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JOHN PEEL DAY, the Peel SEA NYMPHS session and thank you John...
Category: Music

11th October, the 4th aniversary of John Peel's last Radio One broadcast and the 4th annual John Peel Day - and to celebrate the great man we shall re-play a couple of the tracks from the SEA NYMPHS radio session that was recorded at his request for his show - we'll play them on on our radio show on Resonance FM this Sunday night. John Peel was heavily involved in Resonance FM, in fact the station was originally launched in 1998 by John at his Meltdown concerts in London and we'd like to think a lot of Mr Peel's spirit and enthusiasm shines on at Resonance.

John loved Sea Nymphs, he called us up to excitedly tell us so when we put out that single on our label ORG back in the 90's - but then he did that lots, he would just call up all excited over some record we had sent him or some new band we might know something about or have a phone number for. He just did it with no fuss and loads of enthusiasm, to get something to anyone else at Radio One you had to (and still have to) jump through hoops with paying radio pluggers and release schedules and sending extra copies to the producers of shows, you seem to have to dish out endless copies and give them the sales pitch, the marketing plan and everything else before they'll risk playing it, with John Peel you just had to stick a copy in the post and a week or so later, if he liked it then he'd get back and call and say he was playing it tonight and that was it, simple. He was massively helpful when we put out the first My Vitriol single and the Cay one, he was the one who put Cuban Boys in touch with us first. He was just really supportive of a lot of our releases and always went out of his way to help, he was like that with anyone trying to put out records the right way. First time he called us we thought it was someone messing around and joking with us - Bloody Hell, that was John Peel on the phone asking about Huge Baby!. It was always a massive buzz when he played one of our records, I remember one night listening to a show where he played three or four of our releases and said something like "Seems like those ORG lot have taken over my show tonight", that has us jumping and dancing around the room like fools, you always had the warm feeling that you were doing something right if John Peel was playing it. Like most music fans in this country, he (alongside the often overlooked Tommy Vance on the BBC 1 Rock Show) introduced us to loads of good bands and sounds and ideas way before we got it in to our head ot start a zine and then a record label oursleves

So anyway, John peel started playing Sea Nymphs lots when we put that single out, rather unexpected - thing is we had heard he really disliked Cardiacs with a vengence and had sworn they would never be played on his show, so when he invited Sea Nymphs in to do a session (Sea Nymphs being a big part of Cardiacs - Tim and Sarah along with William D Drake) we were scared stiff he would find out who they really were and cancel it. We were in the BBC Maida Vale studios all day with the band trying not to use the C word in front of anyone. One of the people who was working there with the last bits of the BBC Radiophonic workshop came in and got all excited to see Cardiacs in the studio, we had to grab him and say no, this isn't anything to do with Cardiacs while dragging him out of the door so we could shut him up and explain not to let any of Mr Peel's people know! Turns out it was all a rumour and John Peel actually rather liked Cardiacs (turned out one of John peel's producers, John Walters, was the one with the deep dislike for the world's finest band).

So anyway, John Peel, we miss you lots, you made a big difference to our lives and you still continue to do so. That day down at Maida Vale locked in the studios with Sea Nymphs at their creative best and watching and listening to them work and record that session first hand and create their magic along with all the smells and atmospheres and tales from Peel shows and getting to explore the last bits of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with Tim, Sarah and Bill and a big Cardiacs fan called Andrew who let Bill play on various strange instruments and repaired Cardiacs keyboards on the spot in the Radiophonic Workshop was one of the very best days in the long history of Organ .

Thanks John, we miss you.

Our show is on Resonance 104.4FM in London, and worldwide via http://www.resonancefm.com - on air at 9.00pm UK time

Saw somebody posted on the Maresnest Forum that as far as they knew John Peel never played any Cardiacs. He did actually, after that Sea Nymphs session he took a lot of notice, he played Cardiacs when we sent him the Affectionate Friends album and if I recall correctly, the Greatest Hits album, and he called up asking (politely) for more because he couldn't find anything in the BBC library and saying how much he liked them. Can't answer on the Maresnest Forum (they won't let me on there) so I'll answer that one here.