julian_craster

Not really an actor, but 'Fluff' did have several
British film credits:

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (1986)
RADIO WONDERFUL (1973)
SEBASTIAN (1967)
SWINGING U.K. (1964) (Harold BAIM pop short)
DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1964)
JUST FOR FUN! (1963)
IT'S TRAD, DAD! (1962)

Alan Freeman
A chart show veteran, 'Fluff' revelled in musical diversity and shared
the Smashey and Nicey joke
by Adam Sweeting
Wednesday November 29, 2006
The Guardian

In the annals of pop disc jockeys, few made a more distinctive impact
than Alan Freeman, who has died aged 79. His flamboyant and eccentric
presenting style, crashing together different musical genres amid a
barrage of catchphrases such as the celebrated "not 'arf!" or the
perennial "greetings, pop pickers", was scarcely to all tastes, but
once heard it was rarely forgotten.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Freeman, whose programmes would later
cover everything from pop to pomp rock to heavy metal and grand opera,
had originally wanted to become an opera singer (his final broadcasts
were presenting Their Greatest Bits for BBC Radio 2, from 1997 to
2001), but reluctantly concluded that his voice wasn't equal to the
task. His first radio job was as an announcer on the 7LA station in
Launceston, Tasmania, in 1952 and he gained further radio experience on
the Melbourne station 3KZ between 1953 and 1957, but it was not until
he visited England on holiday in 1957 that his career began to take
shape.
Detecting the looming impact of rock'n'roll in Britain, Freeman took
the decision not to return to Australia, and landed himself a job as
summer relief disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg. He made enough of an
impression to get himself recruited to the BBC Light Programme as
presenter of the Records Around Five show in 1960, where he first
introduced his familiar signature tune, At the Sign of the Swinging
Cymbal, written by Brian Fahey.
In 1961, Freeman took over Pick of the Pops from David Jacobs, and
successfully managed to relegate the musical content to second place
with his ebullient presenting manner. He was regularly censured by the
BBC for his brash delivery and for such avant-garde (for the time)
practices as leaving his sentences hanging in space on a pregnant "er
...". The contrast with the silky-smooth Jacobs could hardly have been
more drastic, and, indeed, Jacobs was reinstated in late 1962.
However, Freeman bounced back into the presenter's chair in 1964, and
continued to present the weekly rundown of the singles chart until
1972. He also established himself as a regular fixture on BBC TV's Top
of the Pops, having been appointed as one of the original four
presenters in 1964, alongside Jacobs, Pete Murray and Jimmy Savile.
Stretching his distinctive talents still further, he became chairman of
the panel game Play Your Hunch.
In 1973, he assumed his next big role on BBC Radio - the Light
Programme had become Radio 1 in September 1967 - when he became host of
the Saturday Rock Show, which he piloted until he jumped ship to
Capital Radio, the London pop music station, in 1978.
The Saturday Rock Show boldly ignored such ephemera as punk rock,
Freeman choosing to concentrate instead on hard or progressive rock
stalwarts including Bachmann Turner Overdrive, Genesis, Jethro Tull,
Led Zeppelin, Rush, Vangelis and Yes. By this time, Freeman was widely
known by his nickname "Fluff", apparently derived from his fondness for
wearing a loose-fitting submariner's pullover given to him by his
mother, Annie. The story goes that when Freeman took the garment to be
dry-cleaned, it came back looking like a shapeless ball of fluff, but
he continued to wear it regardless.
Freeman took his high listener-recognition factor to Capital Radio by
presenting a show called Pick of the Pops Take Two on Saturday
mornings, but after 11 years in the commercial sector he was back on
Radio 1 in 1989, once again at the helm of both Pick of the Pops and
the Saturday Rock Show. However, by 1994 the increasingly restless
veteran jock was lured away again to Capital, where he could be heard
crashing his way through Pick of the Pops Take Three at weekends, and
to Virgin Radio, which took up his rock show.
That same year, he revealed to startled breakfast television viewers
that he had been celibate since 1981, but before that had been
bisexual. Freeman was awarded an MBE in 1998 and over the years picked
up an assortment of prestigious gongs for his radio work, including the
Sony awards radio personality of the year in 1987, the Radio Academy's
outstanding contribution to UK music radio award in 1988, and a special
Sony award in May 2000 commemorating 40 years of service to
broadcasting.
The last was handed to Freeman, by now severely hampered by arthritis,
by Dale Winton, who had succeeded him as the presenter of Pick of the
Pops in its Radio 2 incarnation, recently revived on Sunday afternoons.
Winton said Freeman was "a man who has served, and is held in the
highest affection by, quite literally every sector of our industry."
He also found time for some film acting, and is preserved on celluloid
in Julien Temple's garish musical Absolute Beginners (1986), in Dr
Terror's House Of Horrors (1965), and as a DJ in the 1968 Dirk Bogarde
vehicle, Sebastian.
It was to his credit that Freeman could appreciate the ludicrous side
of his public persona. In 1994, he appeared as himself in the
television special Smashey and Nicey, the End of an Era. This was the
final appearance of the two fictional DJs created with such ferocious
satirical accuracy by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse that they
effectively terminated an entire era of Radio 1 deejaying. By that
time, however, Freeman had already propelled himself safely into
broadcasting mythology.


Alan Leslie Freeman, disc jockey, born July 6 1927; died November 27
2006

tonewheel

Alan Freeman was a dynamic DJ whose inventive presentation of pick of the pops was superb. Now we have Dale Winton whose insipid presentation of pick of the pops leads you to despair, is this really the best the producers of this one time brilliant radio programme can manage.

Dave Rattigan

I'm wondering how he died. Wasn't a man-eating plant by any chance, was it?

RIP Alan.

dicky2006

Back in 2000 when I was researching the life of Dick Haymes for his society Dick Haymes Voice of Perfection I visited Brinsworth House in Twickenham where his former manager Peter Elliott is the full time secretary for the Benevolent Fund.
Just as I was leaving a sprightly Alan Freeman came in at about 3pm and was quickly admonished by the staff for missing his lunch. He saw me and came over asking who I'd been to see and we sat for about 5 minutues talking about music and he was fascinated in hearing about Mr Haymes and Peter his old manager. He was a charming if slightly eccentric man but even though he had only been at the home a few months it was clear the staff loved him and cared for him well. He is another old stager that will be missed by many...

julian_craster

From THE TIMES

Alan Freeman
Ric Cooper writes: In the early weeks of Classic FM in 1992 I was working in its smart new underground studio complex. A producer friend, discovering that I had access to a recording studio, begged some time off me to add new booking details to a radio commercial for a musical he was touring around the country. When might Alan Freeman (“Fluff”) pop in and record them? I suggested 1.15pm, while the management would be out lunching for England and the place would be relatively deserted. I was, after all, moonlighting. I knew Fluff from a previous job at Capital Radio.
At 12.45 precisely, in front of a packed open-plan office, bustling with senior executives, Fluff appeared above us at the top of the sweeping staircase, wearing sunglasses and a silver and gold shell suit. Despite trying to make myself invisible, he spotted me, yelled “Hello Rickolas!” at the top of his voice and promptly fell down the stairs. Everyone who knew him was so delighted to see him, and to see him emerge unscathed, that no one questioned why he was there.

lordtednfs

The finest DJ one the radio bar none, "not arf!" Cheers Fluff

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Hooked off the line