A true legend of the airwaves, but in particular, his long running Saturday afternoon 'Saturday Rock Show' that used to go out on VHF/FM Stereo (on the borrowed Radio 2 frequency) which literally blew out of your speakers in kaleidescopic stereo sound with his cleverly compiled jingle with the eclectic mix of rock and classical tracks that left you in no doubt that for the next two or three hours, you were in for a real treat. The 'Rock Top Twenty' being a regular, plus the daft and quirky sketches of John Peel and John Walters, ("hoh, hoh, hoh, hoh!! OOOO..." only those who remember it will understand!). He even got me interested in Tomita, the Moog synthesizer musician. Such a diversity of music was played, plus the regular rock legends, including names that are less familiar to anyone under 60 now: Family, Focus, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, etc. I remember my best friend taping the show when Fluff played virtually the whole side of Pink Floyd's newly released 'Wish You Were Here' album in '76. He alone probably won Floyd a whole new generation of fans by playing this, along with many other rock bands' music. If the BBC hasn't already erased the archives, they ought to secure a deal with the record companies to do a tribute CD box set of the best of what was an award winning show that ran from 1974 until 1978. Much revered and respected man in the pantheon of rock music.
Had my first hearing of Bebop deluxe's Adventures in a Yorkshire landscape on his show one Saturday afternoon. Wonderful DJ /music lover. The days when radio meant something downloads just don't have the soul.
For years I recorded a tape of Alan doing the Top 40 hits of the seventies on New Year's Eve in 1979/80 on Capital. Unfortunately the tape eventually got twisted and finally perished about twenty years ago. I was gutted. Some of those hits were dreadful and I recall Freeman saying "That was little Jimmy Osmond's 'Long Haired Lover from Liverpool'... let's move onto the next one quick!"
