John Peel‘s BBC 1 radio show was highly influential, giving so many bands their first radio exposure over the nearly 40 years he was on the air. His show also featured original studio sessions from artists, from Bowie, T-Rex and Nick Drake to Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure and The Fall, to My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Mogwai, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more. Over the years over 4,000 sessions were recorded by over 2,000 artists.
Many of these ended up getting released as Peel Session EPs by Peel’s own Strange Fruit Records, which started in 1986 and carried on till Peel’s death in 2004. Some of these have now been released to streaming services, but even more have not, though people have uploaded them YouTube. Enter blogger Dave Strickson, who created an alphabetized roundup of all the Peel Sessions he found on YouTube. There’s nearly a thousand, including David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars, Roxy Music, Joy Division and New Order, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Smiths, The Fall, Echo & The Bunnymen, Nirvana, Hole, Jack White, Elvis Costello, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, The Raincoats, Nick Drake, T-Rex, Buzzcocks, Can, Billy Bragg, Fairport Convention, Pulp, The Breeders, The Fugees, The Kinks, The Specials, The Slits, Thin Lizzy, and tons more.
We’ve put a few below but check out the full list here.
Find Sessions from artists ranging from A Guy Called Gerald to XTC.
Compiling the links into this handy index, it’s an exhaustive list that delivers Peel Sessions from a wide range of acts, many of whom are represented with multiple sessions recorded over the years. Siouxsie and the Banshees, for example, have five different sets recorded in the years 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1986. The Cure is represented with four sessions ranging from 1979 to 1985. David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars’ famous 1972 session is in there, as are two vital Nirvana performances from 1990 and 1991.
Cocteau Twins, Roxy Music, A Guy Called Gerald, Stereolab, Pavement, Thin Lizzy, The Specials, The Verve, and Bikini Kill are just a handful of the many other bands found on the list. Dig through the whole thing yourself right here.
The Fat Angel Sings 