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18 December 2009
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Tony Blackburn
Name:Tony Blackburn
Distinguishing Features:
Amazing Technicolor suits, dazzling smile, perpetually cheery demeanour

Have you got a favourite Top of the Pops performance?
Noddy Holder and Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody!'"

Is it fun to present?

"Great fun - I thoroughly enjoyed every minute!"

Have you ever been starstruck?

"Yes, I fell in love with Petula Clark when she was on TOTP."

Have you ever embarrassed yourself on the show?
"Not at the time, but watching old episodes now makes me embarrassed about some of the 70s clothes we wore!"

Has anyone in the audience ever said anything funny to you?
"Not really - it's really hard to hear the audience individually over the Floor Manager talking to you, and the general noise - far too hectic!"

What’s the worst performance you’ve seen on the show?
"Arthur Mullard and Hylda Baker doing 'You're The One That I Want' - terrible!"

Who would you ban?

"Any punk rock band, especially the Sex Pistols!"

Why punk rock?

"I try and block Punk rock out of my mind, you know. I thought that was a horrible era and I didn’t like it, I just didn’t like anything that Sid Vicious stood for. I loved the flower power era because you had the bells and you were wearing flowers in your hair. The two eras I loved - the flower power era and the glam rock era."

What’s your dream Top Of The Pops line-up?

"Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Elton John."

Any advice for someone who wants to be a presenter?
"If you find yourself utterly fascinating and funny, but fail to understand why anyone else on TV is regarded as remotely interesting, then you're probably the right sort of person to be a presenter!

Seriously though, you need a lot of self confidence, but the key to presenting is being yourself and letting your own personality come through."

  Simply Red  
  "That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "  
  Robin Gibb  
  "There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."  
  Paul Roberts - The Stranglers  
  "We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."  
  Lisa Stansfield  
  "I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"  
  Soft Cell  
  "I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."  
  Erasure  
  "Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."  
  INXS  
  "We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."  
  Kim Wilde  
  "I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."  
  Dollar  
  "Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."  
  Human League  
  "We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."  
  Altered Images  
  "Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."  
  Belle Stars  
  "The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."  
  Steve Strange  
  "Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."  
  Five Star  
  "We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."  
  Phillip from Ruby Flipper  
  "At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."  
  Glen Campbell  
  "I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."  
  David Gray  
  "Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"  
  Robert Palmer  
  "There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."  
  Marilyn  
  "I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"  
  Tom Jones  
  "I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"  
  Ruth From Pan's People  
  "I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."  
  Badly Drawn Boy  
  "Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"  
  John Otway  
  "I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."  
  Jimmy Cliff  
  "I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."  
  Human League  
  "We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."  
  Status Quo  
  "I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"  
  Gary Numan  
  "There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."  
  McAlmont and Butler  
  "We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."  
  Primal Scream  
  "The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."  
  Oasis  
  "I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."  


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