John Peel

In honor of John Peel -- listen to The Undertones "Teenage Kicks" and then something completely different, perhaps a selection from his magic box. Today is the two year anniversay of his way-too-soon death.

It was the perfect evening to watch John Peel Night on BBC 4 - I still had been hoarding the package of DVDs from London that the wonderful Marybeth had sent me ages ago. My odd reasoning was that if I watched it right away that I wouldn't have any John Peel anything to look forward to anymore. So, at last, we had our own John Peel night and we watched the DVDs. The good news is that we haven't gotten through all the discs yet -- and the BBC tribute made me happy to see legions of nerdy Peel fans, from Stuart Murdoch to Nick Cave, all in awe.

Following that, we watched the hilarious BBC documentary "The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith." Amazing.

Marybeth also enclosed an article from The Guardian titled "Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?" where they tried to track down every past member of the band since its inception. Funny to think how we were all kept waiting that night after the Milwaukee show because of that irresistible Steve Hanley. Ha!

Thanks to Marybeth for sending me the John Peel Night treasures!