Peel's Pleasures was a series which ran from 8 August 1981 to 12 September 1981 and from 10 July 1982 to 14 August 1982 on Radio One. It replaced John Walters' Walters' Weekly magazine programme during the summer period, in the Saturday afternoon slot from 4-5 p.m.. Described in Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions" as "featuring favourite eccentric records, radio clips and session repeats", the material chosen is often in sharp contrast to Peel's regular evening playlists of the time.
The August 1982 programmes feature pieces written by the English composers Thomas Ravenscroft and John Ravenscroft, who may possibly be ancestors of the John Ravenscroft who introduces them.
The playlists below come from the collection of Peel Mailing List member grang354. Further details of the 1981 shows would be welcome.
Series 1[]
08 August 1981[]
Peel disclaims responsibility for the programme title. The playlist includes the 1929 recording of "Cairo Blues" by Henry Spaulding - reissued in the late 1960s on a Yazoo Records compilation LP ("St. Louis Town 1927-1933"), and a Peel favourite from the Night Ride era.
15 August 1981[]
No playlist details.
22 August 1981[]
Playlist includes classic 1930s BBC live recording of drunken announcer Thomas Woodroffe at naval review, "The Fleet's Lit Up". 21 minutes of this show are available (22 August 1981).
29 August 1981[]
Playlist includes:
- Fairport Convention: Sir Patrick Spens (from 1969 Top Gear session)
- Son House: Death Letter Blues (from 1970 Top Gear session)
05 September 1981[]
Playlist includes:
- Forest: Graveyard ("the only band who lived with, and off, myself and the Pig that I actually liked") (LP: Full Circle, Harvest)
- John Fahey: The Last Steam Engine Train (LP: The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favourites, Takoma)
12 September 1981[]
- Faces session
Series 2[]
This series was repeated on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. As more substantial tracklisting details are available for the 1982 shows, separate pages have been opened for the six shows, which were first broadcast on the following dates:
Availability[]
- If you have tapes of the shows and would like to share them more widely, please contact the Peel Mailing List, where you will be welcomed with open arms.
- In addition to those noted above, a small snippet of an unknown 1981 episode is available on JS47