BBC Radio 1 Vintage

Hopefully, like me, you have been enjoying BBC Radio 1’s entirely wonderful pop-up radio station BBC Radio 1 Vintage, which I think we can all agree is a timely reminder that things aren’t as good as they used to be – we’ll probably just differ a little on when exactly they were better.

It existed, briefly, to celebrate BBC Radio 1’s fiftieth birthday at the end of September, and featured highlights from over 50 of the station’s shows. There’s also a lengthy series of podcasts, if you want to hear more.

Personally, I’ve been harking (excuse the pun) back to the 1990s, and working through Simon Mayo, Mark and Lard, The Radio 1 Roadshow, Adrian Juste, Radio 1 Comedy Shows, the late lamented John Peel and Kevin Greening, and many others. Whatever era you belong to, I wouldn’t doubt that you’ll find something to your tastes. You could well find yourself asking yourself important existential questions, such as where exactly Wyclef Jean is going to be between now and November.

If you don’t listen to anything else, definitely check out The Best of the Official Chart, here.

You can browse the schedule here, and enjoy the shows for another couple of weeks here.

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John Peel’s Record Collection

Browsing through someone else’s record collection is always very rewarding. You learn so much about the owner!

Although I’m sure none of us really needed to learn much about John Peel‘s beautifully eclectic tastes. If there’s anyone who didn’t worship him as a living God when he was around, then I’d be fascinated to know why. And if there’s a music fan out there who doesn’t know where they were then they found out he’d sadly died, then I’d be very surprised.

If you are the one person on the planet who wasn’t aware, then he was probably the finest DJ in British radio history. After some time in the world of piracy in the mid 1960s, he joined fledgeling BBC pop station Radio 1 when it started in 1967 and stayed there right up until his death in 2004. He was responsible for starting the careers of so many big name bands that it’s not even worth considering listing them, and his Peel Sessions remain a household name worldwide.

And this year, 45 years after he joined Radio 1, his estate have been working on a wonderful project to digitise his record collection, and they finally reach the end of the alphabet this week. Starting initially with the first hundred records from each letter, the archive of a few thousand records is quite compelling. Check it out here.

I’m sure I’ve missed plenty, but here are a few of the things which have caught my eye in his collection on my quick browse. Obviously I’m a lot less open minded than he is, but then neither was I going to list all 2,600 entries here! I’ve copied their links where appropriate, but I’d strongly recommend that you go and browse them for yourself!

• ABC – The Lexicon of Love, Beauty Stab and How to Be a Zillionaire
• Cabaret Voltaire – loads of albums
• John Cage – Nova Musicha N.1
• Calexico – The Black Light and Feast of Wire
• Terence Trent d’Arby – Introducing The Hardline According To…
• The Eagles – loads of albums
• Fad Gadget – Incontinent and Gag
• Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel and Ein Deutsches Album
• Diamanda Galás – The Litanies of Satan and The Divine Punishment
• I Start Counting – My Translucent Hands and Fused
• The KLF – What Time is Love, Space, Chill Out, and The White Room
• Mory Kante – A Paris
• Labradford – Prazision LP and A Stable Reference
• Ladytron – 604 and Light and Magic
• Laibach – Nova Akropola, Neu Konservatiw, Opus Dei, Let it Be and Macbeth
• Mad Professor – pretty much his entire back catalogue
• Madness – One Step Beyond, Absolutely, 7, Mad Not Mad and Utter Madness
• Madonna – Madonna
• Youssou N’Dour – Nelson Mandela, Djamil and Immigrés
• Mike Oldfield – loads of stuff
• Saint Etienne – Fox Base Alpha
• T.Raumschmiere – Radio Blackout, Anti: End and Stromschleifen
• Tangerine Dream – about fifty albums
• U2 – all their early stuff
• UB40 – a pile of albums too
• Ultravox – another huge pile of stuff
• Paul van Dyk – 45rpm and Seven Ways
• Vangelis – Heaven & Hell and Albedo 0.39
• Sven Väth – The Harlequin, The Robot and The Ballet-Dancer
• Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric’s and You and Me Both
• Yello – Solid Pleasure, Claro Que Si, You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, Stella, One Second and Live at the Roxy N.Y. Dec. 83
• Yellow Magic Orchestra – Yellow Magic, XOO Multiplies and BGM
• Zombie Nation – Absorber

In particular, the brilliantly bizarre industrial Slovenes Laibach get a full interview in the L is for Laibach feature here, which is well worth watching.