Veteran BBC broadcaster John Peel has died at the age of 65, while on holiday in Peru.
Black armbands for music lovers over the country today. I never even entertained the possibility that John Peel could die. He was a God amongst radio DJs, and the last of his kind.
And yet Simon Cowell still lives. Where is the justice?
That’s very sad news. I’m quite shocked by it.
Spookily, I entertained the possibility only last week, wondering what it would be like to hear him DJ at 70, 75… 80, even. I wondered casually how on earth they’d describe him in an obituary. I really didn’t want to find out this soon.
No . . . this is it, you see. I can consider plenty of other celebrities and famous names dying, but somehow not John Peel. I didn’t listen to him so much these days, not nearly as much as I used to (although I did listen to Radio 4’s Home Truths, which is a sign of my age), but it was always important – and a connection to the years when I did listen to more challenging music – to know he was there.
I say this now because I’m currently wallowing in all the tributes, and preparing to listen to Radio 1’s tribute programme later tonight.
I just hope that if he left his record collection to the BBC he did so on the condition that The Fall still get a session every year…
This is the first celebrity death to move me since… um… Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever been moved by a celebrity death before.
He played a record for me once. As BBC-related honours go, I think that beats even having a Blue Peter badge.