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Ian Peel (born 1972) is a British journalist, author and music archivist. He is best known for his work for The Guardian and Classic Pop magazine, and for his work with ZTT Records.
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12" Remixes
Peel is a commentator on, and curator of, 12-inch single and remixes. He wrote Classic Pop magazine's Top 50 12"s of the Eighties special edition, and curated three volumes of the compilation series The Art of the 12". In 2016 he wrote the Afterword of Rob Grillo's book, Is That The 12" Remix?.
Peel used 12" remixes and rare edits to curate the soundtrack to In The AM, a film by The The. The soundtrack itself was released as In The AM (Ian Peel Mix) as the closing track on The The's compilation of 12" mixes, Stretched, and as part of the group's box set, London Town 1983-1993.
According to the Penny Black music blog, "Most of the tracks on The Art of the 12” - which has been described by Peel on its cover as “150 minutes of blockbusters, rarities, vanities and mysteries” - have either never been released before on CD or sometimes at all."
ZTT Records curator
Peel has spent many years archiving and curating the work of ZTT Records, Trevor Horn and Sarm Studios. His work on the ZTT tape store was profiled by The Word magazine in 2010: "What Ian inherited was a ton of rotting cardboard boxes and a cataloguing nightmare," reported Andrew Harrison. "What he found, though, is dazzling to anyone who loves the work of Trevor Horn and the profligate madness of ZTT. With its antiquated floppies and hard discs the size (and weight) of lorry tyres, this room crystallises a pause between the old world of Take 1 and Take 2 and the future in which everything would be infinitely malleable."
His work has in this field has led to the release of more than 50 CD/vinyl releases, compilations, box sets and gallery exhibitions. In a piece titled Ian Peel’s one-man campaign takes another brilliant twist, Kris Needs wrote in Record Collector, "Considering that everything which ZTT touched during their early 80s purple patch immediately seemed to swell to widescreen proportions, it’s fortuitous that Ian Peel, though only a teenage record-buyer at the time, shares their panoramic visions when it comes to the reissue programme he’s been lovingly masterminding since last year. It seems he won’t rest until every reel from production supremo Trevor Horn’s archives has been distilled into one of his lavish double-disc sets, his accompanying sleevenotes always an invaluable source of facts and memorabilia."
Paul McCartney's experimental work
Having participated in TV and radio documentaries, Peel has become a noted commentator on Paul McCartney's experimental oeuvre, as author of the 2002 biography The Unknown Paul McCartney, McCartney and the Avant-Garde, described as "an odd and interesting reframing of McCartney as experimentalist".
It is the only book thus far to offer an in-depth history and analysis of McCartney's work in the field of experimental and avant-garde music, notably under the pseudonyms Thrillington and The Fireman, on projects such as Liverpool Sound Collage and Carnival of Light (with The Beatles), and as occasional collaborator with Allen Ginsberg, Brian Wilson and Yoko Ono. The foreword was written by David Toop.
One review commented that "Peel goes to lengths to put forward the argument that though the seemingly 'constantly cheerful one' may have been responsible for the MOR apocalypse of Wings, experimentation in other genres was never far away." Another noted that "Although Peel spends much of the book setting stages, discussing Cage, Eno, IDM and so on, who else would even have dreamt up such a thesis?"
While McCartney was not directly involved in the biography, The Guardian remarked in 2007 that "His implicit approval... suggested an attempt to correct a misperception."