Iceland

Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2 (40,000 sq mi), making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe.[7] The capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate.

Links to Peel
Icelandic music started to make a big impact on the world’s alternative scene in the early 80’s when post-punk musicians started to set up their own labels. One of the labels was started by a band called Þeyr, who according to a 2015 article in the Guardian met Peel in London in the early 80’s:

"On a visit to London, the band played what he [Baldursson] calls the “Icelandic sweater trick” on John Peel, giving the DJ and his wife woollen pullovers. “Her father had been stationed in Iceland during the war,” Hilmarsson says, so when he saw his daughter wearing her gift, old memories came flooding back. The gift worked, and Peel started playing Þeyr. “It was magick."

Also on the same article, another Icelandic artist, Einar Örn, the singer of Purrkur Pillnikk mentioned listening to Peel's show in 1977 in Iceland by realising that he could park his mother's Sunbeam car in a certain position, where he could pick up BBC Radio One listening "to John Peel, playing the Ramones”.

Icelandic band The Sugarcubes got Peel’s attention in 1987 when he recieved a copy of their Birthday single, which gained plenty of airplay on his shows. At the end of the year, Peel’s listeners anonymously voted the song at number one in the 1987 Festive Fifty and also number 23 in the All Time 2000 Festive Fifty.

When the Sugarcubes were invited to the BBC, Peel was offended by Bjork's behaviour after he shook her hands. On his show on 08 June 1988, Peel mentioned the event:

"'The Sugarcubes, actually who were in the building, some of them anyway a week ago or so And the two blokes were amiable, but Bjork seemed rather those things, just came over, shook hands and went and stood at the far corner of a rather large room staring moodily at the wall, which I thought was, well, I didn't expect her to say yo! homeboy and pinch me on the bum, but at the same time, it seemed a bit kind of calculated broody or brooding.'"

When the Sugarcubes released their second album, Peel was disappointed with its material and never played any of their tracks on his show. After the Sugarcubes split in the early 90's, member Bjork pursued a solo career.

In 1995 when writing for the Guardian (later reprinted in Olivetti Chronicles) after seeing Bjork perform at the Reading festival, he described her success as:

"'The global success of Bjork has been built on her exotic background, the projection of herself as plain weird and a singing style so mannered as to make Kate Bush sound pedestrian by comparison.'"

After presenting Top Of The Pops in 1995, which was a camouflage for his appearance on This Is Your Life, Peel described the difficulties in introducing Bjork on Top Of The Pops on his 23 December 1995 (BFBS) show:

"'I had to do my introduction to Bjork three times, and on each occasion standing facing her about four, five feet away from her, and I had to spin through 180 degrees, which isn't easy for me to do when I'm not holding a microphone and trying to remember my amusing ad-libs. Of course, I'd written a really hostile review of her performance at the Reading Festival, and was thinking, is she a Guardian reader or not? Happily, it seems that she wasn't, 'cos she'd certainly have slapped me if she'd read the review which was very bitchy indeed, I'm pleased to say. But she came on, did her number and things, which was fairly dreadful I felt.'"

Post-Rock Icelandic band Sigur Ros started to gain Peel’s attention with their ambient sounds, which led to their session on his show and at the end of 2000, an entry in the 2000 Festive Fifty at number 47 called Svefn-G-Englar, where Peel announced that this was the first Festive Fifty entry that he could not pronounce a title. Peel’s difficulty in pronouncing Icelandic titles led him on his 25 March 2004 show to announce sarcastically that he wouldn’t be taking holidays in Iceland due to the difficulties of pronouncing their names.

Sessions
The following artists from Iceland recorded sessions for the John Peel show.
 * Múm: (1 session, 2002)


 * Sigur Rós: (1 session, 2000)
 * Sugarcubes: (1 session, 1987)

Festive Fifty
The following Icelandic artists had Festive Fifty entries:
 * Múm: Green Grass Of Tunnel #48 (2002 Festive Fifty)


 * Sigur Rós: Svefn-G-Englar #47 (2000 Festive Fifty)
 * Sugarcubes: Birthday #01 (1987 Festive Fifty)
 * Sugarcubes: Deus #20 (1988 Festive Fifty)