John Peel's Record Collection Revealed For First Time Ever
Tuesday, 01 May 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Chiefs of The Space project have taken the first steps in the journey of making one of the most important archives in modern music history available to the public begins this week, as they begin publishing record producer and DJ John Peel’s incredible record collection online – starting with 100 albums beginning with ‘A’.
The late broadcaster's home studio has been recreated online offering the public the chance to navigate and interact with the studio, browse through his archive of vinyl LPs and view his personal notes, archive performances and never before seen home footage. The project is part of The Space, a new experimental digital service developed by the Arts Council in partnership with the BBC, and each week 100 more titles under each letter of the alphabet will be revealed.
The public will be able to watch exclusive footage of John Peel on holiday, an interview with his widow Sheila Ravenscroft explaining why she decided to do this now, and never before screened personal footage from John Peel’s 50th birthday. The virtual studio features artifacts as Peel left them - the mixing desk, the touching family photos on the wall and the Liverpool Football shirt.
Wirral-born Peel, who died in 2004, was a champion of new music during nearly four decades as a DJ on BBC Radio 1. Peel amassed over 25,000 vinyl LPs and 100 of them will be unveiled online each week between May and October. Mike Absalom is the artist behind the first album in the archive and once described Peel as “the musical maypole around which we all danced”.
The Space will run from May to October across PCs, smartphones, tablets, internet connected TVs and will also be available as a red button, video on demand service via Freeview HD.
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