The video for Ashes is out. It looks vastly different to what I thought it would, any crowd involvement has been reduced to about 4 seconds worth of jumping up and down. I've only seen it once on TV (you can view it here as well, though it's only very small and it may be quite hard to work anything out). I haven't made myself out in the crowd scene yet, I've heard that they airbrush out uggos. We all look quite indistinguishable anyway.

Fuck. John Peel has just died. I have an immense urge to find a pub jukebox and put 'Teenage Kicks' on repeat whilst I raise a glass to the man.
When a celebrity dies, it is usually met with indifference or maybe a brief spurt of interest if it is somebody famous enough. For anybody who has a love for music (especially music that is a bit non-regular), the death of John Peel affects you in a different way.
I actually feel really sad about it, and hearing Radio 1 at the moment isn't helping me cheer up in any way. The regular radio 1 DJ at the moment Edith Bowman can't speak as her voice keeps cracking up and people are sending messages in saying how he shaped their love for music. Gruff from the Super Furry Animals is actually in tears. That's not normal.
Shit, they're playing 'Teenage Kicks'…

I used to listen to John Peel a lot whilst at Uni. Quite often I'd be driving from Preston to Fleetwood whilst his show was on. I often found it difficult to listen to, ten-minute indecipherable instrumentals followed by strange foreign synth-prog. I'd never really turn it off though, partly because as a man he was so likeable, but also he was very 'inclusive' in his show. He knew thousands of bands that I'd never heard of, but he never used to talk down to the listeners about them, instead he'd ramble on at you as if it was the favourite band of you both.
He did play bands you'd heard of (or would hear of very soon), and it was always warm, slightly quirky, done with respect but with no ego. I loved bands playing at Peel Acres; it was fantastic that famous bands such as Blur played in John Peel's house.
For over 40 years John Peel has never followed fashions in music, instead he has consistently championed great bands before anybody else really did. Not just the bands either, he'd play genres of music which weren't at that time particularly fashionable. Some became fashionable, some didn't, but John Peel just played music he loved and which intrigued him. Jesus, the man was 65 and was still playing cutting edge music. That he died whilst on a working holiday in Peru sort of sums up the life he led.

I don't know…the man had a passion for good music (and also Liverpool football club), and I feel like one of the good ones has gone. John Peel leaves behind a sadder and less interesting world, and I'll sorely miss his presence in it.