I think we all knew that this day would come soon. Johnny completed his final ‘Sounds Of The 70s’ show on Radio 2 in October. I spoke about that show in an earlier post. But the news of his passing still brought a tear to my eyes. He was most definitely my favourite broadcaster. I spent a lot of my formative years listening to his radio shows. Later, I always tried to listen to his ‘Sounds Of The 70s’ shows on BBC Radio 2. They were wonderfully put together and aired on Sunday afternoons. Back in the 70s, I loved when they announced the new chart on BBC Radio 1. Johnnie Walker did it on a Tuesday lunchtime. I always made sure to have my transistor radio with me. My mates and I were at Bishopshalt School in Hillingdon. We wanted to find out if David Cassidy and the Osmonds were still clogging up the UK charts. They were. We also wanted to see if Slade had gone straight in at the top. They had. And we wondered whether Bowie would get his first number one single. He did, but not until 1975 with a reissue of “Space Oddity“.
In the early 70s local schools in my area took turns in hosting a disco every 4 weeks. My own school, Bishopshalt was a little too snobby to get involved. It was a grammar school don’t you know! Anyway many of my friends from primary school went on to Abbotsfield and that school did host Interspin discos. These disco nights were usually hosted by BBC Radio1 DJs. I can remember seeing Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis and of course Johnnie Walker. I suspect that no one bothered to brief Johnnie that this was a disco for 13 to 16 year olds. This became apparent when were treated to two topless go go dancers strutting their stuff on stage. I will leave it to your imagination to determine exactly how the 15 year old me felt about that!
Johnnie will be sadly missed on the airwaves and within music more widely. My thoughts are with his wife Tiggy and all his family and friends. If there is an afterlife, I am sure Johnnie will be spinning some great tunes. He will be playing them wherever he might be. Check out the classic tracks he aired on his regular Johnnie’s Juke Box slot. He chose the final entry himself for his final show. It was “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. RIP Johnnie Walker – an absolute legend!
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