The legendary Radio 1 and Radio 4 presenter died suddenly from a heart attack on holiday in Peru. John stood for everything that is great about a love and passion of music. John will be deeply missed.

"What Peel's always done is to reach out across the airwaves and make people feel part of something bigger than themselves.". - Barney Hoskyns (The Independent)

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John was born in Heswall,Wirral and after completing his military service in Britain in 1962, went to Texas and began working for WRR radio in Dallas. At this time The Beatles success was reaching its peak and John with his Liverpool connections found it helped his ratings to claim acquaintance with the group. He was in Dallas when John F Kennedy was shot and was at the press conference just before Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. For the next three years he moved to various radio stations in America, among them KOMA in Oklahoma City and KMEN outside Los Angeles. He returned to Britain in 1967 and joined Radio London with the celebrated show The Perfumed Garden. John has been with Radio 1 from the beginning in 1967, establishing himself with the late night programme Top Gear. John was the first DJ to give exposure to punk, reggae, hip-hop, long before they crossed over into the mainstream. Almost anyone who is anyone in the world of music has recorded a session for Peel. Apart from regularly topping music paper Best DJ polls, John won the 1993 Sony Award for Broadcaster of the Year and in 1994 was named Godlike Genius by the NME.