Annie Nightingale

Annie Avril Nightingale (1 April 1940 – 11 January 2024) was an English radio and television broadcaster. She was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1970 and the first female presenter for BBC Television's The Old Grey Whistle Test, where she stayed for four years.

Nightingale specialised in championing new and underground music, and encouraged other women to become DJs and broadcasters. She was the longest-serving broadcaster in BBC Radio 1's history and held the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a female radio presenter.

Early life and education

Anne Avril Nightingale was born in Osterley, Middlesex, England, on 1 April 1940, the daughter and only child of Celia and Basil Nightingale. Her father ran a family wallpaper business. She attended St Catherine's School, Twickenham beginning at age five, although her family was not Catholic. She later attended Lady Eleanor Holles School, Hampton, Middlesex (by scholarship), and the School of Journalism at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster). She wrote a pop music column called Spin With Me

In the early 1960s, as a result of meeting Dusty Springfield and her manager Vicki Wickham, editor of the new ground-breaking pop TV show Ready Steady Go!, Nightingale was invited to host a new sister TV show. She joined Associated-Rediffusion TV and hosted her own show in the 1960s, That's For Me.

Early in the 1970s, Nightingale hosted a documentary film series for BBC One, Before The Event. The series was filmed across the UK in locations such as The Lake District and Derbyshire. The series recorded the build-up to major events in the British sporting calendar, such as the Hennessy Gold Cup steeplechase and the Formula 1 British Grand Prix motor race at Silverstone. A little later, she appeared in her first feature film, Home Before Midnight, starring James Aubrey and Chris Jagger. Nightingale played a talk show TV host and was billed as playing the part of herself.

Nightingale worked with BBC TV on The Old Grey Whistle Test for four years. In 1978, she became the show's main presenter, as a replacement for long-time host Bob Harris.

She worked further with the BBC team, presenting long-running shows such as Late Night In Concert in addition to her weekly The Old Grey Whistle Test slot and Christmas specials.

In 1980, Nightingale accompanied The Police on their first world tour, which included places that had seldom hosted foreign performers—including Mexico, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Greece and Egypt, with the tour filmed for a documentary.

For Live Aid in 1985, Nightingale was commissioned by the Live Aid team to be the BBC's sole presenter at the Philadelphia US special. She commentated and presented, introducing artists including Duran Duran, Madonna, the Pretenders, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, and Crosby Stills and Nash.

Between 1989 and 1990, Nightingale hosted an interview TV series for ITV entitled One To One. She conducted in-depth interviews with Debbie Harry, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Peter Gabriel, John Taylor of Duran Duran, Mike Oldfield and Status Quo.

In her later years, Nightingale wrote for The Guardian, The Times, Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator.

Radio career

Presenter and writer

1963–1969

Nightingale's first broadcast on the BBC was on 14 September 1963 as a panellist on Juke Box Jury, The pirate ships were outlawed by the UK government and shut down. Prime Minister Harold Wilson decreed that the BBC would run a new pop music station on land from London to replace them. Nightingale persisted for three years, and was only given a chance to audition by her friends The Beatles and their staff at Apple Records. Nightingale started at BBC Radio 1 on 8 February 1970 with a Sunday evening show. However, after a trial run on Sunday nights, her first shows were daytime afternoon slots, handed over from Terry Wogan. In April 1970 she became one of the hosts of the singles review show What's New However, she became interested and involved with acid house music from 1989 onwards, playing it on her Radio 1 show, before it became mainstream. In 2014, she appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as herself.

2010–2019

In 2013, Nightingale was featured in the BBC Radio 4 programme Getting on Air: the Female Pioneers, presented by Jane Garvey.

In 2015, it was revealed that Nightingale had been approached by the BBC to sign a letter warning Prime Minister David Cameron that his plans to reform the corporation would damage it. Nightingale, one of the letter's 29 signatories, revealed later on that she had not read the letter prior to signing it.

In 2015, Nightingale was commissioned by Paul McCartney to write the accompanying fully illustrated book as part of the deluxe re-release of his classic albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. In the same year, she appeared at ITV's gala spectacular The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One.

2020–2023

In July 2020, Nightingale appeared as a guest on the long-running BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, choosing a saxophone as her luxury item and "Space Oddity" as the one track she would save if marooned on a tropical island.

In 2021, Nightingale's regular weekly Radio 1 show, then in its 52nd year was moved to an earlier slot, 11 pm on Tuesdays. In November 2021, Nightingale launched the Radio 1 scholarships. Nightingale discovered female and non-binary DJs, three who were given a special one-off slot on a Saturday night. The DJs were Martha from London, LCY from Bristol, and Godlands from Australia.

Her final appearance on BBC Radio 1 was in December 2023, when she presented a "Best of 2023" show.

Nightingale returned to Radio 2 on 1 January 2014 for another one-off show entitled Annie Nightingale: Whatever Next?, broadcast between 8pm and 10pm. The show featured a variety of genres from the seven decades from the 1950s onwards.

50th Anniversary at Radio 1 and Radio 2

In 2020, Nightingale celebrated her 50th anniversary in broadcasting with a series of BBC specials, and a compilation album on Ministry of Sound. This features tracks by the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney.

Nightingale's 50th anniversary at Radio 1 was marked by two documentaries on BBC TV and the release of her new memoir on 3 September 2020, published by White Rabbit Books, an imprint of Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The book looks at pop culture and social history over five decades, covering never-before-seen interviews with artists ranging from the Beatles to Billie Eilish, and includes Bob Marley, Marc Bolan, Primal Scream, the Streets, Dusty Springfield, Keith Moon, Elvis Costello, Little Simz and more. The memoir covers Nightingales's 50 years at BBC Radio 1 and book contains recollections of Paris in the 1950s, early raves in London, the Falklands War and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. She was the station's first female DJ, and also the longest-serving broadcaster on the station of any gender. She also held the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a female radio presenter.

Personal life and death

Nightingale was married twice. At age 19, she eloped to Brighton with writer Gordon Thomas, with whom she had two children.

Publications

Nightingale published two autobiographical books: Chase The Fade (1981) and Wicked Speed (1999) . Chase the Fade was a vividly illustrated art book, illustrated with images from Nightingale's photo archive, as well as images from her collection of pop memorabilia. The text featured descriptions of The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, the Who, and her experience touring with the BBC TV documentary, Police In The East.

She compiled three albums: Annie on One (1996, Heavenly Recordings),

Hey Hi Hello

Nightingale's 2020 memoir, entitled Hey Hi Hello, celebrates five decades of pop culture and Nightingale's 50th anniversary as the first female DJ/presenter on radio was published by White Rabbit in 2020. Nightingale recorded an audiobook version to coincide with the hardback publication.

The publication of Hey Hi Hello coincided with the celebrations of her 50th anniversary, including an Annie Nightingale Night on BBC 4. This consisted of two back-to-back documentaries focussing on the punk and new wave eras that Nightingale championed during her five-year residency as anchor of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Nightingale was the first woman to host a rock music TV show singlehandedly. Following the documentary was a showing of the BBC TV film, Bird On The Wireless, directed by Simon Brook, acclaimed film director and son of theatre director Peter Brook and international movie star Natasha Parry. This was followed by a screening of Police In The East, the groundbreaking TV documentary directed by Derek Burbidge. This featured Nightingale narrating, commentating on and interviewing the new wave rock/pop group the Police as they were emerging as the best-selling group in the world. This film was shot in Japan, Hong Kong, India, Egypt and Greece, and gave Nightingale a lifelong desire for long-distance travel and documentary-making exploration adventures.

Recognition and honours

In 2001, Muzik named Nightingale "Caner of the Year" for her appearances as a DJ in Ibiza.

In 2002 Nightingale was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to radio broadcasting. The film has been shown three times on BBC Four and features tributes from Paul Weller and Tinie Tempah and interviews with Paul McCartney, Mani from The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, DJ Starscream and The Clash's Mick Jones. Also in 2011, Nightingale won the Best Special Radio Award for the sixth year running at the International Breakbeat Awards, and the BBC A&M award for the mammoth A Night With Annie Nightingale on BBC Radio 1, and the BBC launched its new BBC Archive Centre and named one of its vaults after Annie Nightingale, where she is in the company of Michael Palin and Sir David Frost.

Nightingale was made an honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Westminster in December 2012.

Already Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Nightingale was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to radio broadcasting.

References

External links

Annie Nightingale Whatever Next? at BBC
Annie Nightingale at Radio Academy Hall of Fame
Annie Nightingale at Radio Rewind
1985 Request Show episode at YouTube Music
Annie Nightingale research project at National History Day
Annie Nightingale Obituary at timesgo24.com