Gary Davies was born in Manchester in 1957 and began his career with a passion for music and DJing. He started out playing clubs, including Manchester’s Placemate 7, while determined to make his way into radio. After sending demo tapes to stations for several years, he secured his first major break with Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio.
Radio 1, then Top of the Pops
In 1982, Davies joined BBC Radio 1, initially presenting a weekend late-night programme before becoming one of the station’s most recognisable voices. In 1984 he took over the lunchtime slot, The Bit in the Middle, where his energetic presentation style and enthusiasm for new music quickly made him hugely popular. His trademark “Woo Gary Davies” jingle and “Young, Free and Single” catchphrase became synonymous with his image.
Davies also became a familiar face on television, regularly presenting Top of the Pops. During the 1980s he hosted the programme more often than any other DJ, becoming one of the defining broadcasters of the decade.
Gary reminisces:
The charts back then were very diverse- you had novelty acts in there with icons such as Madonna who is still around today and Top of the Pops reflected that’
Back then before the arrival of MTV there was very little opportunity of seeing your favourite musical artist on TV. The show had a captive audience, 13 million viewers used to tune in every Thursday night to watch the show. Nowadays there are so many opportunities to see and hear your favourite artists, I don’t think that the show would have as much impact now as it did back then.
Sounds of the 80’s on Radio 2
Radio 2 where Gary hosts the Sounds of the 80’s on Saturday evening is renowned for supporting new music as Gary explained
We do play new music, which is very unusual for the demographic of our audience who tend to be aged thirty years and over. All the other stations that are aimed at this age group tend to play just greatest hits.
The Eighties had so many genres coming through, with so many styles you might be surprised to discover which ones appealed to Gary the most:
I started going to Ibiza in the mid eighties. I became a huge fan of underground dance music. I was in touch with Pete Tong regularly asking about the dance tracks he was playing on his Friday night dance show. Towards the end of the eighties we had this huge dance music explosion and I used to play many of those tracks on my daytime show on Radio 1.
And now his Disco For Grown-Ups tour
Gary will be shortly touring his Disco For Grown- Ups tour which he is looking forward to.
We have done a few of these shows this year and they have gone down a storm. The audiences dress up for the event – when I go into the room there are glow sticks and neon everywhere, the party atmosphere is already there before I play the first track.
We have dancers, confetti and a lot of fun. Many of the artists from the eighties are still making great music and are still relevant today. We have so many younger people coming to these shows who were not even born in the eighties
If anyone is undecided about going along to one of the Disco For Grown-Ups shows Gary offered this advice:
If you want the best few fun hours dancing to great tunes you know and love, there is no better place to be
Disco For Grown-Ups:
- Friday 4th September – Bradford St George’s Hall
- Friday 9th October – Bridlington Spa
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