So another one of my boy-hood radio heroes has died – Tommy Vance died this morning after a stroke.
His Friday Rock Show on Radio 1 was required listening when I was at school – you had Peel Monday to Wednesday, Andy Kershaw on a Thursday and Tommy Vance on a Friday. I’ve still got tapes of live gigs I recorded off the radio that he’d broadcast. I never met him, but I remember just how please I was when even years after I stopped listening to his show, I saw him in the audience at a Bruce Cockburn gig – it felt like Tommy being there was a validation of my taste in liking Bruce.
So after Peel, goes TV, to the great Rock Show in the sky. Sad news.
Soundtrack – right now it’s John Scofield, ‘Up All Night’; but I think I’ll be listening to more Bruce Cockburn later and remembering many years of listening to Tommy.