Bobby Seiler was producing John Peel's show on the BBC World Service during the last 2 years of the DJ's life.

Andrey Vladov: John Peel - what is the one thing that sticks in your mind? What will you remember him for?

Bobby Seiler: I will actually remember John for being the person that I used to go to every week with a whole pile of records, and pass them over to him, and he would grumble and gripe about this record and that record, and how the staffВ  upstairs were forcing him to do things he didn't want to do. And despite sounding like he was a bit of a miserable person, he was also very funny with it. He had a very dry sense of humour and he also had a very sweet heart as well. So I will definitely remember those funny exchanges we had every week when we were discussing records for the programme.

A. V.: How would he pick up the bands he would play?

B. S.: John was remarkable for the fact that nobody could get to John's ears. By that I mean that record pluggers would send records to the office with the hope that John would pick them up and read the bit at the back that says - "This is the new supergroup, you've got to listen to this - it's amazing"! It never worked with John. All he did was trust his own ears. He'd put the cd in the slot, he'd put the headphones on, he'd listen to it and if he liked it, it would go in the show. Now, it was very difficult for a producer because you try your hardest to influence his judgement. You go - "This is a great band. This is a great new song. Really John - you gotta listen to this"! And he would just quietly take it, put it in his pile, and you would never hear of it again until, maybe it turned up in a programme about six months later - which was the time when he'd come around listening to it and decided that it was ready for the show. So in a strange way, as a producer, influencing John's musical tastes, I had no bearing at all.

A. V.: Did he actually listen to all the music that was sent to him by the different bands and labels?

B. S.: John was one of these old school DJs who still got a lot of his records from going out record shopping. Whereas a lot of DJs and producers these days just rely on records being sent to them, John would go out and seek records out. So these were records that were never promoted in any other way than they were in a record shop. And he would go through vinyl and cds , looking for anything that just took his interest - whether it was a cd cover, or whether it was a record label he knew, or he'd heard something about the artist somewhere along the line. And so John was very much old school in that way of seeking out music.

A. V.: What music did he listen to in the last months of his life?

B. S.: John's music taste didn't change from almost the day he started. Well, maybe that's not true! When he started he was quite caught up in the psychedelic rock movement of the late 60's - early 70's and some of the folk psychedelia that was going on at that time. Then that developed into prog rock music and he became quite a proponent of a lot of that type of music. And then when punk broke he completely shifted. He lost a lot of his interest in prog rock and went to punk. And then when hip-hop came in he was one of the first DJs to ever start playing hip-hop on British radio. So every time a new genre came up John's ears would be open to it. He famously once said - "I just want to hear something I've never heard before". And that was the remit to what John liked. So if it was mindless gaba music thumping at 200 bpm - if it just turned him on - that's what he would go with. And if it was some old bluesman from 1930, if that's what turned him on that week, that's what he would go with. So his music tastes didn't change up until the end. All he was interested in was something new, interesting, or something he thought the listener would love.

A. V.: Do you think he is irreplaceable?

B. S.: There are certain elements to John Peel that are irreplaceable. Firstly, a lot of people have a passion for music these days and a lot of people have a passion for lots of different types of music. But the complete breadth of music that John was into was huge. As I said - from 1930's bluesmen on crackly old 78 records - right up to absolutely cutting edge Japanese techno. He was interested in all of it! There aren't many DJs who really have that much of an open mind. The second thing to say about John is his personality. Because as much as he was a music presenter who made the music the focal point, his personality was very definitely evident between the records. You can't deny that that is actually part of John's appeal. He was just an amazing personality and he could sell a record or he could talk about a record in a way that very few others can.

A. V.: So he was not difficult to work with, apart from you trying to unsuccessfully plug records in?

B. S.: I wouldn't say John was easy to work with. There were instances when I would go to him with an idea, either I'd come up with or maybe the commissioners at the BBC had come up with, that they would like John to do. A perfect example for this was when I was asked if I would ask John if he'd like to do something special for his 65-th birthday. And I came up with this idea that it would be great to organise maybe 3 concerts around the world. One in Jamaica featuring some of his favourite reggae artists, one in Japan featuring some of his favourite Japanese bands, and maybe one in the UK or one in America featuring other bands. And you know - this seemed like a nice idea - something that would interest John. But whether it was just the moment I caught him - he would just grumble at me - "I don't want to be doing this! Why won't they just leave me alone and let me play my records"! And it was very much like that. So he had to be gently cajoled into an idea of maybe doing something. And it just kind of depended a bit on the day you caught him. If he was in a really grumpy mood, it would be just negative grumblings that you would get from him. Other times he was the warmest most accommodating person in the world. There were various times I remember when things weren't maybe going great with me outside ofВ  work . John would notice immediately, and he would take time out and would have a little chat about things and we would just talk generally about life. And in that way he was a wonderful, wonderful person.

A. V.: But he was not a primadona?

B. S.: Oh, no no! He wasn't a primadona. Except that he was very, very protective of his show. He really knew what he wanted to do and he just wanted to be left doing that. He just didn't want interference from other people, outside interests asking "Oh, could you play less of that record", or "Can you play more of that sort of stuff", or "Could you talk a bit more about that"? There were certain things I managed to get him to do, like reference the BBC a bit more throughout his show. But beyond that John wasn't going to be turning for anybody.

A. V.: Was there any particular style of music that he didn't like and would never everВ  play in his show?

B. S.: Anything mainstream pop. I think his thinking behind that was - it gets so much airplay everywhere else - what is the point? That's no to say that he didn't play songs, for example like ABBA. But of course, the way he played it, it was a Hindustani version of an ABBA hit or it was an interesting remix of a very well-known pop tune. He'd always find a different way of presenting something that maybe we might have heard on some of the more mainstream radio-stations.

A. V.: Could you say in just three words, why do you think John Peel was so important?

B. S.: Three words? Committed to music. And that's what it comes down to- his first love was always music. He wasn't much of a musician himself but a lot of people aren't. It's a bit like the football manager - he may not be good at football but is a brilliant manager. That's what John had - he just had an ear for music that sparked his imagination. And he believed that being passionate about it, being committed, he might influence other people to pick up on it. And a lot of the time some of these bands just fell by the wayside and you never heard of them again, and they may have sold about ten records in their total career. But for every one of those you've got a David Bowie, you've got a Marc Bolan, you've got a T-Rex, you've got a Sex Pistols. As much as he covered a lot of music, he did pick some of the best hitters that we've ever had. And for that reason John Peel was the single most influential person in British music in the last 50 years.

Bobby Seiler is currently producing The Beat -В  BBC's main music programme broadcast weekly to the world.В