John was born in Heswall near Chester, and after completing his military service in Britain in 1962, went to Texas and began working for WRR radio in Dallas. At this time The Beatles success was reaching its peak and John with his Liverpool connections found it helped his ratings to claim acquaintance with the group. He was in Dallas when John F Kennedy was shot and was at the press conference just before Lee Harvey Oswald was shot.
For the next three years he moved to various radio stations in America, among them KOMA in Oklahoma City and KMEN outside Los Angeles. He returned to Britain in 1967 and joined Radio London with the celebrated show The Perfumed Garden.
John has been with Radio 1 from the beginning in 1967, establishing himself with the late night programme Top Gear. John was the first DJ to give exposure to punk, reggae, hip-hop, long before they crossed over into the mainstream. Almost anyone who is anyone in the world of music has recorded a session for Peel.
Apart from regularly topping music paper Best DJ polls, John won the 1993 Sony Award for Broadcaster of the Year and in 1994 was named Godlike Genius by the NME. He also presents Home Truths for Radio 4.
John has been awarded a host of Honorary Degrees MA (University of East Anglia), Doctorates (Polytechnic University of East Anglia and Sheffield Hallam University), Hon. Degrees (Liverpool University, Open University, Portsmouth University, Bradford University) and a Fellowship (John Moores University Liverpool).
John is a lifelong fan of the Archers. He lives in Suffolk with his wife Sheila, affectionately known as The Pig.
John recently celebrated 40 years on the air and continues to seek out the best new music around.
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)
those cats look positively on the verge of tears, mnaa.
― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 26 October 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)
Helllo, MELT-BANANA here.
It is a sad thing to tell you but Mr.John Peel has passed away.
Everytime when we went to England, he was really nice to us and it was
always our honor and pleasure to play music for his radio show.
What we want to say to Mr.John Peel now is, "thank you very much for your love to our music, and we will miss you a lot."
Thanks.
MELT-BANANA
― ALLMUSIC.COM (ddb), Wednesday, 27 October 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)