John Peel Wiki

Changes to the look of John Peel Wiki will take place in the near future due to a new skin being rolled out over Oct/Nov across Wikia. Please see the Wikia Staff Blog for further details. On this site, the changes will affect the navigation from the left menu, as well as introduce a fixed page width with narrower content space. Please be patient while adjustments are made for the switch to the new system.

UPDATE: As the change is now in force for some users, I have switched the navigation to the simplified one for the new system. Please check Navigation in the Help section if you can't find things. I also initially made small adjustments to the front page layout, but have now reverted to the old look until all users are on the new system.

COUNTDOWN: Just a reminder for people still using Monaco that the final switch to the new skin is due on Nov. 3. After that, it will no longer be offered as an option. Sorry. Nothing to do with me.

Steve W

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John Peel Wiki
TheGoodies

The Goodies was a BBC TV comedy series that ran from 1970 to 1980 (later transferring to ITV for one series in 1981). It starred Bill Oddie (born 1941), Graeme Garden (born 1943) and Tim Brooke-Taylor (1940-2020). The three actors met each other as undergraduates at Cambridge University, where Brooke-Taylor was studying law, Garden was studying medicine, and Oddie was studying English. Their contemporaries included Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle, who later became members of Monty Python, and with whom they became close friends. Brooke-Taylor and Cleese studied together and swapped lecture notes as they were both law students, but at different colleges within the university. All three Goodies became members of the Cambridge University Footlights Club, with Brooke-Taylor becoming president in 1963, and Garden succeeding him as president in 1964.

Links To Peel[]

In the episode 'Superstar', first broadcast on 7th July 1973, John Peel made a cameo, impersonating fellow Radio One DJ Jimmy Savile. Peel was later a target for the Goodies in later episodes, like in "Daylight Robbery On The Orient Express", where he "bored for Britain", and in "Punky Business" where he was supposedly a blindfolded member of the Trendsetters Ball judging panel.

On 10 December 1983 (BFBS) John relates hearing Bill Oddie reviewing the Vauxhall Nova, and bemoaning the lack of a cassette player, so he had to listen to the John Peel show, and wondering how an intelligent man could play such rubbish. John simply points the listeners to the Funky Gibbon....

John_Peel_-_The_Goodies

John Peel - The Goodies

In October 1996, Peel told an anecdote about two of The Goodies, back in the day, trying to start a fight with him because he gave their 'Funky Gibbon' single a bad review in a music paper. That paper was Sounds, published on 26th April 1975, where Peel described it as "Seconded. 1973 vintage Goodies and quite dreadful." The Goodies later denied the allegation. In a questionnaire, Garden was asked "What's the most ludicrous piece of gossip you've read about yourself?" He replied "hang on, I'll find the book...it's from the Guinness Book of Classic British TV: "John Peel had given one of the Goodies' singles a slagging in a music magazine. He was beaten up by the group in the Marquee club in London. Peel commented dryly that he wouldn't have minded if it had been someone fashionable."

Bill_Oddie_-_Ilkley_Moor_Baht_At

Bill Oddie - Ilkley Moor Baht At

Bill Oddie was also a recording artist for Peel's Dandelion label, where he recorded the Yorkshire folk tune 'On Ilkla Moor Baht' to the tune of Joe Cocker's version of 'With A Little Help From My Friends', it was produced by Peel. After he died, it was discovered to be one of the singles found in John Peel's Record Box. The Independent said of this in 2005:

"The late, lamented John Peel may have been famed for his love of both obscure Japanese thrash metal and punk standards like the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks", but among his most treasured records of all time is one particularly odd piece of vinyl. It is a recording of Bill Oddie, now the nation's favourite twitcher, singing the Yorkshire folk song, "On Ilkley Moor Bah 'Tat" in the raucous style of Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help From My Friends". Peel kept it in a battered box alongside more than 100 other favourites by artists as varied as Status Quo and the White Stripes. The novelty album was released on Peel's own short-lived Dandelion record label in 1970 with Oddie backed by Cocker's legendary Grease Band. [1] It was, say Peel's friends, simply typical of the man's eclectic tastes."

Oddie himself contributed to John Peel's Record Box and was surprised to find the single there. He had, like John Cleese of Monty Python, been a cast member of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and had taken the opportunity on that show to lampoon John's presenting style.

Shows Played[]

Bill Oddie

See Also[]

External Links[]

Footnotes
  1. Though Peel claimed in 1996 it was Mott The Hoople backing Oddie.