Bob Harris was championed by John Peel on BBC Radio 1. Then in 1972 he became the ‘Whispering’ presenter of TV music show . Now he's celebrating 25 years fronting the BBC’s show, as well as turning 78, all while on tour with an event co-hosted by Colin Hall, based on Hall’s book and documentary series .
That would be my mum and dad’s record collection in the early fifties, pre-rock’n’roll, so Mantovani – a great favourite of mine – Johnny Mathis and Perry Como. We had a radiogram in the corner of the room, and when it was switched on it glowed like a warm fire. My mum listened to the radio all the time.
That would be formative in terms of what I’m doing now. I was sitting in for John Peel on BBC Radio 1 on August 19, 1970. I had a brilliant producer called Jeff Griffin, who said to me: “You bring in the music, I’ll teach you how to build a programme.
” I learned so much from him, he was so skilful. Our first choice was by , because I just loved it. I’ve been so lucky to hear important records arrive in real time.
was an absolute game changer. There were some experimental groups at the time, such as or Soft Machine, but what and did with was bring every thread of creative energy together to push out the boundaries as far as technology would let them go. Twelve months later, in pop music and the industry, everything was different.
Ben E King. He was with The Drifters, a genuinely groundbreaking black band who started as R&B/doo-wop, then were steered .