Champion of budding rock stars dies

Champion of budding rock stars dies:


John Peel, 1939-2004: Tributes pour in for the veteran Radio 1 DJ and national institution who has died aged 65.

Some of the country's most successful rock musicians yesterday paid tribute to John Peel, the veteran Radio 1 DJ, whom they credited with having played a crucial part in their rise to fame.

Damon Albarn, frontman of Blur, said: "John Peel's patronage was for me, like countless other musicians, one of the most significant things that happened to us in our careers."

His sentiments were echoed by Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of the Undertones, one of whose songs was Peel's favourite. "In the autumn of 1978 something happened that was to change my life forever - John Peel played Teenage Kicks on the radio for the very first time. Today, it just changed again, forever. We have just lost the single most important broadcaster we have ever known."

Peel, who was 65, died of a heart attack in the Peruvian city of Cuzco where he was enjoying a working holiday with his wife Sheila.

He was having pre-dinner drinks at the lobby bar of the Monasterio Hotel, when he suffered a coronary attack at around 9pm local time on Monday evening. He received cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at the scene but died later in hospital.

In a telephone interview, Peel's wife said he had been "perfectly fine" before the attack: "We'd been walking around and he was okay until it happened."

They were on a three-week holiday and had planned to visit the ruins at Machu Picchu before returning to London on Sunday.

Peel had always acknowledged that there was a history of early death in his family and he had been diagnosed as suffering from diabetes in September 2001.