BFBS

Forces' Radio began during the Second World War in 1943 as a morale-boosting experiment for the troops on active service, and was renamed BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) in 1965. It is still active today. Peel recorded weekly two-hour weekend night programmes latterly going out between 9 and 11 p.m., for the German part of the network, along with other British DJs such as Tommy Vance and Kenny Everett. (These programmes also went out on BFBS in Hong Kong until the handover to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997.) From comments made by his producer Charles Foster, it appears he started doing this in 1972 and continued until the show was summarily cancelled in 2001. Foster produced the programmes "on and off" (Peel mentions a "guest producer" named Lawrence in Peel 043 (BFBS) and another called Simon in Peel 045 (BFBS)) from 1984 onwards (even though they occasionally disagreed about John's choice of music ), and Peel also frequently consults a recording engineer (possibly Denis O'Keeffe).

Two facets of these shows (aside from the lack of sessions, only played when they had been officially released, as in the notorious set by Die Toten Hosen) marked them out from others in his entire output. Firstly, surviving material from the 80s indicates that Peel occasionally programmed all-request shows, which went entirely against the grain of the philosophy espoused on his domestic programmes (he presumably did this in the knowledge that the military were his supposed target audience and this countered homesickness to some extent). However, this strand does not appear in the growing number of shows available from the 90s onwards. Secondly, he sporadically interposed excerpts (presumably written by him) from stories written in a kind of cod noir thriller style which invariably ended up with some reference to his shows. Again, this was gradually dropped when he began making programmes from home.

Also uniquely for his overseas shows, he included, following a listener request, a potted version of the 1995 Festive Fifty in his 30 December 1995 (BFBS) and 07 January 1996 (BFBS) programmes. By this time, he had begun to record some of his Radio 1 material at Peel Acres, and by August 1997 was strongly suggesting to BFBS listeners that the same thing might be possible. The first such show went out on 11 September 1997 (BFBS). His only scheduled break came in December 1997, when due to circumstances detailed by him on 08 January 1998 (BFBS), one was repeated and on another date (18 December 1997 (BFBS)) Foster presented an 'Unpeeled' show of concert repeats.

JP cavilled at the fact that he received little or no feedback concerning his shows from the military, for whom the programmes were primarily intended, but had a large fanbase of civilians. In addition, Peel Mailing Listuser Maartens has less than fond memories of his listening experiences:

"'They went out on Friday or Saturday, late at night and were repeated very early on a Tuesday morning. BFBS was quite sloppy, playing the wrong tapes or when something went wrong at the start. Or play the second hour first.'"

There were at least two signature tunes employed. During the 80s, an as yet unidentified electronic dance piece was used, but from the early 90s until the end of the programmes' run John's sig was 'Dragster' by Johnny Fortune (the single was later found in John Peel's Record Box).

'Peel' Series
This is a collection of 300 files taped over a period extending from 1984 to the end of the show's run and provides valuable insights into a period hitherto unavailable. It is compromised, however, by the fact that none are complete shows: all are pause-button edits, tailored to the taper's individual tastes (i.e. there is no reggae at all). Peel himself admitted that no records were available of the early years and was unsure of how long the programme had been on the air (or even what the original name was). It has been impossible to date the first 26 files beyond a vague indication of month and year. From Peel 027 (BFBS) onwards, owing to on-air clues and notes on the original tapes (which were subsequently transferred to a spreadsheet), a carbon dating system has been attempted based on the assumption that the shows were first TX on a Thursday and repeated the following Tuesday (from 1986-10-26, the first airing of the show seems to have moved to the weekend, if the data supplied with Peel 043 (BFBS) and Maartens' recollections are accurate). However, lacking any further information, this is at best tentative and should be regarded as an indication rather than a blueprint for show dates (especially given the station's cavalier attitude to the programmes). By 1999, there was usually a one week gap between recording and TX, but this may well have been longer in the earlier days of the show's life, and there were often unscheduled repeats for no specific reason.

Torrents

 * John Peel Torrent Compilation 8 of 17 (1967-1993)
 * 19 June 1993 (BFBS) § / 26 June 1993 (BFBS) / April 1995 (BFBS) § / 16 June 1995 (BFBS) §


 * § = misdated files


 * John Peel Torrent Compilation 9 of 17 (1994-2001)
 * 05 August 1995 (BFBS)

Carsten from Berlin
Main article: Carsten Tapes


 * This is a collection of around 160 hours worth of material from BFBS 1995-2001 (plus a couple from Radio Eins) shared by Peel fan Carsten from Berlin.

Max-dat
Main article: Max-dat Tapes


 * This is a sizeable collection of shows covering the period 1992-1994 uploaded to the Mooo Server by Maximilian in 2010.

1984

 * Peel 001 (BFBS) / Peel 002 (BFBS)

1985

 * Peel 003 (BFBS) / Peel 004 (BFBS) / Peel 005 (BFBS) / Peel 006 (BFBS) / Peel 007 (BFBS) / Peel 008 (BFBS) / Peel 009 (BFBS) / Peel 010 (BFBS) / Peel 011 (BFBS) / Peel 012 (BFBS) / Peel 013 (BFBS) / Peel 014 (BFBS) / Peel 015 (BFBS) / Peel 016 (BFBS) / Peel 017 (BFBS) / Peel 018 (BFBS) / Peel 019 (BFBS) / Peel 020 (BFBS) / Peel 021 (BFBS) / Peel 022 (BFBS) / Peel 023 (BFBS) / Peel 024 (BFBS) / Peel 025 (BFBS)

1986

 * Peel 026 (BFBS) / Peel 027 (BFBS) / Peel 028 (BFBS) / Peel 029 (BFBS) / Peel 030 (BFBS) / Peel 031 (BFBS) / Peel 032 (BFBS) / Peel 033 (BFBS) / Peel 034 (BFBS) / Peel 035 (BFBS) / Peel 036 (BFBS) / Peel 037 (BFBS) / Peel 038 (BFBS) / Peel 039 (BFBS) / Peel 040 (BFBS) / Peel 041 (BFBS) / Peel 042 (BFBS) / Peel 043 (BFBS) / Peel 044 (BFBS) / Peel 045 (BFBS) / Peel 046 (BFBS) / Peel 047 (BFBS) / Peel 048 (BFBS)

1987

 * Peel 049 (BFBS) / Peel 050 (BFBS)

1988

 * 05 March 1988 (BFBS) / 27 December 1988 (BFBS)

1997

 * 17 March 1997 (BFBS) / 16 May 1997 (BFBS) / 23 May 1997 (BFBS)

Links

 * BFBS Wiki entry
 * BFBS Radio homepage
 * BFBS Radio history (brief mention of Peel)
 * Radio Rewind BFBS page including a clip of Peel from 1985
 * BFBS quotes, transcribed by listener Arno Matthias


 * Footnotes