Present thoughts

The best musical stocking fillers

’Tis the season to be cheerful, especially if you like shopping. Which, obviously, as a heterosexual white middle-class male in his forties with no money, I don’t much, unless it’s for books or CDs. But at this time of year those of us of a non-shopping persuasion must bury our prejudices, venture out into the madness of pre-yule consumerism and buy lots of books and CDs for our friends and relatives. Or for ourselves, just to cheer us up.

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ken garner

December 6th, 2007 1:23am Report this comment

Marcus Berkmann wonders why Ella Guru's music "is not played on the radio?". The answer is, it was: three years ago, by John Peel, in some of his last Radio 1 shows. He'd been playing tracks from their first album, released in August 04, before he left for Peru, and the band were booked to do their debut session for the show before he died. Peel's producer Louise Kattenhorn honoured the invitation, as with the other 20 or so bands booked before 26 October that year, and their session was eventually broadcast on 15/12/05. The band had also spontaneously decided to attend Peel's funeral, and photos of their session and their recollections of the funeral feature in the first chapter of my book. Berkmann is right, they are a really wonderful band. Ken Garner author, THE PEEL SESSIONS, and Spectator reader since 1979