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As a new year special, musician and journalist Bob Stanley takes a fond look at the history of one of his favourite radio programmes.

Neil Sedaka

Sounds of the Sixties was a godsend

Bob Stanley

I can't remember the first time I heard Sounds Of The Sixties, but it must have been in the early days of the show. I was already a big fan of sixties music in 1983 when it first started, and hearing 'oldies' on the radio was a rarity. There were no dedicated stations as there are now, and you rarely heard any sixties obscurities on the radio. SOTS was a godsend.

Keith Fordyce, who had replaced Brian on Easybeat in the sixties and then co-presented Ready Steady Go with Cathy McGowan, was the original presenter and he wasn't afraid to air his slightly conservative opinions. After playing ? and the Mysterians' garage punk classic 96 Tears he sounded astonished that, "believe it or not", it had been an American number one. What on earth had America been thinking? Frank Ifield not good enough for them? 's Incense And Peppermints, a US number one in 1967, suffered a similar dressing down from buttoned-up Keith.

At some point in the mid eighties Keith Fordyce stood down and was replaced by a different celebrity presenter each week, all sixties recording acts. They would choose two hours of their favourite sixties music with one of their own hits played on the hour to remind the audience whose voice they were listening to. I remember 's selection quite clearly, as most of his favourite hits of the sixties were by Neil Sedaka. Being generous to him, maybe he'd misread the brief, but I do remember him saying that when he'd written Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen he "knew it was a timeless classic" to rank alongside Gershwin and Cole Porter. I don't know. I think it ranks alongside Wooden Heart and Walking Back To Happiness, but it's all a matter of taste.

Dave Berry's edition of SOTS I remember for different reasons. After opening with his 1965 hit The Crying Game, he then played the Velvet Underground's White Light White Heat and declared that they were an influence on many his then-current favourite bands like . These were names that never dared be mentioned on daytime Radio 1 back in 1986, let alone Radio 2. His selections for the show included 's Pink Floyd and, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, the Stooges. There was no sense of snobbishness or one-upmanship about any of this either. I've had massive respect for Dave Berry ever since.

took over SOTS in April 1990 and has since become the voice everyone associates with the show. I must say it has been an absolute privilege to write the SOTS blog in 2014 and to meet up with Brian for a chat every other week - he's terrific company and extremely modest, given his contribution to the 大象传媒 and broadcasting. Here's to 2015, and a happy New Year to all you fellow Avids.