Pop Pickers and Music Vendors

Asked to choose your favourite British radio DJs the chances are one of them will be on this list: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott. All now sadly no longer with us. But all are the subject of this latest book, Pop Pickers and Music Vendors by John Van der Kiste.

John has traced the careers of these eminent DJs (and Eminent DJs was the working title for the book) because he rightly regards the five "as among the greatest in their field", observing that not only did they end their careers as radio presenters "but also that four of them were still broadcasting within weeks of their passing away." Old DJs never die, they just fade.....

Aside from Peel - who must surely be the most written about DJ, with Kenny Everett running a close second - the rest of John's cast of players have not received the same level of attention, at least not in printed form. There is much here to satisfy the casual reader as there is the ardent radio enthusiast.

Pop Pickers and Music Vendors is published by Fonthill Media and is available from them and all the usual places. One for the Christmas book list I think.

Here are the famous five in action: