Tony Blackburn

Early life

Blackburn was born in Guildford, Surrey, but in 1946 his family moved to Bournemouth, then in Hampshire, where his sister, Jacqueline, was born. His sister was born suffering from polio and has been unable to walk since birth. Blackburn's mother, Pauline Cubitt (née Stone), was a nurse, and his father, Kenneth Fleming Blackburn, was a GP. He was educated at Castle Court School in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. He gained entry to Millfield School in Somerset on a sports scholarship and captained the school's cricket team.

He left before taking any examinations, but gained O-levels, following private tuition, and enrolled for an HND course in Business Studies at Bournemouth Technical College.

Early career as disc jockey

After beginning his career as a singer, Blackburn then worked as a DJ for the offshore pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London (1964–67), before joining the BBC in 1967, initially broadcasting on the Light Programme.

Blackburn was the first DJ to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 when it was launched on 30 September 1967, with his first words on the new station being "and good morning everyone! Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1". The Move's "Flowers in the Rain" was the first complete record he played. Blackburn recalled in 2014: "My job was to entertain and tell corny jokes, not have opinions or talk politics. If I wanted to wish the Queen a happy birthday, I had to get clearance from above." Throughout his Radio 1 career Blackburn was often accompanied by a jingle with the barking of the dog "Arnold" which he had previously used at Radio Caroline.

At first he was associated mainly with 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 for a decade until 1979 and in 1968 he fronted his own show, Time For Blackburn, produced by Southern Television for the ITV network. "The Radio 1 DJs were a massive attraction. We were mobbed everywhere we went", Blackburn told Simon Hattenstone, referring to personal appearances. "It was all a bit mad, but great fun", he told Judith Woods in 2014. We "were built up to be stars in our own right, and as a result we were as famous as the artists we played."

In 1973, when his pantomime performance was interrupted by a power cut, he said the miners should go back to work. He was admonished by management and taken off-air for two weeks. In an interview for The Radio Academy's Radio Talk podcast in 2013, Blackburn said that it is not advisable for a broadcaster to reveal their political allegiances. In this interview, he says that he's "not a great lover of the TUC or of unions ... but I keep it to myself now."

Singing career

He was in a group called Tony Blackburn and the Rovers which at one point included Al Stewart; they performed in the Bournemouth and surrounding areas. His singing career failed to take off, although 3 studio albums and 14 singles were released, of which two, "So Much Love" and "It's Only Love", made the UK Top 40 in 1968 and 1969 respectively. "So much Love" suffered from a shortage of copies because "the pressing plant went on strike, so nobody could get the record", he once recalled. "I don't think the strike was anything to do with the record, though it might have been ...quality control or something." As the years progressed he spent less time making his own music and concentrated on radio work, by the end of the 1970s he had stopped singing altogether.

His version of Doris Troy's "I'll Do Anything" was recorded in 1969 for his second album, Tony Blackburn for the Polydor label; it was re-released as a Northern soul single under the pseudonym Lenny Gamble on Casino Classics in June 1978. Blackburn was allegedly furious when Noel Edmonds revealed the alias on air. Nevertheless, Blackburn and Edmonds became close friends.

From 1973 to 1984

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

Over several years of the 1970s, Blackburn was a co-presenter on the BBC's summer programme Seaside Special, alongside other well known names from BBC Radio such as Dave Lee Travis and David Hamilton.

In November 1977 he took over the weekday afternoon show and from September 1979 until December 1981 he presented the Sunday Top 40 show on Radio 1.

In early 1980 he took over from Ed Stewart as the presenter of Junior Choice broadcast on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8-10am, while continuing to present the Sunday chart show until the end of 1981. He was 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 appreciation of soul music. "Soul music is sexy music, raunchy music. I didn’t want it to be a niche thing, I wanted to bring it to a mass audience. I wanted cab drivers to listen to it because I think pop soul is fabulous, I do, really", he told Simon Hattenstone.

Blackburn had a difficult relationship with fellow DJ John Peel, whom he recalled saying: "'People don’t realise how much you’ve done for soul music,' and I said: 'I bet you’d never say that publicly,' and he said: 'Oh no!'"

Having left BBC Radio 1 after 17 years he took over BBC Radio London's weekday mid-morning show in 1984. He joined Capital Radio in 1988, and was involved in beginning their Capital Gold station, presenting programmes of soul music, where he remained until 2002. He hosted similar shows on Jazz FM in Manchester and its successor Smooth, and the Real Radio Network.

Later career

Blackburn began presenting the Breakfast show for Classic Gold Digital, a station based in Bedfordshire, in 2003. He was suspended in late June 2004 for featuring too many Cliff Richard records. The singer was not on the station's playlist. Noel Edmonds, whose company owned a majority shareholding, thought Blackburn would soon return to broadcasting for the station. The suspension was short lived. Blackburn won his dispute with management over the playlist a few days later, and Cliff Richard was added to it. "We should be playing him as much as The Beatles", said the station head.

"I’m still a part of the disco generation", Blackburn told The Times in December 2004. "There is no pretence there and it never seems to date. I think disco did much more as a contribution to music than Bob Dylan or Neil Young. People get snobbish about music. Disco never takes itself too seriously."

On Saturday 6 November 2010, Blackburn replaced Dale Winton as the regular host of BBC Radio 2's Pick of the Pops programme. One of his remaining ambitions was to present a programme on Radio 2. "I was 37 when I left Radio 1, and 2 seemed a natural progression. So it’s only taken 30 years", Blackburn said in 2010. Blackburn presented the show every Saturday from 1 pm to 3 pm. He also presented shows on BBC Three Counties Radio and BBC Radio Berkshire from 9–11am on Sundays, BBC London 94.9 on Sundays from 12–3pm.

Commencing 2 July 2016, Blackburn presents a weekly 4-hour soul music show, Soul and Motown Show, every Saturday from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, on London's DAB station Thames Radio on 2 July 2016. He also presents a weekly 3-hour show, Tony's Blackburn's Playlist every Sunday from 4:00pm to 7:00pm on KMFM Radio, Kent.

Blackburn has won two lifetime achievement awards from the Radio Academy, the second of which was to mark his fifty years of broadcasting.

BBC sacking and return

On 25 February 2016, Blackburn was sacked by the BBC in an announcement from Lord Hall, the corporation's Director General. It mentioned that the contents of documents from the early 1970s were in conflict with evidence Blackburn gave to Dame Janet Smith's inquiry into Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse at BBC premises. Blackburn said he repeatedly told Dame Janet and the BBC that he had never been interviewed about an alleged incident in the 1970s and that Dame Janet's report makes no suggestion that he was guilty of any misconduct whatsoever. Smith found unsatisfactory Blackburn's denial that he was interviewed, by light entertainment head Bill Cotton and Sir Brian Neill QC. Neill had been appointed by the BBC to look into unrelated matters concerning Top of the Pops. Cotton's colleague, Tony Preston, had written a memo at the time concerning the interviews. Neill, the only one of the three men still alive, initially declined to comment, but later said he had interviewed Blackburn and, in 1972, had cleared him of wrongdoing. Blackburn complained that the BBC was sacking him and damaging his career based on the discrepancy. He accused the BBC of a cover-up and said that he intended to take legal action against the BBC.

Blackburn continued to present a show on Kent's local commercial radio station KMFM. A spokesman for the station said, "He is a great asset, a fantastic broadcaster and someone we are proud to work with."

In October 2016, it was reported that Blackburn would again be working for the BBC presenting an hour-long programme on BBC Radio 2 on Friday evenings and additionally returning to both BBC Radio London and Radio Berkshire. He returned to Radio 2 on 31 December 2016, opening with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".

Blackburn also presents Sounds of the '60s on BBC Radio 2, having taken over in March 2017 from Brian Matthew, who hosted it for 27 years. Broadcast live on Saturday mornings, it features texts and emails in a similar format to Pick of the Pops, which Blackburn presented from 2010 to 2016.

Personal life

In 1972, Blackburn married actress Tessa Wyatt. The couple had a son Simon, who was born in April 1973, but they divorced in November 1977 after separating the previous year. In 1992 he married his second wife Debbie, a theatrical agent, with whom he has a daughter, Victoria.

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