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John Peel Wiki

Show[]

Name
Station
YYYY-MM-DD
  • 1995-12-29
Comments
  • The first of the two-part 1995 Festive Fifty, recorded at Peel Acres.
  • Start of show: "Thanks very much, Pete (Tong). This programme comes to you live from Peel Acres in the heart of the East Anglian badlands."
  • John thinks his musical reference to the Six-Five Special will mean nothing to anybody younger than 45: this is what he is talking about.
  • Track listing completed with reference to Lorcan's Home Page: many thanks to him.
  • John's daughter Flossie reads out the numbers from 36 to 33 and then absents herself.

Sessions[]

  • None

Tracklisting[]

(JP: 'This is Big Eye. A track from their LP called The Hidden Core. I was going to play you a different track, actually, and then just before the programme started, I listened to it again and there was a rude word in it, and not at all a Christmassy word either. And that's called Beelzebub, itself not a terrifically Christmassy concept. It must be said. Big Eye on Hydrogen Dukebox Records. Big Eye come from Luton and Chuck come from Reading.')
(JP: 'That is such a great record. Why don't I hear it coming out of my radio day and night? That's Chuck on Fire Records, 7-inch single. As I say which is called Deep. Don't forget this is the first night of the Festive Fifty and in about - well, a few minutes before 11. I think it will start and carry you through to Number 27, which will be just before 1:00. And Westwood of course. And then I'll start again tomorrow afternoon between 5 and 7, right here on Radio 1 with Number 26 working our way up thrillingly to Number 1. The Royal Kushite Philharmonic Orchestra.')
(JP: 'Another track from the compilation - from Roots Music. The LP is called Foundation Of Roots In Dub Vol. 1 and that was the Royal Kushite Philharmonic Orchestra and the track was called Omo. This programme coming to you from Peel Acres albeit a decidedly post-Christmas Peel Acres. I keep hoping that a child will appear in the studio here and say, "Hey Dad, how about a bit of trifle or a glass of wine?" Actually, I couldn't eat any trifle in a million years, but a glass of wine would go down nicely, but I don't think it's going to happen. This is Chug.')
  • Chug: 'Golden Mile (CD-Sassafras)' (Flying Nun) %5
(JP: 'From New Zealand on Flying Nun Records. That's Chug. It was a single that I played to you from the LP - Sassafras. And that's called Golden Mile. I have a kind of dim memory that back in the 1950s at some stage, I owned an LP which was a stereo testing LP by Billy Mure, and it featured guitars and jetplanes mixed together, rather excitingly, and probably worth a great deal of money now, but alas, I no longer have a copy of it. But there is a Billy Mure track on the LP on Asphodel Records researched Incredibly Strange Music Volume II. And this is it.')
(JP: 'Humblingly stuff. That's Billy Mure from the LP - Incredibly Strange Music Vol. II with Chopsticks Guitar and this is Madame Dubois on React Records.')

1995 Festive Fifty: Numbers 50-27[]

(JP: The moment you've all been wanting for. Another one of those great radio cliches. The Festive Fifty. And I have to say that the number 50 record caused me a great deal of anxiety, because I knew I'd got it, and it was much requested at the time that I played it earlier in the year, but could I find it in the chaos of Peel Acres? I could not, until a couple days ago. This is Number 50.')
(JP: 'Never did manage to find out very much about that. That's Number 50. Safe Deposit and You Can't and this is at Number 49.')
(JP: 'No strangers to the Festive Fifty. Well, you've got to say something, haven't you? At 49 from the LP Cerebral Caustic. That of course is The Fall and The Joke. And this is at Number 48.')
(JP: 'Top quality stuff. That's Dreadzone, of course. Number 48 in the Festive Fifty from the LP Second Light. A bit of a peek of a another track as well of course. Life, Love And Unity. And it's always difficult to know which mix to play on these occasions, whether you ought to seek out some obscure mix which was only available on the B side of a 12 inch in Norway, or something like that, but we've stuck by and large...well, we haven't always, but on this particular occasion, we've stuck with the LP version. Life, Love And Unity. Dreadzone at Number 48 and this is your all-important number 47.')
(JP: 'One looks forward to hearing a great deal more from them in 1996. That's Bis, of course. School Disco at Number 47 in the Festive Fifty and this is at number 46, as I mentioned earlier on, one of the heroes of the year, as far as this programme's concerned.')
(JP: 'Ends very suddenly. That's Dave Clarke, of course and Red Three -Storm at Number 46 in the Festive Fifty. And I think one of the musical highlights of the entire year was the Camden Live Event which we brought you with Dave Clarke working live along with Zion Train and Solar Race, a considerable treat.
This is The Festive Fifty coming to you on Radio 1. Well, from Peel Acres: a rather abandoned Peel Acres as it is at the moment, because our Flossie and William just drove out for some reason I think to see if the chip shop was still open and frankly I hope it is.


And at number 45, one of several records that crops up each year in the Festive Fifty which have never been featured as far as I can remember in the programme itself. Nothing wrong with that at all, as long as it doesn't happen too often, I suppose, otherwise it makes me look a bit of a fool, to be honest. Right. This is Number 45.')
(JP: 'Well, time to go away. Go over straight away to our immediate self-correction department, because I found a press release in the record which reads thus: "Vow is Garbage's first single. It was featured on CD Magazine Volume in December 94, and was picked up by John Peel and Steve Lamacq at Radio 1. This prompted a release on March 20 on newly-formed indie label Discordant", so I was wrong about that. 10 December 1994 Right. Number 45 in the Festive Fifty, though no doubt about that. That's Garbage and Vow.
And here's the number 44 record, which I suspect if it had been released a little earlier in the year would have come a great deal higher but I had to choose between the 12 inch and the 7 inch version. I opted for the 7 inch.')
(JP: 'One of the best Festive Fifties in quite a while, this, I reckon.
At number 37, a track that's live...I mean, really live!')
(JP: 'Flossie's joined me so that she can read out the numbers.')
(JP: 'You may recall the last time that Polly Jean did a session for the programme a couple of years ago, she said, "Any time you want a session, or for us to come into the studio and play live, just give us a ring." We have tried to do that, but unfortunately of course, we've not been able to get past her management, so I understand it, but we'll keep working at it anyway and hope that we can.')
(JP: 'Never been entirely sure whether Stereolab counted as Britpop. I suspect that they probably don't: they just count as good in my book.')
(JP: 'Our Flossie's gone off again, and says she'll do the numbers when we get to the Top 10. That says an awful lot, I think, about today's young people: I don't know what you think. Probably being one of them, you wouldn't agree.')
(JP: 'Not one of my favourite Fall tracks, it must be said, but obviously one of yours, and this is your Festive Fifty and not mine.')
(JP: 'First heard in session on this programme: you've got to do some unpleasant bragging from time to time.')
(JP: 'There's some dispute over which year that it originally came out on record, it's been out so many times and in so many different forms, but this, the version that was definitely released last year but recorded for our programme in 1991, so certainly eligible on that score.')
(JP: 'Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again, 'A Different Class' would have been perceived I think as a great LP whatever time it had been released in the last thirty years....There may be more tracks from this LP, more tracks by Pulp in the remainder of the Festive Fifty, but you'll have to wait until this afternoon, between 5 and 7, to discover that.')
  • DJ Trace: 'By Any Means Necessary (12 inch)' (Dee Jay Recordings) #

Tracks marked # also available on File d and % on file e

File[]

Name
  • a) Peel Show 1995-12-29 parts one & two
  • b) ff95.1.1 & 2, ff95.2.1
  • c) John Peel Show 29Dec95 Parts 1 to 5
  • d) Dat_099_JP-MIX_BBCR1-.mp3
  • e) 1995-12-xx-1996-01-xx Peel Show UC110.mp3
Length
  • a) 00:46:25, 00:46:27
  • b) 00:47:03, 00:46:27, 00:50:00 (to 00:22:05)
  • c) 00:39:34, 00:33:43, 00:38:55, 00:34:40, 00:29:09
  • d) 04:05:03 (02:32:35 to 03:46:26)
  • e) 1:29:50 (42:02-52:56, 1:03:05-1:13:28)
Other
  • a) Excellent VBR quality: ends in the middle of number 31.
  • b) Excellent quality at 256 kbps. Starts at Festive 50, though and misses Peel's introduction to number 50. Show recording ends at 00:22:05 of third file.
  • c) 192 kbps. Complete show. Many thanks to Peel Mailing List user mr_maudlin.
  • d) Many thanks to Max-dat. Dat 099
  • e) Created from UC110 of the UC Tapes, digitised by Weatherman22. UC Tape 110 December 1995 January 1996
Available
Footnotes
  1. From session #8, recorded live on-air in the studio on 13 October 1995. %1
  2. Album credited to 'Charles Long & Stereolab'. The track actually played was a version of "The Extension Trip" from Melody Maker's "Reading Present" cassette, which was mislabelled as "Pop Quiz". Peel later admitted that he'd once played the wrong track on a Festive Fifty countdown but only one person had pointed it out - he didn't name the track, but it was probably this one.
  3. This session was recorded and broadcast in 1994, and a track from it had already featured in that year's Festive Fifty. Moreover, it had been given an official release on 'A Different Class' by this time, so John's reasons for using this version are mystifying.