From gossip column "The Raver": "Ed Stewart, Tony Brandon, Rick Dane, Dave Cash, David Symonds and John Peel among Radio One deejays battling it out in stock cars at Wembley Stadium on October 12. Makes a change from the other kind of smashes!"
 * December 7 Farewell to the Cream, by Chris Welch (review of their final concert, which Peel introduced).: "John Peel must be Britain's only at once inteliigent, funny, informative and popular compere and such a relief from all those dire idiots who have made us cringe with embarrassment at so-called "pop" shows." (read more here)
 * December 7 "Alvin Lee contacts MM from the States - 'We're all turned on to America'". Interview with Ten Years After guitarist in which he praises American underground radio and says of Peel: "John Peel is cool to himself with his show but unintentionally he is making the scene paraniocally aware as soon as anything new gets on it. Then when it gets popular he leaves it alone..." (read more)

1969

 * September 20 "Pop Poll '69" (p.1) Cartoon of Peel appears on front page with other winners in annual readers poll.

1970

 * July 18 "Cool or Uncool?" (p.8) Light-hearted article with lists of people and things which fit the two categories, including "Cool: John Peel - Uncool: Tony Brandon "
 * September 19: 1970 Pop Poll Results: "John Peel makes it a hat-trick of Top Disc Jockey awards, follows it up with the first and second places in the Top Radio Show division with his Top Gear and Sunday Show".

1971

 * February 13 "Football on Peel 'Special'". "Guests on John Peel's Late-Night Line-Up "special" on BBC2 TV on February 20 at 10.45 p.m. will include former Liverpool and Scotland football international Billy Liddell and soprano saxist Lowen Coxhill..." (read more). Programme was described as first of a regular series, but only this one featured Peel. The series was called "One Man's Week" and was edited by Rowan Ayers, father of Peel favourite Kevin Ayers.

1973

 * September 29: Peel winning the Best DJ category in the 1973 Melody Maker Readers' Poll. (read more)

1978

 * November 11: Peel wins Top DJ and comes 2nd in the Best Radio Show in the 1978 Melody Maker Readers' Poll. (read more)

1991

 * January 5: Peel wins Best Radio Show in the 1990 Melody Maker Readers' Poll (read more)

Compilations
(v/a LP - Red Stripe - Playback Volume 1)
 * 17 November 1982: IQ: Beef In Box
 * 07 December 1982: Hibi Yaki: Labours And The Land

(v/a 7" - MM Vinyl Conflict 1) Melody Maker
 * 11 February 1986: Housemartins: Anxious

(v/a 7" - [Vinyl Conflict 2)
 * 24 September 1986 (VPRO): Fall: Lucifer Over Lancashire (Alternative Version)
 * 24 September 1986 (VPRO): Cocteau Twins: Orange Appled
 * October 1986 (BBC World Service): Cocteau Twins: Orange Appled

(v/a cassette - Five Alive)
 * 05 February 1993: Therapy?: Nausea
 * 14 February 1993 (BFBS): Therapy?: Nausea

(v/a 3xCD - The Serious Road Trip )
 * 12 November 1994: Banco De Gaia: White Paint
 * 12 November 1994: Loop Guru: Yayli (Unity Vibrations)
 * 12 November 1994: Dust Brothers: Be That Thing

(v/a cassette - Reading Present)
 * 26 August 1994: Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session]
 * 27 August 1994: Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session]
 * 02 September 1994: Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session]
 * 10 September 1994 (BFBS): Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session]
 * 08 October 1994 (BFBS): Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session]
 * 23 December 1994: Elastica: Waking Up [BBC Radio 1 FM Session] FF#7

(v/a cassette - Reading Present 1995)
 * 25 August 1995: Stereolab: Pop Quiz

(v/a CD - ...Hold On)
 * 02 September 1995: Dick Dale: Mexico
 * 09 September 1995: Sleeper: Disco Duncan

Links

 * Wikipedia: Melody Maker
 * Jazz Lives : 1934 photo of Louis Armstrong reading Melody Maker
 * Pathe News: Peel at 1968 MM Readers' Poll Awards
 * Pathe News: Peel at 1969 MM Readers' Poll Awards
 * Archived Music Press: Melody Maker
 * rocklist.net: Melody Maker Annual Critic Lists 1978-2000
 * Melody Maker Pop Poll 1973 - Best disc jockey