Robbie Vincent
| Robbie Vincent | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
9 June 1947 Felixstowe, Suffolk, England |
| Occupation | English Radio Broadcaster and DJ |
Robbie Vincent (born 9 June 1947) is an English radio broadcaster and DJ whose catch phrase for many years was "If it moves, Funk it". As a champion of jazz, funk and soul music in the UK during the late 1970s his contribution both live in clubs and on radio cannot be underestimated. Vincent himself proved as important a radio pioneer as some of the great American soul artists he interviewed and in 1995 was voted Independent Radio Personality of the Year at the prestigious Variety Club of Great Britain annual awards.
The teenaged Robbie Vincent moved up from newspaper messenger boy to print journalist reporting for the Evening Standard on the trial of the notorious gangsters, the Kray twins, and from the troubles in Northern Ireland. His broadcasting career began in 1970 at BBC Radio London, newly founded as one legitimate answer to Britain's avalanche of illegal UK pirate radio stations that had changed listeners' expectations. Here he was to spend 13 years helping shape the sound of London's local FM radio way before commercial competition arrived.
By the miners' strike of 1974 and the resulting three-day week that limited the nation's consumption of electricity, Vincent was hosting a new style of show called 'Late Night London' and playing devil's advocate with listeners who called in by telephone to air their problems or opinions. The programme was broadcast late in the evening and was among the first to establish the format for the radio phone-in in the UK. His celebrity interviewees included prime minister Margaret Thatcher, "at her charming best", he says on his own website.
By 1976 Vincent was pursuing his own tastes by also hosting a music show on the same station over Saturday lunchtimes. In his own words: "Moving from a mixed format of Slade, Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan and endless sound-tracks ... soul and jazz began to take over without management really noticing." He played artists such as Evelyn 'Champagne' King and Crown Heights Affair and invited guest soul DJs, such as Chris Hill, Tom Holland, DJ Froggy, Sean French, to play their favourite three records that came hot off the presses that week. The show grew to be considered essential listening by the capital's soul music fans.
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Wikipedia