White-washing culture, Belfast June 2013

I lived in east Belfast between 2002 and 2007. As anyone who is reading this blog knows, John Peel died in November 2004. I was so surprised and touched to see that someone had painted a mural in tribute to him in Belfast in the week after he died that I rushed out to take a picture of it, thinking it would be gone in a few days. (My original post about it is here)

Last night (20th June) I was alerted to the fact that the Teenage Dreams tribute to John Peel in Belfast was no longer there. I am reacting to this story via reports from social media but they all seem to be reliable accounts, and there are before and after pics on twitter via the hashtag #teenagedreams

Tweets about "teenage dreams"


It seems that there has been some work taking place around that bridge recently, and some initial reports suggest that it had been covered and protected, but looking at pictures taken this morning, it appears to have been white-washed over. For personal reasons I am annoyed and saddened by this. It always made me smile every time I passed it when I was on a visit home.

However, there are some bigger issues here. In 2003 I remember a lot of fuss around Belfast's bid to be European City of Culture in 2008 and the shock on the faces on corporate types as the shortlist was announced and Belfast hadn't made it. Champagne glasses stayed dry at the press event in the Waterfront Hall. They really thought that they were in with a chance, despite closing the Arts Theatre and running an aggressive campaign to remove fly-posting from the city's walls. As a frequent visitor to the city it often appears to me that there is nothing on, at least in comparison to what I could see on the walls in the 1980s and 1990s when I was growing up. If the powers that be have sanctioned the removal of the John Peel mural, then their definition of culture is very different to mine.

The other problem with the mural removal should concern everyone in the city, not just those of us who work in the media or arts and culture. When I was house hunting in 2002 I viewed a few places in the east of the city, where I eventually settled. One day I took a different route away from the viewing, towards a different bus stop, and I looked around and I saw this mural.

The last time I was there, that mural was still in place. Now, if the authorities are going to tackle mural removal, would it not be in the public interest to remove something that intimidates and frightens their citizens, rather than one that, for an awful lot of people in my world, filled them with a tiny bit of hope.

Inside the John Peel Wing

This week my blogging has been overtaken by events in real life and in work. I was surprised and pleased to wake up in between night shifts to hear the news that the BBC's Egton House was to be renamed the John Peel Wing. It was quite uncanny to find this out as I had been working there a few hours earlier, in 'Egton', and would be back that night, in 'The John Peel Wing'. Naturally the change hasn't filtered through to our bookings and allocations but I will be investigating this on Monday morning!

I have worked in this wing since it opened in 2007 and I knew nothing of the name change until it was news. The building at the moment contains three distinctive parts of the BBC, namely BBC Arabic, BBC Persian and BBC London, so the John Peel connection isn't immediately obvious. The original Egton House was in Langham Street and was the home of Radio 1 between 1985 and 1996, and it was also the home to the millions of records and CDs that made up the Gramophone Library. The building was demolished in 2003 to make way for the new phase of rebuilding that will eventually culminate in the opening of the New Broadcasting House in the next few months, a building that will link old Broadcasting House to the John Peel Wing and will be the home of most of the BBC's radio output.

There is a photograph of John in his book 'Margrave of the Marshes' surrounded by records and jiffy bags at his desk in Egton House. Nowadays the new areas are open plan and hot-desking is the way to work. The radio studios are glass boxes with digital desks that can be set to control the talk studio or work as a self-op. It is pretty far away from the radio world of John Peel and I doubt that he would have liked it here. There were a few complaints about the name change on various social networks yesterday, most notably from Peel's friend and colleague Andy Kershaw, and they do raise very valid points. It's true that a lot of the decision makers may have never listened through to an entire John Peel show, and the manipulation of his name may be seen as cynical. However, from my own point of view, I was delighted to find out that a building I work in is to be named after a man I admired and loved. I know other Peel fans in work feel the same. I do hope that we can start to call it the John Peel Wing-ding, because that name would be far more in keeping with the spirit of the great man and his radio shows.

John Peel's Record Box, part two

It is a total coincidence that this re-exploration of John Peel's Record Box comes at the same time as the exciting announcement that John's record collection is to be made available as a digital archive.
Arts Council England and the BBC will add his tens of thousands of LPs, singles and CDs to a new digital service called The Space. The full news story is here

Meanwhile here are the next five 7" singles....

5.Anemic Boyfriends - Guys Are Not Proud + Bad Girls in Love (RED SWEATER RECORDS) 1980

Female punk/ new wave group from Alaska who made two singles then vanished. This is their debut single, and there's a pic of the sleeve on this collector's site.
This has a Slits-style punk/ reggae feel to it and the best refrain yet - "Guys are such creeps/ They'll even do it with sheep". Only five records in and I'm already discovering hidden gems like this. The Bside is more punky like Johnny Thunders or something which changes the bad guys for the bad girls - "I got a tight little body/ and I wanna get naughty". This was the hardest one to find so far (I've just got mp3s), but well worth hearing!

6. Ann Peebles - I can't stand the rain + i've been there before (LONDON) 1972

After Alan Price, this is only the second A-side in the list so far that I can sing along with. I'm pretty ignorant about 70s soul and RnB but most of that material in this list stands up incredibly well, especially when compared to some of the ropey punk bands around (see next!). I never realised how evocative that little pizzicato guitar at the start of 'I Can't Stand the Rain' was, the arrangement is just about the perfect accompaniment to her voice. The Bside is even more melancholy and has some nice gospel touches. Solid gold and one of the best so far.

7. Anti-Social - Traffic lights + teacher, teacher (DYNAMITE RECORDS) 1977

As far as I know this 7" contains their entire recorded output and we can be thankful for that. This is dull dull punk rock from the self-styled "most violent band in the world" as this biography tells us. Skip this one.

8. Arthur K Adams - Wildwood flower + It's a wild, wild, wild, wild wildwood flower (JETSTAR)

LISTEN
Arthur K Adams- Wildwood Flower
Initially this was one that I couldn't track down, but since I first explored the record box in 2006, I have come across an mp3 of 'Wildwood Flower'. It's a lively rockabilly tune, perhaps traditional?
An initial google search for info on Arthur Adams back then was similarly fruitless, but now we have wikipedia! He's not as obscure as I initially though, he is mates with BB King too.

9. Big Stick - Drag racing + Hell on earth (RECESS RECORDS) 1985

I love this. I can remember Peel playing this quite a bit over the years. 90s listeners may remember the Festive 50 fave 'Broadcast booth' which was credited to Drag Racing Underground; well, that was Big Stick as well. Official biography is here. This is basically cut-up samples and distorted drum machine, think Colourbox meets Big Black and you're in the right area. The right era too. While you might believe the Aside is slightly sinister, the Bside takes the same backing track and gets even darker. Short, thrilling and plenty creepy.

Part one of this series is here

John Peel's Record Box, part one

A few years ago I flirted with the contents of John Peel's Record Box after I watched a Channel 4 documentary about it. This was the box of 142 singles and EPs that John kept with him most of the time, which reputedly contained what he considered to be his favourite singles. The full list is here. I began to write about the releases that I was able to find, but this was circa 2006, so it was before the birth of Wikipedia and You Tube and it got harder and harder as I went deeper into the list. Some of the reference links I added went to geocities (RIP) and both the original list and definitive piece are now hidden behind the Times's paywall. I figured it was time to revisit and update my journey into the box.
As for my personal collection I only have a battered copy of Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' (an 8 minute A-side for starters!) and Pavement's rare 'Demolition Plot J-7' (a six track EP), although I have some of the tunes on CDs. It was exciting that even as a long-term listener of Peel's show there were a lot of titles in the box that I didn't recognise. So, eyes down for a Peel box A-Z...

1. Al Casey – Surfin’ Hootenanny + Easy Pickin (Pie International records, 1963)

This single was a huge Billboard hit in 1963 so it may even be possible to track down some vinyl copies.
This isn’t your typically Trashmen/ Dick Dale surf guitar tune, it is lighter than that, with female vocals and a very wide stereo sound, courtesy of the production by the legendary Lee Hazlewood. I think he also wrote it. They pay homage to a lot of the other surf acts (like Dick Dale) in the song. The B-side is more throwaway, but then that was half the idea with b-sides I guess.

2. Al Ferrier - I'm Not Drinking More + Don't Play Blue Eyes' (Master Trak records, 1980)
LISTEN: Al Ferrier- Don't Play Blue Eyes
Originally a Louisiana rockabilly/ cajun artist who was on Goldband from the mid-1950s, this is a much later recording and is pure country. I had assumed it was a 1980 reissue, but this interview shows that he was recording at Goldband in the early '80s so it probably is a 1980 release.
This is very hard to find nowadays, I have a dull sounding mp3 of the A-side which was transferred from vinyl, and the B-side is an mp3 taped off the radio which I have uploaded above, complete with Peel back anno! The best thing about submerging myself in this list is that I feel like I have entered an epic lost Peel show, full of surprises, songs you love and songs you would fast forward if you had taped the 2-hour broadcast. As this reminds me too much of the country n western I was brought up with, I would have wind it on past this, but a few listens later I'm kind of impressed by Ferrier's slightly off-centre delivery. It is country but not (quite) as we know it.

3. Alan Price Set - I Put a Spell on You (Decca, 1966)

A big hit in the '60s and relatively easy to get your hands on as it is on a few compilations. This is the first artist in the list I’ve heard of and the first track I recognised as well. Things I know about Alan Price - he was in the Animals, he wrote the music for the 70s movie 'O Lucky Man' and he appeared in DA Pennebaker's Don't Look Back alongside Dylan. The A-side is a busy organ-dominated British blues take on the classic song, and it does have a similar arrangement to 'House of the Rising Sun'. B-side "Iechyd Da" is a standard jazzy blues instrumental, dominated by the organ and horns. First Welsh language title in the list, although Price was from the North East and this has no words!

4. Andy Capp - Popatop + Reco - The Lion Speaks (Treasure Island, 1969)

Now that I'm old I'm supposed to know a lot about jazz and reggae and the like, and I do know a bit, but not an awful lot, so feel free to correct me by leaving a comment.
This is early dub reggae dating from 1969, Andy Capp was engineer Lynford Anderson, who helped a lot of Lee Perry's early dub experiments happen. This was actually siting in my iTunes under Lee 'Scratch' Perry as it was on his Battle Axe compilation. This sits nicely with the Perry material of the same period, and they although do experiment with a stop/start dubby rhythm it's actually infectiously catchy.
I didn't know much about Rico and the Rudies, except that Rico was a trombone player and had releases on Trojan records, but via Wikipedia I found out that he has recently been playing with Jools Holland and was awarded the MBE in 2007. This song sits eccentrically amongst all the other reggae in the box as it has Rico's trombone all over it!