John Peel's Festive Fifty started in 1976 - and now 50 years later we are taking votes for the 2026 version.
In this show we celebrate the history of the Festive Fifty by choosing our favourites from the top 3 over the years.
Join Mark Whitby, Rocker, One Big House, Leo Gilbert, David Smith, Andrew Morrison, Johny Row, Gareth Jones and Emma Reed as they work their way through our chart of the charts.
Part 1 in November and Part 2 in the December run to to the first airing of the 2026 Festive Fifty on 25th December.

Andy's November show has an hour of great new music from Mystic Tea Party, The Early Years, 7ebra, Sister Ray Davies, RenzNiro, Chvrches, Sunday,June, Seagoth and Les Big Byrd. Aidan Moffat features twice in the show, once as a guest vocalist on the new single by Rock Action Records labelmates Ġenn, and again in Arab Strap with an album track very likely to be somewhere in my Festive Fifty votes this year.

Talking of which, Andy gives you details of how you can place those votes in our official 2026 Festive Fifty. Plus, you can hear him briefly in a very special co-hosted show this month, 'The Festive Fifty at 50', which marks the 50th anniversary of John Peel's famous listeners' poll.

We have two tracks off this months' featured album, I Lost My Way For Centuries by The Drin.
We're also airing excellent new stuff from London's The Phone Call, Peru's Jonathan Castro and Mexico's Diles Que No Me Maten.
There'll be some worthwhile reissues, including from Korpus Kristi and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 getting played as well as the cherries picked from compilation albums by InFiné and Metal Postcard so we have your new music spectrum curated and ready to decorate your soul as the darker days draw in to the northern hemisphere and darker news ... well who's listening to that?

Greetings!

We mourn two recently deceased artists: Cheetah Chrome, guitarist for Dead Boys, and Clif Croce, singer for early 1980s Boston hardcore band The Freeze. Rest in peace. I have new stuff from Die Verlierer, Snooper, Kouskous Heaven, Kohti Tuhoa, Lemongrab, Chicharrón, Sandie Trash, Kavaliers Kasques, Stupid Giant, The Whisper, Slutavverking, Sourdure, Whippets, Necklace, IZM, Winter Gardens, Pladür and more. I have a track from that amazing new album from Leenalchi, something from a great reissue of an album from David Ze, and some excellent Cajun music out of France.

I try to keep my in-show talking to a minimum to make more room for music, but I do have more to discuss about what I play, so check out my companion show notes over at http://davidondandelion.blogspot.com.

Enjoy the show!!

This month Emma has gone all out and expanded into a two hour show featuring artists she met while out on tour (LUFT, Hannah Lou Larsen and Leon P Fields) as well as a selection of exciting acts from Beijing (Birdstrike, Lilak and Blue Liquid).
There is a mindful half hour featuring longer tracks to transport you to another plane, thanks to Lost Harbours, Grey Malkin, Sunfish Starfish and Jo Quail. And of course the usual mix of experimental, folk and OTHER which you have come to expect. Come for the Hastings hip hop, stay for the mazurkas!
And don't forget to vote in the Festive 50!

Gareth's November show promises another 2 hours of offensive sweary songs and musical madness from around the world. There's new songs from Germany (Woog Riots), Japan (The Let's Go's) and closer to home with Welsh wonders Swansea Sound and HMS Morris. Heledd and Sam from the band are this month's guest presenters for 'Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue' to coincide with the release of their new album 'Haci Sacs' which was inspired by 80's music.
We also go further back with 'Secret Songs From The Sixties' which features two cuts from the recent compilation 'Cosmic Cowgirls & Female Outlaws 1951-1979'released by Brighton's Two-Piers label.

A trip around the world on this months show.

We start of in Scotland with a new track from Mogwai featuring a very special potty mouthed guest.

I unintentionally play a lot of Irish artists including Radie Peat, Meryl Streek and Trá Pháidín.
We also pop over to Hungary for some lovely folk music from Adela Mede.

A quick stop off in Chile for some industrial post punk from Hesse Kassel and over to Phoenix Arizona for some Phoenix Indie courtesy of my random genre wheel.

To finish things off a long flight back home to Australia and a quick blast on a vape from RATSALAD

There are two shows from Leo for November.

One is a carefully curated selection of sounds designed to make you question whether your radio is working properly. Murex bookend proceedings with a massacre and a silverspoon, while Arca, Blawan and Ital Tek provide electronic disturbances of varying severity. Shovel Dance Collective, Frankie Archer and Angeline Morrison bring folk traditions into the room, where they're promptly made to feel uncomfortable.

Elsewhere, Gurriers, Gilla Band and Swansea Sound offer different approaches to being disagreeable, Arab Strap maintain their usual sunny disposition, and Clark opens a kosmische supermarket with an uncertain returns policy. There's room for Hannah Frances' intricate beauty, Max Cooper's fractured atmospherics and two appearances from Sneers., presumably because one wasn't sufficiently unsettling.

Also featuring Lolina, Callahan & Witscher, gyrofield and a track called canadian inclusive radical misandry, which should help attract a broad demographic.

Music for people who find the shuffle button insufficiently confrontational.

Leo's other November show is another carefully assembled collection of music that probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Immersion promise breaking free, diversity and evolution, while Murex contemplate the flight patterns of swans and Gentles offer a weary "Deary Me".

Folk traditions receive sympathetic but occasionally alarming treatment from Frankie Archer, Angeline Morrison and Wire Worms, while Big Brave, SUUNS & Kelman Duran and Dis Fig explore the less hospitable corners of the sonic landscape. Daniel Avery contributes a lemon, Heavy Meddo suffer option paralysis, and Dylan Henner continues his admirable commitment to writing a song every month.

Elsewhere, The Leaf Library provide hypnotic repetition, L'Rain bends time, Klara Lewis rearranges the furniture in your head, and Maxime Denuc offers a little mechanical elegance. There's also music from Dur-Dur Band, Joseph Kamaru and Nhá Zefa & Nhô Pai, reminding us that the world is considerably larger than the average algorithm suggests.

Mhaol unveil a scam manifesto, mary in the junkyard encourage things to sprout, and Wednesday & Gouge Away bring proceedings to a suitably abrasive conclusion.

Also featuring Julia Jacklin, Perfume Genius and several artists whose names sound like minor industrial accidents.

Music to expand your consciousness, test your speakers and give the neighbours something concrete to complain about.

Lisa Christine opens her two hour November show with tracks from two pioneers of the Dancehall scene: a newly re-released cut from Josey Wales and a fresh posthumous release from the late Wayne Smith.

The show also features brand new music from Spiteful Void, Mad Dog Collective, The Monsters, Thee Gunlocks, TV Buddha, and more.

Her Album of the Month is Libertine by Brooklyn based Foreign Body, from which she plays two standout tracks.

This month's Remix of the Month is Shut Me Up (Sir Real's Passive Remix) by AK/DK & Thick Richard, and the Cover of the Month comes courtesy of Dreamcoat Rising, who take on Butthole Surfers classic Pepper.

If you're in a band/artist and think your sound fits the show, get in touchby email: lisachristine at dandelionradio.com

All the Festive 50 stuff swings into action at this time of the year and I forgot to mention it in my show so I'm mentioning it here! Vote for your fav three tracks of the last 12 months on the website if you are so inclined!

There is a track from Angelica Bess and something now from the excellent Chinese American Bear. The Allergies are on form with a new one and KURUPT FM have made some excellent UK Garage, as is their want. konradd is bringing some heat from down under and The Burning Hell just never put a foot wrong, really. I'm playing more from Dummy's new album and Ballaké Sissoko has a single out that is just too good. Log in for that and more?

This month's show features a new exclusive session from the amazing Diane Marie Kloba, plus a whole load of new releases including albums from Gilla Band and Freak Slug[artist]. EPs from [artist]Radicall and Waterpistol and singles from The Royal Commission[artist], [artist]The Spook School[artist] and [artist]MIld Horses.

Our featured compilation, from Analog Africa looks back to 1970s Johannesburg, while we Peel Back... , in the month of Festive Fifty voting, to the Festive Fifty that started it all in 1976. There's also yet another reissue of the deranged Funkadelic masterpiece Maggot Brain and some mighty dub collisions featuring Dub Idren and Zoonra and Pressure Busspipe and Zion I Kings.

Another three hours this month and it's fully loaded.

More great LP tracks from Adult DVD, The Sick Man of Europe, Basht and The Fall.

Packed to the brim with recent singles from Ragga Twins, British Birds, Pozi, The Nightingales, Danny Miles, Club Brat and Mouth Ulcers.

Bursting at the seams with new music from Gone Future, CCRDR, Grey Streak, Arc of an Eye, Fatima Al Qadiri, Dengue Dengue Dengue and Search Results.

Overspills with tracks from future releases from Sharp Pins, Inland Years, Scaler, Knives and The Oozes.

It's a large show. Give it a listen.

Two hours from Rocker this month, featuring new tracks from Yeah Yeah Noh; Pocket; The Drain On The Balcony; The Nightingales; The Spook School; Sissy Space Echo And The Invisible Collaborators; British Birds; Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts; The Lovely Basement; Loose Lips; Gimic; and Davey Woodward.

There's electronica from Max Cooper & Rival Consoles; B_Man; and Vaert. There are three new releases from Kent's Spinout Nuggets label - some Hammond organ rhythm'n'blues from Bongolian frontman Nasser Bouzida; a rocking new single from 90s 'New Wave Of New Wave' band Spitfire, and a searing demo version of a classic from indiepop supergroup Jetstream Pony.

This month's Rocker's Shellac Attack is a 1948 release which features some pertinent advice from Betty Thornton, while this month's educating Elizabeth record is a new 7" from the latest incarnation of an enduring LA soul music dynasty.

As well as little known acts, here's a little known fact: Davey Woodward's track 'Welcome Here' is a very apposite track from a Bristolian. Bristol is proud to have been an accredited city of sanctuary since 2011; welcoming refugees, asylum seekers, and others affected by forced migration.

Two shows this month.
In my regular show there is another 4 hour show from Bottom of the Pops. A slew of new releases from some of our recent favourites: The Retail Simps, Party Dozen, Elijah Minelli, Helen Island & Answering Machines.

BOTP is also enamoured by East Uganda producer, Jeff The Lastborn, Turkey's Baba Zula, Sir Spyro, Rockie Road and Australians, Spike Fuck & GRUB.

There's new releases from Metal Postcard and I decided to start a new compilation series to highlight some gems from the last 25+ years of releases, the last time MP released a comp was over a decade ago. Mining Unknown Pleasures includes the likes of The Horses & Pairs from Shanghai, Sydney's Dsico and London's Dreamherbs whose crash and burn trajectory even included a listing in the Festive 50 a number of years back.

For my other show I took inspiration from recently arrived new albums by the likes of Yard Act & Fontaines DC who came at the time a few years back where it was de - rigeur to be Sprechgesang.
Now it appears they are actually going down the road of singing as are most new acts we see in 2026.

So, I thought it was time to feature the OG's otherwise known as poets!

Peel and support slots introduced the more ancient amongst us to the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Joolz, Benjamin Zephaniah and the greatest of all Linton Kwesi Johnson. But it's not just these poets of the 1970's and 1980's that I highlight in the show.
Who can't fall in love with the cadence and tone of Walt Whitman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath and yes even the lizard king. Special bonuses include Helena Bonham Carter reading William Carlos Williams and John Gielgud reading Shelley.
Perfect Dandelion bedtime listening with a cup of Ovaltine as the winter nights draw in.

This month X-Ray moon tells us that he is airing for the first time his new opening sequence.
He also has a bit of Faux-Fall, Faux-Celt and Faux-Industrial ...
He is not sure what to think of the new Fall album, he tells us, but seems very unconvinced as to its "validity". Nonetheless, as he began last month's show with Datblygu, so this month he begins with a track from (supposedly) The Fall.
Also in his November show are the likes of: Fontaines DC, Woog Riots, Mort Clinique, and DEMOLITION GROUP, and much more.
X-Ray Moon amicably instructs us to put our mittens in the fire, put conkers on our noses, and wrap up toasty – for (at least over where he is in Cymru) 'tis winter time.
Mooney hopes everyone enjoys his show!