JOHN PEEL: 1939 - 2004

From about 1985, until his death in 2004, I listened to 'Dr. Excitement' or to use his better known name: John Peel.

I loved his sense of humour ("I can't turn water into wine, but I can certainly turn Red wine into piss" was a favourite of mine) and his warm Liverpudlian accent. He never lost touch with his roots - he was a lifelong supporter of Liverpool Football Club.

For me John was a kindred spirit and he had many devoted listeners to his programmes not only on BBC Radio 1 but also on BBC World Service, Radio Eins (Germany) and latterly on BBC Radio 4, where he presented a weekly lifestyle programme dealing with primarily family foibles and it was called 'Home Truths'.

But it was his music shows that really impressed me: JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, THE FALL, BHUNDU BOYS, MUDDY WATERS, SAM "LIGHTNIN' " HOPKINS, THE SMITHS, RONNIE RONALDE, LONNIE DONEGAN, DICK DALE, THE RUTS, HEFNER, WHITE STRIPES and THE UNDERTONES (whose song 'Teenage Kicks' was his favourite tune of all time). He was responsible for championing possibly thousands of bands and solo artists and some of these people's careers sky-rocketed as a result of his support (MARC BOLAN/T REX, DAVID BOWIE, ROD STEWART, ELTON JOHN to name but a handful).

Peely's impact on the music world was profound and his programmes were a fantastic repository for music fans who had little or no time for the mainstream. It is often said that John was ahead of the pack when discovering new musical trends and everyone followed the great man. Indeed Hip Hop DJ Tim Westwood was still at school when Peel was playing the first wave of classic Hip Hop sounds in the early 1980's.

It is quite likely that my Vinyl, Audio Tape and CD collection would be less than half its size if I hadn't come across his programmes, first on my battered little red transistor on Medium Wave in the mid eighties and later through the pipe on crystal clear FM, beamed in from London.

Towards the end of his life John had been diagnosed with Diabetes and had put on a lot of weight. I can recall an amusing (as ever) interview he gave to 'The Independent' newspaper in the summer of 2004, where he joked about giving himself injections in public with Insulin and people thinking he was a drug addict.

That a man broadcasting from a foreign country many miles away could give me so much pleasure over the years was uncanny and I shall never ever forget the irreplaceable JOHN ROBERT PARKER RAVENSCROFT.

His memory shall stay with me till the day I die.