I found out tonight that John Peel had a rubber stamp that he’d sign off on letters with [in red] that read “John Peel, The Worlds Most Boring Man”. That’s “John Peel” on one line… the rest, centered on the next. All in red. no apostrophes in sight. No idea the start date or tenure of this sign off… I can only remember getting one letter back from John (an email, actually… no rubber stamp) a brief thing it was, but I’ve cherished it like the note I got back from Herb Caen the one time I wrote him. There is a funny thing with heroes… that, the more you get to know them, the (quite quickly, usually) less heroic they become. John Peel has never suffered that… despite, or perhaps, because the more you learn, the more ordinary he becomes. I watch interviews with him now and just can’t stop cracking up. Humour so dry, but so original it’s an absolute wonder. Restart the world at the correct speed somebody…
