Tom Wilson (DJ)

Tom Wilson (9 October 1951 - 25 March 2004) was a Scottish radio disc jockey, best remembered for his longtime contribution to the Scottish dance music scene.

His legendary multi-award winning dance music show — "Steppin' Out" — started in 1985 and ran for 14 years on Forth FM radio. Since the show was only broadcast to East and Central Scotland, long before the Internet boom, dance music fans would go to extraordinary lengths to hear it. It’s a fact that 5 men from Newcastle upon Tyne, England would all pile into an old Ford Transit van every Saturday and drive up to an area in Scotland just so they could hear it! Tapes of the show were sent all over the world, hence the reason there was requests for listeners in Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. Due to the success of his show and the Scottish dance music boom, Tom Wilson's Bonus Beats programme aired on Forth FM during the mid 1990s. This allowed many local DJ's the opportunity to provide one hour mixes on a weekday evening time basis, spawning the rapid growth of "Tartan Techno".

Bouncin' Back

Away from the radio, Tom would be soon in demand as a club DJ too, appearing across the country at numerous clubs and events such as Awesome 101, Fantazia, Rezerection and The Fubar. He also became a highly respected music producer, including the classic Techno Cat track that gave him a Top 40 UK hit, charted in several European countries and still finds its way on to many new compilation releases. Tom also compiled several compilation releases of his own, namely the Bouncin' Back and Bouncin' Beats series. After a brief spell working at several other Scottish radio stations, including Beat 106 and Real Radio, Tom rejoined Radio Forth in 2003 as head of music for both Forth One and Forth 2 and hosted two weekly shows including the ever popular Tom Wilson's Old Skool on a Sunday evening.

Starting Out

Tom Wilson always loved music - and it was this love that turned his attention to becoming a DJ. In 1972 he started his broadcasting career in Pirate Radio on such stations as Radio Caroline Scotland and Radio Telstar. Later in 1984, he began answering phones for the 'Transistor Boogie' show presented by Graham Jackson. But he was determined to make the move from behind the scenes, to behind the mike. It was in 1985 that the first of what turned out to be Tom's legendary dance music shows on Forth FM came to air across East and Central Scotland. For fifteen years through the mid-eighties and into the nineties, he presented the Saturday night 'Steppin' Out' dance show which went on to win several awards under Tom's control. It's popularity was shown by the number of taped recordings of the show which changed hands across the country, and those who packed cars to travel north of the border just to hear it live. Tom's show regularly including requests for listeners around the World who heard the show second hand via recordings.

He met some considerably globally famous pop stars, including Phil Collins and The Spice Girls (once saying quite convincingly that the Girl Group would never split up!), but his favourite songs came from Luther Vandross. As well as being a radio presenter, he was also a record producer and achieved some considerable chart success with 10 singles, one of which, 'Technocat' reached the Top 40 in the UK and Europe. Whilst considering the build of the track, he said he wanted to make a big 'hands-in-the-air anthem' - he did this to such great effect that scores of local DJs turned to Tom for advice. He was responsible for the compilation of the 'Bouncing Beats' compilation dance releases, and also spent some time remixing material for the likes of N-Trance and Belinda Carlisle.

Back to Forth

Having spent some time working at other Scottish radio stations, he returned to Radio Forth in 2003 as the station's Head of Music for both FM (Forth 1) and AM (Forth 2) stations, and hosted two shows per week, including 'Old Skool' on a Sunday night. When he wasn't playing on the radio or in front of a crowd in a club, he was a passionate supporter of football club Heart Of Midlothian (Hearts)

Gigs

Tom was always particularly popular and in demand on the club circuit, attending many prominent dance music events including 1992's SECC based 'Big Bang' event, attended by over 12,000 people, and one which he named his favourite gig of all time - there was much anticipation leading up the event for Tom, who spent the preceding weeks promoting the event.. Having put so much effort into the event, his nerves were in tatters come the night, and, with hands shaking, he couldn't actually mix as he would've like, instead appearing and playing using 'chopping' methods instead - speaking after the event, he said he only recalled playing one tune, but was in awe of the thousands of carefree people in front of him, partying hard with their hands in the air.

What was trendy, wasn't of interest to Tom. He didn't care for the demands of magazine columnist who decided on what should be played just because they mattered in London. Instead, he listened to the people that listened to him - his audience. The 1990s saw Tom headlining the biggest dance fests across Scotland, such as Livingston Forum's Awesome 101 and Ingliston's Rezerection.

Tributes

The news hit station staff hard - he was immensely popular all around the premises - it was known that he'd gone to hospital for some treatment for his illness, but no-one expected such tragic consequences. Two hours after being admitted, he died from a massive heart attack.

Grant Stott recalled his first meeting with Tom, in 1990 when Grant was just six months in his radio career. He'd been moved from overnights on the AM station to the FM 10:00pm to 1:00am slot: '"This was a massive opportunity for me and to say I was a tad nervous about it would be a big understatement. I was sitting at my desk in the programming department thinking about how many pairs of pants I was going to get through that night, when I felt this arm around me. It was Tom. He gave me a quick pat on the back and said: "Welcome Aboard, mate!". My self confidence was, at that point, almost zero, so to get what seemed like a vote of acceptance from one of the "big boys" was a huge boost. I never told him how much those words meant to me that day.

Over the years, our friendship grew through our mutual love of music and mutual dislike for each other's football teams. This was the man who left a can of Fosters on my desk the Monday after Hearts had beaten Hibernian in an Easter Road cup-tie. Wind-ups were common place. One of my favourites was when I got my studio assistant at the time, Helen, to phone him up while he was on-air, pretending to be a sweet Irish lass called Mary. She wanted to send all her love to her husband Joseph and their little puppy Jesus. Incredible, I know, but he bought it - hook, line, and sinker. I waited until he was reading it out on-air and then, through the glass, let him know it was a wind up. I daren't repeat what he called me, but he was so angry, he refused to pay for bacon rolls for a week. He had a few nicknames as well - Uncle Tom, Techno Tom and Tommy Tetley, inspired by a long-running promotion on his show. He had a few double-barrelled ones for me as well, mostly starting with "Hibby...."

Death of a Scottish Legend

Scottish radio station Radio Forth announced with great sadness, the death of station DJ Tom Wilson - the father of four children - Lynsey, Stephanie, Craig, and Allex, died on Thursday 25th March 2004 at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital following a heart attack and a short period of illness. His web site book of condolenseces was signed by literally many thousands of messages from family, friends, fans and music artists from across the world [http://www.tomdj.co.uk/index.php?pid=18 TomDJ.co.uk] . As well as conversing with fans on his own site, Tom Wilson was also a member of the Discogs community.

His life was remembered at a memorial service held just days after his death on 31st March 2004. His will requested that every man attending the service at Mortonhall Crematorium should wear a maroon tie, the colour worn by his favourite football team - and that donations should be given to the British Heart Foundation. Tom's brother Scott, and son Craig, together made an emotional speech at the service. Every major Scottish radio station was represented at the funeral, showing in no uncertain terms the level of esteem in which the fallen star was held.

External links

* [http://www.tomdj.co.uk TomDj.co.uk] - A tribute to Tom
* [http://www.fantazia.org.uk/DJs/twilson.htm Fantazia - Big Bang] - Interview with Tom