"This is music loving John Peel, exclusively for the Virgin Stores".
John recorded these one hour shows to be played inside Virgin record shops. Starting in October 1979, there were at least ten shows sent to the shops on cassette every couple of weeks.
Here is a bit of background information from Peter Stone...
"OK, so this is what I can remember... Back in the '70s we were doing a lot of advertising for the Virgin stores on commercial radio stations such as Capital Radio in London. In those days it was common for those stations to have a rock programme in the evenings. On Capital that was the Nicky Horne show and that's where we ran the adverts in London. John Peel lived in the countryside and came into London once a week. We came to an agreement with him that when in London each week he'd record an advert for us. The recording was supervised by Ian ('Mac') McTavish (who I knew from his time as marketing manager at Polydor Records) and his wife Susan and they went under the name Commercial Breaks. That was when singles from indie record labels were selling in big quantities in the Virgin stores. So we suggested to John that he record a radio show that could be played in the stores, which we sent out to the stores on cassette. We gave John complete freedom to include whatever music he chose, knowing we'd probably have everything in stock. I think 290 Ladbroke Grove was Ian and Susan's home address. They later moved their office to Wardour Street."
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