Twitter informs me that it's #johnpeelday so in tribute to the great man here's a Peel session which is pretty hard to find anywhere...

People tend to remember John as a champion of guitar-based bands, which he undoubtedly was, but only in the sense that he was a champion of absolutley everything as long as it was currently under the radar and could be comfortably played for at least two minutes before anyone realised it was at the wrong speed. You were just as likely to hear happy hardcore as twangly twee indie pop or a Vietnamese peasant being sick into a bowl of rice (with thanks to my dad for that one) and everything in between. I'm still trying to get hold of tunes I heard on his show back in the early 90s.

His death really did mark the end of an era on Radio 1. It's impossible to imagine where the late night combo of Peel followed by Kershaw would fit in on BBC radio currently, and completely ridiculous to imagine it fitting where it used to on Radio 1*.

One passion I shared with John Peel was Lab-4. They were pretty formative for me, in fact I was borderline obsessed with them for a while. They soundtracked me and my (now) wife first getting together and I collected as near as I could their entire back catalogue. And got boots just like Adam's. And screamed like a teenage girl at their shows. They just did hard trance better than anyone else, euphoric but with the wrong notes, reflecting the dark side of the euphoria you're feeling... This Peel session was on Radio 1 as part of John Peel's 60th birthday celebrations if I remember correctly, at the height of my Lab-4-mania. I love the gruff anticipation in John's voice when he announces them. "this'll be.... Lab-4..."

DOWNLOAD: Lab4 Peel Session - October 2001 (Radio rip - so head to lab4.com to buy some full quality stuff)

(*I'm not putting down Radio 1, I actually really like it for the most part. Peel->Kershaw was just about the pinnacle of radio though.)