Sessions That Never Happened

See also: Peel Sessions: The Lost Opportunities

Background

 * The kudos of having done a Peel session is in some cases surpassed by the grey area of sessions that never even made it into the studio. There are varied reasons why this happened, but for the purposes of this article can be broadly sub-categorised into three areas. 'Couldn't' attempts to explore why it was physocally impossible for some acts to appear; 'Wouldn't' noes those who simply refused to record; and 'Didn't' aims to lay to rest several myths surrounding sessions that were widely believed to have happened, but are no more than urban legends.

Couldn't

 * Many American bands, such as the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, were never booked for studio time due to the difficulty presented by the Ministry Of Labour rules on work permits, which stipulated that 'only musicians from countries whose radio stations offered reciprocal bookings for British acts could play at the BBC. As Americans didn't do live sessions, no American bands could be recorded': the two sessions by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band were only made possible by Bernie Andrews describing them as a troupe of magicians. (The exception to this dictum was that solo artists could do sessions if backed by British musicians, which explains how Leonard Cohen was able to do one.)
 * The jazz acts that John admired were also stymied by a variety of stumbling blocks. The organist Jimmy Smith's financial demands would, allegedly, have taken up the budget for six months ; a request to feature Sonny Rollins 'ran into 'a wall of lawyers' in New York, although Peel felt that he would have done it given the chance; and Ornette Colema simply wasn't in the country for long enough for one to be arranged. This last was also an explanation for the Radicts' non-appearance on the show.
 * Although Louise Kattenhorn honoured the bookings already made to bands before John's death in 2004, this remit apparently did not extend to the live performances from Peel Acres: John alluded to Jawbone's live set due at the end of November that year, which was inevitably cancelled. This made Nina Nastacia the last artist to do such a live session.

Wouldn't

 * It seems hard to believe that any artist would have turned down the opportunity to appear on Kat's Karavan, but several high profile artists who were regularly featured on the show did so. Badly Drawn Boy was booked to appear on more than one occasion, but cancelled every one, as did Joni Mitchell, who 'was booked for several other R1 sessions during tours in 68 & 69, but all were cancelled, for various reasons,' despite the fact that one had already been TX in 1968. It is likely that this had more to do with pressure from major record companies, who no doubt felt that their acts no longer needed this kind of exposure and consequently demanded excessive fees to make their signings available. PJ Harvey and Mogwai were advised by their PRs (as JP claimed) not to do recordings, and this may well be the reason why Harvey in particular did no recordings for John for nearly three years.
 * It is this notion of an image being somehow corrupted by an appearance that probably led to Margaret Thatcher turning down an offer after John had been fascinated by her recording of 'Ode To Democracy.'
 * The 'Jah Messenger' Luciano was booked to do a session, but pulled out 48 hours beforehand, the reasons for which are unclear.

Didn't
"Different stories abound as to why the Sex Pistols never recorded a session for the programme. Walters blamed himself; he felt guilty about imposing on the unsuspecting BBC engineers a band that raucous. John thought that the Pistols had turned down the offer. Whatever the reason, they got away."
 * Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions contains a list of artists 'Who Despite What You Might Have Heard Never Did A Peel Session' (p. 272). It seems clear that the Sex Pistols omission was due to John Walters. He regarded this as one of the great lost opportunities to capture a moment in time. Sheila says:
 * Nevertheless, it is worth noting that all original members of the Pistols subsequently appeared in the programme in session recordings: John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten (PIL); Steve Jones & Paul Cook (Professionals); and Glen Matlock (Rich Kids).
 * However, JP also recalled turning down U2, Dire Straits and Oasis
 * Moreover, the urban legends sometimes came from no other source than Peel's own show. The Flying Cream Shots never recorded a session for the programme due to the simple fact that they did not exist - it was a long-running practical joke of John's.
 * John sometimes pondered aloud on acts he wnted to hear on the show. For example, he wanted to broadcast Tom Jones' Glastonbury Festival appearance as a session, but this did not come about . Had he done so, it could not have counted as a session anyway according to Ken Garner's criteria, since it was not recorded specifically with Peel and the show's audience in mind.
 * Also, after JP met Humphrey Lyttleton at the Sony Awards, he pondered the idea of a session, but it seems it never happened. Lyttleton died in 2008.
 * Probably the most fantastical recording he ever dreamed up was after hearing reports in the last year of his life that scientists discovered that the Earth actually made an extremely low continuous sound: whimsically, he mooted the idea of getting the Earth in for a session.


 * Footnotes