mojomagazine:

John Peel’s Record Collection Will Appear Online

A large proportion of John Peel’s record collection is to be put online at The Space. The BBC reports that visitors will be able to peruse some of the late, great broadcaster’s 25,000 vinyl albums (Peel’s 40,000 vinyl singles and CDs will have to wait to a later date). It’s understood that the abiltity to listen to the records will depend on copyright issues, although all original artwork, Peel’s personal notes and video interviews are to be included.

Peel’s widow, Sheila Ravenscroft said: “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.”

Director of the John Peel Centre, Tom Barker added: “What we’re hoping to do is create an online interactive museum which which answers the question ‘what is in John Peel’s record collection?’ but also provides the audience with a visualisation of it. We hope that giving them access to a particular band or their first album or listening to his show will inspire people to tell us their stories. This is the first step in the journey of making one of the most important archives in modern music history available completely.”

The project is set to begin in May. 100 albums are expected to appear each week.

In the meantime, here’s the 2005 documentary, John Peel’s Record Box: