A Friend I no longer see

I visited Andy 3 times. First time he was living in a tiny smelly flat with 'mentally ill' neighbour. He was only renting then. Andy must have graduated from Bournemouth in 1993. All my visits to Bournemouth must have been between 1990 and 1993. Then I guess he lived in Plymouth for a year or two, 1993 – 1994? 

Bournemouth – First house shared with that girl he fancied. Walked to it from station. It was a guest house. We walked about in long coats. I pestered a café into doing me a veggie breakfast. Seafront walk

Second house was nice, near a park, but in red light district. Andy showed me a local prostitute. Played cards.

Third house was student residence. Small, bungalow thing. Phone was outside and I had to get answering person to knock on Andy’s door. Party. 70s party. I was so drunk I vomited in Andy’s toilet next morning. Took photographs I shouldn’t have in bedroom of couple in bed. Bill sent flowers to apologise and they all thought he was weird. Got on with bloke who liked My Bloody Valentine and thought I looked like Nick Cave.

Before getting place in Sheffield. I visited after he had moved in with Corrine (his long term girlfriend) which may have been 1996. I was there with Colin. We went to a pub lunchtime and I think I really enjoyed it.

Andy moved to a bigger house (98?) when Corrine got pregnant – early 1997? I went back to the old house again in 97, Corinne was away. I believe she was pregnant then and still working. Went in second hand record store and bought Franks Black and Zappa.

Third visit was in 99 – my birthday. I finally met Corrine. Tried to put bike in shed but it wouldn’t fit. Met Andy by Sheffield Utd football ground. There was snow around. Corrine was decorating – said Andy was useless. Taped Small faces. Went to pub round corner. Bought alcohol in off-licence. Went with them xmas shopping on Sunday and bought cafetierre. Went to park with Andy and kid while Corinne went somewhere else.

Finally Andy came to my wedding in 2000 and I think that's the last time I saw him. Not heard a thing from him since.

Peel and Radio 1
A breakfast show it was not, but standing in for Jakki Brambles (as the result of a bet) at lunchtime in April was the nearest John got. It stands out as one of the most fondly-remembered oases in a period when John and the new management at Radio 1 were struggling to come to terms. Johnny Beerling left the station and his replacement, Matthew Bannister, instituted some of the most swingeing changes, aimed at making the station appeal to a younger audience, in the station's history. In rapid succession, Dave Lee Travis, Johnnie Walker, Tommy Vance and Simon Bates either left the station or were "retired." However, the Brambles week proved that JP could manage a high-speed, audience interaction-based setting with panache and considerable good humour (most of it at the expense of acts he despised).

At the beginning of the year, it was still business very much as usual. Peel was still doing his weekend jaunts, and finally kept his promise to play the abandoned 1991 Festive Fifty, albeit at a snail's pace of one record a show (and throwing the sequence out by leaving one of them at home). The result was an unsurprising chart that placed Nirvana at the top, although John steadfastly refused to jump on the backlash bandwagon by insisting that the fact that an LP was popular did not diminish its worth, and gave an unqualified welcome to their second LP in the autumn. The events of April 1994, however, brought one of rock's most thrilling episodes to an end, as Kurt Cobain was found dead following his suicide: this prompted repeats of all three of the band's sessions back to back, and brought a cycle that John had virtually started and nurtured to a melancholy close.

Cobain's widow Courtney Love recorded her second and final session with Hole in 1993, only one in a sparkling year for new acts, including Roovel Oobik, Here, Kanda Bongo Man, Tindersticks and Trumans Water. In an unprecedented move, a Fall session recorded for Mark Goodier's Evening Session was repeated on Kat's Karavan, in the same show that Prince Far I's 1978 session was rebroadcast for the first time in 16 years to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his murder. When the Fall recorded a Christmas session to tie in with a similar offering by Elastica for the 1994 Festive Fifty shows, it seemed right and fitting, yet it was the calm at the centre of a huge storm that had already erupted. After three years of stability, 1993 suddenly found John moved to a staggeringly unsuitable spot between 4.30 and 7 p.m. on Saturday (losing another 30 minutes and starting at 5 from November '94), although the Friday slot, 10 p.m.-1 a.m. (once more regained from the Friday Rock Show, which had plummeted in popularity since Tommy Vance's departure for Virgin Radio), at least resembled the programming from his classic period. As usual, John made the best of these alterations, and instituted an enjoyable strand on his Saturday afternoon shows. Since this was around the time when football matches ended, guest reviewers were invited to contribute match reports (one of which, by Craig Scanlon, ended up on a Fall LP). However, it implied a dumbing down of the show's importance, underlined by the 1993 Festive Fifty being broadcast in a massive block at the fag end of Christmas Day, a subdued postscript to what JP called "a depraved year,"and one of the least memorable tracks ever to make the top was by Chumbawamba.

However, this was a period that also saw John travel around the continent in the Euro Action specials that took him to Germany, Hungary and Sweden, and 1994 saw memorable live relays from Glastonbury. The live studio set by Sharon Shannon was an idea resurrected from the Night Ride days, and Pulp's session that contained an early version of Common People made the FF on the strength of a single play. So Peel brought up the rearguard for Radio 1, yet was to continue to re-invent himself. https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peel_Show