Legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel died while on holiday in Peru on October 25, 2004, aged 65, ten years ago on this day.
The doctor who fought to save his life in Cuzco declared that lack of oxygen at 11,000 ft above sea level was the likely cause of his fatal heart attack. He died following a collapse in the lobby of the five-star Monasterio Hotel.
"He unearthed different sounds and people and made them accessible and popular," declared UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in tribute at the time. “He was a genuine one off - and a warm and decent human being too."
At the time of his death, Peel had been the longest-serving DJ with BBC 1, having joined the channel in 1967. In more recent years, he had also presented Home Truths on BBC 4
By the early 1970s, Peel and his producers were recording and airing sessions by Roxy Music, Queen and Bob Marley and The Wailers. The Clash reportedly abandoned a session over technical issues but Peel's sessions from 1977 onwards featured all the major bands of punk and post punk. These included The Stranglers, The Jam, Buzzcocks, The Fall, New Order, The Understones, The Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Joy Division.
By playing his import copy of The Ramones’ eponymous debut album on BBC 1, Peel was a key player in driving the punk revolution. He gave generous airplay to the Sex Pistols’ single Anarchy In The UK single and their Never Mind the Bollocks album.
Elton John, Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, Queen, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, and Irish acts Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher (as solo act following the disbandment of Taste) were championed by Peel. There was very much the sense that Peel was breaking new ground in Sounds of the Seventies.
“The late 1970s was the only time the programme was fashionable,” the DJ once declared. “I really didn’t like the experience. I felt rather as I imagine bands must feel when they become fashionable, that the audience expect certain things of them which they might not necessarily want to go on doing.”
