10 Questions for Tony Blackburn
DJ Tony started out as a singer with Tony Blackburn and the Rovers, a group that included Scotland’s Al Stewart. He is most famous as a DJ and for launching Radio 1 in 1967. Tony was the first winner of I’m A Celebrity...get Me Out Of Here! and he now hosts Radio 2 shows The Golden Hour and Sounds Of The ‘60s.
HOW DO YOU COMPARE ’60S MUSIC TO TODAY’S ARTISTS?
I actually think today’s performers are more talented. They sing, they play and they dance better. But will we still be listening to their songs in 50 years’ time? I doubt it.
WHAT WAS DIFFERENT BACK THEN?
There were fewer radio stations and only three TV channels, so audiences were huge. You could become a star in two weeks. Now there’s too much competition. I watch reality shows and don’t know who these people are.
WAS ’60S MUSIC REALLY AS GREAT AS WE’RE TOLD?
You now only hear the best of the ’60s, but some songs were awful. On the pirate ships we’d get up to 200 new records every week and we’d be lucky to find three good ones. But it was a more interesting time because the charts actually mattered.
AND NOW SOUND OF THE ’60S IS GOING ON THE ROAD?
Yes. We’ve got an eight-piece band and two singers from Strictly doing the hits. I’ll chat about my memories, meeting Sinatra, launching Radio 1, etc, and we’ll squeeze in up to 150 songs.
NO DATES “UP NORTH”?
Not yet, but I really want to play Scotland and northern England. We’re touring till December and, hopefully, we can discuss more dates then.
HOW BIG A PHENOMENON WERE ’60S RADIO DJS?
We were as popular as the artists. I had more than 20 million listening to my first Radio 1 Breakfast show. You won’t get that again.
YOU RECORDED LOTS OF SINGLES. WERE THEY GOOD?
They were OK. So Much Love entered the charts and would have been No 1 but the pressing plant went on strike. I visited them later and a machine was pressing thousands of Beatles discs while a little old lady was doing mine by hand in the corner (laughs).
ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE YOU’D CHANGE?
No, except I could have played the political game better at Radio 1. I was young and thought I knew everything. I should have been like Terry Wogan who just did the job and kept his opinions to himself.
DO YOU LISTEN TO RADIO MUCH?
Yes, in the car, but it’s mainly speech radio. I tune around because after a three-hour show playing music I want something different.
YOU HAVE 24 HOURS LEFT TO LIVE. HOW DO
YOU SPEND IT?
I’d take the family to St Lucia and watch the Caribbean sunset, listening to Love Is The Answer by England Dan and John Ford Coley. Then they can bury me on the beach.