Peel's Planet, Mūzikas Saule (Toms Grēviņš, Radio SWH)
This article is dedicated to the memory of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who passed away at the end of last year. In his more than 40 years in radio, John Peel was an authority both to young musicians the world over who sent him their recordings in hopes that Peel would play them on his radio shows, and to music fans who knew they could always be the first to hear new and interesting music on his programs not played on any other station. He wasn’t a critic and didn’t predict hits, but rather ventured to play music that the world, in the opinion of the industry, wasn’t ready to hear yet. He uncovered a whole new world for both musicians and listeners; all they had to do was be open to seeing it. He discovered David Bowie, introduced the world to Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, was the first to support punk rock, participated in the formation of the Joy Division and The Smiths cult, was the first to play electronic music on the radio and also devoted special attention to hiphop, believed in the might of The Pixies and Sonic Youth, and was the first DJ in the world to host a special recording session with Nirvana. All of the supergroups from the heyday of the Britpop era could be heard on Peel’s shows before they reached their popularity, and groups later recognized as the world’s hottest bands that first sent their recordings to Peel were saved from wiling away as merely a new British group. In the 21st century, Peel took care of bringing garage rock to the mainstream by playing The Strokes and The White Stripes well before these musicians appeared on the cover of each and every music magazine. Thus one might sum up in a few sentences about one percent of Peel’s accomplishments. John Peel believed that teenage dreams are hard to beat, and worshiped music that sounded strange. And it always turned out to be the case that his favourite bands later ended up changing music history.

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