John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004.
Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He signed to Island Records when he was a 20-year-old student at the University of Cambridge. He released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. Drake recorded two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972), which both sold poorly. Drake's reluctance to be interviewed or to perform live contributed to his lack of success. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his music gradually achieved wider notice and recognition following his death.
Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
Ronald Frederick Geesin is a Scottish musician, composer and writer known for his unusual creations and novel applications of sound, as well as for his collaborations with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.
Dandelion Records was a British record label started on 18 July 1969 by the British DJ John Peel.
Kevin Coyne was an English musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The "anti-star" was born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually dominated by indie and rock songs which did not fully represent the diversity of music played by Peel but rather the majority opinion among his listeners. After Peel's death the tradition of the Festive Fifty was continued, first by other Radio 1 DJs and then by the Internet radio station Dandelion Radio.
Medicine Head were a British blues rock band – initially a duo – active in the 1970s. Their biggest single success was in 1973 with "One and One Is One", which reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The group recorded six original albums, the first three of which were released by John Peel's Dandelion label.
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was the band's frontman and primary songwriter, known for his whimsical style of psychedelia, English-accented singing, and stream-of-consciousness writing style. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing effects such as dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback.
Beau, born Christopher John Trevor Midgley, is a British singer-songwriter and twelve-string guitar player, who first became known in the late 1960s through his recordings for John Peel's Dandelion Records label. He released two albums on Dandelion – Beau (1969) and Creation (1971), plus the single "1917 Revolution" which had greater success abroad than it did in the United Kingdom. "1917 Revolution" is said to have been the inspiration for America's "A Horse with No Name".
Po! are an indie rock band formed in Leicester, England in 1987, with releases dating up to 1998 on Rutland Records, Sunday Records in the US and Elefant Records in Spain.
"River Man" is the second listed song from Nick Drake's 1969 album Five Leaves Left. According to Drake's manager, Joe Boyd, Drake thought of the song as the centrepiece of the album. In 2004 the song was remastered and released as a 7" vinyl and as enhanced CD single including a video to the song by Tim Pope.
Tractor is an English rock band founded in Rochdale, Lancashire by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in 1971. Both had been members of a beat group, The Way We Live, since 1966. They are notable both for their appreciation by John Peel and Julian Cope, but also for their longevity because as of 2007, they were still performing. The band was produced initially by schoolfriend sound engineer John Brierley.
Joy Division The Complete BBC Recordings is a collection of the two Peel Sessions recorded by Joy Division, two songs from the BBC Television programme Something Else and a live interview. It was released in 2000. The album was re-released as "Before and After – The BBC Sessions" in 2004, the Joy Division tracks included were the same, but it also contained a New Order album. The entire track listing of the album was later released as the second disc in the UK edition of The Best of Joy Division in 2008.
Glaxo Babies are a Bristol-based post-punk band, formed in late 1977. There were three distinct phases in the band's life and after initially breaking up in 1980, they reformed in 1985, only to finally break up again in 1990. The band reformed once again in 2015 for the Un-Peeled 2015 event with Steve Street on bass and Tony Wrafter's son Oscar on vocals.
Hux Records is a British record label based in England, which was launched in 1998. They specialise in releasing old material, especially in unreleased BBC recordings such as John Peel Sessions and BBC Radio 1 concerts. Hux has gained a reputation as an excellent independent record label, offering an eclectic selection of classic archive recordings. Hux has also re-released recordings by such artists as Malcolm Morley's Sam Apple Pie and Help Yourself; and Man's debut album, which was recorded in 1976 but not released latterly.
William Derek Drake is an English musician, keyboardist, pianist, composer and singer-songwriter. He is best known as a former member of the cult English rock band Cardiacs, whom he played with for nine years between 1983 and 1992. He has also been a member of the Sea Nymphs, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Nervous, Wood, Lake of Puppies and The Grown-Ups, as well as pursuing a career as a solo artist. He is a distant cousin of the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake.
Songs for the Gentle Man is a 1971 folk rock album by singer-songwriter Bridget St John. A follow-up to her highly successful debut album, Songs for the Gentle Man propelled her to cult status in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by Ron Geesin, who had worked with Pink Floyd.
Michael William Hart was an English singer-songwriter and poet.
Robin Frederick is an American songwriter, author and children's television contributor. She is a former Director of A&R and Production for Rhino Records and Executive Producer of over 60 albums. She has written and produced more than 500 songs for television, records, theater, and audio products. She is the former Vice President of the Los Angeles chapter of the Recording Academy and former president of Los Angeles Women in Music (LAWIM).
