Tommy Vance

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Tommy Vance, born Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston (July 11, 1941 – March 6, 2005) was a British pop radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. Along with Neal Kay he was one of the few broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion the cause of hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans. The Friday Rock Show that he hosted gave new bands much appreciated airtime for their music and fans an opportunity to hear it. His radio show was a major factor in the rise of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

He left home at the age of 16 to join the Merchant Navy, and began his radio career in the USA under the name "Rick West". He took the name "Tommy Vance" at the radio station KOL in Seattle from a DJ who had failed to turn up after the station had already paid to have jingles recorded. When asked if he would be willing to change his name, he reportedly replied, "for this money you can change my name to Judas Iscariot!"

While at KOL, Vance was recruited by the legendary Top 40 programming consultant Bill Drake to join his team of Boss Jocks at the emerging West Coast ratings powerhouse, KHJ radio in Los Angeles (aka Boss Radio). Vance held down the valued evening airshift at KHJ for several months in late 1965, before abruptly deciding to return home to the UK after running into an unresolvable problem with the U.S. immigration authorities.

Upon his return to Britain, he joined Radio Caroline South, subsequently working for Radio Luxembourg and Radio London. In 1967 he was part of the original line-up at BBC Radio 1, notably presenting the "progressive" show Top Gear along with John Peel. He stayed at Radio 1 into the early 1970s.

Vance was part of the original line-up at the London station Capital Radio — the first legal commercial pop station ever to broadcast on land in Britain — in October 1973, initially co-hosting the morning show and then playing reggae and soul music on a weekend show. By 1976, he was also heard on the Portsmouth ILR station Radio Victory. He returned to Radio 1 in November 1978 to begin a 15-year stint hosting the show for which he is best known — the Friday Rock Show. He was to become very closely associated with heavy metal and rock music; his deep, resonant, booming voice and catch-phrase 'classic cuts' have been much imitated. He also had a two-year stint (10 January 1982 to 1 January 1984) hosting the Sunday-afternoon Top 40, where he showed knowledge of and enthusiasm for a wide range of music, and displayed a similar keenness and professionalism when he hosted Top of the Pops at around the same time.

When the BBC's new radio station for London, Greater London Radio (GLR), was launched in 1988, Vance presented the drivetime show mixing Album-orientated rock and current affairs dubbed "rock and rolling news". He showed he was as adept at interviewing politicians as he was pop stars.

Vance departed Radio 1 in March 1993, having been lured away by the soon-to-launch Virgin Radio, for whom he initially presented the weekday drivetime show. Soon after Vance's voluntary departure, many similar veteran DJs were forced out of Radio 1 by new controller Matthew Bannister. However he regretted making the move as the new station was swift to abandon its shortlived more adventurous policy and revert to a lacklustre playlist, saying he should never have left the BBC.

Vance continued to broadcast regularly, notably a revived Friday Rock Show for VH1 in the UK, which ran for some years until 2002, and a much-quoted appearance on Brass Eye. He was also the presenter and voiceover for the Channel 5 series Dumb and Dumber. Vance also had a feature in series 2 of Channel 4's late night show called The 11 O'clock show. The feature was called Tommy Vance's news slam in which he took a minute to read out news headlines. In one such news slam, he told viewers to call up TV's Handy Andy and to tell him that he was a twat.

Vance died of a stroke in Darent Valley Hospital, near Dartford, Kent, in the early hours of 6 March 2005. According to news reports he had been driving when his first stroke occurred, but had managed to pull off the road without endangering any other vehicles. It took two hours for rescue services to arrive and the temperature was only a few degrees above freezing. It is not yet clear whether this was a contributing factor to his fatal stroke.

On March 31, 2006, a Tommy Vance Tribute Night was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. Judas Priest, The Scorpions, Boned and Ian Gillan all performed to pay tribute. In association with the Teenage Cancer Trust foundation, it was an amazing night with special stage appearances by Roger Daltrey and Bruce Dickinson.