John Peel Archive

John Peel's mammoth music archive went live today.  The John Peel Center, in cooperation with Peel's family, has launched the website The Space, with the goal of housing Peel's entire collection of records, live sessions (Peel Sessions), photos, radio shows, and videos/home movies.   About 100 Peel Sessions and 100 albums from Peel's vinyl album collection were made available today.  More albums will be added each week in alphabetical order (today 100 artists starting with the letter 'A' were added, next week 100 more starting with 'B' will be added, etc).  It should be noted that The Space isn't streaming the archives itself; instead there are links that direct you to listen to the material on iTunes and Spotify.  

Go and explore the John Peel archive by clicking on one of the yellow icons (the yellow album will take you to the record collection, the sound board takes you to the Peel Sessions, etc).   Scroll around and peruse Peel's collection--there's sessions from David Bowie, The Cure, The Smiths, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Pulp, PJ Harvey, John Cale, Ian Dury, Julian Cope, Killing Joke, and the list goes on and on.  You'll also see scans of index cards with Peel's typewritten notes/track listings, and the vinyl sleeves and artwork that house each record.  Super cool stuff.

Unfortunately it appears the Space only has funding until October 2012, so unless they receive additional funding, the project will likely only be accessible through the autumn.  

Read more about the Space and the John Peel Archive here.