For some weird reason my heroes seem to be dropping like flies at the moment. It’s only four days since Billy Nick left me with a hole in my footie heritage. I’m getting to be too afraid to watch the news in case another one of the people who have shaped my life has died.

Today has been such a day. The unique John Peel has died at the tender age of 65, while on holiday with his family in Peru. He had a heart-attack. He leaves a vacuum in my music life. I wanted to mark this tragic day despite feeling really ropey so I’ve sat plotting my text all afternoon and planning my pic, which I got DM to help me set up (he carried stuff for me and set it all up, but today I had the composition in my mind and he carried out my requests).

I doubt whether anyone (certainly in the UK) of my era with an interest in music would not admire this man. He loved his music with a passion and his enthusiasm for the new and exciting kick-started the careers of many, many great bands. If John Peel liked a band and played their music, people would stop and listen. His tastes were eclectic, one minute playing that bastion of punk – The Dead Kennedys, the next Roman Holliday, a swing band from Basildon (and one of my favourite bands of the early 80s). In fact, I met him a couple of times in the 80s– he wouldn’t remember me, it meant much more to me than him – I shook his hand and thanked him for his role in ‘breaking’ a couple of my favourite bands.

His self-claimed favourite song of all time was The Undertones – Teenage Kicks and one synonymous with the things that he supported the ‘youth of the nation’ to do – enjoy life!

Funnily enough, his own life was far from a rock’n’roll rebel he just loved the music with a passion, didn't want the casual sex and drugs that go with it – I can’t imagine a nicer, more family orientated man. He called his wife (who we all felt as though we knew) ‘the Pig’ yet everything he ever uttered about her was filled with love and pride. The same with his four children. I once heard him say that even though he was the hero of every teenager in Britain, that accolade excluded his own brood who still thought him uncool!!! He chose to live in the country with those he held dear rather than the London life that many of his peers would follow. He even had a Border Collie.

In the last ten years or so, he’s been filling my Saturday mornings with deep contentment on Home Truths, a Radio 4 talk show, where the subject matter was far from the music shows I grew up with. There have been features that make you laugh, those that make you cry and those that just seem too bizarre for words. The one I remember was confirming one of my own beliefs, you can tell if someone or something is ill by how they smell. If I pick up one of our wabbits and it smells of anything other than hay then I know it’s sick. Likewise when Toby was ill, you could smell it in his fur. Someone had phoned in and said they could tell when their children were ill by how they smelled. My stomach contracted when I heard someone else say that because I’d always felt I would be regarded as bonkers if I’d articulated it. DM tells me today that my hair no longer smells of hospital so I must be on the mend.

John Peel was sweet, funny, kind, full of joy and passion for all the things he did. He could be acerbic too – that’s why I chose Lemon Peel.

I don’t think a tribute to this wonderful man could end on any other note than a few lines from a song….the anthem of his beloved Liverpool FC – the Gerry and the Pacemakers classic – You’ll Never Walk Alone

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver
Song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams
Be tossed and blown
Walk on
Walk on
With hope in your hearts
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.