26 January 1969

== Show ==
; Name
*Top Gear
; Station
*BBC Radio One
; YYYY-MM-DD
*1969-01-26
; Comments
*Peel is in a good mood and has quite a lot to say, with anecdotes from his personal life and comments on the records and sessions. About halfway through the show he says “Desperately far behind for time Bernie, I don’t think we’re going to make it this week”.
*JP says he has to go up to Birmingham that evening, but his van “has been destroyed”. Asks “Richard”, who’s promised to drive him there but hasn’t turned up, to get in touch. Later in the show he thanks listeners who’ve called in to offer him lifts and asks them not to do so as it jams the switchboard and “the situation is under control"
*Mentions seeing the Who at Mothers the previous Sunday; apparently they were meant to play for 45 minutes but played for two hours and seemed to enjoy playing.
*He plays a track from a forthcoming album by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's new band, "the" Led Zeppelin. He predicts (correctly) that they will be very successful in the USA but "we won't hear much of them here". Indeed, in 1969 Jimmy Page complained in the music press of how lack of radio exposure (apart from Peel and Pete Drummond) was preventing them from repeating their runaway American success in the UK.
*A "new" single (but an old recording) by the Misunderstood is due to be released in a couple of weeks. Peel introduces it by recounting the history of the band; "the best group I’ve ever heard in my life…just think what would have happened if the US army hadn’t broken that group up"
*Peel plays a track from Bobby Darin's new LP of self-penned material, a change of style for a singer known for his coonections with Las Vegas and "showbiz things", as JP puts it. He says that Darin "got fed up with it and wrote a bunch of very good songs…did the whole thing himself". JP recommends the album to his listeners as "a very nice LP and not a con or anything"
*JP plays Duster Bennett's current single and says that after playing it a couple of weeks eariler, he mentioned that writing credits on the label should go to Slim Harpo rather than D. Bennett. Later, Duster came to see him and, “because he’s that kind of person”, said it should read “arranged D. Bennett” and that Slim Harpo would receive the royalties
*Before playing the Heavy Jelly track, he explains that the group were invented "as a joke" by London's Time Out magazine and that "a group well known to Top Gear listeners" had made a record under that name - see the Skip Bifferty page for more details.
*Peel says he's going to take a holiday - his first in 11 years - and will spend the week with Principal Edwards Magic Theatre. At the end of the show, he points out that this week's Night Ride has been pre-recorded, so he can get away.
*Full tracklisting and audio with many thanks to Warwick Johns
== Sessions ==
*Idle Race #5, recorded 20th January 1969. No known commercial release.
*Keef Hartley #1, recorded 3rd December 1968. No known commercial release.
*Jethro Tull #2, recorded 5th November 1968, repeat, first broadcast 15 December 1968. Available on "This Was 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition "
*Fairport Convention #5, recorded 9th December 1968, repeat, first broadcast 22 December 1968. One track available 4-CD set Live At The BBC (Island Remasters).
(Please add details of any commercial release of these sessions)
== Tracklisting ==
*File 1 begins with Peel's intro to show and Top Gear theme tune
*Idle Race: Mr Crow And Sir Norman (session) 3/5
*Doors: Touch Me (7") Elektra (JP: “I must admit I’m not too terribly jazzed over that record…”)
*Jethro Tull: Love Story (session)
*Janis Ian: Friends Again (album - The Secret Life Of J. Eddy Fink ) Verve Forecast (JP: "for Bernie, because it’s one of his sort of records")… 7
*Keef Hartley: Think It Over (session) ( A B.B. King number – JP says that sooner or later he must play a record by B.B. King on the show, rather than just cover versions)
*Bobby Darin: I Can See The Wind (LP Bobby Darin Born Walden Robert Cassotto) Direction 6
*Fairport Convention: Meet On The Ledge (session)
*White Trash: Road To Nowhere (7") Apple APPLE 6 (a Goffin and King song which had also been recorded by Lesley Duncan, says JP, but he doesn’t have a copy of her version) 
*Misunderstood: Children Of The Sun (7") Fontana TF 777
*Idle Race: Days Of Broken Arrows (session)
*Spirit: All The Same (album - The Family That Plays Together) Ode/CBS (Peel thinks the LP is “basically a bit disappointing really because the first one was so great”)
*Jethro Tull: Beggars Farm (session)
*Al Stewart: You Should Have Listened To Al (album - Love Chronicles) CBS
*JP: "Yesterday I rode my bicycle down Portobello Road on my way to see Simon Stable and someone shouted that it was a publicity stunt...."
*Keef Hartley: Sinning For You (session)
*Peel says he has been invited to go down to Southampton for two days next week, on Friday and Saturday – he hopes to meet up with the University’s Pooh Society
*Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Rockaliser Baby (LP - The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse) (JP calls them the Bonzo Dog Band - "they've cut out the Doo Dah, on medical advice...")
*File 1 ends and File 2 begins
*Fairport Convention: I'll Keep It With Mine (session) 4
*Led Zeppelin: Good Times Bad Times (album - Led Zeppelin) Atlantic
*Duster Bennett: Raining In My Heart (7") Blue Horizon
*JP: "I hope you listened yesterday to Pete Drummond’s new programme" – dedicates next track to him “with love" 9
*Idle Race: Sea Of Dreams (session) 3/5
*Moby Grape: Trucking Man (album - Moby Grape '69) CBS (JP: "an LP which you may have heard on the first of the new David Symonds programmes")
*Jethro Tull: Stormy Monday (session)
*Ralph McTell: Spiral Staircase (album - Spiral Staircase) Transatlantic TRA 177 John starts this off at the wrong speed 8
*Complains about the BBC’s coffee
*Keef Hartley: Halfbreed (session)
*Dr. John, The Night Tripper: I Walk On Gilded Splinters (album - Gris-Gris) Atlantic
*4.30 news; Northern Ireland Minister of Health resigns; in Prague, police clash with students and young workers chanting anti-Russian slogans, following the funeral of Jan Palach
*John Dummer Blues Band: I Need Love (album - Cabal) Mercury 20136 SMCL
*Fairport Convention: She Moves Through The Fair (session) 4
*Sam Gopal: Escalator (album - Escalator) Stable SLE 8001
*Idle Race: A Worn Red Carpet (sic) (session)
*Heavy Jelly: Blue (7" - I Keep Singing That Same Old Song) Island WIP 6049 - takes record off before the end as it's damaged
*Jethro Tull: Dharma For One (session)
*Steve Miller Band: Song For Our Ancestors (album - Sailor) Capitol
*Show ends: JP says he forgot to mention that Liverpool won yesterday; "production was, as usual, by Bernie Von Andrews"
*File 2 ends
*Tracks marked x also available on relevant files below
== File ==
;Name
*1) TG26-1-69 EqPt1
*2) TG26-1-69 Eqpt2
*3) Idle Race - Peel sessions - Top Gear 1967-69
*4) 1969-01-26 TG 22.12.68 Fairport Convention 3 songs.mp3
*5) 1969-01-26 TG 26.1.69 Idle race 2 songs
*6) 1969-01-26 Bobby Darin LP track
*7) 1969-01-26 Janis Ian - Friend Again (LP track)
*8) 1969-01-26 Ralph McTell - Spiral Straircase with Peel intro
*9) 1969-01-26 Duster Bennet probably TG early 69.mp3 
;Length
*1) 57:24
*2) 1:01:33
*3) 11:13 (from 5:06)
*4) 9:54
*5) 6:10
*6) 3:04
*7) 1:43
*8) 3:27
*9) 2:36
;Other
*1,2) Many thanks to Warwick Johns
*3-9) Many thanks to Colin Harper. File 5 is separated to this show and audio centred
*4) Third song was from 06 April 1969
*Please address all re-up requests to Peel Mailing List.
;Available
*1) Mooo
*2) Mooo
*3) Youtube
*4) Mooo
*5) Mooo
*6) Mooo
*7) Mooo)
*8) Mooo
*9) Mooo
Category:Peel shows
Category:Available online
Category:1969
Category:Harper Reels
Category:Wrong Speed Moment
Category:Warwick's Shows