John Peel passed away last Tuesday. He is irreplaceable.
What you see above is a photo of a photo showing John and Klaus Peter, the owner of our local Record Store. The original photo was taken back in 1995 when John visited our town to DJ at a local club and is on display at Discover ever since. Klaus Peter remained in loose contact with John during all these years and had some fond memories and stories to tell. About what a gentle and intelligent person John was.
My favourite one: A year after John's visit to Bochum the BBC had the brilliant idea to ask a couple of celebrities to choose a place where they would like to go on holiday. The BBC would then send them onto the trip of their choice and accompany them to film the whole thing. When they asked John, to everybody's surprise, he chose Germany of all places. Apparently he was so impressed by the reception here in Bochum that after a short visit of friends in Bremen he drove his old Mercedes straight down to our neck of the woods. He did a full tour of the "Route der Industriekultur" and had a real good time.
So tonight I'm having a drink or four to John, listening to FABRICLIVE.07: John Peel. Cheers, John. You'll never walk alone.

More thoughts on John: edandjacqui, The Aardvark, funkypancake, London Leben.
Check out John's Festive Fifty.