Our chat with a truly legendary DJ
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00:00 Yeah, I've got that.
00:02 Brilliant. Well, it's extremely exciting to be speaking to Tony Blackburn about the
00:08 Sounds of the Sixties tour that's coming up, and just to hear your voice. I mean, yours
00:11 was one of the first voices I think I heard after the midwife and my parents. You were
00:16 so much a part of our growing up.
00:18 The midwife was probably a nicer voice than mine.
00:21 I know.
00:22 Not from my recollection. What is that magic of radio? I grew up listening to you, still
00:29 listening to you now. Why is magic? Why is radio so magical?
00:33 I think it's the contact you have. I mean, I remember going out on Radio Caroline on
00:37 July the 25th, 1964, and doing my first programme at four o'clock in the afternoon. It was called
00:43 The Big Line Up, and I got in the studio and I just felt at home. I loved it, right from
00:49 the word go. I felt so relaxed with it. I mean, a lot of people say, well, you know,
00:53 talking to an object like that, it's a bit weird, isn't it? Well, not for me it isn't.
00:57 Is that the magic that you can't see the people?
01:01 I think that's a part of it. And, you know, in my mind, I've got a family audience there
01:05 that I'm entertaining. And of course, nowadays, of course, we get texts and emails and things
01:10 like that. So it makes you much closer and phone calls you can do as well. I don't do
01:14 phone calls on my show, but some people do. So it's just the intimacy of radio and the
01:19 liveness of it as well. A lot of television is recorded. And I always think recorded stuff
01:24 isn't quite the same as talking to the audience at that moment. You know, you say something
01:29 like I was going on about my favourite motorway was the M40 the other day on one of my shows.
01:35 And I had loads and loads of texts coming in saying, oh, they were just about to go
01:38 on the M40. Then somebody told me the M5 is great because it's got different type of tarmac
01:44 and all that sort of nonsense, which I mean, you know, you can't do that if it's recorded.
01:49 So it's just a lot of fun to do that show that you know is going out live to the whole
01:54 country.
01:55 But you cut your teeth in it all in the most exciting era ever. Emerging first as a city
02:03 performer, then a DJ in the 1960s. I mean, what a blast that decade must have been. Some
02:08 of the world's most fabulous music.
02:10 Yeah, it was.
02:11 In the thick of it.
02:13 It's very, very special. I mean, I would say it was the best decade ever because so much
02:18 happened. You know, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Carnaby Street, the fashion, the pirate
02:22 ships opening up Radio One. I mean, and the music was just great. And at that time as
02:27 well, the record companies weren't run by accountants. So the record companies were
02:31 holding parties and you met the artists. And it was it was more fun than it is now. But
02:38 I still get a lot of fun out of it. But it was a very special time. And people were going
02:42 out and buying physical records as well. So the charts meant something in those days.
02:48 The excitement of opening a gatefold was just quite something.
02:50 Yeah. I mean, now, you know, the top 40, I mean, I don't know what's number one in the
02:54 top 40. I don't think anybody does.
02:56 Who cares?
02:57 Who cares? Yeah, exactly. Because it's not it's not people physically going out and spending
03:02 money and buying them. It's listening on screaming. I mean, I love modern technology. Don't get
03:07 me wrong. But also that excitement of what's going to be number one and all that sort of
03:13 thing. That's no longer with the kids nowadays. And of course, you know, they have different
03:17 ways of listening. I mean, my daughter's 26 years old. She doesn't really listen to radio.
03:21 It's more Spotify and YouTube and things like that. Whereas we were fixed to a radio. And
03:29 that's why I love entertaining the older audience now, because they are still on the radio and
03:34 things like that. And when I go into the theatres, there are people that have listened to me
03:37 for such a long time and I can see whether or not it's done them any harm.
03:45 And has it done?
03:46 No, no.
03:47 But these are people who have stayed with you for decades, just as that music from the
03:52 60s has survived, hasn't it? So much has survived. It's unbeatable, isn't it?
03:57 Well, just great songs, you know, I mean, just great songs and great artists. And the
04:02 artists probably don't perform, you know, as excitingly as they do now. I mean, to start
04:08 off with the female singers, they were all fully dressed in the 60s. Now it's all covered
04:15 in t-shirts and jeans and swimsuits and everything. Whereas you didn't get that in the 60s.
04:24 Well, that's the magic of the radio then, isn't it?
04:26 Yeah, I mean, I love the performances that, I mean, I've always loved soul music, so I
04:32 love the performances that Diana Ross and The Screams gave on The Four Tops. They were
04:36 all very, very good on the stage. I mean, I toured with Diana Ross and I used to watch
04:40 them perform on the stage and those songs are just so great. We have a section in the
04:46 programme that I love, a Motown section. And our singers actually do a really good job
04:50 on that. So they're very difficult to sing Motown songs, but they do a fabulous job on
04:54 that.
04:55 And you're taking it all out on the road. You've just signed up for a good number more,
05:00 haven't you?
05:01 40 more, yes. Yeah, doing another 40.
05:03 I mention it because you just did. You are not that far away from 80 now, are you?
05:07 No, I'm 80 on the 29th of January.
05:11 Happy birthday in advance.
05:13 Thank you very much.
05:15 Reassuringly, you were saying absolutely no thoughts, intentions of retiring.
05:19 No, no, no. Well, I don't want to retire. I mean, the BBC might have other ideas. No,
05:27 I'm joking. I love it. BBC, they give me a lot of freedom and all the records I play
05:31 on the air now, I choose them all. I have, you know, 100% choice on local radio and on
05:37 Radio 2. So I couldn't be happier. And going into the theatres, I've become a lovey. And,
05:43 you know, that's nice as well. You know, I mean, I was doing discos for a long, long
05:47 time. I gave those up a little while ago. But to go into proper theatres and see an
05:50 audience there and seeing them enjoying themselves is great.
05:54 And a great chance to continue telling those awful, awful jokes.
05:57 Yeah, well, they're not mine anymore. The listeners sent them in. When I took over Sound
06:02 of the Sixties, I decided to change the act a little bit. And I didn't tell jokes, but
06:07 the audience kept sending them in. So now I read their jokes out. So no jokes that I've
06:14 told over the last four or five years have been mine. It's all the audience. I blame
06:18 the audience for that.
06:19 They're brilliant. And I sit there thinking, "Must remember that one." But you never do.
06:23 Brilliant. Well, it has been an extreme excitement to speak to you. Thank you ever so much for
06:31 your time.
06:32 That's very kind of you. Thank you very much.
06:34 Have a lovely 80th birthday.
06:35 Thanks for having me. I'll let you get back to your books because you've got a lot there.
06:38 A lot to read, yeah. I'm ready.