About John Peel:
"Peel had an approachability about him that I'm sure is very much frowned upon on in our corporate era of broadcasting. Exemplified, to my mind, by the fact that he got to wondering what the number was for the mysterious telephone that sat unused in his studio, managed to find out, and then gave it out on one of his shows (this was in the Monday-Friday years). I heard that show, wrote the number down, and would sometimes call him and have a chat during his show - about music, cricket, or whatever really. Sometimes he'd go 'hang on a minute, I need to put another record on' and then come back on the phone. For a 16 year old living in semi-rural suburbia this was absolutely thrilling. Looking back, I can only salute Peel's patience and generosity - it's hard to imagine he got an awful lot out of such conversations, but presumably indulged me (and others). Either that or he was bored out of his mind, and was wanking or flicking the Vs while talking."