'No one can ever be the next John Peel' ; Rob Da Bank

Dom Phillips meets Rob Da Bank, the main contender for the most difficult job in pop

Friday December 10, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1369879,00.html

It is 6pm on Sunday but upstairs at the Lock Tavern in Camden, north London, nobody is interested in tea-time or the Antiques Roadshow. The pub is hosting a party and it's going off like peak-time Saturday night. In control is the free-wheeling club Sunday Best and their fashionably tousled, arty crowd are dancing on tables, swilling pints and necking sambuca shots, squeezing good-naturedly through the throng, or swaying to a good-time soundtrack of old-time hip hop.

Rob Da Bank, ponytailed DJ and Sunday Best impresario, has just dropped House of Pain's bouncing rap classic Jump Around - and is about to introduce a cabaret trio in trilbies called Mr Hat. He seems, on the face of it, an unlikely candidate to become the New John Peel.

The Blue Room chill-out show he co-hosts on Radio 1 is confined to the spectacularly unsociable time slot of 4-7am on Saturday morning. And he is best known for playing music that makes people dance. But since the sudden death of the veteran broadcaster, Da Bank has been hosting his show three times a week - and the New John Peel is what sections of the media are already calling him.

"It's been an absolute rollercoaster, but amazing as well," he says. "Just finding out so much more about music than I thought I ever would. And interacting with Peel fans who'd been listening to John for 37 years ... it's been very emotional."


· Radio 1 is hosting Keep It Peel, a live John Peel night with special guests, on Thursday, 7pm-1am.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/index.shtml


The schedule for the night will run as follows:

7pm - 8pm
Teenage Dreams So Hard To Beat
Kicking off Peel night, Radio 1 takes a look back at the career of the great man with a one hour documentary celebrating his extraordinary life. The show will feature tributes from The Undertones, Orbital, the Cure, New Order, Supergrass, Robert Plant, Underworld, Siouxsie Sioux and the Buzzcocks.

8pm - 11:30pm
Live music from bands that John championed including the Wedding Present, Nina Nastasia, Hefner, Trencher, Melys, Steveless, Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian), Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Graham Coxon. And special guests tbc. Steve Lamacq will be introducing the bands and linking it all together.

11:30pm - 1am
The DJs take over with sets from Underworld, Hixxy, Coldcut, Shitmat, Grooverider, Dave Clarke, Jon E Cash, Alex Paterson plus Dynamite MC on mic duties.

Simply astounding when you think of the bands/artists he championed.

Brilliant! Made me laugh and cry at the same time.

The Skin