30 December 1981

Show

Name

• John Peel Show

Station

• BBC Radio One

YYYY-MM-DD

• 1981-12-30

Comments

• The last of five shows featuring the 1981 Festive Fifty chart.
• New Part 1 added to Part 2 to create most of the show, but with some in-tape edits losing about 11 minutes
• New share complete

Sessions

• Altered Images, #3 (repeat). Recorded 1981-09-04. No known commercial release.
• Vice Squad, #1 (repeat). Recorded 1981-06-01. First broadcast 03 June 1981

Coward / It's A Sell Out - released on (LP Riotous Assembly) Riot City Records

• Higsons, #2 (repeat). Recorded 1981-10-21. First broadcast 04 November 1981.

We Will Never Grow Old / Touchdown - released on (CD It's A Wonderful Life) Hux Records

• Twinkle Brothers, one and only session (repeat). Recorded 1981-09-23. No known commercial release.
• Pigbag, one and only session (repeat). Recorded 1981-09-09. No known commercial release.
• Fire Engines, #1 (repeat). Recorded 1981-02-23. First broadcast 09 March 1981

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing / Discord - released on (LP /CD Fond) in 1992.

Discord / Candy Skin - released on (Discord) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their first broadcast.

Tracklisting

• Tape starts with Claire Grogan's intro:
• (CG: "Hello, good evening and welcome. We're Altered Images and tonight on drums we have Titch... and on bass guitar, we have Johnny... And Donny Osmond lookalike Tinny on bass guitar... And there's Jim playing the other guitar and of course there's me and we all thought we'd just come down here tonight to sing you this sad old song, and it goes like this...")
• Altered Images: Song Sung Blue (Session)
• (JP: "Now can I do this without a sob in my voice. Altered Images and that's Song Sung Blue and let's hope that Tony Pullfield of Bridlington is listening this time. This is my last offering to you for 1981. We've got sessions from Vice Squad, The Twinkle Brothers, Pigbag, Fire Engines, The Higsons and Altered Images and we'll be returning to the Festive Fifty at 11:15. And curiously enough Song Sung Blue very nearly made the Festive Fifty actually, though not strictly speaking eligible for it. From the Higsons this is Where Have All The Club-A-Go-Gos Went Went.")
• Higsons: Where Have All The Club-A-Go-Gos Went Went (Session)
• (JP: 'Oh, I bet they're planning to have a cracker of a New Year's Eve. Those are the Higsons and Where Have All The Club-A-Go-Gos Went Went. And here's an addendum to the recent message from the motoring and travel unit as read out by Neil in his programme just a matter of minutes ago. This is for all of those people, and I'm sure there are a great number of them, who are listening to these programmes on the train. British Rail, Western Region, has also been obliged to stop services between Exeter and Taunton, and bus services between each of these places are replacing the normal rail services to and from the north, the Midlands, West Country services and Paddington. Obviously this means lengthy delays for all trains which normally use this track between Exeter and Taunton, and I would imagine again that that's melting snows. Such as have affected Peel Acres all day, actually floodwaters lapping around the house all day long. Vice Squad, it's A Sellout.')
• (JP: Told you. (After lead singer says It's A Sellout 0:01 into the session.)
• Vice Squad: It's A Sellout (session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: "Vice Squad and It's A Sellout. And among the many new year's festivities which I'm not going to be able to take part in is the Thurston New Year festival. It's probably not pronounced Thurston at all. Thurlestone, possibly. Then again these rural places tend to be pronounced like Sweden or something completely different to the way they spelt. But anyway, the first of January. It's in Devon, incidentally. Mrs Scottie Kayleigh's band, The Sextet, the Lizards, the Cream of Devon and more at the Village Inn in Thurlestone. I should like to be there, I must say. This is for Peter Tomlinson of Saltaire. How well I know their roundabout. And Bridget and Emma.")
• Twinkle Brothers: Rasta Pon Top (Session)
• (JP: 'Mr and Mrs Twinkle's little boys and that's Rasta Pon Top. And some tidings of comfort and joy for you. Your dispatch rider of the air is off tomorrow night. And instead you'll find Adrian Juste with four hours of non-stop New Year's Eve party music with the occasional gag and the chimes of Big Ben at midnight. That's Adrian Juste's Disco Show between 10 on New Year's Eve and 2 in the morning on Radio 1 medium wave and stereo VHF. The first from Pigbag for tonight. Me and Your Shadow.')
• Pigbag: Me And Your Shadow (Session) (tape flip mid song File 3)
• (edit File 3)
• (JP: 'That's Pigbag and Me and Your Shadow. Amongst the great number of very silly letters which I've received during this season of the year is one from Martin Langley, or possibly Longley, who wrotes writes from Shirley's Solihull in the West Midlands, and he says, On Sunday the 3rd of January at Birmingham's Star Club, the best club in the whole of Essex Street, that seminal Colorado trad ragamuffin band with the Noseflutes, with Gaza, prong, fidelio and snod on strings, will be playing a short selection of their songs. There'll be drinks and a disco, and the members of the band will be quite willing to discuss their problems with the audience after the show. I've tried that particular gambit myself, actually, Martin, it's never been terribly successful, but perhaps if you were younger and more attractive, almost certain to be. Also on the cards are 9.50 and Cowdown, along with the possible appearance by the 32-strong Winchester Male Voice Choir, who scrape chairs, among other things. Well, if it's true, it all sounds like an amusing entertainment, from the Fire Engines Candyskin.')
• Fire Engines: Candyskin (Session)
• (JP: "The Fire Engines of course and that's Candyskin and amongst the numerous festivities that I've been failing to mention over the past few months are those featuring the Notsensibles who advise me that they've been holding Bobby Charlton look-a-like competitions at their events. Which is, I think it's a very good idea actually, I would like to see more of that as well. From The Twinkle Brothers I'm Longing For You.")
• Twinkle Brothers: I'm Longing For You (Session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: "A moment of two of Soul Reggae there for you or is it Reggae Soul, I forget? The Twinkle Brothers and that’s I'm Longing For You. And Keith wrote to me from Fort William and asked me to play something for himself. It looked like Moag the other day but it doesn't seem possible but perhaps it is, Tommy and Bernie. Altered Images, Yellow And It Might.")
• Altered Images: Yellow And It Might (Session)
• (JP: "Altered Images and that one's called Yellow And It Might. And much as I though I enjoy doing these Festive Fifty programs and things. Well I don't enjoy them that much, 'cos they're a bit routine if you see what I mean. I mean I love the music and so on but all I have to do is play a bunch of sessions and then a bunch of records. But on Monday night when everything returns to something approaching normal, we've got sessions from Cornerstone and The Cure. And a lot of intriguing records which I've listened to over the Christmas period including some good european ones which you might have not heard before. From the Fire Engines this'll be Discord.")
• Fire Engines: Discord (Session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: "Discord. There's a lot of it about. And those are the Fire Engines and on the subject of The Cure who I mentioned earlier on in connection with the session on Monday night's programme, a letter from Katie who wrote to me from Tadcaster. I must admit. It was about a month ago now, which she said on 28th November 1981. I could require your help with this, you see. On the 28th November, I went along to Saint George's Hall, Bradford to see the Cure. Well, with them were two support bands, one board, a stiff with a series of monotonous screeching noises. Probably the kind of band that I like (laughs) and the other delighted some of us in quite an unbelievable manner. The thing is that I never quite caught the band's name, although it had something to do with trees. And anyway, with what it all boils down to is Katie wants to know who these people were, who were supporting the Cure in Bradford at Saint George's Hall on the 28th November. So if you were at the do or if you know who it was, I should be very, very grateful. If you write and tell me, then I'll pass the information on to Katie. (For those interested, the band Katie was trying to remember was And Also The Trees info courtesy of setlist.fm) There you are a public service. From Pigbag. You Can Wiggle Your Toe To That.")
• Pigbag: You Can Wiggle Your Toe To That (Session)
• (JP: "Those crazy Pigbag's and that's called You Can Wiggle My Toe To That. Incidentally after my brief appearance on Top Of The Pops last week, when I called the Human League - ' The Human Leagues', which was my idea of a small and rather pitiful joke, quite a few people have written in already saying 'they're not actually called ' The Human Leagues' at all'. This is something which I did know." )
• Altered Images: Little Brown Head (Session)
• (JP: 'Altered Images and Little Brown Head. And now a little something for a Greg Edwards of Southend and his chums, Tim, Matthew and Lyle. Lyle? Vice Squad.')
• Vice Squad: Coward (session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: "A Bateman/Bondage composition. Vice Squad and that's Coward.")
• Trailer for Elvis: The Radio Show hosted by Paul Gambaccini.
• (JP: ('And you young whipper snappers who weren't around when we first heard Elvis Presley simply cannot imagine the impact that he had on a world which fairly knew nothing of Rock 'N' Roll prior to that. An extraordinary thing. So, you ought to listen to that, I think. The Higsons and Touchdown.')
• Higsons: Touchdown (Session)
• Twinkle Brothers: Me No You (Session)
• (JP: 'Those were the Twinkle Brothers. Me No You. And before that The Higsons and Touchdown. And at Number 29 in the Festive Fifty which we heard a few days ago was Heaven 17 original We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing. Here's the Fire Engines version of the same thing.')
• Fire Engines: (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing (session) John thinks all sessions should contain a version of this song (not on File 3) File 4
• (JP: 'Those are the Fire Engines and perhaps in 1982 we should encourage all of the bands that record sessions for us to do a version of that. I'd like to see how it worked out. And then at the end of the year we get to vote an entire programme to different versions of We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing. From the Higsons, We Will Never Grow Old. That's what you think.')
• Higsons: We Will Never Grow Old (Session)
• Altered Images: Pinky Blue (Session)
• (JP: 'Altered Images and that one's called Pinky Blue. And before that the Higsons and We Will Never Grow Old. And today's been one of those days when I actually had access to a desk, and a telephone and a typewriter here at Radio One. And I was able to get some useful work done and made a number of phone calls which I should have made months ago and wrote a number of letters which again I should have written months ago. And one of the things which I discovered as I was going through my file of vital and important letters which must be dealt with immediately, some of which were about nine or ten months old I must confess was information about a Ferrets gig. Formerly the Performing Ferrets, you recall them. Proceeds to the Samaritans. And this takes place at Maidstone Mote Park Pavilion, Mote as in your eye rather than round the castle. Maidstone Mote Park Pavilion with Stark, The Dice Men and Appropriate Noise. And this happens this coming Saturday Maidstone Mote Park Pavilion. So from The Fire Engines, Untitled.')
• Fire Engines: Untitled (Session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: 'Untitled - The Fire Engines. Resentful at having been left out of the honours list yet again. Well, me too. Actually these days to be perfectly honest with you. I think you're better off out of it. The Twinkle Brothers and this is Never Get Burned.')
• Twinkle Brothers: Never Get Burned (Session) (not on File 3)
• (JP: 'Mind you, Sir John Peel has a nice ring to it but I think there are several of them already. Those are the Twinkle Brothers and Never Get Burned.')
• File 2 continues to end of show, with a few earlier snippets evident
• (JP: 'And now we return to the Festive Fifty. The moment you've all been waiting for. The top 10. Listener's choice of their top time favourite records. Let me remind you of the previous ten that we heard last night.')
• recap of 20-11
• File 1 begins

1981 Festive Fifty: Numbers 10-01

(JP 'And this is at Number 10 having been number 5 the year before that, having been number 3 in 1979 and 7 in 1978.')

• 10: Clash: '(White Man In) Hammersmith Palais (7 inch)' (CBS)

(JP: 'Don't forget, if you're one of the tens of people who'd like a copy of the Festive Fifty, if you send us a stamped addressed envelope, we'll send you one. Put a stamped addressed envelope in an envelope itself, of course, and write 'Sheena Easton' on it: that's what I invited you to write last year so that I could identify them from the other admiring letters that come from people all over the world, it must be said, into the programme. Write 'Sheena Easton' on your envelope: don't write it on the one that we've got to send back to you. That'd be pointless. And address the same to 'John Peel, BBC Radio One, London W1A 4WW': that would seem to get it. We'll send you a copy of the Festive Fifty, or more accurately, actually, the Festive Sixty. And if I have time, I'll give you 51-60 at the end of the programme, if I can catch you. (laughs.) At number 9 and this was- where was it last year? Number 6.')

• 09: Dead Kennedys: 'Holiday In Cambodia (7 inch)' (Alternative Tentacles)

(JP: "And what a pity it is that the Dead Kennedys don't make records as vigorous as that these days. That's Holiday In Cambodia which is number 9 in our Festive Fifty having been number 6 last year. And this is at number 8 having whizzed up from 18.")

• 08: Cure: 'A Forest (12 inch)' (Fiction)

(JP: "And that's Number 8 in the Festive Fifty. The Cure and A Forest. Are you getting excited, are you? Pretty tense, the palms sweating, that sort of thing? How disgusting. This has pounced up from Number 14.")

• 07: Joy Division: 'Decades (LP-Closer)' (Factory)

(JP: "That's Joy Division of course from the LP Closer and Decades which is Number 7 in the Festive Fifty up from 14. And this is Number 6. (naturally referring to the next track) It would be number one in any well-ordered chart, in other words, a chart put together by me.")

• 06: Undertones: 'Teenage Kicks (EP-Teenage Kicks)' (Good Vibrations)

(JP: "As close as anyone has come, in my view, to making the perfect single. The Undertones and that's Teenage Kicks, of course. Number 6 in the Festive Fifty. 7 last year, 2 in 1979 and number 10 in 1978.' 'This next is up from number 20 and by a very horrible irony indeed, most of the votes that I had from Poland, and there were about five or six of them, were for this. New Dawn Fades.') (This page contains background relating to John's comment on the contemporary political situation in that country.)

• 05: Joy Division: 'New Dawn Fades (LP-Unknown Pleasures)' (Factory)

(JP: 'That's number 5, New Dawn Fades from Joy Division from the LP, Unknown Pleasures and at number 4, the highest new entry for this year.')

• 04: New Order: 'Ceremony (7 inch)' (Factory)

(JP: "That's Number 4 and a new entry to the Festive Fifty. New Order and Ceremony. The B-side of that, incidentally, In A Lonely Place, was number 54, my old locker number at school. I'm sure you remember that. Holding its own at Number three.")

• 03: Joy Division: 'Love Will Tear Us Apart (7 inch)' (Factory)

(JP: "And Joy Division again at Number three, Love Will Tear Us Apart and if you were listening to Neil's programme earlier on, I emphasised there that the voting for the first two had been immensely close. I mean, two or three votes more for the second one would have made it number one, if you see what I mean. We'll get to that in just a second." (He then lists numbers 51-60, a record of which can be found on this page). But to the top two, this is number two.')

• 02: Sex Pistols: 'Anarchy In The U.K. (presumably from LP-Never Mind The Bollocks)' (Virgin)

(JP: "Number one for the last three years, and number two this. End of an era, or what? I don't know. The Sex Pistols and Anarchy In The UK, of course and that leaves as the new Number one in our Festive Fifty...')

• 01: Joy Division: 'Atmosphere (7 inch)' (Factory)

(JP: 'Six from Joy Division in the top 14 and that's Number one. (Pickin' The Blues plays) Atmosphere.and the end of this year's Festive Fifty. Let me remind you that I won't be here tomorrow night but Adrian Juste will with four hours of non-stop New Year's Eve party music and the occasional gag. TTT through to two. Ha. I'll be back on Monday night though with sessions from Cornerstone and The Cure. (Pause.) I hope you have a rousing new year's eve if that's what you're after. Now Radio 1 transmitters are closing down until 5 O' clock tomorrow morning where we'll be joining Radio 2 until 7 O' clock and then Mike Read will be along with the Breakfast show. Thanks for listening and good night.)

File

Name

• 1) Part 2: (a) John Peel Festive Fifty 1981 Part 5.m4a
• 2) Part 2: (b) JP19811230.mp3
• 3) Parts 1 & 2: John Peel Show (1981_12_30).mp3
• 4) 1981-12-30 Peel Show L584.mp3
• 5) John Peel 30 Dec 1981 complete.mp3

Length

• 1) Part 2: 0:45:02
• 2) Part 2: 0:54:25 (to 47:23)
• 3) Parts 1 & 2: 1:43:31
• 4) 0:03:45
• 5) 1:59:03

Other

• 3) Very good stereo 320 kbps, some FM background noise.
• 4) Created from L583 of SL Tapes, digitised by SB
• 5) Many thanks to Tim for acquisition and digitisation

Available

• 1) Originally on John Peel Torrent Compilation 1 Of 17 (Festive Fifties 1992-2004 Plus Others)
• 2) Part 2: [1]
• 3) Part 1 & 2: Mooo
• 4) Mooo
• 5) Mooo