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MP3 of John Peel reading THE letter from Lawrence!

Was really pleased to find this amongst the ridiculous amounts of John Peel shows I downloaded via the Peel Wiki page. Its the show where JP reads out the letter from the head of Shanghai Records (Lawrence!) that lambasts him for not playing the Felt single - it is referenced in Lawrence of Belgravia, apparently Peel remembered the letter as being the most bitter one he ever received. On this occasion however, he does actually play The Versatile Newts single. I hope Lawrence was listening that night!


Anyway, here's the details of the show: http://peel.wikia.com/wiki/03_April_1980

And here is the link to where you can download it: http://www.peel.mooo.com/peelgroup/BillfromNorthWales/01%20John%20Peel/

The log in details to the Mooo Server are "Peel" (for the user name) and "group" (for the password). If you don't want to listen to the whole show, its about 1 hour 10 mins in that the record is played and the letter read out.

Re: MP3 of John Peel reading THE letter from Lawrence!

This is interesting, I didn't realise Lawrence wrote to complain to Peel as early as 1980. This may have had some influence on Peel's lack of enthusiasm for future Felt releases.

Re: MP3 of John Peel reading THE letter from Lawrence!

[...] and next record from the Versatile Newts, on their own Shanghai label, a thing called Blimp. And here's another--I'm sorry I'm talking far too much tonight, I know this but an interesting letter from Shanghai Records which comes from Water Orton.

And it says "Here is the second copy of Blimp by the Versatile Newts that I've sent you--" Actually I didn't get the first one. "The first copy I sent about a month ago. It hasn't been played yet. Perhaps you didn't receive it. I think you did and for some reason you haven't played it. You can't imagine what it's like listening from 10 until 12, Monday to Thursday, hoping that your latest release will be played. The first record I put out on Shanghai was Felt, was ignored by you. It took time and hard-earned money to release it. Only 500 copies and to still have 300 left a year later is no pleasing reminder. Felt received good reviews from the press but without a spin on your show I was unable to sell them."

And so he goes on. This is from Lawrence who's the head of Shanghai Records and I know--I know exactly what he means and it is a problem. I know that and I feel terrible. And you know, somebody has to make a decision and at the moment it seems to be me and Walters who make it. And it's not a happy--not a good position to be in at all. Because it means a lot of good records, you know, don't get played that should get played, and it's a situation that's actually going to get worse rather than better for various internal reasons.

What have we got for you now? Ah yes, the Versatile Newts I was about to play anyway and this is Blimp.

Re: MP3 of John Peel reading THE letter from Lawrence!

Robert
[...] It took time and hard-earned money to release it. Only 500 copies and to still have 300 left a year later is no pleasing reminder. Felt received good reviews from the press but without a spin on your show I was unable to sell them."

...

What have we got for you now? Ah yes, the Versatile Newts I was about to play anyway and this is Blimp.



JP actually played the Newts again on April 10th.

Looking up Index on Musicstack (http://www.musicstack.com/pgt.cgi), it now sells at an average of £94.50, so if Lawrence had held onto those 300 unsold copies, maybe some of his later financial woes could have been avoided