We Miss You, Tommy Vance

In 1990, BBC Radio 1 broadcast the “Monsters of Rock” festival live from Donington Park. Thunder, Quireboys, Poison, Aerosmith, Whitesnake - and before, between, and after the bands, the broadcast featured live commentary and interviews from Tommy Vance, Mick Wall roaming the backstage area talking to the stars who were in attendance, and Richard Skinner’s 4-part history of the Monsters of Rock. Free to air. I know this, ‘cos I recorded the whole thing onto a stack of TDK D90 tapes and listened to it on repeat for the better part of the next decade.

Today, five million people paid £25 each to watch the live stream of Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show with Black Sabbath, broadcast live from Villa Park in Birmingham. That’s over a hundred million pounds in revenue, just from the live stream… so, of course, between the acts, the stream cut to a professional studio, where experienced presenters talked about the history and significance of the show, interviewed the stars who were performing live… no, of course it didn’t. Instead, we got 15-second cameraphone clips of Sabbath fans all over the world talking about how much they loved the band, interspersed with fundraiser clips from the various charities the day was nominally supporting.

The coverage of the live acts was impeccable, but the interludes made the whole thing feel like one of those “live in my living room” streams everybody was doing back in 2020, and… well, I can’t help thinking that if Tommy Vance was still around, he wouldn’t have let that happen on his watch. But he’s not, and I didn’t realise until today that maybe when TV died, the best part of rock’n’roll broadcasting died with him.