Monni Aldous

Monni Aldous (1932-2022) was a housewife, radio listener, singer and folk club organiser. To Peel listeners, she is best known as the person who recorded many of Peel's Radio London shows from July and August 1967 on her reel-to-reel tape recorder, including a number of his Perfumed Garden programmes. These were transferred to cassette tape in the 1980s by academic and rock writer Rob Chapman, circulated among other Peel fans and pirate radio enthusiasts, and eventually found a wider audience via the World Wide Web. 
In the mid-2000s, after Peel's death, she generously agreed to share her tapes of the final Perfumed Garden, which led to the complete show becoming available for the first time, with the help of Peel group member Guy Brown. After Monni received her Peel tapes back from Rob, she disposed of them (personal recollection of RC). It is likely that most of the available Radio London files originate from Monni's tapes, some of which were remastered, some copied onto cassettes by other pirate radio enthusiasts (occasionally incomplete), while Rob has started to share the original full length cassette copies, cleaned up by removing the AM interference whine. (A few of the Radio London files are from other sources, as detailed on the individual date pages).
In the 1960s, Monni was one of those listeners who found pirate radio livelier and more involving than the BBC radio of its day. She was not a teenager, but a housewife bringing up her young daughter and listening to the radio, in a time when childcare facilities and jobs for women were rarer than they later became. She corresponded with stations like Radio Caroline and Radio 390 as well as Radio London, and with DJs including Keith Skues, but in summer 1967 became a keen listener to Peel's Perfumed Garden. Once the programme had ended and Radio London had been taken off the air, she became an active member of the Perfumed Garden listeners' group, which tried to keep the spirit of the show alive, organised social events and supported Peel in his efforts to gain regular work on BBC Radio One. She also wrote a couple of pieces for Gandalf's Garden magazine, one of which was quoted by Sheila Ravenscroft in her section of Margrave Of The Marshes.
On Top Gear, Peel mentioned meetings of the Perfumed Garden group (later known as "the list") at Monni's home in Brentwood, Essex. He played a request for her daughter on a 1969 show, and she later recalled meeting Peel a few times, describing his first London Peel Acres as "a grotty basement flat in Fulham" In personal correspondence with Peel group member Granger354.. But as he became busier and more successful, he had less time for such activities, and mentioned in one of the group's newsletters that "Monni has understood this and I hope you will"[1]. The Perfumed Garden list issued its final newsletter in 1970, and after that Monni Aldous had no contact with Peel. She did however remain involved in music at a grass roots level, singing in folk clubs and at festivals, and running Romford Folk Club for many years.
== Mentions in shows ==
*31 December 1967: John mentions that he spent yesterday in Brentwood with a lot of very nice people, 25-30 people organised by Monni Aldous, a very nice peaceful gentle day, and dedicates a Traffic LP track to them 
*28 April 1968: JP mentions one of Monni Aldous's gatherings of the Peel listeners' group, which attracted around 50-60 people, apologises for being unable to be there and dedicates the next record to them.
== Shows originally recorded by Monni Aldous ==
According to Rob Chapman, some early Top Gear shows in circulation were originally recorded by Monni (possibly also some early editions of Peel's Night Ride), as well as most of the surviving Perfumed Garden recordings, so any listing may be incomplete. Rob's list includes some shows that have not yet been made available online, and some of the post-1970 material listed may not come from Monni's recordings.
;Radio London
*01 July 1967
*08 July 1967 unshared 90m file labelled as Ian Damon/John Peel 8,16,17 July 1967
*July 1967 (Radio London) Undated Coffee Break extract
*12 July 1967
*14 July 1967 unshared Coffee Break extract of around 20 minutes
*16 July 1967
*17 July 1967
*18 July 1967
*19 July 1967
*20 July 1967
*22 July 1967
*July 1967: undated, unshared 82m file
*July 1967: undated, unshared 13m file
*July 1967: undated, unshared 12m file
*30 July 1967 not on Rob's list, but a 6 minute file is of the same naming format as Monni's tapes, though not sure if this is Rob's formatting or just a standard formatting that was followed, so may not be Monni's
*02 August 1967 45m file on Rob's list though available files are 39m
*03 August 1967: Unshared 95m file 
*04 August 1967: Unshared 95m file 
*06 August 1967: A 96 minute reel to reel recording was made by Monni Aldous and later converted to cassette, but is not available online.
*07 August 1967
*08 August 1967: A full 3 hour recording was made, but so far, less than 6 minutes have been shared online
*10 August 1967: Monni's recording of the full 3-hour Perfumed Garden show not available online
*14 August 1967: 15 hours of material
;BBC Radio One:
*31 December 1967 (Top Gear)
*04 February 1968 (Top Gear)
*06 March 1968 (Nightride)
*27 March 1968 (Nightride) Recently digitised by Warwick Johns, but 5m shorter than on Monni's list
*03 April 1968 (Nightride) Recently digitised by Warwick Johns, but 2m longer than on Monni's list
*10 April 1968 (Nightride) Recently digitised by Warwick Johns, but 9m longer than on Monni's list
*28 April 1968 (Top Gear). Recently digitised by Tim, possibly from an earlier copy of Monni's recording
*01 May 1968 (Nightride)
*11 August 1968 (Top Gear).
*21 August 1968 (Nightride). 3m file listed by Monni while Tim/Warwick have provided a 21m file
*18 September 1968 (Nightride). 
*03 November 1968 (Top Gear') via Warwick / Tim
*10 November 1968 (Top Gear') via Warwick
*02 February 1969 (Top Gear') via Tim
*05 March 1969 (Nightride). via Warwick
*12 March 1969 (Nightride). via Warwick
*16 March 1969 (Top Gear). via Tim
*02 April 1969 (Nightride). via Warwick
*20 April 1969 (Top Gear). via Warwick
*27 April 1969 (Top Gear). Monni's file listed as 90m while that available from hills1902 and on the original torrent is 120m
*04 May 1969 (Top Gear). via Tim, 53m, while Monni's file was 60m
*11 May 1969 (Top Gear). from hills1902 and on the original torrent
*23 July 1969 (Nightride). via Tim
*17 August 1969 (Top Gear). via Warwick 66m, Monni's file was 60m
*27 December 1969 (Top Gear). version available is from Mick Capewell and sounds different to Monni's reel to reel
*45m File listed as 11th December 1970, but no show that date, if it is the 12th that is available complete 120m
*18 August 1972 listed as 19th
*26 September 1972
*21 October 1975 / 27 February 1976 extracts 45m. Unshared, though the second show is available complete
*28 October 1975 Unshared
*File dated 11th September 1986 but no show that date Unshared
*Peeling Back The Years Parts 1-4, 6 complete. unshared
==See Also==
*Gandalf's Garden, Issue 2, p9: What is the Perfumed Garden (Monni Aldous)
==References==
Category:People