So Farewell then.............

John Peel aged 65. It's not been a good few weeks really what with the death of Brian Clough. the under-reported death of Pete McCarthy and now today, learning that John Peel has tragically died at only 65. I listened occasionally to his show over the years and found his hunger for new music a bit too much if I'm honest. But I liked his voice, his dry humour and even though I found some of the music......well beyond me.....his enthusiasm was very obvious. But it was clear he liked his old stuff as well and not many people know it but he championed Syd Barrets Pink Floyd back in the pschedelic days of the later 60's and also a lot of the equally revered/disdained prog rock bands such as Yes and Genesis (when Peter Gabriel was their front man). One of his most famous "Peel Sessions" featured a fledgling band on the verge of breaking through to becoming the biggest rock band ever and a band respected both performance wise and critically on their musical content from all musical quarters. That band was Led Zeppelin. To play a part in promoting so many of the bands we now view as "mainstream" is a truly remarkable career.

Although sad, it is worth noting that this man had his perfect job, a solid and very loving relationship with his wife, the same fears and aspirations for his children, with the same pride for their achievements as any of us, and that's why he appealed. He was like a mate that you knew. And that is perhaps the reason this news has so patently affected so many people across such a spread of generations. People my age are increasingly aware of our own mortality and when someone like this dies it is just another chip chiselled out of our veneer of bravado about growing older. We may not show it, we may not talk about it. Life will carry on regardless, but every single event like this stops us in our tracks for a few seconds more each time, and makes us think a little more each time about how the inevitablility is catching up bit by bit. More days behind you than in front of you. It happened to me when I heard of Caron Keating's death from cancer, I grew up with Brian Clough featuring on post match TV interviews and being brutally honest and his death was another shock. I read Pete McCarthy's books lying by a pool in France, sipping a beer and thinking ..."this blokes spot on"... and then he dies very suddenly. Perhaps I'm going into my SAD period as Winter finally dawns. Perhaps I've been listening to too much Roger Waters.


Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say

Later, GrocerJack