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Tony Blackburn

Tony Blackburn is an English DJ and radio presenter, who is perhaps best known for presenting Top of the Pops, and shows on Radio 1 and Radio 2. He began his career as a radio presenter on pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s, before joining the BBC in 1967.

Blackburn was one of the longest serving presenters on Top of the Pops. Presenting the show from the 1960s, up until the early 1980s. He also returned as a guest co-host for numerous Top of the Pops specials, including the last weekly edition of the show in July 2006.

Appearances

TOTAL
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146

More Info


Wikipedia

Episode Appearances

Episode Number Episode
2206The Final Countdown
129525 Years of Top of the Pops
102227/10/1983
100102/06/1983
99705/05/1983
99017/03/1983
96530/09/1982
925Christmas Day 1981
79005/04/1979
77514/12/1978
76826/10/1978
76031/08/1978
75313/07/1978
74725/05/1978
74113/04/1978
73609/03/1978
73102/02/1978
727Christmas 1977 - Part 2
72308/12/1977
70901/09/1977
70107/07/1977
69709/06/1977
69021/04/1977
68517/03/1977
67827/01/1977
674Christmas 1976 - Part 2
66428/10/1976
65923/09/1976
65312/08/1976
64808/07/1976
64303/06/1976
63829/04/1976
63401/04/1976
62529/01/1976
620Christmas 1975 - Part 2
61527/11/1975
61023/10/1975
60625/09/1975
60228/08/1975
59831/07/1975
59510/07/1975
59219/06/1975
58822/05/1975
57920/03/1975
57520/02/1975
57230/01/1975
56909/01/1975
566Christmas 1974 - Part 1
56305/12/1974
55831/10/1974
55327/09/1974
54929/08/1974
54223/05/1974
53321/03/1974
52707/02/1974
520Christmas Day 1973
51813/12/1973
51415/11/1973
51018/10/1973
50804/10/1973
50513/09/1973
50324/08/1973
49820/07/1973
49315/06/1973
49025/05/1973
48704/05/1973
48405/04/1973
48222/03/1973
47901/03/1973
47608/02/1973
47318/01/1973
470Christmas 1972 - Part 2
46821/12/1972
46530/11/1972
46209/11/1972
45919/10/1972
45628/09/1972
45307/09/1972
44727/07/1972
44406/07/1972
44008/06/1972
43611/05/1972
43213/04/1972
43106/04/1972
42602/03/1972
42417/02/1972
42013/01/1972
417Christmas 1971 - Part 2
41409/12/1971
41011/11/1971
40614/10/1971
40216/09/1971
39819/08/1971
39315/07/1971
39208/07/1971
39024/06/1971
38810/06/1971
38627/05/1971
38229/04/1971
37801/04/1971
37404/03/1971
37218/02/1971
37004/02/1971
36821/01/1971
36607/01/1971
365Boxing Day 1970
364Christmas Day 1970
36310/12/1970
36126/11/1970
35912/11/1970
35729/10/1970
35515/10/1970
35301/10/1970
35117/09/1970
34903/09/1970
34720/08/1970
34613/08/1970
34109/07/1970
33911/06/1970
33804/06/1970
33728/05/1970
33621/05/1970
33514/05/1970
33330/04/1970
33116/04/1970
32902/04/1970
32719/03/1970
32505/03/1970
32319/02/1970
32212/02/1970
32105/02/1970
31922/01/1970
31708/01/1970
315Christmas 1969 - Part 2
31318/12/1969
31104/12/1969
30730/10/1969
30302/10/1969
30004/09/1969
29714/08/1969
29317/07/1969
29210/07/1969
28919/06/1969
28522/05/1969
20530/11/1967
19919/10/1967

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Have you got a favourite Top of the Pops performance? 

Noddy Holder and Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody!'"

Is it fun to present?

"Great fun - I thoroughly enjoyed every minute!"

Have you ever been starstruck?

"Yes, I fell in love with Petula Clark when she was on TOTP."

Have you ever embarrassed yourself on the show? 

 "Not at the time, but watching old episodes now makes me embarrassed about some of the 70s clothes we wore!"

Has anyone in the audience ever said anything funny to you?

"Not really - it's really hard to hear the audience individually over the Floor Manager talking to you, and the general noise - far too hectic!" 

What’s the worst performance you’ve seen on the show?

"Arthur Mullard and Hylda Baker doing 'You're The One That I Want' - terrible!"

Who would you ban?

"Any punk rock band, especially the Sex Pistols!"

Why punk rock?

 "I try and block Punk rock out of my mind, you know. I thought that was a horrible era and I didn’t like it, I just didn’t like anything that Sid Vicious stood for. I loved the flower power era because you had the bells and you were wearing flowers in your hair. The two eras I loved - the flower power era and the glam rock era." 

What’s your dream Top Of The Pops line-up?

"Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Elton John." 

Any advice for someone who wants to be a presenter?

"If you find yourself utterly fascinating and funny, but fail to understand why anyone else on TV is regarded as remotely interesting, then you're probably the right sort of person to be a presenter!

Seriously though, you need a lot of self confidence, but the key to presenting is being yourself and letting your own personality come through."

Cast you mind back to the Sixties. How big was Top of the Pops? 

"When I started on it in 1967 it was enormous. It was one of those shows you didn’t miss because it was tradition, it was like the Ten O’clock News - everybody watched it. I suppose it was one of the biggest shows on television, the ratings were enormous. After you’d done it, if you went out onto the streets the following day, it was one of the shows that everybody had seen." 

What was the big attraction of it? 

"It was the only music show. It reflected the charts, so you were seeing all the top acts. Every act wanted to be on, so you were seeing the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, everybody was on it, and it had that very hip image to it." 

Do you remember your first Top of the Pops? 

No! They all tend to roll into one. The strange thing about doing Top of the Pops is it was rather like being a bingo caller, you were calling out the numbers. One thing I remember about doing Top of the Pops, there was a certain fear in doing it because in those days it was all on videotape and if you made a mistake they had to cut the videotape and it was very, very expensive and that could cost you a re-booking. So the one thing you didn’t want to do was make a mistake." 

So it was like doing a live show? 

"It was very similar to doing a live show. There’s something very special about doing live television. I prefer that." 

What effect did Top of the Pops have on your public profile? 

"It made it impossible for me to go to the fish and chip shop. At the time it was so enormous. You went out on the street and you were instantly recognised. So the combination of Radio 1 and Top of the Pops made me into a national name which I will always be very grateful for. It’s stayed to this very day and the fact that you were a presenter on Top of the Pops is still very very special." 

What about some of the silliness with the audience - the dressing up and so on? 

"The dressing up, particularly around Christmas time, was all pre-planned. The problem with presenting TOTP was everybody wanted to get into the picture so you constantly had all these kids waving to their mums and dads. It was quite distracting because they weren’t aware you were there to do a job so right in the middle of a link, some arm would come in front of your face. That was the main thing in TOTP trying to stay in the picture yourself." 

Everybody remembers Christmas editions of Top of the Pops - what are your memories of them? 

"It was a great thing to be on them, because it was just before the Queen’s Speech. The Christmas Day was the best one to be on. I remember doing a show with Noel Edmonds, it was like he’d just come out of Sherwood Forest. 

Why do you think TOTP is still going today? 

"It’s history, it’s special, it’s TOTP. This country without TOTP wouldn’t be the same. We’ve got all these music channels now, we’ve got MTV and that’s great. There’s a big audience for that. But TOTP has the DJ introducing it and the top songs as well. With the music channels you have to wait a long time to get your favourite, but you know what’s going to happen on TOTP - you are going to get the No.1 song, you are going to get the chart rundown, so within half an hour you’ve just got the very Top of the Pops!"