Right Time, Wrong Speed

"Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?
Everytime she walks down the street
Another girl in the neighbourhood
Wish she was mine, she looks so good"

Today is the two year anniversary of the untimely passing of John Peel. Everyone knows that he DJed on Radio 1 for over 35 years, was the first British DJ to play reggae & punk, and consistently championed cutting edge music until the day he died.

But did you know?:

01. His real name was John Robert Parker Ravenscroft.

02. He was one of the original DJs on BBC Radio 1 in 1967 and the only one still on air at the time of his death in October 2004.

03. His housemaster at Shrewsbury School once wrote:
"Perhaps it's possible that John can form some kind of nightmarish career out of his enthusiasm for unlistenable records and his delight in writing long and facetious essays."

04. He began working for a radio station in Dallas in 1961 and when Beatlemania struck the US he got a job as an official Beatles correspondent since he was from Burton, near Liverpool.

05. After JFK was shot, he passed himself off as a reporter for the Liverpool Echo in order to attend the arraignment of Lee Harvey Oswald and can be seen in the background of several photos taken in the police station.

06. His first program was called The Perfumed Garden which he hosted from 12am - 2am while working on the pirate station Radio London in 1967. This program is also when he first began using the name John Peel as suggested by his secretary.

07. In 1976 he was the first DJ to play Bob Dylan's album Desire despite the fact that Capital Radio had struck a deal with CBS to be the first. He played the album in full with a reggae song in between sides while he turned the record over.

08. He was renowned for playing records at the wrong speed (sometimes intentionally) and leaving very long gaps between songs on air when he became distracted by something else in the studio.

09. John was a regular presenter of Top Of The Pops between 1982 - 1987 and was noted for his caustic remarks. Once after playing the George Michael & Aretha Franklin song "I Knew You Were Waiting" he said "You know, Aretha Franklin can make any old rubbish sound good, and I think she just has."

10. He was named DJ of the year 11 times by Melody Maker.

11. In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. Peel was voted 43rd.

12. He once auctioned a kidney stone for charity minutes after passing it while DJing at a student party.

13. In 1990 he appeared on the BBC Radio program Desert Island Discs. He chose songs by Roy Orbison, The Fall, Rachmaninoff & of course 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones (his favourite record of all-time).

14. He had a box of 142 singles that he claimed he would have carried away if his house was on fire. Of all the songs that he chose on Desert Island Discs, only Teenage Kicks was said to be in that box.

15. You can read more about him and listen to some of his broadcasts on the Radio 1 website.

RIP John