Paul Gambaccini

Paul Gambaccini
Gambaccini at Oxford University in 2010
Born	Paul Matthew Gambaccini (1949-04-02) April 2, 1949 Bronx, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American British
Other names	The Great Gambo The Professor of Pop
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1960s–present
Awards	Radio Academy Hall of Fame, 2005

Paul Matthew Gambaccini (born April 2, 1949 in The Bronx) is an American-British radio and television presenter and author in the United Kingdom. He has dual United States and British nationality, having become a British citizen in 2005.

Known as "The Great Gambo" and "The Professor of Pop," Gambaccini was a BBC Radio 1 presenter for 13 years, including 11 years at the helm of a Billboard Top 30 countdown show. A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's long-running arts programme Kaleidoscope, Gambaccini was a long-time TV morning show correspondent for British television, and makes regular appearances on other British TV magazine shows. He was the host of the 12-part Classic FM series Paul Gambaccini's Hall of Heroes, and is currently the chairman of the Radio 4 music quiz Counterpoint. Inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in 2005, Gambaccini is the author of more than 15 books.

Biography

Comic book fandom

Gambaccini first achieved notability in the realm of comic book fandom. As an American teenager in the 1960s his missives were regularly published in the letter columns of titles such as Justice League of America and Amazing Spider-Man. Gambaccini claims to have invented the term "Brand Echh", which later became widely used by Stan Lee.

While still in high school, Gambaccini began contributing to comics fanzines, including the seminal publication Rocket's Blast Comicollector. In 1964 he succeeded Jerry Bails (the so-called "father of comic book fandom") as executive secretary of the The Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors, an umbrella organization for the burgeoning world of comics fandom. As part of his involvement with the Academy, Gambaccini helped organize the comics industry's first awards, the Alley Awards.

Education

Gambaccini studied at Dartmouth College, where he obtained a degree in history in 1970.

He then moved to the United Kingdom and attended University College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics. He has since returned to Oxford as the News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media, where he delivered a series of lectures in January and February 2009. In February 2010 he was invited by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University Andrew Hamilton to deliver the inaugural LGBT lecture Out on Monday to the university's LGBT staff, students and faculty.

Broadcasting career

Gambaccini's broadcasting career began at Dartmouth College, where he was music director of WDCR-AM, a former student-operated Top 40 radio stations. Gambaccini may have first achieved wider prominence when his tips for playlisted songs likely to see greater chart action were published in the May 11, 1968, issue of the international trade publication Billboard, alongside similar tips from radio programming talent at major commercial stations across the U.S.

Having left Oxford, Gambaccini was considering further study in law at Harvard or Yale but had the opportunity of writing for Rolling Stone magazine as British correspondent. He attributes his broadcasting career to this post — especially an interview in 1973 with Elton John which brought him to the attention of BBC Radio producer John Walters who arranged for him to present on BBC Radio 1.^{[citation needed]}

Gambaccini then started broadcasting in the UK on BBC Radio 1 September 1973, which he did for 13 years, first as a music reporter on the John Peel Saturday show, Rockspeak. He then started his own U.S. chart show, 27 September 1975. He was the presenter of the Billboard US Top 30 singles chart in the UK every Saturday afternoon till 1986, when he moved to independent radio. In 1990 he returned to Radio 1 but was removed by controller Matthew Bannister in 1993.

In 1992, Gambaccini became a founding presenter on the UK's classical music station Classic FM, where he presented the weekly Classical CD Chart show. He left for BBC Radio 3 in 1995, where he presented an hour-long morning programme, in a slot formerly used for Composer of the Week. Gambaccini increased the audience share, but came under attack as an example of the reforms that the controller was trying to introduce but which did not go down well with the existing audience. Some listeners welcomed his presence, according to Radio 3 controller Nicholas Kenyon,^{[citation needed]} as their musical tastes had developed from Radio 1's content. He returned to Classic FM in 1997.

Alongside his work in music radio, he contributed regularly to BBC Radio 4's long-running arts programme Kaleidoscope.

For 13 years Gambaccini reviewed films for breakfast television, first on TV-am and then GMTV. In the early 1980s he presented The Other Side of the Tracks on Channel Four, which ran for three series. His other television appearances include Pebble Mill at One, Call My Bluff, Music for the Millennium, and The South Bank Show.

In 1998, he joined BBC Radio 2, His first show was 18 May 1998, once again opening the first of his weekly shows America's Greatest Hits with "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen. In 2002, he quit his role at Classic FM, to present a weekly chart show on London's Jazz FM until 2004. He was also a contributor to the London station LBC when it was taken over by Chrysalis.

He has worked widely across the BBC network and BFBS in addition to gracing many television shows, mostly related to music, film, and the arts. He narrated the BBC Radio adaptation of Espedair Street, the Iain Banks novel.

Gambaccini has presented the annual Ivor Novello Awards since 1990, the Parliamentary Jazz Awards since 2005, the Music Industry Trust's Man of the Year Dinner since 1999, and the Sony Radio Academy Awards for a ten-year stretch from 1998 to 2008.

In August 2008, Gambaccini returned to Classic FM, to present a 12-part series Paul Gambaccini's Hall of Heroes on Sunday evenings between 9 and 10 pm. In March 2008, he took over as chairman of the Radio 4 music quiz Counterpoint from Edward Seckerson which he continues to present to this day, having recently presented Series 26.

Books

Gambaccini was co-author of The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and related titles, with Tim and Jo Rice, alongside Radio 1 colleague at that time, Mike Read, between 1977 and 1996. Gambaccini's own books include Love Letters, Radio Boy, Top 100 Albums and Track Records. The Ultimate Man, a musical about a comic book superhero, was co-written with Alastair King and Jane Edith Wilson, and produced at the Bridewell Theatre in London in 2000.

Personal life

Gambaccini came out as homosexual during the 1980s;^{[citation needed]} in June 2012, he entered into a civil partnership.

For a brief period in the 1990s, Gambaccini co-owned a comic shop in London with television presenter Jonathan Ross in the same location as the original Forbidden Planet shop.^{[citation needed]} Gambaccini has been an official guest at many British comic conventions, including the the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention (where he co-presented the 1990 Eagle Awards and the 1997 National Comics Awards), Comics Festival UK, and Comic Expo.

He lives in the South Bank area of London.

Charity work

Gambaccini has been a supporter of gay-related charities. In 1995, he was named Philanthropist of the Year by the National Charity Fundraisers for his work on behalf of the Terrence Higgins Trust. He is a patron of the London Gay Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, he won an episode of celebrity Mastermind, with his chosen beneficiary charity being Stonewall.

In popular culture

Paul Gambi, a recurring character in The Flash comic books, was introduced in 1963, based on Gambaccin's physical appearance and slightly modified name. Gambi is a tailor who produces the colourful costumes worn by the villains who fight The Flash.

Gambaccini briefly appears on L, the 1978 Godley & Creme album, during the first track, "The Sporting Life", as the "Bad Samaritan" voices.

Awards

• 1995 – Philanthropist of the Year by the National Charity Fundraisers
• 1996 – Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio Award from the Radio Academy
• 2003 – Sony Radio Academy Award for Music Broadcaster of the Year
• 2005 – Sony Radio Academy Silver Award for a Weekly Music Programme
• 2005 – Inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame

Bibliography

• A Conversation With Elton John and Bernie Taupin – Putnam Publishing Group 1975
• Paul MacCartney in his own words – Omnibus Press 1976
• The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles with Tim Rice, Jo Rice and Mike Read – Guinness, first published 1977: several subsequent editions
• Paul Gambaccini presents The Top 100 Albums – Pavilion Books 1987
• Rock Critics’ Choice: The Top 200 Albums – Music Sales Corp 1979
• Masters of Rock – Omnibus Press 1982
• Track Records – Elm Tree Books 1985
• Radio Boy: An Adolescent DJ’s Story – Elm Tree Books 1986
• United Kingdom Top 1000 Singles (with Tim Rice and Jo Rice) – Gullane Children’s Books 1988
• The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums (with Tim Rice and Jo Rice) – Guinness First published 1988: several subsequent editions
• Hits of The 80s (with Jo Rice, Tim Rice and Tony Brown) – Guinness 1990
• Top 40 Charts (with Tim Rice and Jo Rice) – Guinness 1992
• Television’s Greatest Hits (with Rod Taylor) – Network Books 1993
• Love Letters – Michael O’Mara Books 1996
• The McCartney Interviews: After the Break-up – Omnibus Press 1996
• Close Encounters – Omnibus Press 1998
• The Complete Eurovision Song Contest Companion (with Tim and Jo Rice and Tony Brown) – Pavilion Books 1998
• The Eurovision Companion (revised edition), Pavilion Books 1999
• Complete Book of the British Charts (with Tony Brown and Tim Rice) Omnibus Press 2000.

References

Sources consulted

• Radio Rewind biography

External links

• Paul Gambaccini at BBC Programmes
• Paul Gambaccini personal page
• Times Interview
• Independent interview