A John Peel centre in Wirral? He would have been so proud

Jul 1 2009 by Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

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THEY travelled to Europe together to watch their beloved Liverpool FC. They dined and drank together when, by chance, they found themselves living a few miles from each other in the Suffolk countryside.

And they spoke with a passion about their true home – Merseyside.

Birkenhead-born John Gorman, 73, was proud to call John Peel – who was born in the former Heswall Cottage Hospital 70 years ago this August – a friend, and nothing would make him prouder than to be able to help make a Peel-inspired dream become a reality.

As the ECHO has reported, John, a former member of chart-topping band The Scaffold, an ex-Tiswas presenter and currently artistic director of the Wirral Academy of Arts, wants to open an arts centre and museum in Birkenhead Town Hall in memory of the much-missed broadcaster.

And with this Friday being the deadline set by Wirral Council for individuals and organisations to indicate “expressions of interest”, John today recalled the dear friend who left such a lasting legacy after he died from a heart attack while on holiday in Peru in 2004, aged 65.

Brought together by the music business in the late 1960s, it was a friendship which took time to grow. John, then riding high in the charts with The Scaffold, explains: “We bumped into him in London and later went to see him at his apartment.

“He didn’t want the limelight and found it difficult to cope with people who were in the spotlight – as we were at that time. He didn’t push himself forward, because it wasn’t his style.”

Fast forward a few years and the two Johns became near-neighbours – although Gorman had no idea he had moved into Peel territory.

He explains: “In 1975, my wife at the time and I moved to a village in Suffolk called Woolpit and opened a restaurant called The Old Bakery. It was about six miles from John’s house. I had no idea at all!

“John heard I’d moved into the area and was apparently very worried. He was a big family man – he loved his wife, Sheila, and their children to bits – and I think he was concerned that if people like me moved into the area it would lose its peace and quiet and become showbizzy. I can understand that and John soon realised I had more or less moved to this very rural area for the same reason – to escape attention.”

Recalling how the DJ, presenter and writer’s working life went hand in hand with his domestic bliss, John, who spent about 10 years in Suffolk, recalls: “He was always in his den. Music was always playing – we’d be having dinner and John would be in and out listening to records.”