John Peel

Alison and Alyson talked to the immortal John Peel.

How are you finding the Phoenix so far?
John - Well it's alright. It's too hot for my liking and there aren't that many bands on that I'm absolutely devastated about hearing, so I've been just pottering really, and probably drinking too much beer, and I've discovered the real lemonade stall which is fantastic and the Mexican food place which is pretty good as well. I've just pottered about and heard the occasional band- I heard a good one this morning who were called Broadcast.

So which other bands have you seen so far?
John - Just little bits of this and of that. I heard a bit of Neil Young but then you could hear him wherever you went on site, saw a bit of Stereolab. We've recorded quite a few for broadcasting on the radio so I'll get to hear those obviously when they go out on the radio, and in a few hours time I shall be watching The Fall because I like The Fall (faintly chuckles).

Can you make a good cup of tea?
John - Not as good as my wife, I'm embarrassed to say. I mean, I do occasionally make the tea but, not out of laziness, I tend to surrender it to her if and when I can because she does make a better one.

What's your favourite animal?
John - Well, I suppose if it came right down to it our dog Bernard. Did you want a specific animal or just animals generally? Either one, oh I see. Well, dogs I guess, because we have some, although we have cats and I'm not very keen on cats. Sheep are okay, I've got nothing against sheep.

Who would you have liked to have seen playing Phoenix this year who isn't?
John - The temptation is to say something smart-arsed again, like Jimi Hendrix. Erm.. I don't know, I'd have liked there to have been more lesser known bands. It just seems to be a really conservative bill. But I wonder to what extent people come to these events for the music anyway. I think they just come to them because they're there really. I mean obviously some people will come to see whoever's top of the bill.... The Sex Pistols, ugh I can't imagine that, but they will do undoubtedly. People will be here to see Bowie or Alanis Morrisette, or whatever she's called. I think most people just come to potter about and drink a few beers, smoke some dope, meet somebody attractive and... who knows?

Which smaller bands at the moment would you hotly tip for the future?
John - Well there the temptation is to say "You'll have to listen to my exciting programmes on Radio One to hear the answer to that question". I'm in a strong position not having to worry about whether they subsequently become successful or not. I can book bands and play their records just because I think they're good and not because I think they're going to become the next Oasis. There's a long and impressive list of people whose records I've not played or who we've turned down for sessions; everybody from U2 to Oasis, actually. And although they've gone on to become fabulously wealthy and successful and so forth, I still, by and large, think I was probably right.

What do you think to the toilets?
John - I'm in a strong position in that I get to use the backstage toilets but even they are disgusting, and I can't imagine what the other ones are like, but my son William is here and he doesn't speak very highly of them. You can tell me probably, I imagine they're fairly grim?

Yeah, they're really really horrible.
John - But at festivals years and years ago you used to have like a fence made of sacking, about waist height, and trenches, and people used to have to go and crouch over the trenches, and every once in a while you'd get some poor unfortunate who fell in, so now is pretty spectacularly comfortable by comparison.

I think the trenches sound better actually, 'coz the problem with the toilets at the moment is they're designed to flush, but they've run out of water so they don't, and just fill up really quickly.
John - Well, the trenches tended to do pretty much the same thing, but you could at least throw soil on top of it.

What was the last thing that made you laugh?
John - I tend to just laugh at bits of overheard conversation, they amuse me as much as anything else. Particularly at an event like this where you find people who are showing off or have too high an opinion of themselves and you can just overhear people saying the most outrageously stupid things in the hope of impressing somebody but I can't think of an example. I'm not one of those people who laughs at jokes. People come up and say "I've got this great joke" and I say "I don't really laugh at jokes", "No no no, you'll love this". And then they tell you and you say "Thank you very much" and they say "Didn't you think it was funny?" and I say "No, I warned you I wouldn't". I tend to be a sniggerer more than a laugher.

The immortal John Peel was talking to Alison and Alyson, at Phoenix 96.