Finally in John Peel related news, former Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw has again had a dig at his former employer, this time in relation to their John Peel Day proceedings. He has told reporters that John wouldn't have appreciated the fact that the flagship components of the day are based around established artists that Peel championed, rather than the newer artists he would be championing now if he was still alive.
Kershaw: "John wouldn't have liked it. He'd think it was maudlin. He would also object on the grounds it was nostalgia-driven. He'd think we ought to spend less time doing stuff like this, and more time ploughing through stacks of records looking for the next new band". Kershaw, of course, caused a little controversy around the time of Peel's death when he blamed Radio 1 for contributing to the DJ's ill health by shifting his radio show into a later time slot. He told Channel 4 News: "I said to him [that] he didn't look too good. And he said, 'No, I feel terrible.' He had been diagnosed diabetic a couple of years ago, and he was also finding it really hard that Radio 1 had moved him even later into the night. Marginalised is the correct word. [It] pushed him from 11pm to one o'clock in the morning and he actually said, 'It's killing me.'" Asked about those comments this week Kershaw said "I'm not going to go down that road again", but added: "It's all on public record. I don't retract a word of what I said because I was merely reporting what he said to me."
Radio 1 live events boss Jason Carter, who is coordinating Peel Day, again denied that there was any tension between the DJ and the station in the months before his death. Carter: "There was no suggestion from Peel's people that he was unhappy with the new time slot at all. I know the controller of Radio 1 sat down with him personally to discuss it. So far as I know he was perfectly happy about it."