So, we trust that you media types out there will be opening a jiffy bag at random this morning and giving whatever is inside priority listen. Any A&Rs reading this, we hope, will be taking demo CDs that would normally get tossed into the bin unlistened to, and will be transferring the tracks on them to their iPods. And you rest of you should go to you local independent record shop and purchase whatever the man behind the counter might recommend. That, surely, would be the best way for us all to remember the late great John Peel. Half of us would end up listening to a pile of rubbish, of course, but some of us might discover some superb new music talent of which we would otherwise be unaware, and that would be a great thing.
Anyway, welcome to the first John Peel Day, the Radio 1 organised tribute to their greatest ever presenter, just ahead of the first anniversary of his sad and sudden death. As previously reported, more than 300 concerts will take place around the world today as part of the celebrations, with events as far afield as New Zealand, Italy and Canada all planned. It all kicked off last night at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall where some of Peel's favourite artists, including New Order, The Fall and Super Furry Animals, played at a special tribute concert. Radio 1 will broadcast a host of special programming today, kicking off tonight at 7pm (though Colin Murray and the tedious Edith Bowman are presenting the first two hours, so perhaps you want to tune in at 9pm). Other Peel based programmes are then planned for the coming weeks, including a special documentary, 'Keeping It Peel', on 17 Oct, and a series of shows on digital station 6Music from 24 Oct. Plus of course, there's that Peel tribute single in the pipeline, and the Warner released tribute album out on Monday.