Rare LPs and memorabilia from John Peel’s private collection will be auctioned off next month

nme.com:

John Peel – once branded by NME as “the king of the live session” – will be sold at an auction in London next month.Before his death in 2004, Peel amassed a weighty collection spanning over 26,000 LPs, 40,000 seven-inch singles and countless CDs.

A selection of those, as well as various items of memorabilia, will be auctioned off at Bonhams’ Knightsbridge location on Tuesday June 14.

It takes place a week before the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury, which has long honoured Peel with a stage named in his honour.According to a press release, the records on offer were “carefully selected by the family, whist retaining the integrity of the John Peel Record Collection”.Key pieces in the lot include an annotated mono pressing of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Two Virgins’ LP (which holds an estimated value of £15,000-20,000), a promotional album signed by The Rolling Stones (£6,000-8,000), a copy of the rare Marc Bolan album ‘Hard On Love’ (£5,000-6,000) and a copy of ‘Queen II’ that comes with a letter hand-written to Peel by Freddie Mercury (£1,000-1,500).In the way of merchandise, Peel’s estate are offering up a handful of his ultra-rare posters – including one for Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ valued at £3,000-4,000) – a five-page letter from David Bowie that features a series of original sketches (worth £3,000-4,000), and his ‘93 NME Award for Godlike Genius (£800-1,200).In a statement shared with the announcement of the sale, the Ravenscroft family commented: “By virtue of the role he played in it, John/Dad was in a position to have access to many of the most celebrated people and events in the history of popular music.