Tommy Vance RIP

Sad news in this story from the BBC about the passing of Tommy Vance, who died in hospital following a stroke. As a radio broadcaster, his main genre was heavy rock, and Tommy worked at Radio Caroline in the 60s before working for the BBC as a DJ for 15 years presenting the Friday Rock Show.

Tributes have been coming in from all who worked with Tommy, describing him as a quiet man, who once you got to know him, was a friend for life. The comments that struck a chord most with me came from fellow DJ Dave Cash, who worked with him for many years:

""He's a bit like John Peel .. he's irreplaceable, he was a total professional.Tommy was part of the group that actually cared about the music he was playing."

This rings true for me; in the same way that any bedroom music fan listened to John Peel into the early hours of a school night, so we used to listen to Tommy present the Friday Rock Show. With a trademark gravel voice, and a genuine knowledge and love of rock music, Tommy engendered greasy long-haired denim-clad biker boys everywhere. If it weren't for Tommy, we would almost certainly not have seen as many school mates with the following names biro'd onto their army surplus rucksacks: Tygers of Pang Tang, Girlschool, Judas Priest, Saxon, UFO, Anthrax, Dio, Diamond Head, Slayer, Queensryche, Raven, Nazareth, Venom (somebody stop me!!!)..

Rest in Peace Tommy