The Collection (Peel Acres - Damon Albarn)

== Show ==
; Name
*The Collection (Peel Acres)
; Station
*BBC Radio 6 Music
; YYYY-MM-DD
*2022-01-30
; Comments
*Blur frontman and Gorillaz founder Damon Albarn is Tom Ravenscroft’s first guest to Peel Acres, helping Tom pick out records from his dad John Peel’s legendary record collection.
*The chat between Tom and Damon leading into the Mahalia Jackson track includes a short extract from A Child of Our Time, by British composer Michael Tippett, although it's not listed as a separate track in the BBC's tracklisting. Tippett was a composer fashionable at the time JP was playing classical music extracts on Night Ride, so this too may come from the Peel collection.
*As part of their discussion on Kevin Ayers, Tom inserts a phone conversation he had with Rob Chapman, Ayers fan, former Peel session artist (with the Glaxo Babies), journalist and author of books including Psychedelia and Other Colours (2015), Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head (2010), and Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio (1992). The latter includes much on Peel's early British career, and notably, one of the few good pieces of writing on the Perfumed Garden.
== Sessions ==
*None
== Tracklisting ==
* {Intro} Damon Albarn: Royal Morning Blue
*Idle Race: Please No More Sad Songs (album - Idle Race) Liberty (Taking “a complete punt”, Damon next pulls out a 1969 album by the Birmingham band The Idle Race - who he’s surprised to discover is the first record produced by Jeff Lynne, who also provides lead vocals. After this album failed to chart, he made the move to… The Move, who later become Electric Light Orchestra (best known for the track Mr Blue Sky).)
*Fall: Kurious Oranj (album - I Am Kurious Oranj) Beggars Banquet (Damon instantly hones in on I Am Kurious Oranj; a 1988 album by The Fall which was written to soundtrack a ballet, in collaboration with Scottish dancer Michael Clark. Credited as John Peel’s favourite band, the post-punk outfit was led by Mark E Smith - the only constant band member in an ever changing line up.)
*Blah Blah Blah: Why Diddle ? (7" - In The Army) Absurd (The next pick is the B side to a 7” single by Blah Blah Blah, a band from Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, which Damon introduces à la Peel. Tom compares their sound to the avant-garde music of Captain Beefheart.)
*Kevin Ayers: Lady Rachel (album - Joy Of A Toy) Harvest (Damon’s next pick is another 1969 record, and one he remembers from his own parents’ (much more limited) collection. Joy of a Toy was the debut solo album of Kevin Ayres, a founding member of rock band Soft Machine. He compares the “classic English whimsy” of Ayers’s voice to that of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s original frontman and lyricist.)
*Soft Machine: Save Yourself (album - The Soft Machine) Probe (Fun fact: Damon’s dad, Keith Albarn briefly managed the Soft Machine. This debut album is the only one to feature previous pick, Kevin Ayers - alongside lead vocals from Robert Wyatt. Tom reveals that Wyatt was a regular visitor to Peel Acres and still occasionally calls now (he’s known to leave wonderfully long answerphone messages).)
*Mahalia Jackson: We Shall Overcome (The next pick is “The Queen of Gospel”, Mahalia Jackson - who is considered one of the greatest voices of the 20th century and one Damon has known since a child. With a singing career spanning over 40 years, she also took an active role in the American civil rights movement and sang just before Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous “I Have a Dream speech”. Damon is a fan of early gospel vocal quartets, and says his favourite classical piece is A Child of Our Time, by British composer Michael Tippett - which includes sections of spirituals. Which leads on to talking about polyphony - that is, combining a number of parts, which each form an individual melody and harmonise with each other. He references composer Pérotin, who developed early polophonic work in Notre Dame, Paris in the 12th century.)
*Love: Alone Again Or (album - Forever Changes) Elektra (Damon’s choice by the LA psychedelic rock band Love was apparently a tour bus favourite for Blur. This track appears on their third album Forever Changes which, despite only moderate success in the 1967 charts, is regularly named among the greatest albums of all time.)
*J.R.R. Tolkien: From Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (The A side of this 1967 album features writer J. R. R. Tolkien reading poems from his The Lord of the Rings and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil books. Side B features songs from Middle Earth, with music composed by Donald Swann - who features on piano, accompanying the fittingly named singer William Elvin.)
== File ==
;Name
*Damon Albarn Peel Acres
;Length
*0:33:22
;Other
*Thanks to BBC Radio 6 Music 
;Available
*IPlayer
*pCloud
*mooo
Category:Documentaries
Category:Record Collection
Category:Available online