Peel sessions

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Main entrance to Maida Vale Studios in London

The Peel Sessions were a series of studio recordings made by artists of various genres for the BBC Radio 1 radio program . Between 1967 and 2004 around 4,400 sessions by around 2,000 different artists were created. Because they were broadcast on radio shows hosted by John Peel , they were called Peel Sessions , although Peel had neither invented these sessions nor participated in the recordings as a music producer or sound engineer . He and his producers were only responsible for selecting the artists and deciding on the broadcast. Most of the recordings took place in the BBC's own studios; most of the sessions were made in Maida Vale Studios 1 - 6 in London .

prehistory

The BBC has been broadcasting pre-produced music programs since the spring of 1957. This was made possible by a declaration of consent from the British musicians' union from 1956, according to which live sessions could be pre-produced. This led to the obligation for new music groups to submit to a selection process, on the basis of which the program managers decided whether to broadcast the music to this group. During these hours of sessions, each band only had 45 minutes for sound checks, rehearsals and recording three tracks. A Talent Selection Group held a weekly meeting to select the groups to be featured on Saturday Club . The still unknown Beatles also took part in such a pre-selection on March 7, 1962. In 1963, Bernie Andrews co-produced these recording sessions. In 1966 he developed the so-called Double Sessions , during which the BBC executives and the bands spent seven hours in the studio, so that there was enough material for a new three-hour program called Top Gear . John Peel and Pete Drummond were selected as presenters, and the first program aired on Sunday, October 1, 1967, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Peel sessions

The first session that was recorded for Top Gear took place on September 21, 1967 with the group Tomorrow around the guitarist Steve Howe . The other sessions were recordings by Traffic (September 25, 1967) and sessions originally recorded for Saturday Club by Pink Floyd . During the first few weeks Drummond and Peel had no influence on the selection of the groups or on the program design. For the first time Peel influenced the sessions with Tyrannosaurus Rex , which recorded on October 30, 1967 at his insistence. The music failed the editorial meeting, and Bernie Andrews was advised to quit Peel. Instead, he extended the contract with Peel by initially seven weeks. The listeners were also enthusiastic about John Peel and at the end of 1967 the BBC decided that Peel would now present the show alone.

At the beginning of 1968 Peel got a second program with Night Ride , which was supposed to utilize material at low-power hours that was not considered during prime time. The show, which he presented together with John Muir, quickly achieved cult status. In September 1968 the readers of the music magazine Melody Maker voted Peel for the first time as Top DJ and his show Top Gear as the most popular radio program. Around that time the term peel sessions emerged for the recording sessions . In 1970, John Walters became second DJ alongside John Peel, and together they began the new format Sound of the Seventies . A little later, the technical modernization of the BBC's own Maida Vale studios began, so that from then on the sessions could be recorded in stereo . Since BBC Radio 1 was still broadcast on medium wave , the sessions could only be heard in stereo from autumn 1972. The following years were marked by budget cuts at the BBC, which had an impact on the number of recorded peel sessions, the program Sounds of the Seventies fell victim to the cuts.

From the mid-1970s, Peel began to invite the bands of the emerging punk movement to the sessions. The groups included the Ramones in 1975 and The Damned in 1976 . He also gave young bands like The Cure (session of December 4, 1978) the opportunity to record, so that the peel sessions developed into a career springboard for unknown music groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The new discoveries of the 1980s included groups such as The Smiths , The Farm and Frankie Goes to Hollywood . From 1987 the Peel Sessions contributed significantly to the commercial success of the first wave of Grindcore , leading British exponents of this new style of music such as Napalm Death , Extreme Noise Terror and Carcass took part in the sessions. In the 1990s, Peel's team was rejuvenated with Alison Howe and Matthew Bannister, while John Walters left the production team, the sessions focused more on electronic and mainstream music . With the death of Peel on October 25, 2004, the Peel Sessions ended.

Top 5 artists

The following artists recorded most of the peel sessions:

Artist number First shot Last shot
The Fall 24 May 30, 1978 August 4, 2004
Ivor Cutler 22nd 5th May 1969 July 30, 1999
Vivian Stanshall 20th November 8, 1967
with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 		May 29, 1990
Loudon Wainwright III 15th 18th May 1971 July 16, 2003
Half Man Half Biscuit 12 November 10, 1985 October 10, 2004

Trivia

Various groups are said to have recorded a peel session, but in fact never did. They include well-known bands such as The Beatles , The Rolling Stones , Sex Pistols and U2 . The Incredible String Band is considered to be the group that had the longest time between two sessions. The first recording took place in October 1973, the next recording 27 years later in November 2000. A similar length of time, namely 26 years, passed between the sessions of the German band Faust . At the Peel Sessions, artists recorded songs with which they achieved their commercial breakthrough a little later. So took Joe Cocker already in May 1968 his version of With a Little Help from My Friends , which recording was sent in July 1968th The official single was released three months later and reached number 1 on the charts. John Peel founded a record label called Strange Fruit Records in the 1980s , which released a large number of the Peel Sessions on record and later on CD.

See also

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Garner, p. 28.
  2. ↑ Garner, p. 29.
  3. ↑ Garner, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Garner, p. 46.
  5. ↑ Garner, p. 50.
  6. ↑ Garner, p. 110.
  7. ↑ Garner, p. 272.
  8. ↑ Garner, p. 282.
  9. ↑ Garner, p. 53.