John Peel - would reggae have taken off in the UK without him?

[6anbatte]

Hi Leggo Rocker

Who owns that now? His wife?

[peter levi]

yes leggo he was cantankerous but you had to get to know the man ,the way he talked to some people well only he can tell you why ,back in the 70ts in nuff reggae shops there was signs NO LOFTING and if you never bought any music thay would soon let you know ie music city or java or joe's brixton and if you never know the man them you dont get the best pre-release believe me feel no way so it go's .peel and keith went back a long time, and he would give keith a shout on the radio show.but i think peel paid for music to help support it which i must respect

[leggo rocker]

His wife owns the library. They were almost sold to an american but the British Library was pitching for it. I was watching the progress on some Peel fan blog but I've lost the link. A bit of googling is needed here I think...

Peter: We were always very very stoned and being rather young we were also paranoid. We were also usually the only white bwoys in the shop and we never felt comfortable there.

But we never loafed, we ALWAYS bought. But we never got a smile once, no matter how much we spent. And the other loafers in the shop looked ready to kill us. maybe we were just paranoid, maybe...

However, we DID manage to get some of the Pre's. I sold all mine years ago but recently bought back some from friends and also bought some of the stuff they bought there. So I now have Pre's of Dub To Africa, Leggo Dub and others (again). All in MINT condition. Very nice.

By contrast, my brother used to shop in Pecking's shop in Shephards Bush was made to feel like a king! Really involved personal service (skillful salesmanship)

Mind you, the vibe in the Greensleeves Uxbridge Road shop was often a little uptight too!

[6anbatte]

Hi Leggo Rocker

What will the British Library do with it???

I must admit I absolutely loved going into both Daddy Kool and Dub Vendor and never felt a bad vibe at all in either.
I get the feeling we may have spoken about this before.

[Snow Leopard]

If you were outside London, John Peel was about the only source of reggae back in the 1980's when I was growing up. He championed reggae when some people wanted it taken off his show (not just the NF nazis).

[tellmemore]

uk has its own jamaican communities.
a thing as good as reggae was gonna get out anyway.
the bbc and john peel did ok but the strong hypnotic nature of this thing we love so much, was gonna survive with or without help.
and its only just begun too!!
long live the great mr marley.

[nacho]

I agree with leggo rocker i don't do drugs but sometimes i felt bad vibes on those shops around london not always but so often, white guys in a reggae shop in brixton or leyton plenty of rastas in like a rat inside a cage of cats... but after some visits to all this shops the salesman was very receptive no hard feelings i think is normal they show respect always btw i have great memories of all the reggae music shops around london peckings, dub vendor, notting hill shops, Honest Jons, wax unlimited, Daddy Kools,Selectors Music Emporium, the guys of massive records in camden town, mikey dread shop, in london all is possible expensive but possible.

[6anbatte]

Maybe I was too far in my own little world to notice anything!
I do remember selling some stuff in Daddy Kools and had agreed a price with them on an Eek A Mouse 10" dubplate of "Georgie Porgie" when a customer immediately said he wanted to buy it.

The Daddy Kools guy gave me the disc back and let me negotiate directly with the guy who wanted it. He really didn't need to do that. I doubt if I would have been so generous.

[leggo rocker]

I still think that, despite the size of the JA community in UK, it was Peel that busted it out of it's enclave. Without him, it may have been long into it's decline before it got popular outside of London and the larger JA communities in Bristol, Nottingham etc.

As for selling records, I once stood on a street corner in St pauls Bristol with two or three boxes of LPs selling to anyone who came along. Guys started trying to steal them but a good samaritan rasta (and a big ine at that) dissed them and made them hand them back. It was a reckless and foollish thing to do in hindsight!

Several shops in Portsmouth started selling really good stuff so our days of braving london shops were short, maybe too short to get properly accepted in Daddy Kools. And we were after all just stupid punk kids and we didn't really know anything about JA music. I was maybe 17 or 18 at the time.

[6anbatte]

Hi Leggo Rocker

"As for selling records, I once stood on a street corner in St pauls Bristol with two or three boxes of LPs selling to anyone who came along."

Now that is wild!!!