Mick Wall's John Peel biography withdrawn from sale

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Has anybody here read the John Peel rush job cash-in biography written by Mick Wall? Apparently it was withdrawn from sale today - my girlfriend works in a bookshop and the publishers in question phoned and sternly demanded that all copies be removed from the shelves immediately, although they didn't explain just why.
It seems to have been removed from amazon.co.uk, too.

So does anyone know if the book was in any way libellous, or if there might have been some other reason for its withdrawal?
(NB: I haven't read it myself as it seemed like such a sordid hack job, hitting the shelves only a few weeks after Peel's death).

― M Carty (mj_c), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

They probably just took someone else's life and did a search/replace to put Peel's name in. And changed a few references.

― mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

I was given it for Christmas. Took about two hours to read, and I'm not sure I learned anything new from it. You could certainly tell it was written in about ten days. Can't think of anything remotely libellous in it, though. Maybe Orion just suddenly felt guilty about such a cynical cash-in. It does have a nice appendix of all the Festive 50s in it, though. I'd forgotten all about Bang Bang Machine.

― David Barker (dpjb), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but they probably just lifted the Festive Fifties from Rock Lists. Cashing in on somebody else's hard, and unpaid, work. Cynical bastards.

― stew, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

could it have anything to do with the upcoming Autobiography?

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

i got the other one for christmas ... the michael heatley one ... i'm assuming its publishers are keeping it on the shelves.

hmm.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

I know they're deplorable, but I'm also always quite impressed that people manage to write these things in ten days or whatever. It's still a lot of writing. Unless they followed mike's find and replace strategy, which is certainly a brilliant idea.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

OK, apparently the representative of the publishers of the Mick Wall book said that all copies were to be withdrawn immediately due to "an ongoing libel action", on which she would not comment further.
So there must be something buried away in there!

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

"Germaine Greer", perchance?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 09:16 (twenty years ago)

Is that a Celeb Big Brother reference, or a skeleton in the Peel closet?

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

did the paedo stuff offend teh fanx0rz?

― Miles Finch, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

xpost both...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

Remember reading a Private Eye review of this at the end of last year where they all but accused Mick Wall of ripping off the Festive Fifty lists and other bits from a certain website!!!! Wonder if that has anything to do with it?

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

Bang Bang Machine

Apple and Leona the lizard girl!

GEEK LOVE RULEZ KTHXBYE

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 10:10 (twenty years ago)

How can you rip off a list? Obviously it's fuck lazy but it's hardly exploiting someone's creative genius.

The Germaine Greer thing is common knowledge as well, right? Although I haven't read the book, so if anyone knows what might have been inferred there please tell.

Perhaps Peel's family could team up with Axl Rose and record some sort of Delta blues/Jap hardcore style song challenging Mick to "get in the ring".

― DJ Mencap0))), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

Did the Rock Lists, ummm, lists have some kinda of spelling error or punctuation quirk that turns up replicated in the Wall biog?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

"This book has been withdrawn due to libelous spelling errors"

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

but you can't actually libel someone after their death. it's, as far as i know, legally impossible.

― stelfox, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

well, no, you can't defame peel any more. but were there any existing suits against him? did he, perhaps, defame someone on air? if he did, and the remark has been reprinted, wall and his publishers would be in trouble.

also, i assume that if an R1 DJ made a defamatory accusation then both he and R1 would be cited in the action. the DJ's death wouldn't by default clear the station.

however, this is conjecture: i certainly don't remember hearing anything about peel upsetting anyone.

usually these things are enormously tedious. it's always the unimportant details that trip you up.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

you can't libel the dead in the US but aren't libel laws in the UK a lot more strict?

― shookout (shookout), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

No, you can't libel the dead in the UK, but you do have to be very sure they're definitely dead.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

(I am not suggesting Peel is not dead, though if someone wants to spread that rumour I don't mind)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

Being buried in a ceremony covered by all the news channels is normally a good indication of this.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Apparently you can libel the dead in English Law - I was wrong:

Trite law states that the dead cannot sue for libel but, often overlooked, this does not apply to malicious falsehood where a claim survives for the benefit of the estate. In addition to malice, falsehood and publication, a claimant's estate would also have to show some loss

from http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1288524,00.html

(you need to register for media guardian stories - sorry)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

'Trite law'??? Flib tort. Statute of Gauche Limitations.

― Miles Finch, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

I'd forgotten all about Bang Bang Machine.

hmm. so had i. insofar as: i'd forgotten that "geek love" was this great single that i never actually heard at the time. somehow. having just been idly flicking through the appendix at the back of heatley's book, i thought i'd try to rectify that.

the one version i can find out there on the big bad interweb is suitably sub-cocteau-twins-tastic. but it also sounds like it was recorded underwater. at least, the vocals do. hmm.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 1 February 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I recall Peel playing it, but that song never made much of an impression on me, either.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

what i don't get is ... if the indie cognoscenti were happy to bang on about "geek love" back in 1994, how come something like "peacon" by the workhouse has never been similarly feted? or did transcendent reverb-soaked gossamer-rock suddenly go out of fashion? pah.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 11:36 (twenty years ago)

**or did transcendent reverb-soaked gossamer-rock suddenly go out of fashion**

Killed by britpop IIRC.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

those cunts

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

The Workhouse CD has been reissued on a new label with extra tracks. It's still highly recommended

― alext (alext), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

what, "end of the pier"? fuck. am i gonna have to buy it again?

hmm. the version mentioned here:

http://www.the-workhouse.net/disc.html

is the one i have.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 2 February 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Thanks for THE WORKHOUSE tip.
They sound great.
BANG BANG MACHINE had more songs than just GEEK LOVE.
They were a very special band.
Any BBM fans contact me for a FREE copy of my BBM homage film
WHO KILLED BANG BANG MACHINE?
www.dreamsmith.moonfruit.com

― Leigh Smith, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

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