From Rebel DJ to Radio Icon: The Simple Mantra That Drove Andy Kershaw to Extremes

BROADCASTER and Radio 1 presenter Andy Kershaw had a simple mantra.

“In my view, if you do something it’s worth doing it in a very big way — whether you are talking about travel, listening to Bob Dylan or romance.”

The multi-talented Andy Kershaw at his London home in 2005 Credit: Alamy Andy with Rwandan guerillas during the country’s 1994 civil war Credit: Geoff Spink

And in all those things he did do it in a very big way — from reporting on the to hosting and ending up in prison for harassing his ex.

The ex Old Grey Whistle Test host — who , aged 66, did everything in extremes.

As the title of his autobiography stated, he had No Off Switch.

One of just a handful of journalists on the ground during the 1994 , Kershaw was adamant it did not affect him.

He said: “There are a lot of amateur psychologists who like to say Rwanda screwed me up. It didn’t.

“My grandparents’ generation went through this kind of thing for years in the First and Second World Wars.

“Some neurotics may tell me I’m suffering from something called post- traumatic stress disorder. I’m not.

“Rwanda was horrific, but I just reported it.”

Born in 1959 in Rochdale, was the son of teachers. He had an older sister Liz, now 67, who also went on to have a successful career as a DJ on and 6 Music.

At strict Catholic schools Andy developed a love of reading and music.

He was drawn to the University of Leeds, not for its academic record but the music scene.

Andy said: “I noticed that whenever bands went to Leeds they played at the university, and when I found out the gigs were actually booked by a student volunteer officer, I thought ‘that’s where I’m going, I want that job’.”

He studied politics, but music was his passion and he became the Student Union’s Entertainments Secretary, booking the bands for the uni’s impressive venue — which had hosted and .

He booked The Clash and , and once paid the emerging £50 to support .

He boasted: “In my last term in 1982, my programme ran thus: The Pretenders, The Boomtown Rats, Kid Creole And The Coconuts, Rory Gallagher, Black Uhuru and The Clash.”

After uni, Andy formed a fearsome partnership with broadcasting legend Martin Kelner at the fledgling Radio Aire in Leeds — back in the days when local radio was independent and ground-breaking, and presenters could be themselves and take risks.

Radio 1’s 1993 line-up including Andy (back row, far left) and John Peel (top right) Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd Andy on 1985’s Live Aid Credit: BBC

While at Aire, he helped launch the career of a young .

From there, Andy went on to work as a roadie for singer-songwriter Billy Bragg before his big break came in 1984, when he was spotted by a producer.

By 1985, he co-presented The Old Grey Whistle Test and the global phenomenon that was .

Andy never felt like a “company man”, not least because he shared an office with fellow rebel presenter when he joined Radio One.

He said: “John was great — he could be grumpy, but I do miss him.

“He was hugely important to me, not only as a soul brother of Radio One but, along with Bob Harris and the Whistle Test, The John Peel Show broadened my musical tastes because he played things you wouldn’t normally hear.”

Of Live Aid, Andy said he had no idea of the magnitude of the event until he arrived at .

He said: “I didn’t grasp how big it was until we got there. It was chaos and, yes, we made it up as we went along.

“But because of my inexperience, I was ‘Mr Serenity’. I remember thinking ‘this is a bit of a caper, it must be what outside broadcasts are like’.

While other DJs made extra cash by opening supermarkets, Andy used his own money to scour the globe for new artists.

In doing so, he became the champion of “world music” introducing British ears to acts such as Malian singer Ali Farka Touré and Zimbabwean band the Bhundu Boys.

He said: “Music and culture have never been divorced for me. How can you go to somewhere like Cambodia and have no sense of the history and politics of the place? Music does not exist in isolation.”

Andy with The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey at Leeds uni in 2006 Credit: PA Andy with his sister Liz campaigning to save BBC Radio 6 Music Credit: PA

Travel led to Andy reporting on everything from the legendary oil well firefighters Red Adair and Asger “Boots” Hansen, who battled major blazes including the 1991 oil fires in , to the Rwandan genocide in the mid-90s.

In 2000, he was “let go” by Radio 1, in favour of younger, fresher talent. Furious, he refused to do his last few shows.

But Radio 3 did not wait before snapping him up to co-present their World Routes magazine show alongside Lucy Duran.

Here, he spent an adventurous six years enjoying a greater level of creative freedom to combine his love of travel with his passion for music.

Andy said: “I’ve always been fascinated with the world’s more impenetrable, secretive and least-visited countries — and North Korea was the biggest magnet of all as it had all those characteristics.

“I would routinely apply to be allowed in and they would routinely say ‘no’. But then, in 1995, they said ‘yes’ and, what’s more, they let me bring in a film crew.”

But while Andy’s career went from strength to strength, his personal life took its toll.

As a teen and student, he had been painfully shy around girls, but finally found his feet after one young woman showed him the ropes.

He explained: “I had no confidence with girls until one in particular sorted me out. Then I had the confidence and, shall we say, made up for lost time.”

Years later, in 2006, the disintegration of his 17-year relationship with Juliette Banner, the mother of his two children, broke him.

The couple had moved to the Isle of Man for a new life, but when she left with their children, the loves of his life, he began to harass her.

In January 2008, he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for repeatedly violating a restraining order.

Andy leaving prison in 2008 Credit: Mirrorpix

Andy described his time in prison as a period of “sheer, crushing boredom”, where he read 32 books in 47 days to keep his mind from fraying.

In 2013, Andy moved to Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and developed a new dangerous obsession.

The motorbike fanatic said: I’m training to be a wall-of-death rider. It’s something I remember from fairgrounds when I was a kid, so the wall-of-death is evocative for me. It is the sheer implausibility of it.

“I remember looking down into this wooden pit at a fairground as a kid and just thought it was so exciting. I’m taking that well-trodden career path from Radio 3 to wall-of-death rider!”

He later returned to the airwaves with Radio 3’s Music Planet and began touring a one-man show, sharing his stories with the sardonic and uncompromising wit that had made him a household name.

But in February this year a friend revealed he had been left unable to walk after doctors discovered tumours in his spine.

Pal Peter Everett said: “Last August, Andy was diagnosed with cancer, making him unable to walk.

“Although we’ve not been able to put together any podcasts in the past six months, we’re very grateful to all the patrons and supporters who have stuck with us.”

Andy joked: “I am in good spirits, feeling very positive and planning another podcast. I’m determined not to die before Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Ant’n’Dec. That should keep me going for a while.”

He continued: “I’m not full of regrets. What happened to me is an aspect of life. So I’m not bitter about it. My relationship with the children is probably stronger and closer now than it was before.

“For all those people, for all their efforts to crush me, they failed. I turned out to be a lot tougher than they expected me to be.

“And boy, are they p***ed off.”