´óÏó´«Ã½

I'm hoping all these stories about TV viewing figures being a bit down on last year mean that more people were listening to the radio. If not then many of you will have missed out on some cracking programmes.

Now, it's always dangerous for me to single out any particular programme because I run the risk of being pelted with rotten fruit at the next staff meeting. But if you were fishing around for frozen giblets and didn't manage to hear John Peel's Scottish Sessions on Christmas Day then head straight to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer right this minute. There you'll hear John's son, Tom Ravenscroft, talk about the contribution his dad made to the Scottish music scene. Plenty of Scottish musicians queued up to describe the thrill of hearing their demos and sessions played on Peel's Radio 1 show although, as you'll hear, he wasn't an enthusiast for everything Scottish!

The programme was produced by Nick Low who mined the Radio 1 archive for some choice clips and tracks. Nick tells me it was "one of those extra special shows that you get to make, and an overwhelming good will response from the musicians we contacted, so I was really grateful for the 2 hour slot, anything less wouldn't have done him justice."

I particularly liked the story from Clare Grogan who tells how she made John Peel an offer he couldn't refuse and persuaded him to actually sing on an Altered Images track.

As I say...iPlayer...not to be missed.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?