Liverpool (city)


 * (This page is about the city in north-west England. For the football team of the same name, see Liverpool.)

Liverpool is a city in Merseyside, England. In 2014, the city local government district had a population of 470,537 and the Liverpool/Birkenhead metropolitan area had a population of 2,241,000. (Read more at Wikipedia.)

Links to Peel



 * "I was always very, very proud of being associated, in my own mind at least, with Liverpool. I mean, people in Liverpool didn’t think of me as being a Liverpool person at all, but I thought of myself as being a Liverpool person because that’s where I like to be and that’s where I worked and that’s where my father worked, and my mother and father both came from there, and so on. So I thought of myself as a Liverpudlian. And the people of Liverpool have always I think thought of Liverpool in rather the way that people living in Italian city states did sort of a couple of hundred years ago – as being whether they liked it or not part of a greater whole but actually really not being, not because they were compelled to be. And so there was this incredible independence about Liverpool were it was obviously geographically part of England, but everybody knew that really in their heart of hearts that it wasn’t at all." 

Although Peel was born in Heswall Cottage Hospital in Heswall on the Wirral Peninsula and grew up in the nearby village of Burton, he always maintained a strong identification with Liverpool, on the other side of the Mersey, as seen most clearly in his fanatical devotion to Liverpool football team and public support for music from the city. In his adult life, he lived away from Liverpool but continued to visit his favorite city regularly. Two of his four children went to Liverpool University.

Peel’s earliest memories of Liverpool went back to his wartime childhood on the Wirral. In the 2002 TV documentary Going Home, he said:

"“I do remember standing in one of the upstairs bedroom windows [of his family home] … and looking over to where Birkenhead and Liverpool were burning [after German bombing raids]. It was the middle of the night, I was aware of that, but it looked as though the sun had just gone down – a big red glow in the sky.”"

On a happier note, in the same programme Peel also fondly recalled the warmth of his Liverpudlian nanny, Florence “Trader” Horne, as well as her sisters and friends in Liverpool, “who could kind of become secretly friends of yours as well, and they were people that your parents didn’t know.”

As he grew older, Peel became better acquainted with the city across the water, despite being sent away to be educated at Shrewsbury School. He later wrote with delight about buying Teddy Boy drainpipe trousers and lime-green socks in Liverpool’s Scotland Road (“symbols of wide-eyed rebellion I was anxious to keep from my family”), as well the acceptance he felt playing five-a-side football at Shrewsbury House club in Everton (“Father found these visits incomprehensible and assumed I was taking a less than wholesome interest in young boys”).

Before going to America, Peel briefly followed his father into Liverpool’s declining cotton trade. During his sojourn in the USA, he returned to the city for holidays on a few occasions, writing about one such visit in early 1966, in the Kmentertainer. On his return from the States, now a professional radio DJ, he soon became acquainted with the Liverpool poets of the hippie era. He subsequently returned often to the city, most frequently to attend Liverpool matches or live music events but also for work related to the BBC. In February 2001, he happily acknowledged the inconsistency of living so far from the city while still proclaiming his love for it:

"“Cynics say you love Liverpool more the further you live away from it, and it’s true that I now live about 250 miles away outside Ipswich.”"

Liverpool FC

 * (Main article: Liverpool)

Peel was a huge fan of Liverpool FC and attended many matches at its Anfield ground in the city.

Liverpool Music

 * (Related article: Liverpool: Sessions)

Peel’s Merseyside background opened the way to his professional start in radio – as a “Beatles expert” for KLIF in Dallas – and he remained keen to support music from Liverpool, the city where he bought his first record and also attended his earliest gigs. In September 2004, he was still touting a local musical hero of the late 1950s and early 60s, Billy Fury, as the only “credible UK rocker”.

On his return to the UK in 1967, however, he didn't have many immediate opportunities to promote Liverpool artists, as by then the Merseybeat boom was over and newer talent tended to come from other parts of the UK. Nevertheless, he was a passionate Beatles fan at the time, and also gave plenty of support and airplay to the Liverpool Scene. In his International Times column of 1967-11-17, after describing how he had "gathered spiritual strength" on a visit to Liverpool, he mentioned that he was anxious to obtain a copy of the Big Three's single "You've Got To Keep Her Under Hand" and asked his readers if they could help. As time passed, he seemed increasingly fond of the more obscure Mersey groups of the 1960s and played tracks from compilations of their work - as well as reviewing one such anthology for Let It Rock magazine in 1975 (see below).

On 15 April 1997, Peel cheerfully claimed:

"'There are a couple of ways of getting records played on this programme that are pretty much near certainties. One is to have a song with the word Pig in the title, and the other is to come from Liverpool.'"

Generations of bands from the Liverpool area benefited from this partisanship, in the form of airtime for record releases and Peel sessions, from Liverpool Scene in the late 60s to Ladytron and Clinic in the early 2000s. Thirteen artists on the city’s Probe Plus label were booked for sessions, including Half Man Half Biscuit, while other long-term local favourites included The Farm and Wah!, whose 1980 debut single Peel described as “further proof that Liverpool is the cultural center of the globe.”

Nevertheless, the DJ did concede, reluctantly, that there were times when Liverpool’s northern neighbour, Manchester, had the musical edge. In 1987, looking back at the post-punk years – and the emergence of the Fall and Joy Division, alongside the Liverpool bands coming from Eric's club in Mathew Street and Zoo record label – he told John Walters:

"“I resented the fact that the best and the most interesting bands seemed to be coming out of Manchester. I’m afraid this is something that is still true.”"

In later years, Peel’s most-cherished songs came to include 'Does This Train Stop On Merseyside?' by Amsterdam, which he first heard on a promotional album issued by Liverpool club The Picket as part of its fight against closure. With lyrics alluding to historic events and landmarks in the city, the song appealed to both his sentimental nature and enduring local pride. On 10 December 2003, he admitted:

"“It’s now reached the point at which it makes me cry every time I hear it.”"

Plays

 * Liverpool Compilations

(The following list of various artist albums was compiled only from the database of this site and is chronological, by first play of the release. Except for “Jukebox At Eric’s,” assembled by Eric’s club founder Roger Eagle, all of the releases feature music from the Liverpool area. Please add more details if known.)

(LP – This Is Mersey Beat, Vol. 1) Oriole
 * 18 October 1969: Ian & The Zodiacs: Let’s Turkey Trot

(2xLP – Mersey Beat 1962-1964) United Artists
 * 17 April 1975: Rory Storm & The Hurricanes: I Can Tell

(LP – Street To Street: A Liverpool Compilation) Open Eye
 * 02 August 1979: Modern Eon: Benched Down / 70s Sixties
 * 09 August 1979: Big In Japan: Match Of The Day
 * 14 August 1979: Id: Julia's Song
 * 21 August 1979: Echo & The Bunnymen: Monkies
 * 22 July 1982: Big In Japan: Match Of The Day

(2xLP – Mersey Sounds) Decca
 * 04 June 1980: Big Three: Cavern Stomp
 * 12 June 1980: Big Three: By The Way
 * 30 June 1980: Big Three: Don't Start Running Away

(LP – Jukebox At Eric's Vol 1: Rock 'N' Roll) Eric's
 * 01 April 1981: Fabulous Wailers: Shanghaied
 * 02 April 1981: Rays: Elevator Operator
 * 12 September 1990: Playboys: Jungle Fever
 * 28 April 1999: Tommy Blake: F-olding Money

(LP – Street To Street, Volume Two) Open Eye
 * 30 July 1981: Chinese Religion: Eden
 * 03 August 1981: Cooling Towers: The Thesis
 * 04 August 1981: Egypt For Now: Days On Edge

(LP – Live At The Cavern) London
 * 22 August 1981: Marauders: track unknown (Peel forgets to give title), introduced by Bob Wooler, "the Andy Peebles of his day" (JP)

(LP – To The Shores Of Lake Placid) Zoo
 * 08 March 1982: Those Naughty Lumps: Iggy Pop's Jacket
 * 15 March 1982: Echo & The Bunnymen: Pictures On My Wall
 * 18 March 1982: Big In Japan: Society For Cutting Up Men
 * 22 March 1982: Echo & The Bunnymen: Read It In Books

(LP - The Zulu Compilation) Zulu
 * 24 April 1984: Frankie Goes To Hollywood Love Has Got A Gun

(LP – Jobs For The Boys) Natalie
 * 18 March 1985: This Final Frame: Mondays Child

(LP – Ways To Wear Coats - A Compilation From Vulcan Studios) Vulcan
 * 26 November 1986: Da Vincis: The Book
 * 29 November 1986 (BFBS): Half Man Half Biscuit: Arthur's Farm
 * 02 December 1986: Da Vincis: The Book

(2xLP – This Is Mersey Beat) Edsel
 * 15 July 1989 (BFBS): Faron's Flamingos: Let's Stomp

(LP - Liverpool Today "Where It All Began") Capitol
 * 01 December 1990: Richmond Group: I'm All Right (John opines that this must be a collectors item now, and even at the time. John was only at the Cavern twice and once it was to see the Richmond Group.)

(CD/LP – The Zoo Uncaged 1978-1982) Document
 * 01 December 1990: Teardrop Explodes: Camera Camera
 * 03 December 1990 (Ö3): Big In Japan: Nothing Special
 * 16 December 1990: Teardrop Explodes: Treason (It's Just A Story)

(LP – Hits Of The Mersey Era, Vol.1) EMI
 * 03 June 1994: Big Three: Some Other Guy

(CD - Rhyme Pays: Liverpool Compilation) Picket promo
 * 16 October 2003: Amsterdam: Does This Train Stop On Merseyside?

Links

 * Liverpool Echo (10 Feb. 2014): Who topped our poll of the 100 Greatest Merseysiders?: Peel at #6 (up from #36 in 2003), with Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit at #10 (up from from #57).
 * On music’s front line, 25 years of The Picket, Liverpool: Peel features in video about Liverpool venue The Picket.