Britain’s first female DJ, who never became one of ‘them’, recalls a career that has spanned the Beatles to Billie Eilish
Irvine Welsh once wrote that Annie Nightingale was less a DJ and more “a surrogate cool big sister” to disaffected teenagers. “When the flatulent sounds of loud, boring, thick and egotistical men strafed the airwaves, Annie’s cool funky tones always stood out.” It’s true. Back when Radio 1 aspired to be an end-of-the pier knees-up, Nightingale never became one of “them”. She championed accessibly left-of-centre performers such as Ian Dury and Jonathan Richman, didn’t whoop or whinny; she paved paths for many others to follow.
Hey Hi Hello, published to mark the 50th anniversary of her first broadcast on Radio 1, is an agreeable if sometimes ragged mash-up of autobiography, transcripts of interviews with musicians from Bob Marley to Billie Eilish and testimonials from
Friends such as Underworld’s Karl Hyde. It’s less of a straight memoir than Nightingale’s Wicked Speed (1999), which contained vivid stories of travelling the world with the
police and endless bacchanals at her Grade II listed home in Brighton.