TRIBUTES have been paid in Gwent to legendary DJ John Peel who died yesterday, aged 65.

The veteran DJ, who discovered dozens of major bands during 40 years of broadcasting, suffered a heart attack while on holiday in Cuzco, Peru with his wife Sheila.

Friends and colleagues from the Gwent music industry have been paying tribute to a "broadcasting legend."

The popular DJ was a massive supporter of new music and championed a number of Gwent bands, including Newport's 60ft Dolls and Dub War in the late 1990s.

It was Peel who christened Newport nightclub TJs in Clarence Place with its 'The Legendary' prefix.

TJs owner John Sicolo said: "It is such a sad loss. He helped put Newport on the map in music terms but his influence on music was everywhere.

"He gave an opening to so many young and up and coming bands. He came to the club on a few occasions and was an instantly likeable and self deprecating man who was just so easy to sit and have a conversation with."

James Dean Bradfield, lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers, said John Peel gave him a "portal to a whole new world."

He said: "It was because of him I got to hear some of the most obscure but influential music I ever heard."

"He was a lifeline to hearing music I would never have heard otherwise. He was a portal to a whole new world."