Jon Parker

The John Peel Centre feel very lucky to have so many people helping us out to get this initial phase of works completed, one of those people is Jon Parker from Morrish Structural Engineers in Bury St Edmunds. Jon was the Structural Engineer for the existing John Peel Centre too so he knows well how we roll at the JPC!

Jon told us his wonderful story of when he met John Peel as a teenager and the impact it had on him…

“I met him when I was a teenager in the One Bull PH in Bury St Edmunds. It was the punk era and I’d just picked up the guitar and wanted to be in the Sex Pistols (or the Undertones!). As an avid listener to John’s late night radio show I plucked up the courage to speak to him. Sometimes when you meet your ‘heroes’ it can fall flat and be a disappointment. John Peel proved to be none of the above and we engaged in a long conversation about music and bands and made me feel his equal. As I left him I gave him a slip of paper with a request for him to play the song ‘Nasty Nasty’  by the  band 999 on his radio show.

A few days later he did just that! I’ll never forget my meeting with the man who inspired me ‘to do it’ along with countless others.

That’s why the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts means so much to me…….”