Back in the mid 80’s I became an avid listener of the John Peel show on BBC radio 1. I like to think that John Peel had some influence on the BBC radio 2 shows that followed his – back then Radio 1 used to go off air at midnight to be replaced by Radio 2 on the FM wave band. I remember one night being totally gobsmacked as a guest on a Radio 2 show played “Wedding Bells” by Crass. I also remember on one insomnia tinged night hearing “Snowblind” by Black Sabbath.

Any way I digress. One of the things Mr Peel did so well was play “interesting” music – all genres – all decades. I like many used to have a blank cassette in my tape/radio to record the show. Especially the festive 50. If the BBC have an archive of the festive 50 shows they should be copied and kept safely in a museum. They are, in my opinion a fantastic record of the best of alternative pop music from the years they were broadcast. Thankfully the BBC website has a page dedicated to the shows broadcast as the Festive 50’s.

On the aforementioned web page there is a list of the top 3 tracks for each year for the decades 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. For me the most interesting is the 1970’s which starts at 1976 (I think I’m right in saying that the festive 50 was for “all time” favourite records during these years – yes according to the website it changed over to best tracks of the year in ‘82):-

  1. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
  2. Derek & the Dominoes – Layla
  3. Bob Dylan – Desolation Row

1977

  1. The Motors – Dancing the Night Away
  2. Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking
  3. The Motors – You Beat The Hell Out of Me

1978

  1. Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
  2. The Clash – Complete Control
  3. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen

1979

  1. Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
  2. Undertones – Teenage Kicks
  3. The Clash – White Man In Hammersmith Palais

How much did British popular music change in those four years?

I’m glad to say that British radio (especially BBC Radio 6) still seems to carry the John Peel flag. It is also a testament to Mr Peel that in 2005 Glastonbury festival renamed the “New bands” stage after him.