Hi Jonathon

I am a 34 year old Australian who didn't realise that you were behind so many hits in the last 4 decades.

Thank you very much for this website. I am currently going through your video autobiography.

I have to admit, I found out about you through top of the pops you tube clips while finding out who Jimmy Savile was.

Why do you think Savile got to be so popular? Was he actually regarded highly in the music business at the time? Interviews I saw of him as an old man indicated to me that he didn't seem to care much for music.

Anyway - again thank you for this website. I think you are like a British Phil Spector.

JK...a British Phil Spector? No. JK never killed no one.

On your other question...Jimmy Savile. Any influence to the music industry, would of been in his days at Radio Luxembourg. When he ran the Warner Brothers Record Programme. There his main influence, would of been the Everly Brothers recordings of "Cathy's Clown" & "Walk Right Back". He was responsible for getting the record company to promote "Walk Right Back" instead of the original A side "Ebony Eyes". And then it went to number one.

Aside that, his influence in the record business is not a lot! His popularity came from his Northern Dance halls. Which wasn't his real chosen career. It came after he had damaged his back in a mining accident.

I'd say he was a person, that you either liked or loathed. His Radio Shows & TV shows were popular, but were probably more popular on their format & not JS himself. He'd been given niches. The latest chart sounds in Top Of The Pops & became close to the Popstars. Hence improving his popularity.

Even his Radio One Oldies show got the niche. The very first show to feature old charts. The public loved oldies & it was the only programme playing them. 12 million people tuned in...not for Savile, but the music. Don't think many tuned in for his tall stories alone!

I suppose his charity stuff, greatly improved his popularity elsewhere. But like any other "celebrity" the Press always like to praise, hype & then destroy...

National trteasure Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE, KCSG, 31 Oct 1926 - 29 Oct 2011.

Before Oct 2012, when he suddenly became the 1st ever UK-untried, convicted by bent-media mass hate-figure. For greed/careers/ratings/profit plus 'victims' cash compo and fat-fees.

He was also a 1951 Tour Of Britain Cyclist, and a Swingin 60s - Sexy 70s pro wrestler.

J.S. quote: " If you look at the athletics of it, I've done over 300 professional bike races, 212 marathons and 107 pro fights. [He proudly announced that he lost his first 35 fights.] No wrestler wanted to go back home and say a long-haired disc jockey had put him down. So from start to finish I got a good hiding. I've broken every bone in my body. I loved it. "

Thank you for the Savile information. very interesting.

I want to know more about English Dance Hall culture that Savile was very much involved in. I mean - were the people that ran the dance halls tough? Like British Mafia? (Maybe I am thinking of Get Carter).

The Savile necrophile stuff is interesting. The things he said about dead bodies are suspicious.

All dance halls had, were bouncers, just like any nightclub of today. No different. There have always been troublemakers. It never changes.

Mafia style tactics did not exist ever. Pure fallacy.

bh wrote:
All dance halls had, were bouncers, just like any nightclub of today. No different. There have always been troublemakers. It never changes. Mafia style tactics did not exist ever. Pure fallacy.

Not True, Mafia style tactics certainly did exist (extensively) among independently operated UK clubs in the last 50 years. This was often due to the movie and print description of gangster tactics making people mimic that behaviour to show how hard they were. Clubs were/are a cash business so atracted a high proportion of criminal activity. From the 90's onwards though the business became more corporate (Luminar, Oceana etc) so there are less mavericks. The height of the British gangster activity was in the 60's but it continued for a further 20 years.

I must've been to secluded dance halls, then. As it certainly wasn't like that in downtown Berkshire. No gangland stuff here, ever. Plenty of dodgy women, though...

Anyway "Get Carter" wasn't made to 1971...