Sessions That Never Happened

See also: Peel Sessions: The Lost Opportunities

Background

• The kudos of having done a Peel session is in some cases surpassed by the grey area of sessions that never even made it into the studio. There are varied reasons why this happened, but for the purposes of this article they can be broadly sub-categorised into three areas. 'Couldn't' attempts to explore why it was physically impossible for some acts to appear; 'Wouldn't' notes those who simply refused to record; and 'Didn't' aims to lay to rest several myths surrounding sessions that were widely believed to have happened, but are no more than urban legends.

Couldn't

• Many American bands, such as the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, were never booked for studio time due to the difficulty presented by the Ministry Of Labour rules on work permits, which stipulated that 'only musicians from countries whose radio stations offered reciprocal bookings for British acts could play at the BBC. As few American radio stations broadcast live sessions, no American bands could be recorded.; the two sessions by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band were only made possible by Bernie Andrews describing them as a troupe of magicians. The exception to this dictum was that solo artists could do sessions if backed by British musicians.
• According to Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions book (page 74), in 1971, the 'free improvisation' session was planned. John Walters wanted to get various musicians to improvise over a backing tape, originally to be a Doris Day record. But what he really needed was someone with no experience of playing an instrument: 'Chimpanzee!' he thought. He was just going to get just one, but he could only find two, Bugsy and Rosie (internet sources have mentioned Jinxsy instead of Rosie [2]), who worked as a double act. He recorded them bashing the piano. The plan then was for Robert Wyatt to play drums, Mike Ratledge keyboards, Peel and Pig jew's harp, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono also agreed to take part. But then Lennon went to America and didn't come back. The session never happened. Peel kept a postcard: 'Hang onto the chimps! - John,' it said. 'A couple of years later, I read in the paper that the chimps had escaped into a school playground, police marksmen had been called, and they were shot,' said Walters.
• The jazz acts that John admired, including Tony Bennett, were also stymied by a variety of stumbling blocks. The organist Jimmy Smith's financial demands would, allegedly, have taken up the budget for six months ; a request to feature Sonny Rollins ran into 'a wall of lawyers' in New York , although Peel felt that he would have done it given the chance; and Ornette Coleman simply wasn't in the country for long enough for one to be arranged. This last was also an explanation for the Radicts' non-appearance on the show.
• Although Louise Kattenhorn honoured the bookings already made to bands before John's death in 2004, this remit apparently did not extend to the live performances from Peel Acres: John alluded to Jawbone's live set due at the end of November that year, which was inevitably cancelled. This made Nina Nastasia the last artist to do such a live session.
• Peel mentioned on his 26 January 1988 show he will have Sindecut to do a session for his programme, but it turns out this never happened.
• On his 05 January 1992 show, Peel mentioned he hoped to get Calamity Jane in for a session when they come to the UK in March. This never happened.
• Peaceville label band Hellbastard reportedly failed to record a Peel session only because singer/guitarist Scruff couldn't afford a phone.[3]

Wouldn't

• It seems hard to believe that any artist would have turned down the opportunity to appear on Kat's Karavan, but several high profile artists who were regularly featured on the show did so. Badly Drawn Boy was booked to appear on more than one occasion, but cancelled every one, as did Joni Mitchell, who 'was booked for several other R1 sessions during tours in 68 & 69, but all were cancelled, for various reasons,' despite the fact that one had already been TX in 1968. It is likely that this had more to do with pressure from artists' managers or major record companies, who no doubt felt that their acts no longer needed this kind of exposure and consequently demanded excessive fees to make their signings available. PJ Harvey and Mogwai were advised by their PRs (as JP claimed) not to do recordings, and this may well be the reason why Harvey in particular did no recordings for John for nearly three years. Songs: Ohia very nearly recorded a session, but the reasons why it failed to happen are shrouded in mystery (John suggested incompetence by the band or their management).
• It is this notion of an image being somehow corrupted by an appearance that probably led to Margaret Thatcher turning down an offer after John had been fascinated by her recording of 'Ode To Democracy.'
• Nick Drake, after doing two BBC sessions, the first for Peel's "son of Night Ride" show in August 1969, was booked for a third session, but never showed up. In the relevant BBC artist file, the singer was described as "Unreliable - Did not appear for recording on 28/03/72 - has a habit of disappearing without trace."[4]. Elsewhere, Anthea Joseph, who worked for Joe Boyd's mamagement company Witchseason Productions, described a session Nick Drake recorded while JP and Bernie Andrews were present, but the chronology of her account is confusing.[5]
• John noted on 11 December 2001, in response to a listener query as to why so few Jamaican acts were booked, that reggae acts were notoriously bad at actually fulfilling the bookings that had been made, citing the case of Sugar Minott who missed three bookings for no apparent reason. Although Culture had already recorded two in the 1980s, they appear to have missed one at the end of 1993 [6], and did not return to the studio for another nine years. In addition, the 'Jah Messenger' Luciano was booked to do a session, but pulled out 48 hours beforehand as he had to do a gig (although as Peel pointed out, the audience a session broadcast would have brought him far outweighed such an engagement. He went on to note the costs incurred in not completing the recordings). Rootsman were stated to be due for transmission, but there is no record of this happening.
• Sometimes, the acts did not appear and gave excuses which still beggar belief. American death metal band Nile's non-appearance was said to be because the BBC were unable to guarantee parking space for their tour bus. The Trashwomen were rather too honest when they stated that, since they were performing in London for only a short time, they preferred to go shopping instead.
• According to the 808 State official website [7], the band was close to having a session with Peel's show. Graham Massey of the band, mentioned the group wanted to do the session in Manchester in their own home studio rather than the BBC's choice at Maida Vale in London.

Didn't

• Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions contains a list of artists 'Who Despite What You Might Have Heard Never Did A Peel Session' (p. 272). It seems clear that the Sex Pistols omission was due to John Walters. He regarded this as one of the great lost opportunities to capture a moment in time. Sheila says:

Different stories abound as to why the Sex Pistols never recorded a session for the programme. Walters blamed himself; he felt guilty about imposing on the unsuspecting BBC engineers a band that raucous. John thought that the Pistols had turned down the offer. Whatever the reason, they got away.

• Nevertheless, it is worth noting that all original members of the Pistols subsequently appeared in the programme in session recordings: John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten (PiL); Steve Jones & Paul Cook (Professionals); and Glen Matlock (Rich Kids and Jimmy Norton's Explosion).
• JP did recall turning down U2, Dire Straits and Oasis. although he claimed to have been rejected by the Beatles and Rolling Stones
• The urban legends sometimes came from no other source than Peel's own show. The Flying Cream Shots never recorded a session for the programme due to the simple fact that they did not exist - it was a long-running practical joke of John's. Similarly,"Eddie Lee Beppeaux", who was referred to during the early 1970s period as being a sideman on various sessions or due to be in session himself, was a name invented by the DJ (see Glossary) 
• On his 14 August 1990 show, Peel recalled begging Jane Bond & The Undercovermen to record special tracks to broadcast as sessions, but this never happened.
• John sometimes pondered aloud on acts he wanted to hear on the show. For example, he wanted to broadcast Tom Jones' Glastonbury Festival appearance as a session, but this did not come about . Had he done so, it could not have counted as a session anyway according to Ken Garner's criteria, since it was not recorded specifically with Peel and the show's audience in mind. After JP met Humphrey Lyttleton at the Sony Awards, he pondered the idea of a session. Quite why the Velvet Underground never entered the studios when they were touring England in 1993, however, is a mystery, since JP went to great lengths to contact them but they never replied. A Sub Pop session recording compilation was to have featured a specially recorded set with Soundgarden, but they pulled out of it. [8]
• Probably the most fantastical recording he ever dreamed up was after hearing reports in the last year of his life that scientists discovered that the Earth actually made an extremely low continuous sound: whimsically, he mooted the idea of getting the Earth in for a session.

Footnotes