Helping to keep the legacy of a music legend alive

John Peel was, and still is, a music legend. To keep his incredible legacy alive, a project to create the John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts is underway – but first it must raise £25,000 before Christmas.

As a disk jockey, radio presenter and journalist, John Peel was one of the most influential people in British music. He was renowned for encouraging new music from unlikely sources and was a uniquely talented and treasured figure in British broadcasting. To preserve his incredible legacy, the John Peel Legacy is working with Sheila Ravenscroft, John’s wife and the Centre itself, to raise the extra money needed to create the John Peel Centre. The Centre will be a creative beacon in John’s home county of Suffolk.

To achieve this, we have launched a ‘crowd-funder’ through http://www.angelshares.com Crowd.-funding took off in the US and works by people pledging money to a cause in exchange for a reward or gift. Gifts from the John Peel crowd-funder range from a personalised certificate signed by Sheila (£10), right through to 10 tickets to a gig at the Centre, champagne and your name etched into the building (£500).

Our crowd-funding project has attracted significant attention from a number of celebrities and the music industry. Stephen Fry, The Undertones, Guardian Music, Keeping It Peel, and some big-name radio DJs such as Lauren Lavern and Cerys Matthews have been helping to get the message out there. The project has received media coverage from BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Look East News, the East Anglian Daily Times, the Evening Star, community radio stations and creative industry websites such as Creative Boom and ArtRocker.

However, the money is still not exactly ‘rolling in’. We are so grateful to the many music fans who have been kind enough to donate and at the time of writing we are heading towards £1,500 raised. But this is well short of the £25,000 needed to make the Centre befitting of John’s legacy.

Please help us reach our £25,000 target by Christmas by spreading the word to other music fans – anywhere and everywhere. And if you can, please pledge your money too.

Thank you