John Peel: The tributes flood in

Tributes have continued to pour in for legendary DJ John Peel, who died of a heart attack at the age of 65.

Musicians, fellow DJs, BBC colleagues and the Prime Minister all spoke of the sad loss of Peel, who died yesterday while on holiday in Cuzco, Peru, with his wife Sheila.

Hundreds of poignant tributes from Peel’s legion of devoted listeners have also flooded the messageboards on the BBC News and Radio 1 websites.

Famed for championing and discovering dozens of major bands, Peel made his name on Radio 1 following its launch in 1967.

His show made the careers of a host of bands, like Joy Division, The Smiths, Blur, The Undertones and The White Stripes.

Unafraid of taking on new challenges, in 1998 Peel began presenting Radio 4’s Home Truths, which would garner four Sony Radio awards a year later.

With his late night weekday slot, the DJ was the only pensioner fronting a show on Radio 1.

Oasis star Noel Gallagher, Blur frontman Damon Albarn and singer- songwriter Elvis Costello were just some of the names who paid tribute to Peel.

Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt said Peel’s “influence towered over the development of popular music for nearly four decades”.

“Hopeful bands all over the world sent their demo tapes to John knowing that he really cared,” he said.

“His commitment and passion for new music only grew stronger over the years.”

Fellow BBC radio presenter Andy Kershaw said his death was a “huge cultural loss”.

“John Peel was the most important figure in British music since the birth of rock’n’roll. Full stop.

“He is more important than any artist because he was the enthusiast who discovered so many of those whom we think of as the big figures of pop over the past 40 years,” he wrote in The Independent.

Feargal Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, described the DJ as the “single most important broadcaster we have ever known”.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn said Peel would “never be forgotten”.

He said: “John Peel’s patronage was for me, like countless other musicians, one of the most significant things that happened to us in our careers.

“The world is going to be a poorer place with his sudden departure,” he said.

Oasis star Noel Gallagher said: “John Peel was a rare breed amongst radio DJs”.

“His contribution to introducing new music to music fans in this country has been phenomenal and he will be sadly missed,” he said.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello said Peel “was the contradiction of every bad thing you could say about radio”.

“He had an open mind about music, whether he was bringing the listener the Incredible String Band or the Fall, Mike Hart or Echo and the Bunnymen, and countless bands that appeared only to be heard on his great shows,” he said.

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker said Peel “stuck up for the ‘sore thumbs’ of the music scene”.

“It would be absolutely impossible to write a history of the last 40 years of the British music scene without mentioning John Peel’s name,” he said.

“He was one of those few people about whom you could truly say that the world would have been a much different place without him.”

Mr Blair’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister was “genuinely saddened by the news”.

The spokesman went on: “His view is John Peel was a genuine one-off, whether on Radio 1 or Radio 4.

“He was a unique voice in British broadcasting and used that voice to unearth new talent and different subjects and make them accessible to a much wider audience,” he said.

A statement from his beloved Liverpool FC paid tribute to the DJ for championing the club and the city.

It read: “He always championed the name of the club and the city, and will be sorely missed. Our sympathies go to his family and friends on this very sad day.”

Born John Robert Parker Ravenscroft in Heswall near Liverpool, Peel’s musical awakening took place when he heard Elvis Presley singing Heartbreak Hotel.

After two years of National Service, and with Beatlemania in full swing, Peel’s Liverpudlian background help get him a job as a DJ in Dallas, Texas, in 1960.

The DJ, who received an OBE in 1998, returned to England in 1967 to work for pirate radio and then moved to the new station Radio 1.

Close family members gathered at the DJ’s house in the village of Great Finborough, near Stowmarket in Suffolk, last night.

Peel was married to second wife Sheila for 30 years and had four grown-up children.

He was modest about both his career and success, saying with typical understatement: “You can either see it as selfless dedication to public-service broadcasting, or a shocking lack of ambition – it’s both of those things.

“What I do is ideally suited to Radio 1, and nobody has ever tried to lure me away, anyway.”