Hi Paul! First of all, tell us a bit about 106.1 Rock Radio – Manchester’s first Classic Rock radio station - when and why did it start, where can we find it, and apart from good music (of course!) what else do you have? We broadcast on 106.1 FM across the whole of Greater Manchester. GMG Radio - that already has the established Century Radio / Smooth Radio / Real Radio Brands - came up with the original idea after realising there is a huge market for this kind of music that nobody was catering for, and launched our sister station 96.3 Rock Radio in Scotland just over 12 months ago. As you can imagine it was welcomed as a breath of fresh air for radio listeners, and has done brilliantly with audience figures ever since.

Rock Radio Digital was launched right across the North East in April this year, and we launched on Bank Holiday Monday 5th May with a free open-air gig in Manchester city centre featuring the likes of Bad Company and Gun playing live.
As well as all the music which spans from the 60s up to and including now, I talk to the people behind the music too, for example just in the last couple of weeks I’ve chatted to the likes of Ronnie James Dio, Lizzy’s Scott Gorham and Magnum’s Bob Catley.
But it’s not just the established artistes that I chat to, I like to champion the newer bands too including recently the likes of Year Long Disaster and Kill Hannah. Besides if there wasn’t an outlet for the newer stuff, there’d be no Classic Rock bands of tomorrow. We also plan to take the show on the road or in the field, starting with a couple of programmes live from this year's Download next month.

How well is it being received by the people of Manchester? And further afield? Absolutely unbelievable!! Even from our test transmissions which went out four weeks ahead of launch we knew we were onto a winner. As soon as we went Live at 6pm on 5th May we received hundreds of emails, calls, and texts all saying pretty much the same... ‘About time’, ‘Why have we had to wait so long?’, and my favourite...‘I don’t need my iPod anymore, you are playing everything on it and more!!’

On our website there is a ‘Listen Live’ facility, and people are doing that all over the UK. In fact just last week alone we had over 8000 people logging on and listening live - amazing, especially since we’ve been on-air for less than three weeks!

How do you arrive at your playlist? It consists of the very best Classic Rock from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now - plus the very best of the new stuff too.

How did you get involved in radio presenting? My first job was as an apprentice machinist at the age of 16 which lasted three whole weeks before I became a Pontins Bluecoat in Blackpool! That was where I developed my obsession with all things entertainment. As far as Radio is concerned, apart from Tommy Vance (God Rest His Soul) I always felt that there was a huge audience for ‘my kinda music’, and proceded to badger the arse off a guy called John Evington who was the Programme Director of my local ILR Station – Signal Radio. I remember my first show ‘Mutha Knows Best’ as if it were yesterday, Easter Monday 1985, the first track being the mighty Priest with The Hellion / Electric Eye. The show was what was known then as a 'specialist' show.

Do you ever get nervous or have rock-jock's block? Any embarassing on-air incidents? I don’t get nervous, I suppose I got a bit blasé about it even early on in my career, but on my first show it was like that scene in Jaws where Richard Dreyfuss’s character goes down in the cage, and says something like ‘I ain’t got no spit’. As the 7 o’clock news was on my mouth was getting drier and drier! One embarrassing moment was during my Rockin’ The UK show. It was networked on a few stations, and each hour had to be pre-recorded onto a spool of tape. I was listening to the show on my way to London when I heard the station play my last hour first – I nearly crashed the car! Wouldn’t have been so bad but it opened with 'Welcome to the second hour of the show'!

Which of your interviews were the most fulfilling, and why? I would have to say the late, great Phil Lynott. It was one of my very first interviews, and as it turned out I think sadly it was his last radio interview. Lizzy were, and still are my all time favourite band, and I remember calling and calling John Salter at Phil’s office in London before he finally gave in and arranged it for me.

Which musicians (alive or dead - or somewhere in between) would you like to do a radio chat with? I’ve been really lucky over the last 23+ years to interview just about everybody who’s anybody in Rock, some of whom were just starting out, and went on to become some of the biggest bands in the world – Bon Jovi, Metallica, Guns N' Roses for example. You’ve gotta remember that when I started in 1985 MTV and VH1 weren't playing hard rock like they are now, and hard rock certainly wasn’t being played on mainstream Radio!

Your list of rocknroll heroes probably includes the same larger-than-life 70s/80s characters as most of the people who'll be reading this, e.g. Bon Scott, Philip Lynott, Pete Way etc. But in 20 years time when people look back, do these new 'heroes' in any way match the rocknrolliness of the aforementioned? I think they’ll struggle to match anything that’s gone before, besides it’s all been done a million times before anyway. But one or two names do spring to mind ..... Jared Leto (30 Seconds To Mars), Joel O’Keeffe (Airbourne) and Gabe Garcia (Black Tide) think they are all gonna be massive, and have the personality to carry it through too.

And which heroes (but maybe in a different sense, such as Tommy Vance etc) have had the greatest impact on music radio, and on the business generally, and how/why? Apart from Tommy, there was only really Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman who was always consistently pushing the music, and to a certain extent John Peel, who are all sadly no longer with us.

As the music scene has changed, and with all the social changes that have gone along with it, how have rock fans changed - apart from ditching the mullets? How have their expectations changed? And is there too much nostalgia (e.g cover bands etc) and not enough of whatever-the-opposite-of-nostalgia-is? It’s got a damn site more expensive to see your favourite band live nowadays, especially when internet touts get hold of them first, and sell them on extortionately! I don’t mind tribute bands at all, there are some excellent ones doing the rounds at the moment, and besides for just a few quid you get to hear ‘all’ your favourite songs. I don’t think rock fans have changed all that much over the years - the one thing that has changed though is the way they access music with the likes of the internet/downloading etc. I can’t help but think the kids of today are missing out on waiting for the record store to open to search for the latest new release, gatefold sleeve, limited editions etc.

What is the best - the very best on all levels - gig you've ever been to? And what made it so?
Status Quo Live at Manchester Apollo 1977 because it was the first gig I ever went to, and I was blown away by the whole thing. The atmosphere, the smell, the lights, the sound - it certainly changed my life!
Thin Lizzy, saw them too many times to mention and they were always awesome, but one that sticks in my mind was at Stafford's Bingley hall (A huge shed used for cattle markets and stuff), but a brilliant venue. 18th Dec 1979, Gary Moore had walked out on the band in the States, and Phil flew in Midge Ure to complete the tour. The UK tour was subsequently cancelled, but to apologise to fans they did a show at Manchester Apollo, and this one in Stafford. The line up featured Dave Flett from Manfred Mann on guitar, with Midge on keyboards until later in the show when he joined Dave, and Scott Gorham on guitar. They really pushed the boat out that night with lazers ‘n’ stuff, and even had their road crew dressed as Santas chuckin’ out gift wrapped t-shirt’s during the encore of ‘A Merry Jingle’....... I’ve still got the scars!!!...... and the t-shirt!

What are your musical predictions for 2008/9? Chinese Democracy? Another Kiss farewell tour? Cliff Richard getting married? Judging by the response we’ve had so far to 106.1 Rock Radio, I think that younger kids that are into the newer bands, are discovering all the greats, and bringin’ them a whole new audience. You only have to look at all the bands that have reformed over the last couple of years.... That wouldn’t have been possible without audiences of all ages finally embracing ‘rock’ of all different genres at last. When I was growing up if I was heavily into one band, I couldn’t possibly be into another - it was unheard of. This kind of music is for everyone, not just men of a certain age. What summed it up for me was at our Launch Gig - there was a girl near the front singing along to the words of every Bad Co song... she was about 12 years of age!!

© Get Ready To Roll - 26th May 2008