Not up there with the Peel’s or Vance’s of this world, but was a part of my childhood when I used to listen to Junior Choice every Sat and Sun morning,
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
minibreakfast says
Good gracious. I only heard him on Christmas day, doing his annual live Junior Choice. (He played Tijuana Taxi.)
Bargepole says
Ahh, what a shame – many childhood memories.
Beany says
Oh no. I listened to part of his Christmas Junior Choice too whilst driving over to Liverpool. I would not get out of the car until Nellie The Elephant finished. I have his LPs to remember him by – and many copies.
Beany says
https://youtu.be/o1weFMxhEmk
Johnny Concheroo says
You could have shown more respect and waited for the entire Mandy Miller EP to finish
http://i.imgur.com/X2I3s2w.png
Beany says
Steady now. We are talking Radio 2 here. They only gave us the title track.
The programme is still on iPlayer for 13 more days. There is supposed to be a downloadable version but I am still looking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rf35q
DogFacedBoy says
Crackerjack!
Rigid Digit says
So will the headlines be: “Goodbye Darlin”
Moose the Mooche says
D’Oh! Dropped me cabbage.
Sitheref2409 says
I liked Danny Baker’s review of his autobiography
http://soreeyes.org/archive/2005/06/05/stewpot/
dai says
Yeah, had reached 34 when he met his wife who was 13. Innocent times….
Black Type says
I wonder if the sainted Danny has ever had a similar pop at the sainted Peel for his then-similar attitudes to younger ladies…
Johnny Concheroo says
That’s great, but it seems a little mean-spirited for Danny to write that stuff about a fellow BBC broadcaster.
I’ve got the Tony Blackburn autobiography which is just as self-obsessed and unintentionally hilarious.
Jackthebiscuit says
I thought that too. I bow to no man in my love of Danny Baker, but I thought it was a bit mean spirited.
fortuneight says
It’s a nasty piece of work isn’t it. Berates Ed for “whining thumb up his useless arse, raging against regional accents on the BBC” – this, the same guy who indulged in a 2 hour rant on air on BBC London when they canned his show. And yet still found a way trouser cash from the “pinhead weasels” of the BBC for various projects since.
Alias says
I was reminded earlier this week of this song which I’m sure I must have heard first on Junior Choice:
LesterTheNightfly says
I once had a request played on “Junior Choice”.
It was this toe tapper
I’d just got into metal when my mum sent in the request.
She said they wouldn’t play metal so she opted for this.
R.I.P Stewpot
LesterTheNightfly says
This is another one I always associate with his show
Black Celebration says
This may/may not work
https://www.facebook.com/austin.fisher.5201/videos/10153315816102006/
Johnny Concheroo says
These two double CDs contain all the great stuff from Children’s Favourites dating back before Stewpot took over
http://i.imgur.com/is5k9bi.png
Mousey says
I have to say I have never heard of him. Why is this? It seems he’s some sort of eternal British radio DJ.
I lived in the UK in 73/74 and there are lots of names I can still remember – John Peel, Dave Lee Travis, Johnnie Walker, Bob Harris, Tony Blackburn, and a bunch of other names that I’d recognise.
Why have I not heard of “Stewpot”?
Black Celebration says
Probably because he was mostly known as a children’s TV and radio presenter – he presented a show called Junior Choice for many years and Crackerjack. He had a wacky DJ persona – but like most of those DJs, he had seemingly zero interest in the actual music.
johnw says
…and I would guess that in around 73/74 he had very little (if anything) to do with UK radio. To anyone just parachuting into the UK at that time he would have been just another children’s TV presenter…. and how many of us (without children of the right age) actually know the names of the current Blue Peter presenters?
Johnny Concheroo says
“Not up there with the Peel’s or Vance’s of this world”
I disagree. I think Stewpot was absolutely right up there with most of the Peels and Vances of this world.
Not the Peel and Vance who worked as DJs for the BBC, obviously, but he was right up there with all the other Peels and Vances of this world.
Sewer Robot says
Not Emma Peel or Vance Astro…
Black Celebration says
I would also say that Junior Choice was the show where many of us first heard David Bowie.
Johnny Concheroo says
“Hello children, everywhere!”
Just to put this into some kind of chronology. Stewpot began presenting the show in 1968, but it dates back much further than that.
It was originally titled Children’s Choice between – 1952 – 54.
Renamed Children’s Favourites in 1954, it was presented by Derek McCulloch (“Uncle Mac”) whose opening line/catch-phrase was the timeless “Hello children, everywhere!”
Alongside the kids songs like Tubby The Tuba, The Runaway Train and Nellie The Elephant Uncle Mac would occasionally sneak in the odd blues or skiffle track by Lonnie Donegan, Big Bill Broozy or Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (presumably because to old-school BBC ears, those records sounded like “novelty” music). It was here where an entire generation first heard blues guitar. In fact Eric Clapton is quoted as saying he first heard Big Bill Broozy on Uncle Mac’s show in the late 50s.
Until the mid 60s the theme music was Puffin’ Billy by the Melodi Light Orchestra (see below).
After Radios 1 & 2 replaced the Light Programme in 1967 the show was re-named Junior Choice and the theme was changed to an instrumental version of the Seekers’ Morningtown Ride and various presenters including Leslie Crowther replaced Uncle Mac.
Ed “Stewpot” Stewart took over in 1968 and presented the show until 1980 when Tony Blackburn took over.
After that it all gets a little confused with title changes and various specials coming and going. The show more or less ceased to exist in 1984 as far as I can tell.