“Margrave Of The Marshes” Keeps It Peel
In the interests of promoting writings that aren’t necessarily found online, we bring you the Idolator Book Club, in which we look at music books that may be residing in a bookstore near you. In this installment, Idolator intern Cortney Harding gives a once-over to the recent memoir/biography John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes.
The gist: This book about legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel, best known in the States for hosting the intimate live performances known as the Peel Sessions, is half memoir, half biography; Peel passed away before he could complete the book, and his wife and children finished the rest.
The takeaways: 1. You think Tom Brown’s Schooldays was fiction? It wasn’t. Peel’s part of the book focuses on his younger years, specifically the sadistic treatment he received at his all-boys boarding school. Headmasters routinely beat students for the smallest infraction, and forced handjobs and rapes were common among the lads.
2. Being a top DJ might not be the best way to make friends, but you sure can influence people. Aside from being close pals with Marc Bolan of T. Rex, who turned out to be a dick in the end anyway, Peel didn’t buddy up to many of the rock stars with whom he interacted. He did, however, break a number of bands, including the Fall, Pulp, and the White Stripes.
3. Peel was more than just a rock DJ. While he’s mostly known for his tastemaking abilities, his hosting duties on the BBC stretched to a number of Garrison Keillor-type programs, including Home Truths, where he often shared personal stories about his family (much to their embarrassment).
4. Getting heard and played on his show was largely a matter of luck. Peel had a stable of old favorites, to be sure, but he often spent copious amounts of time listening to demos, and would often call bands personally to tell them he’d be spinning their records. It all depended on his mood, and whether your demo was picked out of the towering stack on any given day.
The body count: Four main players (Peel, his first wife, his producer John Walters, and Bolan). There are also obligatory mentions of John F. Kennedy, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain.
The verdict: Peel was a masterful writer and storyteller, and while his widow is no slouch herself, she can’t capture his voice. The book is much more a of a full life-story than simply a list of bands Peel discovered and interviewed, so if your interest in Peel is only marginal, his stories about kids and dogs and various travels may not hold your attention. But those who heard his programs on a regular basis (like me) and long for the day when radio was raw and strange will devour this. Just keep your British English-to-American English dictionary on hand.
Peel: Margrave of the Marshes [Amazon]
