God of The Pops
Alan Freeman - distinctive sounding and iconic DJ has died after a long battle with arthritis. He was 79. His voice and jingles not only defined my childhood but my adolescenthood too. Without fail I would always tune into his show. The best bit was his countdown - he made it sound so exciting. He was a proper DJ.Freeman commonly known as 'Fluff' because of his penchant for woolly jumpers was apparently John Peel's favourite DJ. I can see why John Peel liked Freeman. For a start - they were quite similar in character - obssessive about music and underneath it all quite shy. Neither of them realised how popular and liked they were and both would have been surprised by the vast amount of tributes in their death.
Alan Freeman was an era and now that era has gone. Long live Fluff. Not 'arf.
Click here for his pick of the pops
http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/fluff_harp_32kb.mp3
If the links don't work - then try this - it's great:
posted by rockmother at 10:59 pm
7 Comments:
oh my god romo!
First of all, I have to mention how much I loved Fluff. I worked with him doing a voice-over on some commercials and he was fantastic. Had us in stiches all through the session. It was during the era that Harry Enfield's Smashy & Nicey were all the rage, and he went into a stream-of-consciousness parody of their parody that had us bursting at the seams for weeks afterwards. Lovely, lovely man.
Second, as a result of your links to radio theme tune website, I've finally found the answer to a question I've been asking for YEARS. A song that has been lurking in the back of my brain for over 3 decades. I've hunted high and low for this song. Nobody knew who it was. No-one. I've asked everywhere from obscure record shops to dingy jazz clubs, beatnik coffee bars to weirdo chat rooms. Finally thanks to RoMo, I now know that the theme from Alexis Korner's Sounds of Jazz was "Struttin' by Dr. Strut. It may not mean much to some, but it means the world to me. Years I've been wondering. Years. I will sleep well tonight.
God Bless you, Romo.
And God Bless you, Fluff. You made it all right!, alright? not 'arf!
all right popickers!
safe journey, fluff
Have to say that my love of music is probably down to hearing those Sunday afternoon chart rundowns as a little kid. He was always the best presenter of that show and obviously had a real enthusiasm for music.
I read the comments left on the BBC site, and it seemed that everyone who encountered him had only good words to say about him. A bit of a contrast to a lot of the high maintenance non-entity modern "celebs" around at the moment, eh?
I also remember listening to his chart show many moons ago, he had a very warm radio voice filled with enthusiasm for what he did. He will not be forgotten easily.
Toby Anstiss getting kicked off I'm a Celebrity first out of a bunch of nonentities. Just another DJ who knows nothing about music.
Those early pop pickers really loved their music. The arseholes we've got now just love themselves.
Sort of echoing what Mr Hilton has remarked in a way; it was down to one of Fluff's Sunday afternoon radio shows that I learned who orginally performed the theme tune to 'Weekend World'.
Not only was he a real DJ with an enthusiasm for music, but to my ears he (like John Peel) was an enlightening force. Sadly missed RIP.
Found a little audio message from fluff from yesteryear. I've popped it on my blog for all to hear. Had an ahhhhhhh moment and it all came flooding back. Remembered his ever so cheeky smile and cried and laughed simultaneously.
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