Peter Young has, for a long time, been a favourite deejay of mine.
At Jazz FM he was one of the few people who played 'Northern Soul' on London's airwaves.
On leaving Jazz FM, Peter moved to BBC LDN 94.9 FM.
After his move to the Beeb, Jazz FM called Peter 'out of the blue' and asked him to return to the station for a resumption of his show that contains the now legendary 'Soul Cellar'.
The first show commenced at 1p.m. on Sunday 26th January 2003 (later moving to 2p.m. on the 7th of March 2004).
By October of 2003, he was asked to extend the Soul Cellar an additional half an hour by the stations management.
In May 2005, PY played his last Soul Cellar at Jazz FM, before moving to 'Smooth FM' in June 2005, which is the same station, but ran under a different banner.
By 2007, the station changed ownership, PY was asked if he would continue the legendary Soul Cellar, which he agreed to.
In 2008, the Cellar was discontinued for a short while.
The shows, at that point, were broadcast every Saturday between 5 and 8 p.m.
The Cellar will continue......currently on Solar Radio.....
...Here is a message from PY indicating the reasons for his departure from Smooth Radio (amen to these sentiments)....
'First of all I want to thank the many kind and loyal people who've been in touch since my final show on Smooth Radio on June 7th. The tally so far is well in excess of 500 messages. I'm doing my best to reply personally to as many as possible, but please forgive me if you've slipped through the net.
Your response has far exceeded my expectations and I'm very grateful for all your comments and good wishes. I suppose after all my years in radio I should have seen it coming, but I have to confess that I didn't. All the signs were there. The Saturday 5-8pm show was never promoted on air, but according to the RAJAR survey covering January - March 2008, it had one of the biggest audiences on the station. This in itself would have upset the upper echelons of management, whose heavily formatted daily shows were with the exception of weekday and weekend breakfast, lagging behind my audience numbers to quite an alarming extent. In my opinion there was an element of jealousy and spite in the decision to end the show. Also for months on end, I didn't hear a single, solitary word from any management figure and was never given any kind of feedback, or encouragement of any kind.
The replacement on Saturday night does a perfectly good job in rotating the 'soul classics', but unfortunately now follows the same path as the few remaining soul shows on other mainstream stations. It does the cause of soul music no good at all to constantly feature tried and trusted favourites at the expense of anything new. That in the main is what you now have to listen to on a Saturday night.
There are a number of soul shows on air and with all due respect to the people involved, they are all playing 95% old material. The management must have hated my policy of including as much new music and talent as possible. Unfamiliar music that still pulled a considerable crowd each week. Of course they will argue that their target listener only wants to hear music that they know and can sing along to. A thought process that is patronizing in the extreme. You don't suddenly lose interest in anything good and new the second you hit 40. The success of the show proved that beyond any doubt.
They claimed in a letter to a listener which was forwarded to me that a large percentage only listened to my show and then switched the station off. I think that says a lot more about them than it does about me. What do they expect if they broadcast a so called 'specialist' show, aimed at listeners with specific music tastes? Of course they won't hang around to hear 'Dancing Queen' and a dreary Phil Collins ballad. A lot of people have been in touch to say that they will now make an effort to tune in to alternative outlets such as Solar Radio.
At the moment Solar and Starpoint on Sky Digital and the net, are the only options for people who want to hear something other than 'Baby Love' and 'Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay'. If you love black music and don't want to hear the same handful of tunes chosen by some focus group, this is the only way to go. As always, your comments and feedback are much appreciated.
Peter Young (July 16th 2008)'
...if you have any comments you wish to send to Peter, do use the e-mail link above, by his photo....
Blues and Soul article (click on the image above)
Peter Young Show
Solar Radio
2.00 - 4.00pm
Sunday 17th August 2008artist - track - label - album title
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
The Night
Motown
‘The Motown Years’
Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings
Keep On Looking
Daptone
‘100 Days, 100 Nights’
Incognito
Feel The Pressure
Dome
‘Tales From The Beach’
Kloud 9
Step
Expansion
Promo
Lori Dow
Dear Lord
Lori Dow Music
‘Love Changes’
Sergio Mendes
Odo-Ya
Universal
‘Encanto’
Noel Gourdin
Make The Most
Epic
‘After My Time’
Marc Evans
This Thing Called Love
TSOD
7” Single
The O’Jays
992 Arguments
Epic Legacy
‘Back Stabbers’
Leon Ware
Moon Ride
Stax
‘Moon Ride’
Lalah Hathaway
That Was Then
Stax
‘Self Portrait’
Boris Gardiner
Negril
Strut
‘Calypsoul 70’
‘The Soul Cellar’ Isaac Hayes Tribute
Isaac Hayes and David Porter
Ain’t That Loving You
Stax
‘Wonderful’
Carla Thomas
B-A-B-Y
Warner Platinum
‘The Platinum Collection’
Aretha Franklin
I Take What I Want
Atlantic
‘Aretha Now’
James and Bobby Purify
I Take What I Want
Sony/BMG
‘Best Of James and Bobby Purify’
O.V. Wright
Your Good Thing Is About To End
Hi
‘The Bottom Line’
Johnnie Taylor
I’ve Got To Love Somebody’s Baby
Atlantic
‘Wanted One Soul Singer’
Sam and Dave
When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
Warner Platinum
‘The Platinum Collection’
Wilson Pickett
Toe Hold
Atlantic
‘Hey Jude’
Sharon Tandy
Toe Hold
Big Beat
‘You Gotta Believe…It’s Sharon Tandy’
Danny White
Keep My Woman Home
Kent
‘Kent’s Cellar Of Soul’
Homer Banks
Hooked By Love
Stateside
‘The Best Of Homer Banks’
Jeanne and The Darlings
Soul Girl
Atlantic
‘This Is Soul’
Sam and Dave
Wrap It Up
Stax
7” Single
Isaac Hayes
Type Thang
Stax
7” Single
Isaac Hayes
Soulsville
Stax
‘Shaft’
Isaac Hayes
Pursuit Of The Pimpmobile
Stax
‘Truck Turner’...or click here to see some soul imagery...
