He didn't play anything from the charts, didn't fulfill any listeners' wishes and never went off in annoying chatter. Instead, John Peel presented artists and songs that other radio presenters would not have touched with pincers. He was the voice of the global underground, the door opener for umpteen cult bands and one of the biggest vinyl junkies the world knows. On 30 August he would have turned 80 - the perfect occasion for a tribute.
"Without John Peel, a whole series of genres would probably never have been heard; they would have disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. But through him they found an audience and developed a life of their own. Maybe I'm leaning out of the window now, but I would say: The reason why so little exciting has happened in the music world in recent years is not least because it's no longer there. That there is no one who has an ear for strange new things - and the courage to play them."
