Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster and pioneering DJ who became Radio One's first female DJ in 1970, known for championing new music and breaking boundaries.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:47So you spent fifty years at Radio One. Has the role of a DJ changed over that time?
I think you would agree that we are there because of our love and passion and enthusiasm about music. And so in that sense it hasn't changed ... the ways of doing it and the technology ... I've obviously changed immensely in the social attitude, but basically I think it's a very simple thing.
Presenter asks
2:18And of course your hunger for new music, that's remained the same throughout your life. And that's not the case for everyone, is it? What are you looking for when you're listening to new music?
Well, I have to quote John Peel because he put it best, which is you want to hear something you've never heard before. ... Something that surprised you. And the more music we have, it gets actually more difficult. ... They lose that excitement of finding the freshness in new music, which somehow I seem to have been able to hang on to.
Presenter asks
4:19You've spent your life in radio. What part did it play in family life when you were little?
Absolutely huge. I grew up in World War II and post-World War II and all I had was the radio ... It was children's hour and it was music and it had such an effect on me. The first word I tried to say was music but I said 'music' because I didn't know how to say it. And violins I am still scared of because they affect me so much.
The book
The luxury
Uh no, but I could learn. And it would catch the sunlight, so it might act like an SOS. And I love the sound of it.
Presenter asks
5:31You were the only child of Basil and Celia, and you said you couldn't have had a more suburban, semi-detached experience in post-war Twickenham. What kind of neighborhood was that to grow up in?
Well, it's now quite posh, but it didn't seem to me then. But I was an only child, but not only that, my father's [siblings] ... none of the other three had any children. So it was a bit like having five parents. And it was like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party every time you went to their house. ... I'm sure those people have an influence on you that you don't realize for a long, long time.
Presenter asks
20:17When they set up Radio One in 1967, it was this all-male line-up. You went and knocked on their door, but you were rebuffed. What did they say to you?
They said, uh no, absolutely not. And I went, Well, uh, why? Because I hadn't actually really experienced sexism until then. ... And so I said, why? And then they came out with this wonderful line. They said, 'our disc jockeys are husband substitutes.' Which I thought was a stupid thing to say. ... I thought that that sets up a lot of assumptions that all the women pop fans were housewives at home doing the ironing and they would sort of say to me, 'Why [would] a woman [want to do it]?'
Presenter asks
22:20You were the only woman and you would remain so for the next twelve years until 1982 when Janice Long arrived. What was the atmosphere like at the place at the time you joined?
You know, it was all boys. They were very competitive with each other. So I was kind of extraneous really. I don't know what they thought of me really, but it was kind of locker room humour. I didn't feel very involved with them. ... Johnny Walker was always very kind to me.
“The first word I tried to say was music but I said 'music' because I didn't know how to say it. And violins I am still scared of because they affect me so much.”
“And there are tunes I can't listen to now because I get too emotional about them. I've been DJing at [a] festival in the Isle of Wight in the middle of [a] massive storm of people dancing in the rain and I was so emotional about that and the music that I'd be in tears over it just because we were sharing that.”
“They said, 'our disc jockeys are husband substitutes.' Which I thought was a stupid thing to say.”
“I said to the boss, I said, can I be on in the evening? And it was the best question, the best decision I ever made.”
“I realised in my very, very early days going out on the breaking story with a microphone, trying to get a quote from somebody. It's a very tough job. And it got to the point where I was being pressured by Fleet Street to write things about people that I wasn't comfortable with. And I went, I can't do it. ... So it saved me.”