Peel On Record Cover Sleevenotes

(Related pages: Peel On Record, Peel On Record Covers)


 * “The lot of the part-time sleeve not writer is not, haunters of the demi-mode, an easy one. Bravura flourishes of imagined “style”, gruesome lapses into tweeness, and overconfident predictions of impending greatness, the latter often stimulated by a commissioner’s cheque, have a disquieting habit of slithering into view in secondhand shops and/or your local branch of Woolworths.” (John Peel, Street To Street: A Liverpool Album Vol 1, sleevenotes)


 * "One of those lessons I learned too late, actually, not to write sleeve notes for records, because they do tend to come back and haunt you." (JP, 06 January 1995)

The following chronological list of Peel's occasional excursions into the world of album sleevenote-writing was drawn up largely from the AllMusic John Peel 'Credits' page. Other sources are indicated with numbered or other links (it may be necessary to use the zoom function on your browser to read these easily). Checks are only at a preliminary stage, so there may be mistakes. Please add further information if known.


 * 1967
 * Deviants: Ptooff!
 * JP: “On this LP there is little that is not good, much that is excellent and the occasional flash of brilliance..." (read more)


 * 1968
 * Various: Select Elektra
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex: My People Were Fair And Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars
 * JP: "Tyrannosaurus Rex rose out of the sad and scattered leaves of an older summer. During the dark, grey winter they were tended and strengthened by those who love them...” (read more)
 * Pentangle: Pentangle
 * JP: "I snap up all copies of the first Pentangle LP I see, so that as few people as possible can taunt me over my ‘… Pentangular faithful squatting swollen-eyed and morning-mouthed, outside garish Wilson-Picketted shop windows.’ Kinda cute, huh?" (Street To Street: A Liverpool Album Vol 1, sleevenotes)
 * Skip Bifferty Skip Bifferty
 * JP: “[Skip Bifferty] were much featured on the programmes I did at the end of the 1960s, Top Gear … and when they put out their only LP, I wrote the sleeve notes, and I was reading them again the other day, and pompous and self-serving they were too. My goodness me! I'm glad you can't read them.” (06 January 1995)


 * 1969
 * Clark-Hutchinson: A=MH2
 * JP: "Do you remember people climbing on the scaffolding inside the Alexander Palace during the 24 Hour Technicolour Dream?” (read more)
 * Forest: Forest
 * Velvett Fogg: Velvet Fogg
 * Woody Kern: The Awful Disclosures Of Maria Monk
 * JP: “What about this from ‘The Awful Disclosures Of Maria Monk’, the first LP from Derby band Woody Kern (1969): ‘I think you’ll like what you hear … watch out for further recorded offerings’. People didn’t – and I have a recurring vision of some gaunt figure sitting on a rock in the Peak District still watching out for the further offerings that never came.” (Street To Street: A Liverpool Album Vol 1, sleevenotes)


 * 1970
 * Various: John Peel's Archive Things
 * JP: "You probably have your own theories about the ideal format for radio. My personal wish is for a completely flexible and format-less service and the closest I've ever come to a realization of this wish was during 1968-69 in two programmes for the BBC. These were the first half of Wednesday's "Night Ride" and the subsequent son of "Night Ride" that appeared briefly on Wednesday evening before being pruned in the name of uniformity..." (read more)
 * Pentangle: Cruel Sister


 * 1971
 * JSD Band: JSD Band
 * Moonkyte: Count Me Out


 * 1972
 * Stackwaddy Stack Waddy/Bugger Off!


 * 1973
 * JSD Band: Travelling Days
 * Faust: The Faust Tapes
 * JP (originally from Disc & Music Echo article, Feb 1972): "The first time I heard tell of Faust was when I saw their extraordinary first LP in its equally extraordinary sleeve and felt that, regardless of the music within, I had to acquire one. When the music turned out to be highly original and very exciting that was a welcome bonus..." (read more)


 * 1975
 * Status Quo: Live! (EP)
 * JP: "It was 1968 or 1969 ... and Gaffer Peel is compere at a rock festival in Nottingham ... this shower get on stage unannounced. 'Ello', they bellow, stirring the stoned handful out of their torpor, 'you're not gonna like us at, we make hut singles and we're very loud'. They didn't, they do, and they are. At the time I was outraged" ... (read more)
 * Various: Chess Golden Decade Sampler
 * online review: “The liner notes on the sampler album are by John Peel and are particularly funny, informative and full of his joy for music.”
 * JP: “Crammed with the usual specious stuff about schoolgirls, Biggles and football … those notes were deeply and desperately overwritten.” (Street To Street: A Liverpool Album Vol 1, sleevenotes)


 * 1980
 * Various: Street To Street: A Liverpool Album Vol 1
 * JP: ”Big In Japan, a quixotic cornerstone (that’s not going to look good in ten years’ time, I’m afraid)..." (read more)


 * 1990
 * Various: Palatine - The Factory Story / 1979-1990


 * 1995
 * Thin Lizzy: Peel Sessions


 * 1996
 * Fall: Light User Syndrome


 * 2001
 * Martin Carthy: Carthy Chronicles: A Journey Through the Folk Revival
 * 2002
 * Bonzo Dog Band Complete BBC Recordings


 * 2003
 * Altered Images: Destiny: The Hits
 * Electric Light Orchestra: ELO II/The Lost Planet
 * Moondogs: John Peel Sessions
 * Fall: Live at the Phoenix Festival 95-96


 * 2004
 * Brinsley Schwarz: Cruel to Be Kind
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex: For the Lion and the Unicorn in the Oak Forests of Faun