John Peel: Getting Older and Still Getting Into New Music

[John Peel: you can be an old fart, but you don't have to be a boring old fart!]

One person I admire very much -- and also look up to as a role model in what I'm trying to do myself -- is the late British radio DJ John Peel. He started his career during the early 60s beat era and then became one of the most prominent voices in the 1960s UK musical underground with his radio shows such as Perfumed Garden. John Peel was born in 1939 so he wasn't exactly a young turk any more even in those days.

And to the late-60s musical era Peel might have as well stuck for the rest of his life, just keeping playing his hippie music favourites for his aging peers as a nostalgia act, but instead, he preferred to go on. He kept up with was happening in the musical underground -- punk, alternative, indie, electronic dance music, you name it, and without prejudices and getting stuck to any purist ghettos -- all the way to October 2004 when he sadly passed away. All this time championing new music and acts, spreading the word about them to people, constantly seeking for what is fresh and innovative. My intention here is not to pay lip service, only to show that a person can go on musically even after that dreaded milestone of thirty years of age.