I’ve just got done listening to Tom Ravenscroft’s Six Music show, which is a breath of fresh air, musically speaking. It’s a little bit of everything, from strange shouty punk to interesting techno, to mad women singing god knows what in a foreign language. there’s also lots of really strange band names- Gay Against You, The Babies, and a song called ‘Curious Oven’ are particular notables. There seems to be no agenda, no theme or plan apart from finding things the DJ finds interesting and wants to share with the world. Ravenscroft himself is a pleasant, articulate speaker, albeit one with a slightly flat voice. He also sounds just a little bit nervous sometimes, but it’s endearing rather than annoying. It’s refreshing, unpretentious. We’ve all heard slick DJs a million times before, and it’s nice to hear someone who isn’t that- he’s just someone who likes music, and that’s something we’ve not heard since….
since….
Oh, it’s an unfair comparison, isn’t it? Still, in some ways it’s a valid one. More so, since he read out an email from someone and misread it as ‘dear John’ before correcting himself. Bet that mortified the poor guy, but then again, I bet every email he got mentioned his dad in some way or other.
Just in case you’re one of the few people in the universe who might not know what I’m hinting at, I’ll show you a picture of his dad.
t-shirt self-promotion: you're doing it wrong
in fact, have two:
Yes that’s right he’s JOHN PEEL’S SON. JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL’S SON DID YOU KNOW TOM RAVENSCROFT IS JOHN PEEL’S SON HE’S A DJ AND SO WAS HIS DAD DID YOU KNOW JOHN PEEL TOM RAVENSCROFT JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN TOM PEEL RAVENSCROFT JOHN PEEL’S SON JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL. JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN. PEEL. JOHN PEEL’S SON HAS A RADIO SHOW, JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL. JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL TOM RAVENSCROFT IS JOHN PEEL’S SON OMG WTF JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN PEEL JOHN. PEELJOHNPEELJOHNPEELRAVENSCROFTWASHISREALNAMEYOUKNOW.
It’s an inevitable comparison, really, and to be honest it’s initially a little bit spooky, listening to Ravenscroft’s show. You hear that voice, that musical grandfather’s voice, speaking through him, in the same way it spoke through a lot of other people. It’s creepy. I’m reminded of the way that at my gran’s funeral, I was told by some people I’d never met that I really reminded them of her. Good for a man in his mid-twenties to be told he looks like a septuagenarian scots lady, but heritage is heritage I guess. You have to accept it with a smile and try to be yourself, whilst allowing that these people live on in you.
Plus, anyway, it’s not just Ravenscroft who carries this legacy. All of british music does. Six Music has, let’s be fair, been made in his image, and he’s in every real fan of music. I remember countless times I met some indie fan or other, and you could hear Peel-isms in the way they talked about music. I heard it in Mark Radcliffe, in people who ran second hand music-shops, and in the way I talk when I’m trying to sound knowledgeable. It’s in all of us. Peel re-wrote the rule book on how to be a music DJ, and made it ok to sound like a human being rather than a polished automaton. Every good DJ in the world is in his debt.
So anyway, is Ravenscroft’s show actually any good? Yes, it’s really good. It’s good because of the music, and because of the lack of ego displayed by Ravenscroft himself. You should listen to it. You’ll hear something that you’ve never heard before.