Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Among the many passings of 2004 lamented here, the loss of John Peel, the BBC Radio 1 legend, was particularly keenly felt. He was inspirational in that he never seemed to reach that dread point where one says, "Ah, well, I'm too old for that." In John Peel's case, the years may have kept rolling by but the man's quest for the new, the innovative, the original was never ending.

In memory of John Peel, Radio.plus.com is offering free legal downloads of several hundred songs that were featured on his show since 1992. Commendably, all have been made available by the bands or the record labels themselves.