"I'll tell you my history; I went down to Spain the year before last, worked on Spectrum for a while, trying to set up various things, that was fun, and that all collapsed because my personal life collapsed, I had to come back to the UK and then I followed that up to a degree, and got back to Spain to see if I could organise something of a similar nature, save working on the radio in Spain Currently, I record what I do in London and then send it over to them and they transmit it" 

extract from final Tommy Vance interview

                                                         


                                                            THE FRIDAY ROCK SHOW MAY 1983 (recording in mono)

https://vimeo.com/321720345

Tommy Vance



Tommy Vance passed away on March 8th 2005. He was to date the best Rock DJ UK had ever to have come out from UK and no DJ has ever had the knowledge of Rock music such as he did and come close for that matter. He worked briefly in the US starting off a career in radio before coming to UK to join the pirate radio crew. Along with the UKs familiar names of Disc Jockeys Kenny Everett, John Peel plus many others, Tommy Vance joined the team and soon he developed his brand of Rock entertainment with “The Friday Rock Show” in the UK in the late 70s. Many of us around the world encountered “Rock Salad” in the early 80s with the familiar Gary Moore theme blasting the airwaves.


This is my tribute to Tommy. It remains an unfinished project beginning 2014, I Launched on 5pm, 6th March 2015 live, UK (GMT time)   I began this website for all rock fans and artists around the world, which will see an end in 2024.  I believe following the time of his death there had been a tribute book by his fans dedicated to the Rock Show itself. There had also been a variety of concerts and webpages. Here though is my own recollection and tribute to him and from my memories of him.


And what is my story you ask. I had not heard from him in quite a number of years on the radio after "Rock Salad" closed on Short Wave until I tried to track him down online, The week of his death believe this or not, And surely enough there was his very last show online on the internet. Dial up internet as it was known then. No there was no Tommy Vance, Just his jingles and music and band tributes with announcements from various singers.  Tommy was not there. Internet, My only means of communication besides the radio. And of course since then, Radio has not been the same without him. We lost a Trooper. There has literally been no good Rock show since.


So I had decided to put this together far away from home. Enjoy this.


I started it all with this small website, Plus my very own pirate radio tribute live on air for Tommy abroad on the Short Wave band 10 years after his death. I am sure you would agree he did a lot for our airwaves, the broadcasting legend TV as he was known



God bless everyone.

 


01.09.2020 Sonny