John Peel Festive Fifty 1978

In the first proper Festive 50 since punk arrived and Peel started championing it, it is no great surprise that the genre hit the chart. It actually struck it with the force of a sledgehammer. Gone are all but six of the 1976 chart entries, to be replaced with the short sharp shock of guitars struck in anger. Peel was very satisfied with this chart saying "And I must say, I thought you chose very well indeed. I was knocked out with it all myself” - also indicating that if he chose his own top 20 songs of all time then the top 6 would all be in there.

Perhaps it was no surprise that the Sex Pistols had five chart entries and the Clash four, but the representation of Siouxsie & The Banshees with seven entries, six of them from debut album "The Scream" is very impressive, and is the highest number of tracks from one LP in any Festive 50. A little more surprising were the first and indeed final chart entries from Dire Straits and The Motors (although Peel was certainly a fan of the latter).

The "FM" column in the list below shows the format the tracks can be collected in. Our preference is always to display the 7" if that version is available, with a 12" single as a second choice. "LP" will appear if the track is LP only. Click any band name to see our full stock list by that artist, or the "In Stock" button to view that specific item.