05 conversation in

John Peel has led a rich and strange life. He’s been on Top of the Pops with Rod Stewart, married a 15-year-old in Texas, been given a ‘God-like Genius’ award from the NME and, recently, agreed a £1.5 million deal for his autobiography. He is also a devoted husband, a father to four grown-up children (two of them Liverpool alumni) and a collector of antique coins.

insight spoke to the legendary broadcaster and Honorary Graduate who still has the ability to surprise.

You’ve recently celebrated your daughter’s graduation from Liverpool. What was your own education like? I was packed off to a boarding school in North Wales when I was about seven years old. It was a very strange place – the main thing was just to survive it, really...

A private school education in those days had few benefits that I could see. Unless you were really clever indeed – which I certainly wasn’t – you came away with the ability to talk for about 20 seconds on almost any topic on oldie earth but didn’t actually know a great deal about anything. So you could be good at something like The Times crossword or lacrosse but it didn’t exactly equip you for life. According to my school reports, which I got from my mother a few years ago, a lot of the teachers wanted to throw me out of the school. Not because I was wicked, but I was a real handful in my own way. I was just incredibly absent-minded and I hated being told how to do things – I still do – and that’s not a great advantage whatever schooling you have.

Do you have any good memories of your school days? We all absolutely adored our housemaster, an extraordinarily eccentric man called RHJ Brooke, who always staunchly defended me against the other members of staff who wanted to get me expelled. He was amazingly perceptive. In one of my school reports he wrote: “Perhaps it’s possible that John can form some kind of nightmarish career out of his enthusiasm for unlistenable records and his delight in writing long and facetious essays.” And, of course, that’s exactly what I have done. The book, if it ever gets published, will be dedicated to him. golden 06 boarding school. boarding at away than dad and mum my near years formative my spent rather much have would I but had never you that something miss really can’t you know I around. them having liked we been, have may they arse the in pain a after.of look much and However educate to else somebody to off them packing of intention the with children have didn’t We away.them sent have never would we money of amounts limitless had we’d if even no, Oh children? your for school boarding consider ever you Did seriously,...But, nice it’s won’t you work don’t you ‘if me to said they when ...So, loosen any clothing in a responsible manner.responsible a in clothing any loosen to them tell always I so emergency medical a doctor.in summoned be Obviously,can I a technically am I that with work I people remind to like I flattered. and pleased very I’m now? degrees honorary many so have to feel it does how So there... happy very wasn’t I and Shrewsbury of extension an as university saw I time the At No. university? to go to want you Did argue. didn’t I so there on was Divinity issued, were certificates the when reason, some for but, 11% got I norm. the from break a be would it because this with pleased enormously be would examiners the thought I Runyan. Damon of style the be to considered I what in answers my all wrote I so again over and over thing same the reading bored be would examiners the that head my into it got I exam, Divinity my In them. of one for credit full pressure. any really wasn’t there so well particularly did us of none and up, ended eventually I where is which School, Shrewsbury to went brothers my and father,grandfathers My my both school? at well do to you on pressure Wasthere

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Do you actually like everything you play on your show? So there was none of the usual teenage I do, or at least I can see that someone else might. I couldn’t fake it because angst in your house? I’m not very good at lying. I may not like it in three or four years’ time, but I’m not saying that but we had very little that’s quite good too. A lot of people my age still like what they liked in 1969 striking of attitudes and adopting bizarre and haven’t moved on at all. Occasionally, someone will say to me ‘how come anti-social beliefs in order to annoy us. you don’t play the Grateful Dead these days?’ They’re not aggressive about it but they basically want you to play their record collection because they can’t It’s great when your be bothered... or they’ve got arthritis. children get a bit You’ve been instrumental in the careers of so many bands. older and start to Is there one you’re particularly proud of? That’s not really the way I perceive myself. I almost see myself as the editor treat you like an equal of a magazine or a newspaper. It’s just my job to choose which stories to set rather than regarding before the public. So I never think this band or that band wouldn’t be in the you as a grossly position they are in now if it hadn’t been for me. I’m pleased that I’ve managed to keep The Fall in the public eye for a long inferior form of life. time because I think that they’re as important a band as there has ever been. That’s really nice. I played a small part, I suppose. Of course, Mark E Smith (The Fall’s grumpy lead singer) would deny that anybody had any responsibility other than himself, which is his right, but at the same time I like to feel I’ve played They all went through a stage where they John the Baptist to his Jesus. found me slightly embarrassing, but I don’t think they find me so embarrassing now. Do you have a lot of famous friends? I did a gig recently in Barcelona during the People are always saying ‘what’s so and so like?’ because they imagine I have Sonar Festival and when I looked up three this glamorous life hanging out with Elton or something and, of course it’s not of our four children were there dancing to the like that at all. Nor would I wish it to be. I live near Delia Smith but that’s about records I was playing. They had made their it. I don’t really know people in bands and you have to bear in mind that I am way to Barcelona independently and I just a pensioner and people in bands don’t want to hang out with old geezers. thought, how nice is that to be doing a gig and to have your own children dancing to it? Who would you like to play you in the film of your life? Because I’m so busy listening to records, I don’t really get the chance to go Do you have any final words of advice and see films so, if Brad Pitt walked in now, apart from thinking ‘what the hell for recent graduates? are you doing in my house’, I probably wouldn’t know who he was. Set your sights low, that way you might find When people ask me if I’ve seen such and such a film, I always say ‘is something that you can actually do and Margaret Rutherford in it?’ and when they say no, which invariably they do, might even enjoy rather than driving yourself I say ‘in that case I don’t think I will have seen it’. mad because you haven’t become whatever So, I guess the answer would have to be it is you think you should have aspired to... Margaret Rutherford. I always say, in justification What’s your favourite place in Liverpool? There’s a place called Irwell Chambers on of my own life really, if you Fazakerley Street. It was the entrance to my end up doing something dad’s office and, amazingly, it’s unchanged since he used to work there. I like to go there that you like, you’ve got and imagine my dad walking through the there as much through entrance because I really miss my dad. your failures as through your What kind of a dad are you? successes. Just think, if Quite a good dad, I think. Before you have I’d gone to university children you think you know exactly what to do and how they’re going to be and I might be an how you are going to be with them. accountant in But from the moment they issue from Cheshire now. the womb, you can forget all that. They simply refuse to conform to your notions of what they should be like. Our children seem to like us but they also like each other immensely, which is really nice. We all get on enormously well.