The Olivetti Chronicles

I know I'm going against the populist flow, here, but I found this collection pretty disappointing. I was a Peel fan (Radio 1 and Radio 4), but to my mind the man's unique gift came in the form of his vast knowledge and open-mindedness about music, and in his persistence in bringing it to the public's attention.

However... I don't think that even JP particularly rated his own abilities as a writer, and this collection seems to bear out this opinion. Relatively little of it, you should also be warned, is about the music he loved and broadcast. Of the stuff that is, much is from his Sounds columns of the 1970's - which (at least in the early 70's) were mostly written in an affectedly pert/twee/court jester-y style (think Homer Simpson when he embraces hippie-dom and announces himself The Cosmic Fool...) that really, really grates. Some of the later pieces for the Observer are a bit more palatable, but there's a *lot* of whimsy to wade through between the occasional gems.

I can't help feeling that if John Peel was still alive, he probably wouldn't have wanted these writings collected and published - and there are far more fitting tributes out there to his life and work, especially in the form of the music he loved, played and brought to the wider public attention it deserved.

An unforgettable voice (0/0 people found this helpful)

The mighty John Peel, so cruelly taken from us too soon, was a wily and yet fond observer of the peculiarities of this bizarre thing we call life. As well as being the much loved Radio Presenter, accumularist of LPs and champion of the lesser known life-forms of the music business that he would discover in the darker crevices of the rockpools of life, he was also a significant contributor to various periodicals, his articles, more often than not, proving to be a particular high spot of that particular edition. His articles in the Radio Times were, for me at least, an essential part of that magazine whilst he was contributing and many of those are happily collected in this four hundred-odd page volume.

With an ever present deadpan charm and dry wit these ramblings on Rockaboogie and so much more chronicle many of the manifest absurdities of life from the exotic alternative lifestyles of the 1960s to the rural family life of the alarmingly so-called naughties via the manifest ridiculousness of the day-to-day life of a minor celebrity. He had his own idiosyncracies (about which he was usually suitably self-deprecating), his own "sacred cows" (which he could get quite vocally protective about albeit in a very repressed British kind of a way), his own favorites (that he would promote shamelessly) and he was prone to the occasional flight of fancy. Regularly there is half an eye on the fortunes of his beloved Liverpool FC or the strange role a father can play in the family unit but generally this is ultimately a celebration of the enjoyment and appreciation of popular (and unpopular) music of many sorts and rightly so for a man who made his living the way he did. Throughout the book, covering amazingly more than a thirty year span, there is always that distinctive style, so distinctive in fact that you can almost hear that unforgettable voice in your head as you read the words off the page, all written with the sharp eloquence of one whose prose could disguise a surprising shyness in public. There might be an occasional tendency for unashamed sentimentality - which is a rare virtue in the modern era - or he might have felt the need for issuing a much needed pithy rebuke, but that all seems to have been delivered with a great deal of humanity and an air of disappointment with a much-loved world rather than with any outright hostility towards it.

The alphabetical (rather than chronological) approach to the presentation of the content did pain me rather, but that's probably my problem and not the compilers and I do rather suspect that, in the end, this approach did probably make for a more suitably eccentric editorial mix. It did, however, mean that my interest would ebb and flow alongside Mr Peel's hairline, but the relative brevity of each piece means that there's always another morsel just over the page if the current one is not to your taste. I will admit that I found it a bit of a long slog when deciding to read it from cover-to-cover, but as a book to dip into from time-to-time (maybe park it in your smallest room for visitors to browse through during brief interludes - I'm sure Mr Peel would appreciate the whimsy of that) it makes for a satisfying and amusing read.

Essential reading for all Peel fans (0/0 people found this helpful)

I really enjoyed this book. Like millions of britons I grew up listening to John Peel and his amusing anecdotes told in his inimitable self-deprecating style. This book reminded me how sorely he is missed. Many of the sections are columns from newspapers and journals such as "Sounds", "Melody Maker" or "Radio Times". Almost all are very funny, some are heart-warming, and many made me laugh out loud. Despite his self-deprecation Peel had a real gift for words, as many of us already knew from listening to his radio shows where he engaged with the listener in a way that no other DJ I have ever heard could. Although he championed punk Peel retained an open heart that he retained from his hippy days, which made him a kind and generous man. Read this book and remember him fondly, or pick it up and meet a one of kind great man for the first time.

Great over breakfast (0/0 people found this helpful)

I read this over breakfast for a few weekends. My poor husband had to dodge flying toast crumbs as I spluttered with laughter. It's really entertaining - and also informative. I loved the description of Tom Waits in 1976... see if you can find it...

Thanks to the family (3/3 people found this helpful)

One of the joys of listening to both John Peel's Music (as I did in the 70s and 80s on BFBS) and Home Truths was that you were never sure what was coming next. In listing the articles alphabetically, rather than chronologically, John's family have captured that experience in print. The vagaries of titling lead one from Disc to Sounds to The Guardian, The Independent and The Radio Times, hopping in time from the early 70s to pieces written shortly before John's death. These then, are non-chronological chronicles. Very Peelian.

John's writing style matured with him; some of the early pieces are very much of their time, with bizarre phrases thrown in at random. John never missed the chance to talk football, specifically Liverpool, so many pieces lead one unexpectedly in that direction. There is a good index, which will no doubt prove useful as one tries to track down an amusing comment to read again.

Margrave of the Marshes, John's biography, was and is a wonderful book, all the more remarkable for being only partially written by John. This is pure John. I couldn't help wondering if there would be more to come. Not too many of John's Radio Times columns were featured, and I can remember that they were the reason I chose the RT over 'the other listings magazines that are available'. Many weeks I wiped away tears at John's musings. Could the family - or the BBC - have something else yet to come for us?

The Olivetti Chronicles

John Peel

Reader Reviews:

Great man. Great life. Not such a great writer. (0/0 people found this helpful)

An unforgettable voice (0/0 people found this helpful)

Essential reading for all Peel fans (0/0 people found this helpful)

Great over breakfast (0/0 people found this helpful)

Thanks to the family (3/3 people found this helpful)

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