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Jump to navigationJump to searchPop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott by John Van der Kiste (view source)
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, 16:28, 15 November 2016Created page with "{{infobox |title=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott |sort=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Free..."
{{infobox
|title=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott
|sort=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott
|author=John Van der Kiste
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=A book that's far more than nostalgia, no matter how much those names might bring back your youth. An affectionate look at the public faces and the men behind them.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=160
|publisher=Fonthill Media
|date=September 2016
|isbn=978-1781555446
|website=
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555443</amazonuk>
}}
You know those questions you get in celebrity interviews - 'which extinct being would you most like to see brought back to life?' Well, I'd like to see Jimmy Savile brought back, so that he could get his comeuppance. It's not just the damage he did to children and young people, dreadful as that was - it's the shadow he cast over the entertainment industry. We know that he wasn't alone in what he did, but somehow there's a whole era of entertainment which has been tarred by the same brush. John Van der Kiste has turned the spotlight away from Savile and on to five of the great DJs of the music industry.
David Jacobs and Alan Freeman, particularly, are the names of my youth and Van der Kiste's affectionate biographies brought back some wonderful memories of the programmes around which life had to be organised (who could miss ''Juke Box Jury'' or ''Top of the Pops''? - it was unthinkable) and also shines a light onto their lives behind the public personna. He has the telling anecdote and the amusing story which sums them up perfectly.
Jacobs and Freeman played what to me seemed like mainstream pop: Van der Kiste's other three subjects were less mainstream (for me, at least). John Peel was into the alternative scene, Tommy Vance was hard rock and Roger Scott's tastes were eclectic. I knew the names but not the men behind them until I read ''Pop Pickers and Music Vendors''. John Peel was quieter, more thoughtful than the man you encountered on air, whom I always found rather abrasive. When hard rock and heavy metal were fashionable for that brief time in the early seventies I was working towards my professional qualifications: I all but missed Tommy Vance who flew the flag for the genre for fifteen years on BBC1, but Van der Kiste brings out his versatility and the extent of his knowledge. His piece on Roger Scott is poignant with Scott being the only one of the DJs in the book who wasn't still broadcasting into his sixties: he died at the age of 46.
I did wonder if five pieces on disc jockeys would be a little ''bitty'', but Van der Kiste does an excellent job of tying them all together ''and'' giving just enough background to the entertainment industry to allow you to place them perfectly. Primarily a historian, his knowledge of the music scene shines through in this book and his talents make this a short but impressive read. I also appreciated the rigour of a decent bibliography and a good index.
I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For more about John Peel we can do no better than to recommend [[Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft]]. Moving away from the five subjects of ''Pop Pickers and Music Vendors'', we think you might also appreciate [[The Autobiography by Johnnie Walker]]. We weren't ''quite'' so impressed by [[Poptastic! My Life in Radio by Tony Blackburn]]. We have been impressed by Van der Kiste's [[Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After by John Van der Kiste|Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1781555443}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1781555443}}
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Biography]]
|title=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott
|sort=Pop Pickers and Music Vendors: David Jacobs, Alan Freeman, John Peel, Tommy Vance and Roger Scott
|author=John Van der Kiste
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=A book that's far more than nostalgia, no matter how much those names might bring back your youth. An affectionate look at the public faces and the men behind them.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=160
|publisher=Fonthill Media
|date=September 2016
|isbn=978-1781555446
|website=
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555443</amazonuk>
}}
You know those questions you get in celebrity interviews - 'which extinct being would you most like to see brought back to life?' Well, I'd like to see Jimmy Savile brought back, so that he could get his comeuppance. It's not just the damage he did to children and young people, dreadful as that was - it's the shadow he cast over the entertainment industry. We know that he wasn't alone in what he did, but somehow there's a whole era of entertainment which has been tarred by the same brush. John Van der Kiste has turned the spotlight away from Savile and on to five of the great DJs of the music industry.
David Jacobs and Alan Freeman, particularly, are the names of my youth and Van der Kiste's affectionate biographies brought back some wonderful memories of the programmes around which life had to be organised (who could miss ''Juke Box Jury'' or ''Top of the Pops''? - it was unthinkable) and also shines a light onto their lives behind the public personna. He has the telling anecdote and the amusing story which sums them up perfectly.
Jacobs and Freeman played what to me seemed like mainstream pop: Van der Kiste's other three subjects were less mainstream (for me, at least). John Peel was into the alternative scene, Tommy Vance was hard rock and Roger Scott's tastes were eclectic. I knew the names but not the men behind them until I read ''Pop Pickers and Music Vendors''. John Peel was quieter, more thoughtful than the man you encountered on air, whom I always found rather abrasive. When hard rock and heavy metal were fashionable for that brief time in the early seventies I was working towards my professional qualifications: I all but missed Tommy Vance who flew the flag for the genre for fifteen years on BBC1, but Van der Kiste brings out his versatility and the extent of his knowledge. His piece on Roger Scott is poignant with Scott being the only one of the DJs in the book who wasn't still broadcasting into his sixties: he died at the age of 46.
I did wonder if five pieces on disc jockeys would be a little ''bitty'', but Van der Kiste does an excellent job of tying them all together ''and'' giving just enough background to the entertainment industry to allow you to place them perfectly. Primarily a historian, his knowledge of the music scene shines through in this book and his talents make this a short but impressive read. I also appreciated the rigour of a decent bibliography and a good index.
I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For more about John Peel we can do no better than to recommend [[Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft]]. Moving away from the five subjects of ''Pop Pickers and Music Vendors'', we think you might also appreciate [[The Autobiography by Johnnie Walker]]. We weren't ''quite'' so impressed by [[Poptastic! My Life in Radio by Tony Blackburn]]. We have been impressed by Van der Kiste's [[Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After by John Van der Kiste|Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1781555443}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1781555443}}
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Biography]]
