John Peel: A Life in Music

click here for more details, find new or used items	Michael Heatley New from £0.01 Used from £0.01 Pages: 240 (Paperback) ISBN: 1843171570 Pub: Michael O'Mara Books Ltd Pub date: 2005-03-24 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 74176

Reader Reviews:

Worthy fans' eye view (6/6 people found this helpful)

A Life In Music is essentially a fans' biography of the great man without direct interviews with the major players in his life. Consequently it's mostly a cut-and-paste job which is fine though the 80s and 90s in particular are largely a list of great bands to whom Peel gave a break rather than any insight into the man himself.

Clearly a fan, Heatley's book is well researched from secondary sources and deserves the praise of all list-makers for including Peel's Festive 50s from 1976 to 2003 as an appendix. This slimmish volume is well worth reading though any real fans will also want to read Peel's eagerly awaited Margrave Of The Marshes autobiography as well.

Lots of facts, no feeling whatsoever (4/6 people found this helpful)

Having read all three of the John Peel books, including the so-so official one and the excellent Mick Wall verson, this is by far the worst of the lot. If you want to know what else was going on in the world when Peely was doing his stuff, but nothing that really gives you any real insight into the man himself, then is is the one for you. If however you want to know more about waht the real guy was like, don't go near this. Even the official one, written long after Peel had died, just glosses over the facts. If you want a really balanced view written by someone who clearly knows what he's talking about, I recommend the Mick Wall which is a superb read.

Average (3/4 people found this helpful)

A slim book which for large parts bases its narrative on nothing more than lists of sessions. Generally, the whole thing seems to have been put together from several articles and interviews Peel gave over the years. While it has some interesting details (Germaine Greer, eh?), photos and festive fifty listings, overall it's a fairly cheap and cheerful affair. The language at times is terrible, and the structure isn't great (in the last chapter John dies first, then writes his autobiography - confusing in an otherwise chronological account).
Still, it doesn't cost much or take long to read.

An enjoyable tribute (13/14 people found this helpful)

Perhaps not the most in-depth biography but an affectionate and entertaining read that occasionally relies a little too much on quoting from other peoples books (particularly "In Session Tonight: Complete Radio 1 Recordings" Ken Garner).

Also included are the complete festive fifties from '77 onwards, of great interest to fans.

Recommended, a nice tribute to a truly great man.

Great man, Good read (22/25 people found this helpful)

I bought this one over the other one as i preferred the cover, and am glad i did! It covered most of John's life in really good detail, and had lots of early stuff about his time in america which is something i was interested in, as well as his time at the bbc and how he started off loads of great bands. While i'm not a big reader i really enjoyed reading this book as it told me loads of things i didn't know. Reccomended!!

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