new_loafer

I'm just shocked, I can't believe he's gone. I've been away with the fairies all afternoon, just trying to thing about how John changed my life. When I think about it, it really is unreal. The bands I got into because of him, and the subsequent gigs where I met friends, it's just too much to digest. This is the most upset I've been about the death of somebody I don't even know.

He was the best John Peel-style DJ the world has ever known. I will always remember where I was when I heard the news. I knew it was something big when Colin Murray announced there was a newsflash after Sonnet by The Verve. I don't think I could have quite imagined how big.

Everything else today seems trivial. I would quite happily have listened to an entire Barenaked Ladies album today, but it would have meant all John's work was in vain.

I've been listening to "Alone Again Or" by Calexico quite a few times tonight, for it is the last record I bought off the strength of hearing it on John's show. I was on my way home from a particularly out-there band practice, after a heavy session on the skunk, and he played a session version which was really long with a particularly trippy middle bit. I had one of them moments. It was magic. I was knocked out by it. I never heard that session version again, but this one does in the meantime.

I want tomorrow off work to delve into my CDs and vinyl and play every record I've got that I can attribute to the man.

I'm not taking this well am I?