26 December 1988

Show

 * Name
 * John Peel Show


 * Station
 * BBC Radio One


 * YYYY-MM-DD
 * 1988-12-26


 * Comments
 * The third part of the Festive Fifty plus the customary end of year session repeats.
 * John is in an ebullient mood: this show is replete with funny stories and quotable material.
 * He notes that selection of best sessions has been very difficult due to their overall excellence.
 * Just under ten minutes of the show, between the end of the session repeats and the chart rundown, appear to be missing from this recording.

Sessions

 * Jesus & Mary Chain, #5 (repeat). Recorded 1988-05-31. Available on The Complete Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit).
 * Márta Sebestyén, one and only session (repeat). Recorded 1988-04-05. No known commercial release.
 * Heresy, #2 (repeat). Recorded 1988-03-01. Available on 13 Rocking Anthems (In Your Face).
 * Funky Ginger, one and only session (repeat). Recorded 1988-07-26. No known commercial release.
 * Dinosaur Jr., #1 (repeat). Recorded 1988-11-08. No known commercial release.
 * My Bloody Valentine, one and only session (repeat). Recorded 1988-09-25.

Tracklisting

 * Jesus & Mary Chain: 'Sidewalking' (Peel Sessions)
 * (JP: 'One of the many fine presents I received over Christmas was a guitar, so in a few months' time, I shall be doing the same sort of thing meself, and booking myself in to record sessions, and so forth. The possibilities seem to me to be limitless.') The fate of JP's present can be discovered on the 24 December 1989 (BBC Radio East Anglia) show.
 * Márta Sebestyén: 'Dunantuli Tancok (Transdanubian Dances)' (Peel Session)
 * Heresy: 'Into The Grey' (Peel Session)
 * (JP: 'That's Heresy and Into The Grey, or as they call it, BLEEEAAARRRGH!')
 * (JP: 'The best Christmas present that I had, actually, I got this afternoon: it was a present to myself, because I passed a kidney stone. I won't go too much into the details of it, but at about 3.30 this afternoon, I was lying on my bed, whimpering with pain. By four o'clock, the little perisher had come out from its normal point of egress, and I was an infinitely happier man. For regular listeners of the programme, this is the stone they were taking photographs of towards the end of the year, around October, and I was having to go to hospital in London for a whole series of embarrassing and humiliating tests. Of course, before they could actually take any action against the thing, it had set off, and once it set off, they were going to fire something like sound at it, a sonic lance or something like this. Once it starts moving about they can't do it. It's like something in a coconut shy or rifle range, trying to pick it off as it moves about. Potentially hazardous, but it's out and I'm a happy man.')
 * Funky Ginger: 'Money Passion Vice' (Peel Session)
 * Dinosaur Jr.: 'Raisans' (Peel Session)
 * (JP: 'I seem to remember the last time I passed a kidney stone, I had a competition for somebody to win it, and nobody entered for it at all, which hurt my feelings considerably at the time. I'm sure if it had been Andy Peebles who passed the kidney stone, you'd have entered for a competition to win HIS.')
 * My Bloody Valentine: 'I Can Feel It But I Can't See It' (Peel Session)
 * Jesus & Mary Chain: 'Coast To Coast' (Peel Session)
 * Márta Sebestyén: 'Szeki Tancok (Dances From Village Szek)' (Peel Session) (mistakenly announced by JP as Heresy)
 * Heresy: 'When Unity Becomes Solidarity' (Peel Session)
 * Dinosaur Jr.: 'Leper' (Peel Session)
 * Funky Ginger: 'Jack The Knife' (Peel Session)
 * (JP: 'I have in the studio with me my son William, who's almost thirteen, and his cousin Benjamin, who I brought with me to keep me amused with their brilliant and scintillating conversation on the long drive back to the badlands of East Anglia. We were going for a bit of a walk before the programme, and walked down past the BBC shop around the corner here, and there's a large picture, which I didn't know actually, there's a large picture of me in the window of it. I said to William, "Must make you feel pretty proud to see a picture of your dad here up on the wall in Central London", and he said, "Well, I do think that the BBC should have put a sickbucket underneath it". That's the kind of respect that I get, you know.')
 * My Bloody Valentine: 'Lose My Breath' (Peel Session)
 * Heresy: 'The Street Enters The House/Cornered Rat' (Peel Session)
 * Jesus & Mary Chain: 'Take It' (Peel Session)
 * Dinosaur Jr.: 'Bulbs Of Passion' (Peel Session)
 * Heresy: 'Open Up' (Peel Session) (tape flip in the middle of this-remainder of track missing from file)

John Peel's Festive Fifty 1988: Numbers 31-21

 * 31: Mudhoney, 'Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More (7 inch)' (Sub Pop) (missing from file)
 * (JP: 'Excellent: very pleased to see them in the Festive Fifty...I've had a letter from them and a new record which I look forward to playing you in the first programme of next year.') (these comments also missing from file)
 * 30: Pixies, 'Where Is My Mind? (LP-Surfer Rosa)' (4AD)
 * 29: Sonic Youth, 'Silver Rocket (LP-Daydream Nation)' (Blast First)
 * (JP: 'A lot of votes this year, more than in the past couple of years at least, for the Festive Fifty, including entries from as far away as Nepal and Quebec in Canada, and Brunei: several from Australia, and one from New Zealand as well.')
 * 28: Overlord X, '14 Days In May (12 inch)' (Hardcore)
 * 27: Fall: 'Kurious Oranj (LP-I Am Kurious Oranj)' (Beggars Banquet)

File

 * Name
 * 26th December 88 Parts 1 & 2
 * Length
 * 01:02:24
 * 00:46:54


 * Other
 * Excellent quality stereo sound throughout.


 * Available
 * Part 1, Part 2