Peel's last pirate tapes

As he signed off his final late-night Perfumed Garden show, pirate DJ John Peel was convinced it was the end of his brief, subversive radio career.

Now, almost 40 years later, listeners will once again experience the dying murmurs of his show when the BBC puts his last Radio London programme back on the airwaves later this month.

Peel was forced off air when pirate stations - at the time the only outlet for pop music in the UK - were outlawed in 1967, leaving him high and dry. Luckily, within days he was rescued from obscurity and signed as a launch presenter for Radio 1 and became one of Britain's best-loved and respected broadcasters.

Peel would spend two of every three weeks aboard the Galaxy, moored off Folkestone, presenting his midnight show. Because the boat was in international waters, it was beyond the reach of British broadcasting restrictions until offshore stations too were outlawed in August 1967.

Peel's final broadcast saw him choosing some of the most popular tracks of his five marine-based months, including then little-known acts Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart. As he told listeners: "Who can tell what's going to happen from now on? I have no job to go to. I'm not unduly concerned about it though, because something good is going to happen. Good things are happening, and a lot of people are realising what is going on and a lot of people are coming over to our side, so to speak - if there is a side to be taken."

That programme has survived in a bootleg tape of the whole five-and-a-half-hour broadcast, put together by an anonymous fan. The recording has now been distilled into four half-hour shows to be broadcast by BBC6 Music from Monday 23 October, to mark the second anniversary of Peel's death. Producer Hermeet Chadha said yesterday: "We have cleaned up some of the sound but not too much. Listeners will once again be able to hear what it was like to listen to John Peel in 1967 as though he was speaking directly to you. It's incredibly idealistic and at his heart he was a real hippie."

Indeed, before bowing out, Peel waxes lyrical in typical "summer of love" style: "I may just fade away and disappear, but that's not particularly important. The important thing is that if anybody has gained anything from [the show] and learned that they should try to understand the people that live next door to them or that live down the street and love them, then that's good."

Peel's pop picks: where are they now?

Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine

Then-frontman Syd Barrett was asked to leave in 1968 because of his erratic behaviour. Died in July.

The Electric Prunes - Wind-Up Toys

The Californian psychedelic legends split in 1970 but reformed in 2001 to record a new album.

John's Children - Desdemona

Singer Marc Bolan left to form T-Rex. John's Children recorded a new single this summer.

The Misunderstood - I Can Take You to the Sun

British-based guitarist Tony Hill fronts Fiction. Singer Rick Brown now an "astral gemologist" in Bangkok.