You have to earn your place on the mantle piece of legends, it's not just given to you. To disguise yourself as a birthday card to get up there won't work. It's takes years of dedication. For me, the epitome of the word legend is John Peel. The man did more for breaking new bands and supporting established ones than anyone could ever dream of. And it's this week that the whole music industry come together to commiserate the tragic lost of one of the nations best love broadcasters.
Peel died on October 25th 2004. And to celebrate his life, Universal have release another installment of The Peel Sessions. This time around we're treated to the Mercury Rev's live performance from way back in 1999. The band went into see Mr Peel in order to promote 'Deserter's Songs'. The album was subsequently named by NME as their album of the year. This live session saw them record a ten minute version of The Funny Bird / Tonight It Shows, alongside covers of Lennon's 'I Don't Wanna Die' and 'Observatory Crest'.
The album brings together the bands complete Peel Session for the first time. For me, it recreates the same emotions that I used to get from sitting round my radio listening to Peel first time round. It sounds raw, fresh and most importantly, Peel like. The artwork contains sleeve notes from Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue. He talks about his relationship with Peel, and what it was like to record one of the legendary Peel Sessions.
This album is more about emotion and feeling, rather than content. However, don't get this twisted, Mercury Rev produce a strong performance. Peel's setup provides a perfect platform for their psychedelic rock sound. However, for me, this just brings back the warm memory of the late great John Peel.
Mercury Rev
John Peel Sessions
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