News is beginning to make the rounds of the internet concerning the release of Kats Karavan a 4-CD box set of music from the legendary John Peel’s radio shows. Readers outside of the UK and Ireland may be unaware of Peel but he was a household name for forty-odd years, renowned for playing a massively eclectic mix of music from new and upcoming artists and bands. It’s no exaggeration to say that he provided the first radio broadcasts for many hundreds of artists.

Spanning the years from 1968 to his death in 2004, Kats Karavan includes 64 tracks from bands you may only ever have heard on Peel’s show to those who were a little better-known such as Thin Lizzy, Small Faces, The Jam, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey, and dozens more. Much of the music was recorded, in session, specifically for Peel’s show – for Paul Kossoff fans there’s even a rare Free track, Walk In My Shadow that was presumed lost by the BBC (who always seem to be losing things).

All told, there’s something on here for pretty much any music-lover – don’t feel you need to have been a fan of Peel’s show. There’s plenty of rare and cool stuff on here.

You can get it over at Amazon. It’s released on October 26th but is available for pre-order.

See the (unofficial) Kats Karavan blog for additional information on this, and for downloads of Peel’s show to get a flavour.