About Tom Russell
Born near Kirkintilloch, went to Lenzie Academy, first job as metallurgist in Kirkintilloch iron foundry.
At 18 went to England on a student apprenticeship with the Ministry of Defence and studied mechanical engineering at Durham College.
Worked for a year as a stock car racer then joined the Parachute Regiment, where I had a great time, made some fine friends and completed seventeen parachute jumps.
Played guitar for a year in a band based in Newcastle called Strange Brew, we even recorded a single “Floating” which disappeared without trace. (Worth a fortune on e-bay !!)
Came back to Scotland, opened a record shop in Bishopbriggs then another in Shettleston, met Richard Park, then boss at Radio Clyde, at a record company party and spent the night slagging him for not playing any rock on Radio Clyde, he admitted to not liking rock but phoned me a few weeks later and offered me a Friday Night Rock Show on Radio Clyde. The contract was for an initial six week trial but after the six weeks were up, no one said anything so I just kept going in on a Friday and ended up serving for 25 years.
I was really lucky throughout the 70s/80s/90s to see almost every rock band around including Van Halen, Guns N Roses, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, Genesis, Ozzy Osbourne, Yes, Def Leppard etc and even luckier to get to interview most of them as well as party with the best and worst of them.
During this period I also worked as a journalist with Metal Hammer magazine and managed to expand my chain of record shops to four, however the days of small record shops had come to an end and I closed them down at the end of the nineties.
Then, in October 2006, Jay Crawford called me and asked me in for a chat. He was Programme Director at Real Radio at the time and I suspected that he was going to offer me a weekly rock show on Real so you can imagine my surprise and delight when he told me that GMG were going to launch a rock station and he wanted me to present a daily show playing AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stones five days a week.
I hesitated for a millisecond, then mumbled “yes please” and walked out of his office convinced that I had dreamt the whole thing.
Rock and Roll Quote :
Did you know that Ian Gillan of Deep Purple and I were thrown off the Tuxedo Princess (cruise ship berthed on the Clyde and converted into a floating disco in the 80`s) for being so drunk that we couldn`t find the toilets, so we had climbed up to the crow`s nest to pee into the river.
Rock Vote
This week's FC should be