The extensive record collection of John Peel, the former BBC Radio 1 DJ who died in 2004, has been made available to the public.
Peel, who spent more than four decades working in the music industry, amassed an impressive vinyl collection on his way to becoming one of the industry’s most respected voices.
And over the next few months, the impressive collection will be made available to the public over the internet, with details of 100 albums being added in alphabetical order each week.
Initially, it was speculated that Peel’s vinyl collection would go to the National Sound Archive, where the public would have access to it.
However, it has now been determined that it should instead be made available through a web-based project The Space, which has been launched by the BBC and Arts Council England.
Sheila Ravenscroft, widow of the former radio DJ, has spoken of her delight at the plans, saying that it is important fans have access to his storied collection.
“We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans, as he would have wanted,” she commented.
“This project is only the beginning of something very exciting.”
Beginning today (May 2nd), the first batch of albums features those artists whose names begin with the letter A.
Mike Absalom, who once described Peel as “the musical Maypole around which we all danced”, is the first artist on the list, which can be seen at thespace.org.
The creators of the site say that it will empower visitors to trawl through the records and the DJ’s index cards. Additionally, the site will allow fans to view personal notes.
Through the course of his career in the music industry, Peel amassed more than 25,000 vinyl albums. And every week until September, 100 of these albums will be added to the site.