1982 was a significant year for me musically because it was when I started listening to the John Peel radio show and broadened my musical horizons. I'd been listening to late night radio for a while, with head and radio under the covers so that my parents couldn't hear. I'd tried Peel's Radio 1 show a year or two earlier but found it too frightening! I preferred the satirical humor and radio theatre of Radio 2 and Radio 4.

But in 1982 I realized what a terrible mistake I'd made and the likes of the Farmers Boys, The Higsons and the Cocteau Twins were to be cherished, not to be scared of. But in compiling this episode, I realize, sure... that's when it started. But it was the discovery of the Festive Fifty at Christmas time (when Peel's listeners voted for their favorite tracks of the year) that really captured my imagination. That set-up 1983 for a glorious year of musical discovery.

But it all starts here, in that transition year of 1982. Out with the old and in the with new.