John Peel (born John Robert Parker Ravenscroft; 30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004) was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer, and journalist. A feature of Peel’s BBC Radio 1 shows were the famous John Peel Sessions, which usually consisted of four pieces of music pre-recorded at the BBC’s studios. The sessions originally came about due to restrictions imposed on the BBC by the Musicians’ Union and Phonographic Performance Limited, forcing them to hire bands and orchestras to render cover versions of recorded music. Sessions were usually four tracks recorded and mixed in a single day; as such they often had a rough and ready, demo-like feel, somewhere between a live performance and a finished recording. During the 37 years Peel remained on BBC Radio 1, over 4000 sessions were recorded by over 2000 artists. Many classic Peel Sessions have been released on record, particularly by the Strange Fruit label. (More from Wikipedia)
Twink is also renowned as a founding member of the hard psych band the Pink Fairies, along with the Deviants’ Mick Farren and Steve Peregrin Took, who was Marc Bolan’s partner in the original Tyrannosaurus Rex band.
Besides Twink, the other bandmembers in Tomorrow – originally called the Four Plus One – included guitarist Steve Howe, which was later in Yes; Junior Wood; and Keith West, who was evidently the best known member of the band when their album came out. Of note is the fact that Tomorrow was featured on the very first of the Peel Sessions by DJ John Peel on BBC Radio 1, on September 21, 1967.
(July 2013)
On August 26, 2014, Brian Olive appeared on the Daytrotter sessions, a series of short interviews and musical performances out of Rock Island, Illinois. Wikipedia says of Daytrotter: “Daytrotter is a website for the recording studio Horseshack, which hosts recording sessions with many popular and typically up-and-coming indie music acts, although it works with local bands in the Illinois area as well. This innovative music studio was founded in 2006 by Sean Moeller. The sessions can be compared to that of a radio station’s lounge recordings, where musicians passing through the town can record live in the studio. Due to their tendency to offer an eclectic sampling of music, and their production style, the sessions have been compared to that of the legendary Peel Sessions.”
(February 2015)
