"Listeners in the month of November were invited to send in a list of their three favourite tracks ever and I was going to... in order, y'know, whether they be album tracks or singles, and I have worked these into an attractive chart to be broadcast between now and, well, Tuesday week, tomorrow week. And it's difficult to say, actually, because I never count the cards to be honest, but I suppose that probably something of the order of 6 or 7000 people bothered to write in."
"The stamped addressed envelopes have been pouring into the BBC - well at least to Brian and myself - during the past couple of days, from people wanting copies of the Festive Fifty. Photocopies of the list that I so neatly typed myself too, which has got maybe messed up slightly with pencil marks made by Walters, but it still looks a pretty neat bit of typing. Not a single mistake on it, y'know, on the whole thing. And you also get #51 - 65 if you ask for a copy of it. What you have to do is send us a stamped address envelope - and you won't get one unless you do, frankly, because we can't afford them to mail out millions of them - stamped addressed envelope to Music-Loving Johnny Plee, care of BBC Radio One, London, W1A 4WW, and mark your envelopes, if you would, 'Sheena Easton', so that we know that it's a copy of the Festive Fifty that you're after."
"And at #1, and with more than twice the number of votes that "Atmosphere" had, this again."
Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven (LP - IV) Atlantic
Joy Division: Dead Souls (7” single - Licht und Blindheit) Sordide Sentimental
Wah! Heat: Better Scream (7” single) Inevitable Music
Peel's Typed Version[]
Signed by the great himself. (Many thanks to User:SunnyWaite.)
Availability[]
This Festive Fifty is available as a number of different recordings; unfortunately, these only contain the Festive Fifty itself & John's links, and not any of the other music played during these five shows.
Four mp3s are available from the Peel newsgroup. These are FF80.1.1.mp3, FF80.1.2.mp3, FF80.2.1.mp3 and FF80.2.2.mp3. However, FF80.2.1.mp3 is currently a duplicate of FF80.1.2.mp3.
Five recordings are also included in John Peel Torrent Compilation 1 of 17.
1980-12-00 Festive Fifty 50-32.mp3
John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part2 No's 31-20 128K.wma
John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part3 No's 19-01 128K.wma
John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part 1 No's 50-32 128K.wma
John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part 1 No's 50-32.mp3
The first and last of these are identical, and they are both 128kbps mp3s of John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part 1 No's 50-32 128K.wma . These three files actually comprise #50-36 (and John Peel Festive Fifty 1980 part2 No's 31-20 128K.wma includes #35-20.)
Finally, all 65 tracks are included in John Peel Torrent Compilation 2 of 17 as individual mp3s. However, only #40-8 & 6-1 are actual recordings from the shows; the others are the original tracks (unsurprisingly for #65-51!).
To my ear, the individual mp3s on Torrent Compilation 2 have the best sound quality, and, aside from #50-41 & 7, they include all the links featured on the other recordings, and reinstate some parts missed at the ends of tapes. Thus, through a combination of these recordings, it is possible to collect the entirety of this year's Festive Fifty. Please see the individual show pages for further detail.
