Death of John Peel sad news for many Czech bands and music fans

I'm sure anybody with an interest in radio will have been saddened this week at the news that the much-loved British broadcaster John Peel has died at the age of 65. You wouldn't have to appreciate all the music he played (and some of it would have been harsh and difficult to most ears) to recognise that he was an all-time radio great. His humour, humanity and sheer love of music was apparent in every programme, and for decades he was - for people around the world - a symbol of independence and enthusiasm.

Death of John Peel sad news for many Czech bands and music fans

John Peel, photo: CTK

There is no question he was revered by many musicians and music fans in the Czech Republic; the older generation would have been aware of him from the late 1960s and early 70s, when he introduced the world to the likes of Pink Floyd and his hero Captain Beefheart. Younger Czechs would have known him from the BBC World Service, which has been broadcast on FM here since the early 1990s (for which, by the way, I myself am eternally grateful).

Jiri Cerny, now the foremost Czech music critic, recalled this week sitting in on a live broadcast of John Peel's at the BBC in London at the beginning of the 1970s. The famous DJ told Mr Cerny he was unused to talking to journalists from behind the Iron Curtain, but he did his best to accommodate his visitor from Czechoslovakia.

Once the Iron Curtain fell and Czech rock bands finally had a chance to catch up with trends in independent music, getting a play on the John Peel show was a very big deal indeed: it meant - for three minutes at least - you were somebody, not just in this country, but on the international stage. And the ultimate dream for a young Czech indie band was getting the chance to follow in the footsteps of hundreds of legendary groups and record a famous John Peel session.

While many Czech bands - some of them obscure to all but the most dedicated of rock fans - had CDs played on his programme, I am quite sure only two groups from this country recorded Peel sessions, Here and the Ecstasy of St Theresa. The leader of the latter, Jan P Muchow, tells a story about coming home in the early 90s to be told by his mother a foreign man had called at their house looking for him - John Peel, in Prague on a visit, stopping by to say hello to a local musician.

Though after a certain age it is no doubt very uncool to send letters to DJs, I myself had a request on his World Service programme around five years ago. Before he put the record on, the mighty John Peel said his son William had just been to Prague and thoroughly enjoyed it. And then he played Abba Zabba by Captain Beefheart.