Pete Drummond

In the late 1960s Pete Drummond was the DJ regarded as closest in style and musical interests to John Peel. Like Peel, he was a former public schoolboy (educated at Millfield School, like Peel's "enemy" Tony Blackburn) who had gained his initial DJ experience in the United States. He joined Radio London in September 1966 and was an established member of the Big L DJ team by the time Peel arrived on the station in March 1967. He sometimes deputised on the midnight to 2 a.m. slot when Peel was on shore leave and seemed to share some of Peel's musical enthusiasms; he stepped in to present the penultimate Perfumed Garden when Peel was called ashore at short notice because his then wife Shirley ("the White Rabbit") had been taken ill.

Drummond and Peel, by then both managed by Clive Selwood, co-presented the first Radio One Top Gear on 1 October 1967. In the station's first few months, Drummond appeared more frequently than Peel, not just as a presenter of Top Gear but also of Midday Spin. However it was Peel who producer Bernie Andrews chose to be the sole presenter of the programme from February 1968. Pete Drummond continued his Radio One career, hosting a one-hour weekend show with a "progressive" playlist similar to Peel's in 1969; he became one of the regular presenters of the Sounds of the Seventies weeknight programmes from 1970, as well as introducing some Radio One In Concert performances. He was one of the DJs who lost their jobs when Radio One ended Sounds of the Seventies in 1975 as part of the BBC's economy drive.

Pete Drummond continued to appear on Radio One, being chosen in 1977 to introduce a Summer of '67 series, scripted by Pete Frame and John Tobler and focusing on the music and events of the year in which Peel made his name. It is not known whether Peel was asked to present the series, but his distate for the sixties nostalgia of many of his contemporaries would probably have made him refuse. Nevertheless, the programmes featured much of the material played on the Perfumed Garden and early Top Gear.

Unlike Peel, Pete Drummond did not develop a second career in journalism or seek to propagate values associated with the music he played. Perhaps becaus of this, his DJ career did not last as long as Peel's. He has most recently been active in commercial voice-over work.