BANDS, musicians and DJs across the region performed last night as part of an international event to commemorate the life of DJ John Peel.

More than 300 events took place across the UK, New Zealand, Italy and Canada, many of which featured the kind of new and unsigned acts that John championed.

Music venue The Forum, in Darlington, hosted an evening of DJs and bands, including This Ain't Vegas, The Harrisons, The Ivories and We Start Fires.

The Georgian Theatre, in Stockton, was another of the region's venues taking part, featuring sets from The High Plane Drifters, Poindexter, and headliners Shrug.

Highlights from both shows were broadcast live on BBC Radio Cleveland.

Shrug lead singer Rob Nichols said last night: "I felt honoured when we were asked to do this gig because John Peel was such an inspirational figure to me.

"We played a song that we heard John play on the radio, and one of the most exciting moments in my whole life was hearing one of our songs played on national radio.

"We will have been together for 20 years tomorrow, and tonight we will be playing with brand new bands that nobody has even heard of yet and, in a way, that is what John was all about."

Peel worked at Radio 1 for almost 40 years on his late-night show. He also became presenter of BBC Radio 4's Home Truths in 1998.

He died on October 25 last year on holiday in Peru with his wife.