Mixmaster Morris shared these experiences of John Peel with Hectic, “I grew up on John Peels reggae collection in the mid ’70s”. To expand, “Discovering John Peel in the 1970s was a revelation, opening up all kinds of music outside of the mainstream. John influenced my life (and so many others) in countless ways; in particular he showed how much difference one individual could make.

“When John died I organised a Tribute night and last month we did another one for the anniversary. It was great to have an excuse to play stuff from my huge collection of 70s and 80s indie music, much of which seldom gets an airing.

Thousands of bands who would never have got through the door of a major label got a whiff of oxygen that would propel them into the pages of Sounds, NME, Melody Maker etc. So he personified Alternative music in the 70s and 80s

“I started listening to Peel in 1975 when his show was very folky but it got a lot louder and more interesting in 1976 with all the early US acts that really pre-empted Punk (Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, Suicide, the New York Dolls, Television, Richard Hell, Devo, Talking Heads). When UK labels like Stiff, Rough Trade, Factory, Postcard, Creation, Fast Product, 2 Tone, Y records etc started, he backed them all the way, and even played bedroom labels. He would give weird acts from God knows where studio time, and many bands of the time never managed to make records as good as their Peel Sessions.

“Thousands of bands who would never have got through the door of a major label got a whiff of oxygen that would propel them into the pages of Sounds, NME, Melody Maker etc. So he personified Alternative music in the 70s and 80s.

“He would also play truly ‘outside’ people like Ivor Cutler and Vivian Stanshall, Captain Beefheart and Faust, Wild Man Fischer and The Shaggs. He was the only person playing Reggae on Radio 1 and the first to play Hip Hop and Electro too. A searching eclecticism that a certain TV-advertised compilation seems to ignore.

“When I started DJing (1980), I played at college gigs between bands and anything on Peel’s show that week was a guaranteed floorfiller. I started writing for fanzines and then onto the NME in 1988. Still fixated on Peel I was determined to support independent labels, after all it was they and not the majors who initiated hip hop, house and techno music. At NME I covered a myriad of independent labels like Warp, Nugroove, Apollo, R&S, Transmat, Planet E, Exist Dance and then I moved onto Mixmag where they amazingly allowed me to write about Orbital, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Global Communication, Black Dog, Plaid, Herbert, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Orb, Carl Craig, Drexciya, UR, Coldcut, Negativland, System 7, Scanner, Tortoise, Jazzanova and a host of others who became alternative favs in the mid ’90s. With a weekly show on Kiss on top, I really had achieved all my ambitions to become the John Peel of electronica and create a garden where something tasty might grow. Of course, none of this was likely to endear me to the Major Labels.

“Although I had spoken to John on the phone, I didn’t spend time with him until I started playing at Festivals. I would always run into him at Glastonbury and we’d go off to catch some Bulgarian Gypsy band or something, eschewing the main stage. For a few years I played on Stage 2 all day and one year I started with ‘Fisherman’ by The Congos (which I know was one of John’s favourite tracks). Halfway through the tune I felt a big bear hug from behind and when I turned round it was Peelie, naked except for a towel. He’d run out of the shower onto the stage to find out who was playing it! Later on he paid me the supreme honour of carrying my record box all the way to the Green Field. I bet not many DJs can say that!”

Links
Big Chill Bar, Dray Walk off Brick Lane, London E1 6QL www.bigchill.net Big Chill Festival, 4-6 August, 2006 [Tickets on Sale Now!]
Keeping it John Peel
Samurai FM - Mixmaster Morris
Mixmaster Morris - http://mixmastermorris.tribe.net & www.southern.com/MMM