Veteran DJ Alan 'Fluff' Freeman has died at the age of 79. The former BBC radio presenter passed away peacefully at the Brinsworth House nursing home in Twickenham, where he'd been living since 2000, when he was diagnosed with arthritis.
Freeman was born and educated in Melbourne and originally wanted to be an opera singer. He decided that he didn't have the necessary vocal talent, however, and in 1952 began work as an announcer at an Australian radio station. In 1957, he took nine months off from his employment in Melbourne to travel, and never went back, beginning his UK career shortly thereafter on Radio Luxembourg. He joined the BBC in 1960.
His 'Pick Of The Pops' programme - which generated his catchphrase "greetings, pop pickers" - began in 1962 and ran for ten years, before it was revived in 1979. Over a fifty year career, Freeman worked on a number of stations including Radio 1, Radio 2, Capital, Virgin and Xfm, and engendered respect from colleagues across the industry, including the late great John Peel, who once described Freeman as "the greatest out-and-out disc jockey of them all". He was awarded the CBE in 1998.
Freeman's personal manager Tim Blackmore said: "Alan was a naturally warm man who never quite understood the nature of his appeal. He cared passionately for music of all kinds, for his family and for his friends. Yet through all his professional success, he still retained a total bewilderment that so much success and affection should have come his way. His was the creation of the chart countdown, his was the stunning combination of rock music and classical music, and his was the creation of minimalism in the art of the DJ. We will not see his like again, and our debt in response to his contribution is without equal".