# Radio Irrtum! – Issue 2024-08b – Special: Peel Sessions

Oh, I'm lucky that it worked out with the start...
especially because we'll have a special today! This is Radio Irrtum, with Herr
Irrtum! - that is me - at the Condenser Studio Microphone… and the Special, that will
be a John Peel Sessions Special. All of this plays on frequencies that the BBC
certainly would have liked to have, but never got, namely on Alex
Berlin! at 91 zero (means MHz), or DAB+ on K7D and
at the international stream, of course.
Before I reveal to you, who John Peel was, what all the fuzz with the
John Peel sessions is or what all that has to do with the BBC
anyway, or what music will be played the following hour... before all
that I'll play a first song from such a peel session, and that comes from
Foyer des Arts, yes, the Band that did "Wissenswertes über Erlangen"
and that is ↓↓↓

**01. Foyer des Arts: Könnten Bienen fliegen | JPS 12/10/1986**

Many associate Foyer des Arts with funny NDW titles such as
"Wissenswertes über Erlangen", but in fact they had also more melancholy,
more serious titles from the beginning such as "Die toten Augen von Deutschland".
In addition, Max Goldt, the singer, was active already before 1981
in the Pre NDW cassette scene. Back then Anti-musicians in the Federal Republic
around 1980 utilized a kind of Fax machine mail order network and it was there,
where he actually started.
Also, what went under the radar for many is that the music of Foyer
des Arts isn't just based on skuril-witty texts mainly:
At least a great a share of the success of this
band has Gerd Pasemann, who is responsible for the sound and large parts
of the compositions. His sound was far ahead in terms of international 80s
indie standards - so far ahead that John Peel from the British Radio station
BBC not only got interessted but declared them to be his favourite German band.

But who was this John Peel?
This orginally was a radio presenter at the pirate radio "Radio London" in 1967
who was hired very soon as an expert in underground music by the
BBC. During this period, the British musicians where represented by a strong
union which enforced that only a certain proportion of
records could be played in a radio program – the rest should be performed
by studio musicians – live in the studio. John Peel didn't exactly follow this
advice... he simply pulled the bands themselves into the studio. They played
not live – although that also happened – but got ONE day to record up to four
songs in a BBC Sudio. Those tracks later appeared in Peels shnow. This construct
became the Peel sessions. And they were so popular that even when the rule was
withdrawn later, this tradition persisted. Until John Peel's death in 2004.
Due to the short recording time, the bands could not polish their music
infinitely. They were forced to release quite raw versions
of their songs, which often revealed the actual essence of those pieces.
That's what makes these versions so unique. Later
some of these recordings even ran live in front of an audience. And so
rather unknown bands suddenly got known to an audience of millions. Without
these Peel-sessions we might have no knowledge about The Cure today,
or OMD, or The Sisters of Mercy (whose Peel session is currently running at
Background) and so on. Peel had this very special taste in music, that did
not stop at genre boundaries.
So a hefty drum and bass track could fullow up a country song. This principle
"Quality before genre considerations / Unknown before Mainstream" has influenced
many of the better radio music journalists to this day.
But! There are also severe shady sides. Peel proudly claimed in
the 70s to have sex with underage girls in massive amounts because they "wanted
it" from him. There was never an indictment like it occured to various other BBC
moderators, but that is – excuse my French – a shitty behavior. This is nothing
but abusing an elaborate position of power.

And so there will be no further glorification of the person Peel - I will
actually focus on those Peel sessions.
And that with a certain imbalance – in favour German Acts. Here on...

[Tellerrand]

My name is Herr Irrtum! and you listen to the John Peel Sessions Special
and from these sessions there will be played...

  - Tarwater
  - The Future Sound of London
  - The Human League
  - Einstürzende Neubauten
  - Malaria
  - Chicks on Speed
  - PIL (also Public Image Limited)
  - Bauhaus
  - The Fall
  - Broadcast
  - and Nico

This means that we are bridging a period from 1971 to 2003 - a whopping 32
years - and, the math aces among you have long since got it out, we have
46% German projects on offer¹.

But because all this is not enough for us, we will run the Peel session of Plaid
in the background, a IDM electronics project, which is still active today and
lives next to Aphex Twin, Kid606, LFO and the Plaid split The Black Dog. All of
these had their own John Peel sessions and are considered pioneers of the genre.
Here we listen to a section of Cold or OL - the songs from the album release
with this Peel Session from December 1997 have other names than those that the
BBC itself indicates in their tracklist.

¹) [Note: there are 50% - that was planned differently at the time]

[Plaid: Cold/OL (09.12.1997)]

So far our background music by Plaid. Lets proceed with a Berlin project
FINALLY, namely an excerpt from the Peelsession by... and that's what John Peel
announces himself...

**02. Tarwater: Miracle Of Love | JPS 26th March 2003**

Tarwater from East Berlin - yes, I say quite consciously "East Berlin" -
with an excerpt from the piece “Miracle of Love”, which in turn is an
excerpt from their John-Peel session from the 26th of March 2003.
Meaning, its the newest Peel session in this special here on Radio
Irrtum!. Tarwater are beneath To Rococo Rot from the remains of the
East Berlin projects “Ornament & Verbrechen”, “Aponeuron” and many further
projects of the Lippok brothers. Tarwater is a duo, with members Ronald Lippok
and Bernd Jestram, who also is connected with the GDR underground and the Lippok
brothers


Genrewise very close, time but a whopping 8 years before and
geographically - you will hear this right at the band name - from completely
somewhere else comes the next Peel session. Here are... oh Herr Peel, say it
yourself:

**03. The Future Sound of London: Yage | JPS 12/09/1995**

The Peelsession was almost a year before the album “Dead Cities” by The Future
Sound of London was released, where this piece Yage is to be found. And *here*
it sounds much different, essential more direct, and - with respect - much more
non kitsch.

[Alex]

We go back 2 decades in the late seventies and listen to how
electronic music sounded then. Here are

**04. The Human League: Being Boiled | JPS 08/08/1978**

Yes, listen to your Buddha, *if* you can hear it. It's a little bit
different arranged than the official single version, isn't it? But
at least equal in impact. These were a completely different Human League than
the ones you most probably know, namely the 1981 ones, the ones
with the “Don’t you want me babe” hit. But The Human League, that
has always been Phillip Oakey, only back in 1978 without the two girls,
which he would pick up 2 years later in a disco. Resulting in throwing out almost
all other founding members.

Hard times for serious musicians: Where was the
British musicians union at this moment?!

A short time later in Germany, particularly in Düsseldorf and West Berlin, a
very own music scenes emerged. That again got the attention of John Peel and so he
invited the Einstürzende Neubauten frooooom Berlin to join. Here they are with...

[Blixa says itself]

**05. Einstürzende Neubauten: Sehnsucht | JPS 24/08/1983**

At that time they were the horror of all concert organizers, because they
regularly, albeit unintentionally, put stages on fire with their instruments.
And the instruments at that time were much more than
today more or less electrically amplified Machines stolen from construction
sites. Because their motto in terms of Instrument procurement was: “Be clever,
steal from construction workers!”. With this approach the Neubauten are still
unique today worldwide  – there really is nothing and no one else who is able to
create this kind of sound nowadays I think, not even themselves anymore. Well,
they might be able, sure, but they are obviously satisfied with second-class old
men ballads like “Am Landwehrkanal.”

Founding members of Einstürzende Neubauten in 1980 were among others Gudrun Gut
and Beate Bartel, who at that time both had already signed for Mania D², one of
the first pure women bands in Germany - and also a band that John Peel had
already praised in 1980 as the "Queens of Noise".
Not much later, the two women did quit Mania D and also the Einstürzende Neubauten
and founde Malaria. Let's go two years back to 1981 and hear them in a Peel
Session with "I Will Be Your Only One" - and I leave John Peel to his
ambitious attempt to list the cast of Malaria at that time:

²) [Note: It's called "Mania D" !!]

**06. Malaria: I Will Be Your Only One | JPS 25/07/1981**

Women's power (as always when women are at work) from West Berlin:
I think this Peel session has the international hype around
Malaria fueled even more. I don't know if Nina Hagen got aware of them because
of Peel or for other reasons – anyway: Malaria did support Nina Hagen on her US
Tour in 1982, and therefor were featured within the Rolling Stone magazine and
were - probably to the annoyance of Annette Humpe, the West Berlin rival from the
Band Ideal - internationally much more successful than Ideal.

[Alex]

Here, on Radio Irrtum, with me, Herr Irrtum!, we will continue
with this John Peel Sessions Special with

  - Chicks on Speed
  - PIL
  - Bauhaus
  - The Fall
  - Broadcast
  - and Nico

But if I can come back to Malaria once more:

One of the most famous songs of Malaria is “Kaltes Klares Wasser” - but the
fame of this song comes mainly because it was covered almost 20 years later by a
Munich project: Chicks on Speed.
We hear them now with two titles, because they are very different and thus are
showing the the range the Chicks on Speed are able to cover and this
Bandwidth is certainly also making them one of the favorite acts
by John Peel. But what am I talking about - our faithful listener Dieter has phoned
us and our answering machine did capture his wish so we can play it back.
Please Dieter.


**07. Chicks on Speed: Night Drive + Night Of The Pedestrian | JPS 17th
May 2000**

The Dieter obviously got bogged down with his announcement. That was of course ↑↑↑

[something amiss, sorry]

And we continues in a zigzag through time and across the globe.
Back to London and to 1979: Sid Vicious is dead, the
Sex pistols are finished... is No-Future already reality? Only PIL can supply the
answer... with their track Careering


**08. PIL: Careering from 4:30 | JPS 10.12.1979**

Yes PIL, the band of Johnny Rotten, after the Sex Pistols did broke down c
completely. Johnny Rotton, who even decades later appeared as "bully" rather than
anything else, something better, in the collective
Memory... Johnny Rotten could do much more than just being a anoying bloke.
Anyway, this music with its dub elements is something
quite different from what the sex pistols, the previous band of
Johnny Rotten. With considerably more depth, more Experiment, more claim. This
unusual complexity went down again later, in 1983, when “This is not a love
song” came out. But that is exactly what is considered PiL's biggest hit -
well... dunno.
Sure, not gonna lie, I find “This is not a love song” totally great, but for
different reasons.

Well - back then, when the term “Gothic” didn’t yet exist, but Joy Division
already got a lot of attention, there was still a
Band, from Northampton in England, which runs a quite similar dark style. They
had exactly one single published until early 1980  -  "Bella Lugosi is Dead" - and
that was already enough to make them quite known in the underground. But how to proceed?
The question clarified when they had their Peel Session in December 1979. We are now
hearing from this

**09. Bauhaus: Spy In The Cab | JPS 4th December 1979**

Did you hear this sonar-like sound in the end? That's just an electric bass note
played at a very high pitch. And that's all the e-bass is doing
during this song. Cool, right? With this session it was a
question of honour for the back then totally new label "4AD", to get in contact
with Bauhaus. And with that world fame came, that legendary status around
Bauhaus, the band around Peter Murphy from Northampton and last but
not least also for the label 4AD, which today is one of THE largest
Indie labels worldwide, quite comparable to Daniel Miller's Mute Records.

[Alex]

You hear Radio Irrtum! my name is Herr Irrtum! and this is a
Special about the Peel Sessions, the nearly-live format, established by the
British BBC presenter John-Peel within his radio shows.

And it's time for a little more

[Punk]

Here's one of the absolute favorite bands of John Peel  - here are

**10. The Fall: Shake Off | JPS 18/10/1998**

[John says to] Thanks John. And I think without John Peel all things would have
been much harder for singer Mark E. Smith, the central person in The Fall. Where
“hard” is relative - The Fall were never pleasing, but always uncomfotable -
from their inception in 1976 until the death of Smith in 2018 – that's their
very underlying principle.

And by the way, I think that Mister LCD Soundsystem, James
Murphy, would have a completely different vocal style, if it wasn't for The
Fall with Mark. E. Smith, showing how it's done right.


Now something completely different: Here comes one of my absolute favourite
band, which I didn't even know during their lifetimes, but got to know them much 
too late. Here are

**12. Broadcast: Untitled (City of Progress) | JPS 15th September 1996**

At the time, they didn't even have an EP out, the
should appear only 2 months later, on 25.11.1996, and that EP was also
limited to 2500 pieces. In their retro 60s/70s Flowerpower Sound
they anticipate bands like Kit Sebastian for 20 years.
Later, however, they got increasingly psychedelic but no less great.
Unfortunately, the singer Trish Keenan catched the H1N1 flu virus on tour in 2011
She died a few months later at the age of 42.
I would like to take this opportunity to call for the following:
When in crowds, especially on public transport and
at mass events: Wear a fucking mask. Especially if you have a cough or cold.
This is simple decency. And common sense anyway, if there are still remains of
it to be found. Thank you... and that was it already with this John Peel
Sessions Special within this issue of

[OMG].

My name is Herr Irrtum! and you will find me as well as playlist and
Manuscript of this broadcast at tje Fediverse, firmly pinned for the next
weeks under the name of @herr_irrtum@s.basspistol.org .

But at least there is still a part of a Peel Session left for you, a verrrrry
old one, from 1971. And it comes from Nico, the mysterious German singer of
Velvet Underground, at least during the time of the 1967 album produced by 
Andy Warhol - the one with the huge banana sticker.

This album was mostly known to insiders only back in 1971. The outstanding
importance of this album has only become established in the following decades.
And in 1971 Nico was away from Velvet again Underground and tinkered with her
"solo career", if we call it like that.
What you hear right away and what sounds like a accordion is not one. Nico has,
whenever possible back then, used a Harmonium. A kind of organ with bladse
bellows operated by foot. Such instruments are mainly used in smaller churches
in villages that can not afford a real organ. I really can't think of anyone from
the underground or the rock music genre in general who used a harmonium.
That alone, but much more, makes this Nico so unique.
Here is a part of her song - I thank you for listening and
stay well until next time... Your's Herr Irrtum!

**13. Nico: Secret Side | JPS 02/02/1971**