John Peel in Folkestone

There's a new John Peel bootleg of a forty year old pirate radio show, I didn't realise the Folkestone connection before:

As he signed off his final late-night Perfumed Garden show, pirate DJ John Peel was convinced it was the end of his brief, subversive radio career.

Now, almost 40 years later, listeners will once again experience the dying murmurs of his show when the BBC puts his last Radio London programme back on the airwaves later this month.

Peel was forced off air when pirate stations - at the time the only outlet for pop music in the UK - were outlawed in 1967, leaving him high and dry. Luckily, within days he was rescued from obscurity and signed as a launch presenter for Radio 1 and became one of Britain's best-loved and respected broadcasters.

Peel would spend two of every three weeks aboard the Galaxy, moored off Folkestone, presenting his midnight show. Because the boat was in international waters, it was beyond the reach of British broadcasting restrictions until offshore stations too were outlawed in August 1967.

pauly :: 2006 :: Comment / reply