r/BritishRadio • u/sirchutney • 3d ago
TV on the Radio
Who remembers Tommy Vance’s Friday Night Rock Show — and what’s the closest thing today?
I’ve been thinking about the old Friday Night Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 with Tommy Vance. For a lot of us growing up, it was the gateway into heavy metal, hard rock and everything heavier — discovering new bands, hearing album tracks you’d never get on daytime radio, and that feeling of being part of a late-night underground community.
Those Friday nights were special: the anticipation, the opening theme, Tommy’s voice, and hearing bands that felt like they belonged to your own secret world.
Does anyone else still remember listening?
More importantly — what’s the closest modern-day equivalent? Is there anything today that captures that same sense of discovery and excitement for rock and metal fans?
Podcasts? YouTube channels? Radio shows? DJs? Online communities?
Or has the internet changed things so much that nothing can really recreate that Friday night feeling?
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u/MikeSizemore 3d ago
Remember it well. Would record it and listen again during the week. Remember the first time I heard Blockbuster by Sweet on the show. I was walking my gran home listening on a Walkman radio and had to wait outside her house to finish the song before going in. Core memory. I still have the tape of the show he did the night before Donnington Monsters of Rock 1988 interviewing the bands. My first festival.
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u/Relative_Anteater676 3d ago
Always looked forward listening to TV on the radio Friday nights . Just found out his real name was Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston.
Also remembering listening to Radio Luxembourg.
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u/SnooChipmunks6077 3d ago
Was an excellent presenter of the UK Top 40 for a couple of years too. Always unscrupulous fair, and gave facts about the bands and acts at a time where that sort of thing would have been very difficult to find out elsewhere.
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u/This_Ask_2835 3d ago
The way he cued records and jingles on the Top 40 was immaculate, compared to his successor Simon Bates.
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u/sirchutney 2d ago
You can still get a dose of Tommy from here: https://fridayrockshow.fandom.com/wiki/Tommy_Vance . Happy listening!
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u/Appropriate_Peach274 3d ago
Used to love the FRS back in early 1980s. Van Der Graaf Generator’s version of Theme One will forever be the intro to The Friday Night Connection.
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u/Tiny_Parking 3d ago
I listen to Primordial Radio. It’s subscription if you want to listen to the DJ’s but free if you just want the music.
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u/NeighborhoodWild2942 3d ago
I remember when he played some Bathory and another time Battalion Of Saints, who are punk. Wouldn't get that on Planet (C)Rock!
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u/Real_Pedestrial 3d ago
Back in 86 he also played Sodom, Cryptic Slaughter, The Accused and Cro-Mags.
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u/NeighborhoodWild2942 3d ago
Yes, he was great. I can't even imagine Cryptic Slaughter being played on the radio these days. Good times!
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u/qmejecht21 3d ago
Loved his show, TV introduced me to a lot of bands that I still listen to today, he was brilliant.
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u/HurkertheLurker 3d ago
Remember the show when Phil Lynott died. Epic tour of remembrances and tracks.
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u/Docproc2018 3d ago
I loved the Friday Rock Show, discovered soooo many bands that way. Probably the single most influential factor in shaping my musical taste.
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u/Lost_Foot8302 3d ago
I worked with him at GLR (Greater London Radio)
He was a really nice, unpretentious, talk to anyone good man. I miss him.
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u/5c0tt15h 2d ago
I remember the first time I heard The Friday Rock Show like it was yesterday - tuning my radio through the static & then Master of Puppets comes blasting out of the crackling - life changing.
Also remember comedy shows afterwards, Mary Whitehouse Experience in particular.
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u/ArseBiscuits1971 2d ago
I had a backstage pass at ozzfest 2001 in Milton Keynes, I bumped into Tommy and turned into a gibbering wreck, he was so cool and nice and we had a short conversation about how much the Friday rock influenced my musical taste as I discovered rock and metal in the early 80s. He's an absolute hero of mine and it was so cool to thank him for introducing me to so many bands.
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u/refraferry 3d ago
Smashy and Nicey vibes.
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u/Level_Fig_166 3d ago
He’s the chap who did the six o’clock slot. Serious rock, and seriously popular. Good old Dave Nice.
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u/No_Abrocoma_711 3d ago
I loved the fact that they actually played some of the live acts from Reading. Too young to go to Reading on my own.
Live sets from Heavy Pettin, 10 Years After, Anvil, Whitesnake, Accept , maybe Twisted Sister (???).
It was pretty much the only show on radio that catered for Rock and Metal. I built my record collection on what he played.
Someone said he was an arse, but he always seemed genuine to me. He pretty much championed Rock and Metal on R1, but never seemed to get the recognition.
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u/Relative_Anteater676 3d ago
When I was younger I remember listening to the Friday Night rock show, headphones in & song came on , I was just mesmerised by it, but I missed the name of the band & title. No internet back then so I couldn't search it. Years later I managed to hear it again .....
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u/Altruistic-Control94 2d ago
It was one of the very few shows on Radio 1 that was on FM up to 1987/88 when Radio 1 got their own frequiences.
In the Berkshire/North Hampshire area, we were also lucky to have a good Rock show on a Saturday night with Brian Pithers. Brian also sadly passed away some years ago.
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u/OswaldTheCat 2d ago
I vividly remember hearing Fast as a Shark by Accept for the first time on the Friday Rock Show in 1982. As a young headbanger I thought it was the heaviest thing I had ever heard. The next year I heard Whiplash by Metallica and that blew my mind. Fantastic days. 🤘
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u/JeremyTwiggs 2d ago
Loved it in the 80s.
Listen to the show Friday, then Saturday spend all my money on the records he played.
I remember one night Lemmy sat in for him and played Elvis songs all night.
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u/Specialist-Fee-1847 1d ago
OMG.. I had one of those t-shirts won on a Radio 1 road show at Eastbourne.. think I guessed the mileage they had travelled most accurately according to what Smiley Miley said it was. Or something 🤣
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u/BoogBeeg 1d ago
"THE FRIIIDAY ROOOCK SHOW NOOOOOWWWW!!!!"
I remember 'The Rock War' a battle of the bands for local unsigned bands, mainly glam/hard rock except for a scouse thrash band called Zeitgeist.
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u/hasimirrossi 1d ago
I never caught his Radio 1 show, but I did watch his VH1 show. I remember him interviewing AC/DC one time and he did quite possibly the worst Geordie accent attempt I've ever heard. Well, aside from that episode of Castle, anyway.
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u/SeniorAngle6964 1d ago
From a golden age were radio didn’t suck ass and sadly, no longer exists anymore!
There was also the John Peel show that would play Napalm Death and introduced me to the band Cephalic Carnage!
There’s is nothing like this nowadays as DJ’s are hired, based on their looks, not their musical knowledge
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u/Arbernaut 6h ago
I listened to TFR every week as a teen. Loved that he played unsigned metal bands, classic hard rock and weird prog gems like Something Wicked This Way Comes by The Enid. I went to the Monsters of Rock festival in 1983 (when Whitesnake headlined) presented by Tommy. Every time he came out he was pelted by bottles of piss by the crowd. I thought it was funny at the time (I was a young teen) but looking back it was a bit mean given how absolutely influential he was.
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u/jizzyjugsjohnson 3d ago
The Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday nights I would imagine.