[peel] Tommy Vance (off topic?)

[Jim Kerslake]

I remember the time when Peel lost one of his four nightly shows (I 
think it was Thursdays) -
in favour of a new show presented by Tommy Vance ("into the music") -
and Peel did refer to that show bitterly as "dreadful rubbish".

I think he was probably right -
it was supposed to reflect the mellower side of rock music
(as the old Friday Night Rock Show was becoming ever more dominated by 
Death Metal thrash and grunting).

But I do have very fond memories of TV's Friday Night Rock Show in the 
early '80s.

Can anyone remind me - Tommy Vance used to do an annual Rock chart voted 
by the listeners as well -
I can't remember what it was called..??
It was a bit predictable, and *very* lengthy, since Stairway to Heaven 
always came out as No.1, with Supper's Ready at No.2... but it was 
important stuff to a 16-year-old  :-)

-- jim



Mostyn wrote:

> I was never sure exactly what John thought of Tommy Vance.  I have two 
> contrasting memories which have got lodged in my brain cells for some 
> reason.
>  
> The first was of John warmly praising his professionalism - 
> particularly with respect to his timekeeping.  If you were taking over 
> from Tommy, you just knew that he would time his closing track and his 
> comments to the exact second.
>  
> The other memory is that he used to deliberately mispronounce his name 
> as Tommy Vn'ass.  I was never sure whether this was just a bit of 
> good-natured banter, or whether it was said with a degree of bitterness.
>  
> Mostyn
>