Gilles Peterson
Danno3000
2,850 Posts
Do we care that Worldwide is coming to an end? I don't, but I feel like I should.
I'm amused that Judge Jules is becoming a lawyer. I don't know whether the world needs fewer lawyers or less trance. It's a tough call.
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/07/judge-jules-radio-1-gilles-peterson
I'm amused that Judge Jules is becoming a lawyer. I don't know whether the world needs fewer lawyers or less trance. It's a tough call.
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/07/judge-jules-radio-1-gilles-peterson
Comments
As for Gilles, his show will be a loss to Radio 1 but I'm sure he'll find a new station without too much trouble.
Ditto what Day said re: the futureglitchsynthgrittygrimeblahblah
I guess the station is concerned with staying fresh for the ears of a new generation of listeners. I'm kinda bummed about it tbh, but maybe in my mid 30s I'm just getting old hahah.
Kindly,
parallax
I always appreciate that about any musician, especially Gilles. Open minded artists have always been a raer and valuable commodity. I'm surprised and sad to see him go.
Dude is one of the new generation doing it right!
I think I read in Last Night A DJ Saved My Life that he was using his legal training to challenge the police if they turned up at (an illegal) rave... stopped them confuscating equipment etc. Would rather have him along doing that than playing records!
I think with Benji B Radio 1 feel they have a DJ to replace Giles Peterson, and Mary Anne Hobbes, and he can mix. Shame that the remit for his show is 'future beats' as I'm sure Benji would play a lot more old stuff if he was allowed to.
Big respect to Giles Peterson as he introduced me to some great records over the years. Still think that when DJ Shadow guested for that Brownswood Basement session (ie record olympics/nerd-fest), Giles' selection totally bossed it. Darondo didn't I, Moses Dillard, Archie Shepp & the Family, Rene Costy (bet Dilla heard the sample source for F*ck the Police on this show), Black Renaissance... and Donovan.
Was that the show with Christy Essien "Rumours" on it...? A classic show if so (I think I still have it on tape somewhere).
And I agree with you about Benji B; he has great taste but the remit on his show is much narrower. He was, after all, brought in to replace Mary Anne Hobbs who was known mainly for dubstep and breaks.
Purists will claim that bringing in Toddla T, Skream and Benga is more proof that Radio 1 is as behind the curve as it's ever been, but that isn't really why they've been brought in. The BBC is under constant pressure from all points of the political spectrum to justify the public funding it receives, and its pop music output (very broadly speaking) makes for an easy target. With so many commercial ILR (independent local radio) stations playing pop, the argument goes, why does there have to be a publicly-funded one? What's so special about what Radio 1 does? To this end, particularly since the death of John Peel (the most obvious exemplar of the difference between commercial and public-service radio in the UK), there has been a steady turnover of DJs who've symbolised the station's attempt to provide the kind of non-mainstream broadcasting that advertiser-driven commercial stations aren't interested in. Some of them stick around longer than others, but those associated with one specific style or genre (Fabio & Grooverider, for example) are at risk when that style/genre is perceived as no longer being sufficiently fashionable/cool/whatever. Consequently you get these periodic purges which the station undertakes in order to show how "down" with "the kids" it is. It's a constant battle to appeal to the ILR market without sounding completely like an ILR station. If too much of its output is seen as appealing to an older demographic, then they have a clearout in the hope the replacements will bring the average listener age back down to within the same target demographic captured by commercial pop stations, with their far narrower playlists and more homogenous output. Hence, bye-bye Gilles, Fab & Groove, Judge Jules and so on.
Obviously it makes no sense for a public service broadcaster to compete with the commercial sector in this way, especially not by using public money. But this is what happens when you have governments who don't believe in the concept of public service generally, or who conduct vendettas against public service broadcasters for political reasons and put the BBC on a perpetual siege footing. If the BBC wants to increase its licence fee (which is peanuts, relatively speaking) to fund newer or more innovative output, it needs government approval in order to do so. When the government makes no secret of having an axe to grind with the corporation (as true of recent Labour governments as it is of current/past Tory administrations), the BBC's much-valued independence risks being sacrificed by the entire operation being broken up and offered to the commercial sector, which already complains bitterly about the BBC having the "unfair advantage" of being publicly funded. The threat of the BBC being dismantled delights them, because they're not interested in competing with the BBC, even if they could - they want to drag it down to the point where it can't compete with them; the end result being that every radio and TV station looks and sounds almost exactly the same, with only the smallest cosmetic variations in the format. It goes without saying that the US knows all about that already.
Wider political/economic concerns aside, the mistake Radio 1 is making here lies in the assumption that "the kids" are only interested in what's hot and wouldn't be caught dead listening to music that was made before they were born. As anyone who's spent time around young people can tell you, an adult's idea of what's hot can differ enormously from a kid's reality, and market research/focus groups will only give you the answers to the questions you ask. Moreover, from what I see kids still define themselves according to the music they listen to, and for every five kids that run with the pack, there's the one who doesn't - the one who might consider Pac to be old people's music and who only knows LL and Cube as actors, but is nonetheless curious enough to check out some of that "old-school shit" from time to time. Likewise the kid who keeps reading comparisons between, say, Skrillex and this Aphex Twin dude and decides to find out what that's about for him/herself. There are scores of similar examples that market researchers will never pick up on, and there are fewer and fewer broadcasters who cater to an audience with that kind of curiosity whilst still keeping one foot placed firmly in the now, and whose taste and judgement is considered dependable enough by that audience that they'll allow them to act as a kind of musical spirit guide. In Gilles, certainly, Radio 1 have ditched just such a figure.
As an avid listener for many years, I certainly care. Very surprised to hear this news. Dood put me up on some great records and the Brownswood Basement vinyl shows were classics. He was always breaking new records and supporting folks like Dj Day. Always look forward to tuning in each week. The show will be missed!
Yeah, that was the one. Classic ish.
He was originally on Giles' show to mix tunes for Giles though, wasn't he? So obviously on the same page regarding older stuff.
+1 Care Bear here. Always enjoyed the Worldwide show. Definitely a fan of the open-minded format. Benji B is cool as well.
I seem to remember som GP hate on Soulstrut, specifically regarding some of his comps.
Someone please to post up the "quite a rare one" graemlin.
He was his producer until about 2002, and I suspect he kept Gilles up with some of the more underground music around that time.
It's a shame so few people realize how much this guy have made for music.
He is an incarnation of what a true music lover can be.
I discovered so many great music troughout his shows...
Mad respect to him.