Nov 15, 2004 • 1 min read

Fans pay tribute to John Peel at funeral

Hundreds attended John Peel's funeral at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, where The Undertones' Teenage Kicks closed a service of music chosen to reflect his tastes.

Needless to say, The Undertones' 'Teenage Kicks' was the closing track played at John Peel's emotional funeral on Friday.

With hundreds of mourners making their way to St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds to pay tribute to the late broadcaster - including Jack and Meg White, Michael and Emily Eavis and Radio 1 colleagues Steve Lamacq, Jo Whiley and Annie Nightingale - music was, of course, central to the proceedings.

According to the NME, aside from hymns 'Lord Of All Hopefulness, Lord Of All Joy' and 'Abide With Me', the Stow Market Choral Society - which counts Peel's widow Sheila as a member - sang both Mozart's 'Ave Verum' and Cesar Franck's 'Panif Angelicus', while, at different moments, the congregation heard Howlin' Wolf's 'Going Down Slow', Roy Orbison's 'Running Scared', a recording of the Liverpool football crowd singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and then, of course, 'Teenage Kicks'.

Paying tribute at the event, John's brother Alan Ravenscroft told the congregation: "The response to John's death has been overwhelming. Thank you all for your love, sympathy and support."

Meanwhile Peel's friend Paul Gambaccini said: "You broke more artists than any broadcaster in the history of radio. You helped more artists become themselves than any other broadcaster... your loss galvanised a nation. You meant the same thing to successive generations. You gave them what meant the most to them."

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