Glastonbury Festival denies sexual allegations were reason for renaming stage | UK | News

But eight years later a woman came forward saying he got her pregnant during a three-month affair in 1969.

At the time Jane Nevin was 15 and he was 30. He is alleged to have met her at a Black Sabbath concert.

She claims he had sex with her backstage at gigs and in the BBC studio.

She discovered she was pregnant after they split up when her mum found out about the relationship, and she had an abortion.

And when he was 25 years old and working in the States he married a 15-year-old girl.

The marriage between him and Shirley Milburn was legal at the time in Texas, where they wed. He later claimed she and her family had lied about her age.

Mail Online reports that they divorced in 1973 and years later she reportedly took her own life.

Last year festivalgoer Jack Owens from Manchester set up a petition calling on Glastonbury Festival to rebrand the tent because of the historical accusations and some of Mr Peel’s comments about sexual activity with fans.

The comments included an interview he gave to The Guardian in 1975 where he was discussing women.

He said: “All they wanted me to do was abuse them, sexually, which, of course, I was only too happy to do.”

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Mr Owens’s petition read: “The John Peel stage at Glastonbury is long overdue being renamed, considering the serious sexual abuse he has been accused of and even admitted, against women and children.

“It’s a slap in the face to sexual abuse survivors, women, children and decent people to have to stand in a stage with his name on it, which has the sick words ‘teenage dreams so hard to beat’ written on the side.

“Please rename it for the next year’s festival. He’s been put up on a pedestal for too long.”

The petition received just over 1,800 signatures.

Speaking about the name change, co-Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis says the stage will now be called the Woodsies Stage as part of a push to name stages after the fields they are located in, such as West Holts and Silver Hayes.

She said: “We’ve had 20 years of John Peel and it’s been an honour to use his name.”

The venue was called the New Bands Tent until 2004 when it was renamed in honour of the DJ who died aged 65.

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He had often fronted the BBC’s coverage of the event in Pilton, Somerset.

Ms Eavis told The Guardian: “I haven’t got involved in that [the name change petition] because it’s not our area.

“We’ve had a really good relationship with the Peel family and everyone’s on board.”

The DJ, whose real name was John Ravenscroft, was a presenter on Top of the Pops in the 1980s, and he also helped launch the careers of many musicians and bands, including David Bowie, Queen and The Sex Pistols.

 

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