26 December 1970

Show

 * Name
 * Top Gear


 * Station
 * BBC Radio One


 * YYYY-MM-DD
 * 1970-12-26


 * Comments
 * The first identifiably festive show in the Peel canon (for a list of the others, see Peel Celebrations.) As no complete recording of this programme is currently available, the track listing below is provisional.
 * Details on the tracks below taken from The Peel Sessions (Garner, K., BBC Books, 2007).

Sessions

 * Carol Concert, one and only session. Recorded 1970-12-08. No known commercial release. This was a one-off collaboration featuring David Bedford on piano and Marc Bolan, June Child, Ivor Cutler, Sonja Kristina (& friend), Rod Stewart, Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane, Peel & Pig (JP and his girlfriend at the time, Sheila Gilhooly), Kenny Jones and Ian McLagan all on vocals (in unison, with differences noted below). Sheila claims that John Walters was also part of the line-up of 'all the usual suspects' who 'squeezed into the studio to contribute our own idiosyncratic versions' (Peel, J. and Ravenscroft, S., Margrave Of The Marshes, Corgi Books, 2006, p. 297).
 * Rudies, one and only session. Recorded 1970-11-23. No known commercial release. The band would reform the following year as Greyhound.
 * Garner also notes 'many repeats' were transmitted in the show.

Tracklisting (exact running order unknown)

 * Carol Concert, 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' (Peel Session)
 * Carol Concert, 'Away In A Manger (Rod Stewart solo)' (Peel Session)
 * Carol Concert, 'Good King Wenceslas (Ronnie Lane & Robert Wyatt solos)' (Peel Session)
 * Carol Concert, 'Silent Night (Sonja Kristina solo)' (Peel Session)
 * Carol Concert, 'O Come All Ye Faithful' (Peel Session)
 * Rudies, 'Moon Bug' (Peel Session)
 * Rudies, 'You Make Me So Very Happy' (Peel Session)
 * Rudies, 'Patches' (Peel Session)

File

 * Name
 * n/a
 * Length
 * 120 minutes: the original broadcast was from 3-5 p.m., Saturday 26 December 1970.


 * Other
 * A portion of the Carol Concert featuring 'Good King Wenceslas' is available from the Kat's Karavan blog.


 * Available
 * No complete recording of the entire show is known to exist (with the obvious exception of the Carol Concert alone): if anybody knows better, please get in touch with the Yahoo Peel Newsgroup.