21 Songs for John: 14 - Cornershop

Cornershop – Soul School (Instrumental Version)

I think people often forget just what an impact Cornership had when they emerged in the early nineties.  Peel got it immediately, of course, and the band recorded the first of three sessions in 2003.  They've changed a lot down the years, of course, making periodic returns to the festive fifty and, in 1997, achieving the distinction of becoming the only band to make number one in the FF as well as the UK singles chart, with 'Brimful of Asha'.  This is a version of a track from the 2009 album Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast.  'We think John would have liked its ridiculousness' say the band, and I suspect they're right.

www.cornershop.com

21 Songs for John 

21 Songs for John: 13. Antony Harding

Antony Harding – Light This Love & Watch It Burn (Demo)

Antony Harding drummed in Hefner through their period of domination of the festive fifty and their excellent series of Peel sessions, also recording a solo session as ANT in 2000.  Following the demise of Hefner, he continued to record as ANT, releasing a series of fine albums including The Birds Sing Goodnight to You & Me, which I named as my number one album of 2012.  That year, ANT also recorded a session for my Dandelion Radio show, subsequently released via the Audio Antihero/Barely Out imprint.  The session included a version of this track, which you can hear now in its original demo version.  He now records under his full name and his most recent release was the '(This Is Just) The Calm Before the Storm' on the Italian We Were Never Being Boring label earlier this year.

www.antpop.com

21 Songs for John 

21 Songs for John: 12 - Yeah Yeah Noh

Yeah Yeah Noh – She Pulls the Petal From the Flower

Yeah Yeah Noh only existed for two years in the mid-eighties and it's probably due to the enormously high quality of what they put out that they seemed to be around for much longer than that.   Their three Peel sessions, released as the Fun On the Lawn Lawn Lawn album in 1986, comprise one of the best collections of session material ever made available, while the band made their only appearance in the festive fifty with the unforgettable 'Bias Binding' in 1984.  The Cherry Red compilation Leicester Square provides an excellent career retrospective.  Yeah Yeah Noh reformed in 2012 and have a forthcoming album of new material in the pipepine.  One of the tracks featured on it will be this, which was recorded early this year and released as the album's first single. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yeah-Yeah-Noh/179922345453384

21 Songs for John

21 Songs for John: 11 - JD Meatyard

JD Meatyard – Taking Over the Asylum

Following Calvin Party's split, John Donaldson quickly re-emerged with this project, which proved to at least as good as anything he's done before while to some, including me, it's produced some of his very best work.   JD Meatyard contributed the brilliantly evocative 'Olive Tree', perhaps the most poignant comment ever on the plight of the Palestine people, to Dandelion Radio's fifth anniversary compilation in 2011 and that became the first of three tracks to make the festive fifty.  They've recorded two excellent albums for Probe Plus and have another one due for release late in 2014, which will feature a version of this track, available for the first time here. 

https://www.facebook.com/jdmeatyard

21 Songs for John

21 Songs for John: 10. Christ.

Christ. – Zeroth Law (Dandelion Radio Session)

When Christ., aka Christopher Horne, performed his only Peel session live at Maida Vale in December 2003, Peel awarded it the rare plaudit of requesting an encore.  Sadly, he would pass away before being able to engage Christ. for another set, although Horne would go on to record a memorable session for my Dandelion Radio show in January 2013.  The session included this track, a reworking of a tune from his Cathexis: Motion Picture Soundtrack album, released the previous year by the excellent Parallax Sounds label.  This version is available for the first time here.

 www.facebook.com/christhyperact

http://parallaxsounds.com

21 Songs for John

21 Songs for John: 9 - Half Man Half Biscuit

Half Man Half Biscuit – Bob Wilson – Anchorman

When Half Man Half Biscuit released Back In the DHSS in 1985, the immediate injection of freshness it brought to a mid-eighties indie scene that was often too inclined to take itself too seriously predictably delighted John Peel.  The first of their thirteen appearances in session for the show came later that year and, despite splitting temporarily in the late eighties, they've gone from strength to strength and have, in recent years, produced arguably their best work.  Their new album, Urge For Offal will be released this autumn, as always for Probe Plus.  This much-loved track comes from their 2001 EP Editor's Recommendation and featured in that year's festive fifty. 

http://cobweb.businesscollaborator.com/hmhb

www.probeplus.co.uk

21 Songs for John: 8 - Talisman

Talisman – Dole Age (7" mix)

Hailing from Bristol, Talisman were one of the finest British roots reggae bands in the late seventies and early eighties.  Eagerly sought as a support band for reggae and non-reggae artists alike, they supported numerous punk and post-punk bands including The Clash, The Damned and Killing Joke along with reggae legends like Burning Spear.  Talisman recorded their only Peel session in 1981 and in the same year released this track as a single.  The band's early work has since been made available by Bristol Archive Records and the band, featuring two of the original members, have reformed, releasing the excellent  I-Surrection album in 2013 via the Sugar Shack label and gaining further acclaim for some stunning live performances.

http://talismanreggae.com

www.sugarshackrecords.co.uk

Get the album here.