Disc jockey John Peel was a music institution for almost four decades, highlighting influential bands and underground sounds on his BBC Radio 1 program. The shows featured over 4,000 in-studio sessions from over 2,000 artists — captured from 1967 up through his death in 2004. A good chunk of those recordings are floating around YouTube, but it’s exhausting trying to wade through them all. Now, thanks to blogger David Strickland, that process just got a whole lot easier.
Over at his “Formally Known as the Bollocks” blog, Strickland is rounding up an exhaustive, alphabetized list of the Peel sessions available online — at least 1,000 so far. Highlights include two Nirvana performances (1990 and 1991), David Bowie’s 1972 recording with the Spiders from Mars, five sets from Siouxsie and the Banshees (1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1986), two from Roxy Music in 1972, a pair from Queen in 1973 and four from the Cure (1978, 1979, 1981, 1985).
Among the other featured artists are Adam and the Ants, Bloc Party, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Butthole Surfers, Cocteau Twins, Echo & the Bunnymen, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, the Flaming Lips, Fleetwood Mac, Gang of Four, Hole, Jack White, Joy Division, Mercury Rev, Mogwai, New Order, Pavement, the Smiths, Sonic Youth, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Thin Lizzy, XTC and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Check out a few of the performances below.
