John Peel’s record collection to be made into online museum

John Peel’s record collection is to be made into an interactive online museum. 


Peel’s collection, which contains 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and many thousands of CDs, will become part of The Space, a new experimental digital service organised and funded by the Arts Council and the BBC. 


The Arts Council will provide initial funding while the BBC will provide support and development advice. Further funding will be sought in the future to complete the project and make every record available online. 

Tom Barker, Director, John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, said: “It is the first step in creating an interactive online museum with access to the entire collection, one of the most important archives in modern music history.”


Frank Prendergast of Eye Film And Television added: “The idea is to digitally recreate John’s home studio and record collection, which users will be able to interact with and contribute to, while viewing Peel’s personal notes, archive performances and new filmed interviews with musicians.”


Sheila Ravenscroft, John Peel’s wife and Patron of the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts also commented, stating: “We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans, as he would have wanted. This project is only the beginning of something very exciting.”


The Space will run from May to October across various platforms including PCs and smartphones, while it will also be available as a red button on-demand service via Freeview HD. 


Arts Council England is committing up to £3.5m, while the BBC is contributing to the partnership by developing the technological solutions and providing ongoing support.

Spiritualized – Hey Jane

Brand new and rather epic track from the legendary Spiritualized, due to appear on their upcoming album ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light’….

Tribes – Baby – review

The debut album from Tribes is a pretty impressive collection of songs that blend their shiny tuneful influences with a tougher, raw element that provides a gritty edge to the sunny melodies. The opening ‘Whatever’ is an undoubted highlight, packing many addictive thrills and suggesting that Tribes may share some musical DNA with 90s Brit heroes the Longpigs as well as bearing shades of the Pixies. The group may be influenced my American grunge but they have clearly learned from a wide variety of British artists as well. This is evident on the glam nostalgia of ‘We Were Children’ with its air punching chorus declaring how they “were children in the mid 90s” immediately reviving memories of the glorious Britpop years, and also recalling the sweaty glamour of early Suede. 

But it doesn’t stop at the 90s, as the charmingly introspective ‘Corner Of An English Field’ displays how Tribes have also learned from the guitar bands of the 2000s, with a bridge that is pure Killers and vocals that come across like a grittier Razorlight.  Meanwhile on ‘Half Way Home’ a simple spot of guitar picking sets up the foundation for a great verse which soon gives way to a blissful lyricless chorus that builds into a Pulp-esque burst of confident indie pop brilliance. The American influences are most evident on ‘Sappho’, a stab at grunge pop which despite its fat muddy riff disappointingly ends up sounding like Razorlight covering the Fountains Of Wayne. ‘Himalaya’ is a welcome change in nature and tempo, a slow moving and slow burning album highlight with a verse recalling Arctic Monkeys at their most tender and a mighty burst of a chorus that brings to mind the Flaming Lips. 

‘Nightdiving’ has some lovely chiming guitars, raw emotion in the vocals and a most promising verse but it’s soon marred by a chorus that lacks any real impact. Meanwhile ‘When My Day Comes’ is Libertines-esque rock n roll, perhaps not the most original set of musical ideas but great fun which also brings a great chorus and ‘Walking In The Street’ has shades of New Order, The Cure, the Smashing Pumpkins and again, the Pixies but the quality of the song pales in comparison to its influences. ‘Alone Or With My Friends’ is a bit like what would have happened if Blur’s ‘Tender’ was written by Embrace instead while the closing highlight ‘Bad Apple’ is probably the most Britpop influenced moment here, coming across a little bit like ‘Dear Prudence’ being rewritten by Pulp or perhaps the Longpigs. 

Tribes can produce some catchy and impressive moments, but their sound is ultimately a mixture of many other bands and as a result ‘Baby’ is hardly the most original record you’re going to hear this year. However if you like singalong choruses, loud guitars and catchy indie tunes then this album may well be worth purchasing. 7.5

REVIEW : Dodgy – Stand Upright In A Cool Place

During the wonderful mid 90’s power pop trio Dodgy were pretty much a household name. With their inescapable summer anthems, fun jubilant festival performances and their down to earth personalities, they were never seen to be as cool or credible as some of Britpop’s other luminaries. A follow up to 1996’s hit album ‘Free Peace Sweet’ was expected a couple of years later but instead in 1998 the band issued a ‘best of’ album and a final single before the three piece split up at the height of their success. Thankfully about a decade later old wounds were healed and the original line up were reunited once again. After all those years away Dodgy knew that they had to take their time to come back with something great and they have certainly succeeded. Reflections and regrets translate into the introspective tone of much of the album, and learning many lessons from life has resulted in the best music of their career.

But instead of attempting to rehash the sound of the Britpop years they decided to stay true to themselves and make an album representing the natural sound of where they stand musically in 2012, and the result of the group now being older and wiser. The first Dodgy album in over 15 years begins with the hypnotic ghostly acoustic picking of ‘Tripped And Fell’, a clever folk epic with splashes of psychedelica and blissful harmonies, with lyrics telling the story of a Malvern monk who one day meets a local girl and falls in love for the first time. The one track is a journey in itself and it’s only the beginning of the wonderful trip that ‘Stand Upright In A Cool Place’ takes you on. The cruising West Coast vibes of ‘What Became Of You’ are touched by regret and self reflection while coming complete with a highly addictive chorus. 

‘We Try’ is a brilliant singalong while ‘Shadows’ is tinged with world-weary Americana and subtly demonstrates the band’s love for Neil Young and Townes Van Zant in a way that still sounds like the work of great British songwriters. Then comes the simple wintery folk of ‘Did It Have To Be This Way’, which has a musical warmth that could melt an iceberg, and even the coldest of hearts couldn’t fail to be touched by the final bridge where Nigel Clark substitutes the previous “it’s a crying shame” for a softly-spoken heartfelt “it’s a fucking shame”. Like the rest of the album it has a lovely organic sound, partly achieved by it being recorded at a secluded Malvern farm. Listen to the breaking barn doors and birdsong during the intro to ‘Raggedstone Hill’ for an example of the natural beauty these songs often portray. 

‘Waiting For The Sun’ is beautifully melancholic soul music touched by real feelings of longing and yearning while the stunning ‘Only A Heartbeat’ is a particularly moving tribute to departed loved ones and has the sort of perfectly constructed melody that you will never forget. At the beginning of the album ‘Tripped And Fell’ tells the story of a monk falling in love and discovering a new kind of life, but the tale has a grim and unhappy ending as the monk is punished for breaking his vows by being made to climb up the ‘Raggedstone Hill’ on his hands and knees every day until his death. The aforementioned Malvern hill gives its name to the album’s 6 minute centrepiece where the blood, sweat and suffering of the subject matter is perfectly captured by the heaving emotion of the music. It is without a doubt one of the most poignant and powerful tales of love you will ever hear and could very well be Dodgy’s masterpiece. 

Elsewhere there’s the humble, understated acoustic beauty of ‘Find A Place’ and more reminiscent of old Dodgy is ‘Back Of You’ where the current Tory regime is told where to go. In fact a Conservative government was also in charge last time Dodgy released an album, another reminder of just how long it’s been since those Britpop days. The album ends fittingly with the solemn grace of ‘Happy Ending’, which is in fact rather a mournful ending, with more wonderful acoustic finger picking that suggests the group may have been listening to a lot of Midlake, while the chorus bears beautifully sad shades of The Korgis’ ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes’.


While the group have matured like a fine wine, the songs still represent what people loved about the band during the 90s and that is their strong melodies and well crafted tunes. In fact their advancing years have made them even better songwriters than they were all those years ago, and as musicians their confidence and imagination has also expanded. ‘Stand Upright In A Cool Place’ will surprise a lot of people, even the most stubborn of cynics. It is also their tidiest and most cohesive work to date, and from start to finish is an absolute joy to experience. A most welcome and refreshing comeback. 9

SONG FOR TODAY : Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks – Tigers

SONG FOR TODAY : Mad Sin – Cursed

SONG FOR TODAY – 23/02/2012