TV Cream

Radio 1: The Jocks

VANCE, Tommy

‘TV ON THE RADIO!’ gag-overusing possessor of an entire Blake’s 7 episode location-friendly Cornish quarry down his gravel throat; when he told you how good the latest Nazareth ‘waxing’ was, you bloody believed it. ‘Rock’ was the key word here, coming on very much like Alan Freeman’s younger brother from the wrong side of the tracks. Later migrated to Virgin, and VH-1 as The Night Fly in those mafioso shades, but – as with dear old Fluff – never above gladly taking the piss out of himself at the drop of a hat. Straight-faced readings of increasingly silly billings for the post-his show The Mary Whitehouse Experience very much fondly remembered too. Toast his name in foaming, nut-brown ale.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Matty

    August 1, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    “Glides the razor smoother…”

    It was all about the voice with Vance. I’m sure, apart from the airplay, a lot of rock bands were overjoyed to be played on his show because, when he read their name out, it gave them so much gravitas it was like the words were being carved into a mountain side.

    His voice carried such weight that his self-read jingle “The Friday Rock Show… The Rock War!” (with the sounds of helicopter blades in the background) could have alerted the U.N.

  2. Mike A

    June 24, 2013 at 1:48 pm

    “Herd of cows? He has now.”

  3. Matthew Harris

    August 22, 2017 at 3:41 pm

    STOP SHOUTING AT PEOPLE.

  4. Richard16378

    August 22, 2017 at 6:38 pm

    Great sounding voice & good for little snippets of trivia for featured artists.

    I’ve heard he picked up the name Tommy Vance from working at an American radio station, where they had hired a DJ of that name who had left before hosting any shows, but they had already recorded all the jingles, so he had to use them.

  5. Glenn Aylett

    April 9, 2023 at 4:49 pm

    The only Radio 1 DJ in the eighties to openly love and promote heavy metal and hard rock. He arrived at Radio 1 when the new generation of metal bands were being noticed and supported the genre right to the end of his career. Also a true professional with a great voice and one of the best Top 40 presenters, giving little snippets about each act between songs, even if some of them wouldn’t have been his scene.

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