A radio legend

This is radio Peel 

A few weeks ago this blog dedicated one of its entries to Mandela's archive, which has been recently made available to the public through an ambitious online project; today, we are told of a project of a similar nature about another legendary person whose legacy will be, as of tomorrow 1st May, made also accessible online. I'm talking about the Liverpool-born radio DJ John Peel, whose 40 year-career on BBC Radio came to an end with his dead in 2004. It is difficult to think of any other music broadcaster that commands, even today 8 years after his sudden and sad departure, the same respect and admiration as Peel does. His legendary John Peel Sessions on Radio 1 were a sort of rite of passage for upcoming artists, championing and supporting  independent artists from far and wide.
I guess that for any musician,being in one of his shows was a major achievement and a passport to recognition.Peel's influence and shadow is so important that a centre has been created to honour his career while providing a creative platform for artists(www.johnpeelcentreforcreativearts.co.uk). So the fact that his record collection -which is, as you can imagine, huge- will be uploaded online can only be fantastic news for fans throughout the world, who from tomorrow will be able to start finding out information about Peel's records, including- in all likelihood- interesting insights about the stuff  he so passionately broadcast and promoted.A good time then to (re)discover John Peel's voice and commitment to what he so much cherished.