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Product Description
Review
It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since the death of John Peel. Hard because, in many ways, it’s as if he’s still with us, so inspiring was the DJ to legions of music lovers in the UK and far, far beyond. The records he played seeped into the minds of young men and women, who years later found that the roots laid by late-night radio sessions had sprouted into magical new musical shapes.
To properly cover the breadth and depth of material Peel played on his Radio 1 show over almost 40 years would probably require 400 discs, but this four-CD set at least manages to convey some sense of the man’s eclectic tastes. He wasn’t always right with his recommendations, but at least he gave the bands in question a chance – there aren’t any DJs active today with quite the same ear for both the blissfully sublime and the stupendously bonkers.
Kats Karavan essentially presents four show-style mixes, with selections from the 60s and 70s, the 80s, 90s and 00s. Between certain songs up pops Peel with some words of wisdom, endearingly fumbling his lines occasionally, which does sometimes transport the listener back to those days of listening intently to every tiny detail about this limited-run seven-inch that was, apparently, so very amazing. There are well-known names and many which will be entirely new to many: Traffic and Free appear on the 60s/70s disc, rubbing shoulders with Deaf School and The Fabulous Poodles; on the latest, 00s mix, Bloc Party and Yeah Yeah Yeahs appear alongside Ball Boy and Bearsuit.
Though the material is largely of an indie/rock slant, there are tracks from The Orb and Stereolab on the 90s disc, and Aswad on the 60s/70s, showcasing the variety Peel offered. The most out-there arrangement though is Bong Ra’s frenetic Archie Bunker Disciples, which sounds like a broken Aphex Twin 33 played at 45, backwards, through an over-driven amplifier. Basically like a really angry Prodigy, then.
While it was never going to be comprehensive, Kats Karavan does paint a fairly accurate audio portrait of one of the nation’s best-loved radio DJs. One hopes that the surprises contained within its intriguing tracklisting inspire a new generation of investigative listeners to get searching for new, often singularly brilliant sounds. --Mike Diver
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are many compilations available which bear the legendary DJ's name but none that come anywhere close to matching this fabulous 4 disc box set. For a start, around half of the tracks are taken from Peel sessions (many of which have never been previously released) and, with the great man's voice popping up from time to time, it's about as close as you'll get to actually listening to one of his shows. The excellent booklet contains, amongst other things, several recollections from artists who appeared on his programme over the years and it's obvious that a lot of care and attention to detail has gone into the making of this collection.
And so to the music...disc 1 concentrates on the years 1966-1979, disc 2 1980-1989, disc 3 1990-1998 and disc 4 2000-2005. With only 74 tracks covering almost 4 decades, you get an indication of the scale of the problems faced when trying to select which material to include (and, indeed, omit!). Many of the bands he championed are missing e.g. Misty In Roots, Joy Division, Half Man Half Biscuit and Killing Joke to name but four and it would have been a nice touch if they could have included Grinderswitch's "Pickin' The Blues", the track which opened his show for many years, but these are all minor gripes.
As a 40 something, I felt that I might favour the first disc but was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed almost all of the tracks. I won't pretend that there weren't one or two which grated a bit but that's to be expected as his shows regularly featured stuff which made you want to switch off. However, more often than not, they also contained some absolute gems and there are a good few of those on offer here...one such track being the long-lost 1968 Peel session recording of "Walk In My Shadow" by Free.
No doubt everyone will have their own opinions about which artists should have been included or left off but the truth is that they could have made this a 20 disc set and still not come close to pleasing everyone, such was the broad spectrum of music Peelie played.
To sum up...I can honestly say that I listened to the entire box set in one sitting and never felt compelled to hit the "skip" button.
Definitely worthy of your attention!
P.S. also well worth checking out is the Fabriclive 07 CD which was mixed by John Peel.
And so to the music...disc 1 concentrates on the years 1966-1979, disc 2 1980-1989, disc 3 1990-1998 and disc 4 2000-2005. With only 74 tracks covering almost 4 decades, you get an indication of the scale of the problems faced when trying to select which material to include (and, indeed, omit!). Many of the bands he championed are missing e.g. Misty In Roots, Joy Division, Half Man Half Biscuit and Killing Joke to name but four and it would have been a nice touch if they could have included Grinderswitch's "Pickin' The Blues", the track which opened his show for many years, but these are all minor gripes.
As a 40 something, I felt that I might favour the first disc but was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed almost all of the tracks. I won't pretend that there weren't one or two which grated a bit but that's to be expected as his shows regularly featured stuff which made you want to switch off. However, more often than not, they also contained some absolute gems and there are a good few of those on offer here...one such track being the long-lost 1968 Peel session recording of "Walk In My Shadow" by Free.
No doubt everyone will have their own opinions about which artists should have been included or left off but the truth is that they could have made this a 20 disc set and still not come close to pleasing everyone, such was the broad spectrum of music Peelie played.
To sum up...I can honestly say that I listened to the entire box set in one sitting and never felt compelled to hit the "skip" button.
Definitely worthy of your attention!
P.S. also well worth checking out is the Fabriclive 07 CD which was mixed by John Peel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Various Artists - Kats Karavan: The History Of John Peel On The Radio (Universal)
Every now and then a release comes along which is so intrinsically right, so perfectly conceived, one cant help but smile broadly, and wish everyone involved the best of luck. Kats Karavan is one of those releases. A four-disc box, which celebrates John Peel's music radio career, chronologically, over five decades. Disc one, the `60s and `70s, features Peel's much-loved Misunderstood (the only band he ever managed), a Free track thought lost until found on an old BBC reel-to-reel tape, together with many favourites of the period; The Damned, Aswad, Medicine Head, Traffic, etc. Compared to later selections, it sounds almost mainstream, but that's possibly because, especially in the early days of his career, he had knack for discovering and playing breakthrough artists. Whatever the reason, it's a solid start and a consistently enjoyable mix, without a teenage kick to be found.
Disc 2, the '80s, features Altered Images version of Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" with Peel on backing vocals, The Cure's "A Forest", Musical Youth's number one hit "Pass The Duchie", Cud's "You Sexy Thing" and Costello's "Hi Fidelity". Not necessarily natural bedfellows, you may think, but it all hangs together perfectly, in much the same way the shows used to. Although the BBC omitted to keep any tapes of the show, old cassette tapes have been plundered and cleaned, and between some songs there are clips of the old boy, and I must say, it's a pleasure to hear him again, playing music, and enjoying himself.
Disc 3, the `90s, is where he lost me as a regular listener, though revisiting the decade's alternative landscape, it's well represented in my own record collection; PJ Harvey, Hole, The Orb, Tindersticks, etc. Strange that Ivor Cutler doesn't appear `til now... and no sign of The Fall anywhere. Statistics show that single people, the majority of them men, primarily listen to late night radio. You find yourself someone to cuddle up to and you've suddenly got better things to do that stay up for the new Violent Anal Death session - though you secretly miss it.
Disc 4, the `00s, though cut short by Peel's sad death in 2004, reveals no drop in quality. Laura Cantrell, Mercury Rev, Bong Ra, Bloc Party and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all present, and although it's a return to guitars, I'm sure he'd have been championing the new electronica - probably in early 2006.
The package is completed with rare and previously unseen photographs, personal recollections from many of the featured artists, and the whole thing looks very tidy on a bookshelf next to "Margrave Of The Marshes", Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions" and the recent "The Olivetti Chronicles". 10/10.
Every now and then a release comes along which is so intrinsically right, so perfectly conceived, one cant help but smile broadly, and wish everyone involved the best of luck. Kats Karavan is one of those releases. A four-disc box, which celebrates John Peel's music radio career, chronologically, over five decades. Disc one, the `60s and `70s, features Peel's much-loved Misunderstood (the only band he ever managed), a Free track thought lost until found on an old BBC reel-to-reel tape, together with many favourites of the period; The Damned, Aswad, Medicine Head, Traffic, etc. Compared to later selections, it sounds almost mainstream, but that's possibly because, especially in the early days of his career, he had knack for discovering and playing breakthrough artists. Whatever the reason, it's a solid start and a consistently enjoyable mix, without a teenage kick to be found.
Disc 2, the '80s, features Altered Images version of Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" with Peel on backing vocals, The Cure's "A Forest", Musical Youth's number one hit "Pass The Duchie", Cud's "You Sexy Thing" and Costello's "Hi Fidelity". Not necessarily natural bedfellows, you may think, but it all hangs together perfectly, in much the same way the shows used to. Although the BBC omitted to keep any tapes of the show, old cassette tapes have been plundered and cleaned, and between some songs there are clips of the old boy, and I must say, it's a pleasure to hear him again, playing music, and enjoying himself.
Disc 3, the `90s, is where he lost me as a regular listener, though revisiting the decade's alternative landscape, it's well represented in my own record collection; PJ Harvey, Hole, The Orb, Tindersticks, etc. Strange that Ivor Cutler doesn't appear `til now... and no sign of The Fall anywhere. Statistics show that single people, the majority of them men, primarily listen to late night radio. You find yourself someone to cuddle up to and you've suddenly got better things to do that stay up for the new Violent Anal Death session - though you secretly miss it.
Disc 4, the `00s, though cut short by Peel's sad death in 2004, reveals no drop in quality. Laura Cantrell, Mercury Rev, Bong Ra, Bloc Party and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all present, and although it's a return to guitars, I'm sure he'd have been championing the new electronica - probably in early 2006.
The package is completed with rare and previously unseen photographs, personal recollections from many of the featured artists, and the whole thing looks very tidy on a bookshelf next to "Margrave Of The Marshes", Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions" and the recent "The Olivetti Chronicles". 10/10.
Format:Audio CD
John peel always selected an eclectic mix for his shows and this collection reflects that. I can almost guarantee that you won't like every track here but that is why it's a great collection. Enjoy it, discover new music and yopu'll love the sleeve notes too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This is how I remember the JP shows!
I started listening to John Peel in the very early `80's, when I had my radio in bed with me, hoping my parents couldn't hear it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Christopher Watton
Kats Karavan
A John Peel themed compilation is always something I await with interest. This one stands out from previous ones as it has recordings of Peel himself on it. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2010 by Mr. C. R. Aylott
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