Tony Blackburn

Tony Blackburn
Blackburn at the 2008 BAFTA Television Awards
Born	(1943-01-29) 29 January 1943 Guildford, Surrey
Occupation	disc jockey

Tony Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, who broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967. In 2002 he was the winner of the ITV reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

Early career

He was born Antony Kenneth Blackburn, in Guildford, Surrey, but in 1946 his family moved to Dorset. His father was a GP, and he was educated at Castle Court School in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset and Millfield School in Somerset, which he entered on a sports scholarship. He went on to become captain of the school cricket team, but left before taking any examinations. He then achieved a clutch of O-levels, following private tuition, and enrolled for a HND course in Business Studies at Bournemouth Technical College. He began his career as a singer, then worked as a DJ for the offshore pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London, before joining the BBC in 1967, initially broadcasting on the Light Programme.

1960s and 1970s

He was the first DJ on BBC Radio 1 when it was launched on 30 September 1967, and presented the breakfast show until 1973. The first words spoken on BBC Radio 1 were "...and good morning everyone! Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". As his singing career failed to take off, despite 14 singles being released (two of which, "So Much Love" and "It's Only Love" made the UK Top 40), he stopped singing and concentrated on radio presenting. His cheery style and corny jokes ensured his household reputation and made him a popular figure with some, though his dislike of heavy and progressive rock and punk/new wave made him a hate figure with others. His fellow Radio 1 DJ John Peel would often derisively refer to him as "Timmy Bannockburn".

At first he was associated mainly with bubblegum and mainstream pop, but he later championed soul music. It was largely due to him that "I'm Still Waiting" by Diana Ross, which was initially just an album track, was released as a single in the UK in 1971 and reached number one. He was a regular host of Top of the Pops and in 1968 he fronted his own show, Time For Blackburn, produced by Southern Television for the ITV network.

In 1973 he released a Northern soul single under the name Lenny Gamble, and was allegedly furious when Noel Edmonds, who had recently been given Blackburn's BBC Radio 1 breakfast show slot, revealed the alias on air. Nevertheless both broadcasters later became close friends.

In June 1973, he took over the weekday mid-morning slot, where he introduced 'The Golden Hour'. The feature was to prove popular, being carried on by Simon Bates and Simon Mayo when they took over the slot in subsequent years.

In November 1977 he took over the weekday afternoon show. During this period, he was going through divorce with his first wife, actress Tessa Wyatt.

1980s and 1990s

In early 1980 he took over Junior Choice on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8-10am, while continuing to present the Sunday chart show until the end of 1981 - being succeeded by Tommy Vance. During 1982 BBC Radio 1 dropped the name Junior Choice and the show became the Weekend Breakfast Show which Blackburn continued to host until his final show on 23 September 1984. In addition to his BBC Radio 1 weekend show, he joined BBC Radio London in 1981, where he presented the weekday afternoon show. It was here that he showed his love for soul music.

Having left BBC Radio 1 after 17 years he took over BBC Radio London's weekday mid-morning show in 1984, mixing soul music with guests and phone-ins until 1988 when he joined Capital Gold presenting the breakfast show for many years, later moving to the drivetime slot until early 2002 when he took over the Weekday Evening Show from 8-10pm, playing soul music.

Recent years

Blackburn left Capital Gold in late 2002; he joined London's Jazz FM following the station's acquisition by GMG Radio in March 2003 as host of Real Soul every weeknight from 10pm until midnight, initially a live programme before a contract to host the Classic Gold breakfast show that May meant the show became voicetracked - Real Soul ended in March 2004. He was awarded the 'Oldie Of The Year' title in 2003. In addition, Blackburn presented a pre-recorded show entitled the Real Party Night, broadcast across the GMG Radio network and later by CN Radio stations every Saturday evening, prior to its conclusion in mid 2005.

In March 2004, Blackburn returned to BBC London 94.9, presenting a Monday evening soul show, and in addition to that, in April of the same year, he also took on the Saturday lunchtime show.

He also hosted the breakfast show on Classic Gold, with co-hosts Erika North and Sandy Warr. Although his Monday evening show on BBC London 94.9 ended in July 2004, he still continued to present the Saturday lunchtime show for the station.

In June 2004, he was temporarily suspended from his show on Classic Gold for playing songs by Cliff Richard, in defiance of a ruling by the head of programmes that Richard's music did not match the station's 'brand values'. The dispute made national headlines and was even referred to in Parliament, with Leader of the House Peter Hain voicing his support for Blackburn. He was reinstated, amid rumours that the episode was merely a publicity stunt. The station started adding Richard's songs to their playlist after public reaction to this.

He performed in a science fiction audio play based on the Doctor Who television series by Big Finish Productions - The Rapture. He played himself as a DJ, in an Ibiza nightclub where sinister forces are brainwashing the patrons.

In 2002, he appeared in the first series of the British reality TV series, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which he eventually won. Blackburn also occasionally fronts competitions on GMTV, including "The Clues Brothers" (a parody of The Blues Brothers), with fellow DJ Keith Chegwin.

In 2007, Blackburn was part of Beat The Boys on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. His obstacle was 'Tony Blackburn's Wheel of Steel'.

He made a few appearances on Never Mind the Buzzcocks between 2001 and 2005, appearing alongside guests such as Slash and Gary Moore. He gallantly took all jibes about his clothing on the chin, and at one point climbed onto the desk and gave Bill Bailey a lap dance! He also revealed on the show when asked for a connection between Russ Conway and Tony Iommi that the top of his ring finger on his right hand had been severed off in a toilet door as a toddler, but it had been re-attached, amd the nerves were not completely severed.

In 2007, Blackburn collaborated with The Wurzels to re-release "I Am A Cider Drinker", in aid of a Bristol prostate cancer charity.

He left the Classic Gold breakfast show, upon the merger with Capital Gold, the same year.

On 30 September 2007, he co-presented a recreation of BBC Radio 1's first programme with Chris Moyles to mark the station's 40th birthday.

Upon leaving Classic Gold, Blackburn continued with his Saturday Lunchtime show on BBC London 94.9 and also took over a three hour soul show on the KMFM network in Kent each Sunday afternoon. Blackburn made celebrity guest appearances on Channel 4's Countdown in early October 2007.

Blackburn has been a vegetarian since he was four years old.

Current work

In January 2008, in addition to his two weekend shows, he began presenting a weekly show on KCFM 99.8fm in Hull and East Yorkshire.

In February 2008, he took over the weekend breakfast show on 102.2 Smooth Radio in London from 7–10 am every Saturday and Sunday. The show began simulcasting on several other stations in the Smooth Network from 7 June 2008. Blackburn also acts as holiday cover for his Smooth colleague Graham Dene on the weekday breakfast show. Lynn Parsons is his weekend breakfast show cover. From 21 August 2010 his weekend breakfast show will be extended by one hour, airing from 6-10am.

On 9 March 2008, he began a new Sunday request show (in place of his Saturday show) on BBC London 94.9. He also presents the Sunday afternoon show on the KMFM radio stations in Kent. At the beginning of April 2009, his Sunday show returned to a soul and Motown format.

Blackburn co-presented the BBC Children In Need programme with Caroline Feraday, from Dickens World in Chatham, Kent for the BBC South East region on 14 November 2008.

He can now also be heard on the new Radio Plymouth every Sunday afternoon.

On Bank Holiday Monday 31 May 2010 Blackburn returned to BBC Radio 2 for a one-off live show featuring the 60 Top Selling Hits of the 60s. In July 2010 he also stood in for 3 days for Judi Spiers on BBC Radio Devon.

On Bank Holiday Monday 30 August 2010 he again returned to BBC Radio 2 for another one-off live show featuring the top 100 million-selling UK singles.

From the 6th November 2010, Blackburn will replace Dale Winton as the regular host of BBC Radio 2's Pick of the Pops programme

Personal life

In 1972, Blackburn married actress Tessa Wyatt. They had a son Simon. They divorced in 1977. He lives with his second wife Debra in Arkley, near Barnet, Hertfordshire.

Publications

His autobiography, Poptastic; My Life in Radio was published in September 2007, by Cassell Illustrated.

Quotation

There is an opinion that I'm a complete idiot and that I've never had sex. That's not true !

NME - August 1971

External links

• Tony Blackburn at IMDb
• Tony Blackburn at SmoothRadioLondon.com
• Tony Blackburn at Radio Rewind
• [1] Audio: Interview with Paul Morley for The Observer, 2010