- Last night, to celebrate John Peel’s 60th birthday, the BBC aired an hour long documentary special. Included in the special was a videotaped appearance by none other than David Bowie, wishing Peel a happy birthday, and telling a story about how John Peel once helped steer Bowie in the right direction. Here is a except:
“Dear John. When you worked with me on the T-Rex tour, and I was doing a mime piece based on the invasion of Tibet by the Chinese… you were somewhat non-plussed that the audience didn’t like the piece where the back row of the audience lifted their hands up with Chairman Mao’s little red book, and there was a whole feud going on between me and the audience.
You decided that the problem was that I was doing mime. You didn’t like mime. And until I came here to America, I never realized that you were right. Nobody in the world likes mime.Thanks for the advice about the songs. I’m glad I stayed with the songwriting. And a very happy birthday.”
Viewers of the special were then treated to a rare version of David’s 1972 appearence on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The clip was Oh! You Pretty Things.