Few people have been more influential in developing my music tastes as the legendary DJ Bob Harris, who has announced today that due to ill health he is standing down from his current radio shows. His shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC2’s Old Grey Whistle Test were, and are, life-changing for me. At a time, in the 1970s, when I was scratching around, experimenting with new sounds, Whispering Bob, as he became affectionately known, opened a whole new world.
Whistle Test in particular introduced me to a huge range of artists, many of whom were from America. Steely Dan, Little Feat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen: all these acts and more ended up in my collection and over 50 years on they remain favourites.
In recent times, Bob has presented his country music show on Radio 2, yet another genre of music he has taught me to love, and the rock show Sounds Of The Seventies, which does what it says on the tin.
What you get with Bob Harris is knowledge and love. He knows the music inside out and he loves what he plays. More than that, he has perfected the art of the DJ where he appears to be talking to you and you alone. I will miss that aspect of his broadcasting.
In 2023, I managed to meet him at a charity event and he was exactly what and who I thought he was. I thanked him for all the music he introduced into my life and he even posed for a photo with me. Never meet your heroes, they say. I have met many of mine and not one has ever let me down. Bob Harris certainly didn’t.
The prostate cancer he suffers from has now spread to his spine and Bob is concentrating all his efforts into making a recovery. Radio had to go. Bob has fought off cancer before, as well as other serious health conditions, so if anyone can do it, he can.
This is not an obituary. It is a thank you letter and it is a get well message.
Thanks for the music. You made my life so much better and I shall be forever grateful.
