John Peel

It's difficult to imagine what the musical landscape of Great Britain would look like had John Robert Parker Ravenscroft not shipped up at the tiny WRR Radio station in Dallas, Texas in 1964 looking for a presenting job. The mildly eccentric Brit, whose Liverpudlian accent immediately endeared him to a Beatlemania-enthused station manager, was to single handedly kick-start the careers of thousands of bands over the next 40 years, and arguably shape the way that we listen to music now.
 
John Peel, as he was to rechristen himself back in the UK, was a one-off. The original pirate DJ, whose passion for promoting new music was only matched by his enthusiasm to listen to anything and everything that came his way, he would be the only presenter to hold a post at BBC Radio 1 from its inception in 1967, until his untimely death in 2004. Bands like Blur, The Fall, T-Rex, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division and The Fall would almost certainly not enjoy the ubiquity they do if it was not for his unstinting patronage on his shows.
 
Peel's life was as eclectic and exciting as his 100,000-strong record collection. Born on the Wirral, near Liverpool in 1939, Peel endured a horrendous spell at boarding school, and a stint in the National Service, before moving to America at 21 to work as a cotton producer. It was here, just as British music was beginning to filter onto the airways, that Peel first moved into broadcasting, first as a 'Beatles correspondent' then as breakfast presenter in California. 
 
After moving back to London, his first job was on the floating pirate radio station Radio London. After it closed, he moved to the newly set-up Radio 1 to present a nighttime slot, where he would stay for the rest of his life. Over the next 35 years, he would set up two record labels, appear on a T-Rex album, admit to carrying an STD live on air and consistently annoy the top brass of the station by playing difficult, edgy and sometimes even downright illegal music on air, often at the wrong speed.
 
While his dedication to playing any music that he liked the sound of (he was often quoted as saying "I just want to hear something I haven't heard before") it was his human decency that most remember, the fact that he would talk about his wife and family on air and that he honestly wanted to hear from listeners and struggling bands set him apart from any other DJ during his long career. In the long eulogies after his death, every tribute would say something about his warmth, compassion and love for anything with a beat.
 
There is not enough space here to do John, or his fantastic legacy justice. For that, his own autobiography Margrave of the Marshes, finished posthumously by his beloved wife Shelia, is the final word in his enduring career. But, for an idea, ask yourself which other DJ in the world could have a whole day of live music dedicated to them, with over 500 bands paying (and playing) tribute? Who else could inspire organisers to rename the new bands tent at Glastonbury after them? That former Beatles correspondent lives on, in every bar of music you'll hear today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life.