To Russell hosted The Friday Night Rock show for over 25 years, he has met and interviewed some of the biggest rock stars in the world and is one of the most influential figures in getting Rock music onto the radio in Scotland. In this interview Tom Talks about how he got started on Radio Clyde, The Kelvingrove and Auchinlea Music Festivals from the 80s, his wild party with Ozzy Osbourne, the bands he rates old and new and his job now at Rock Radio. To this day Tom still heavily supports the local band scene as well as up and coming bands from all over, including the U.S. and he still has the same energy and desire as he did back in the early 80s to get rock music on the radio to the masses.  I met up with Tom Russell at GMG studios were 96.3 Rock Radio is broadcast for this interview on the 28th of April 2009.

Tom Russell Interview 2009.

. A meeting with Richard Park from Radio Clyde resulted in you getting The Friday Night Rock Show, tell us more about that?

I had all these record shops and I used to go to the piss ups, Richard would be there, he was the boss at Radio Clyde at the time and I would say “you never play any rock” and he would say “Aghh! It's not popular we only play popular music” and I would say “I sell rock music in my shops more than anything else!” we would argue (good humoured arguing) this went on for months and one day out of the blue the phone went “Hi it's Richard here I'm thinking of doing a rock show two hour a week. Would you like to do it?” The Friday night rock show went on for 25 years.

. You have seen and interviewed some of the greatest Rock Bands and Artists over the past 25 years, tell us some of the Bands you have interviewed and are there any interviews that stand out, and why?

There's so many Tommy! Ehh… Guns'N'Roses were great the first time I interviewed them, they weren't yet a big band, Ozzy Osbourne he's always great he's really funny I've interviewed him a dozen times over the years and he is just a funny fun guy, he's like Tommy Cooper! Angus Young (AC/DC) I always remember his interviews he was from Cranhill in Glasgow, he would always talk about his upbringing in Cranhill and his memories as a boy. The first time I interviewed Bon Jovi, this was their first tour, I was the first ever interviewer to interview them in Britain.  

. During your time at Radio Clyde you got involved with The Kelvingrove Festivals; did you follow the local band scene at that time? How did you become involved in the Festivals?

I had always enjoyed live music and going to see bands in The Burns Howff, The Maryland and The Dial Inn, but the guy mainly responsible for putting Kelvingrove together was Jon McCalman, John booked most of the bands, he would take my suggestions for one or two but he was the main man, I was actually honoured when John asked me to compere it, John's a smashing guy he will have some great memories of Kelvingrove, when John asked me I was delighted to do it but I was like the wee guy on Clyde for two hours a week! I said to John “what about the other guys, the stars/DJs? But John said “no I want you to do it” I was honoured. One year Bon Jovi were at The Kelvingrove Festival, they were playing in Edinburgh and I was friendly with this record company girl at the time so I phoned her up and said “you've got Bon Jovi playing at the Playhouse on Sunday night, we've got this big festival on the Sunday afternoon what are they doing in the afternoon?” and she said “they will just be sitting around the hotel” so I said “Why don't you bring them through, it's only an hours drive, bring them through and we will put them on the stage, there will be around 4000 people there they can say hello” so she said “well I'll ask them” she got back to me and said “They're up for it”, So on the day about three o'clock they arrived, Jon Bon Jovi, Ritchie Sambora and The keyboard player, so Jon took the mic “hello! are you having a good time at Kelvingrove today?” and the crowd went Yehh! “we're only doing Edinburgh this tour but we'll play Glasgow next time” crowd go Yehh! Big cheer.

. The Kelvingrove Festivals were recorded by Clyde and broadcast later on in the week, do you know if any of those recordings still exist in the Radio Clyde vaults?

Again John McCalman will know the answer to that better than me, I do know that the tapes, the big reel to reel tapes were very expensive so what they tended to do was broadcast them then use the tapes again for the next recording, what they would do is record Simple Minds or Thin Lizzie at the Barrowlands big bands like that they would keep the tapes for obvious reasons but bands like La Paz or Glasgow you know, local bands it was too expensive to keep the tapes so I don't think they still exist but I might be wrong, like I say John could answer that one better.

. Around 1982 other outdoor rock festivals started to take place around Glasgow such as The Auchinlea Rock Concert which ran from 82 to 85; What do you remember about the Auchinlea gigs?

Yeh! I did compere at Auchinlea, it's interesting, it was either Phobia or Blind Allez (I can't remember what they were called then) had played it and it was the first time I had seen that band although I had played them in my demo slot on my show, I thought “Hey they're good” a few months later a guy called Rab Andrew who was managing this band called Texas and had had a wee bit of success, phoned me and said “Tom I'm thinking of signing another band to manage and I want a rock band, is there anybody you recommend?” I said “ I've got one or two” he said “ are any of them playing live” and I said “ Aye, I've got a wee note here” and I dug it out, three of the bands I recommended were playing live at Kirkintilloch Town Hall a couple of weeks later and the three bands were Chasar, Glasgow and Phobia (Blind Allez). I  thought he would have signed Glasgow but he watched Glasgow, he watched Chasar and at the end of the night he watched Blind Allez  He asked me to introduce him to Blind Allez, I took him backstage, introduced him to the band, about a week later he called me and said “thanks Tom I've just signed that band”. Rab signed them to his management contract, took them into his studio in the south side, put them into his studio full time and one of the first things he done was change their name to GUN, they were in that studio for months and there were a couple of personnel changes before they even went to record companies to get a deal. So, if it wasn't for Auchinlea they might never have been signed.

. On your radio interview with Nickleback yesterday, you touched on the subject of government protecting home grown talent. Do you think young bands today need more support from the government and the media?

No I wasn't suggesting that, my question was, a couple of weeks ago in the Glasgow Herald the Scottish government came up with this proposal and they were suggesting it might be a good idea to get radio stations in Scotland to play a percentage of Scottish music which we all do anyway, but they want to make it by law like they do in Canada, so I thought, right I'm interviewing this Canadian band Nickleback that's why I asked the question “What do you think of that law in Canada?” and it was an interesting answer he gave me, he said “ If it wasn't for the law in Canada we would never have made it, we were a small band in Canada, Canadian radio stations would only play American or British music they wouldn't play Canadian music, so they brought this law in and we got a bit of air play” now Nickleback are massive. I always liked Glasgow, I liked Chasar, Big George and the business great player good voice too, I hear George is not keeping too well, he had a stroke. H2O were a good band different type not quite rock but they were good, there was a band from Ayrshire, what were they called again?......Rab Wallace was the singer…Menace, good guitarist called Paul McCluskey. Of course, La Paz they were fantastic, their guitarist was a guy called Chick McSherry and the singer was called Dougie White, Dougie went down to London after La Paz and was the singer with Rainbow on the very last Rainbow album with Ritchie Blackmore, he was with Rainbow for two or three years.

.A lot of bands slipped through the net and never got signed in the late 70s and 80s for many reasons whether it was the New Romantic scene, Band Image or “The Dick Rowe Effect” were the record companies just can't see obvious talent. What do you think was the reason that some of these great bands never got signed?

One thing that I found and I can only mainly talk about the rock scene rather than the pop scene, now on the pop scene bands did get signed when you think about it, Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Love and Money, Hipsway, what was the one from Dundee?.eh!.Danny Wilson. So lots of bands did get signed but in the rock scene they didn't get quite so much of a chance. One of the reasons I think was, in those days, if you were a rock band not just in Glasgow or Scotland but the whole of the UK the only places and times you could get played on the radio was Tommy Vance on Radio one, two hours a week, Tom Russell on Clyde, two hours a week and there was about another half dozen people like me dotted about the country, a guy called Chris Tetley in Manchester, Phil Eastman in Liverpool, guys in Newcastle, Stoke on Trent….All doing two hour rock shows, so these where the only places where rock bands could get any air play. Now bring yourself forward to 2009, we've now got Rock Radio which plays rock music twenty-four hours a day seven days a week and there is a lot more scope for bands to get played. I think that as the months and years progress, with the backing of Rock Radio this is going to change, for example, last year, we gave backing to a band called Logan, they sent in a demo and we liked it, gave them a bit of air play, they got a couple of gigs and they are doing really well, I'm not saying it's only due to Rock Radio you've still got to have talent but Rock Radio will be a big help to bands for the future and if you had Rock Radio back in the 80s I think a lot of these bands we're talking about would have got signed and done well.

. A load of older bands have reformed recently if a few of them were to get together to play an all day gig would you Compere it?

Of course, I would! I'm sure Rock radio would get involved as well.

. Do you ever get involved in the local band scene at all these days?

Yes, The Box at the top of Sauchiehall Street puts bands on seven days a week and we support them, we have a rock live session on the radio station every hour where we give free mentions to bands playing places, obviously you can't put everyone on but we put a selection of them on, two of our main advertisers of the station is The Cat House Rock Club and Rockers they both put bands on and we're giving them mentions all the time.

. You now host 96.3 Rock Radio, When did you leave Radio Clyde? And how did the Rock Radio gig come about?

October 2006 the boss of Real Radio Jay Crawford phoned me out of the blue and asked me in for a meeting, I was still at Radio Clyde at the time and thought he was going to offer me a rock show two hours a week on Real Radio but I came in, went to his office and he said no, the owners of Real Radio, GMG which is The guardian newspaper had decided that there was a niche in the market for a Rock Station, so they were going to try it first in Glasgow, they bought Q96 which is a radio station in Paisley and it was so successful that they launched a second one in Newcastle and another one in Manchester.(Tom now hosts the 10am to 2pm slot on 96.3 Rock Radio Monday to Friday)

. You must enjoy your Job?

Yes it's great fun, I was down at the weekend at a rock festival In Wales The Hammerfest, seen a lot of bands there, last night I was at The O2 Academy and tonight I'm going to see Saxon….It's great! (Tom laughs) …It's Great!

. In a hundred years from now when you retire can I have your job?

(Tom Laughs again) Aye nae bother!

. On your website you say would like to meet Barack Obama, is there anybody from the Rock world you haven't met or interviewed that you would like to?

I'm quite lucky to say that I've met everybody…..Ehhh? I never got to interview Freddie Mercury, I met him at a party in London, but I never interviewed him, I've been lucky enough to have met everybody else.

. In all of the meetings and interviews you have done, have you ever been awe struck or star struck by any rock stars?

Oh yes! Especially in the early days I used to get very very nervous, you know? The first few years…. It doesn't tend to happen now, it's like any job, once you've done it you get confidence. I tend to try and do my homework, if you sit in with a particular artist and you haven't done your homework and you say, “well tell me Jon Bon Jovi what have you been doing recently” and he'll look at you as if you're a tosser “do you not know we've got a new album out?” that kind of thing, so I tend to do my home work and confidence comes with that. There has been one or two (not many over the years) but one or two where you can tell they just don't wanna be there, but the vast majority are good, they're doing a job selling an album or tour or whatever, you're doing a job trying to make a radio programme and the two of you can get together to satisfy both requirements.

. Online you mentioned that “you have partied with the best and the worst of them” talking about some of the biggest rock legends from the past 25 years. Are there any stories you can share?

I got invited to a party at Ozzy Osbourne's house it was Ozzy's birthday, years ago and Ozzy the legendary maniac who lives in this fantastic house in the country, Barkshire I think it was. I was just having a drink, you know sensible drinking, there was no drug taking nothing like that, we were just having a bevy and Ozzy was drinking and telling funny stories. Around midnight Ozzy said to me “when are you going home or back to the hotel?” and I said “I'm not in any hurry” and he said “ do you know I'm working on a new album? Would you like to hear some rough mixes of it?” and I said “ WOULD I ?" So we go out of the party at the back of the house there's an old stable where his snooker room was, huge room with couches and all his gold discs up on the wall and these ten feet high massive, huge speakers and he let me hear the rough mixes of his next album, so we're sitting both of us with a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit listening to this music. The wild man of rock, Ozzy Osbourne and his wild parties!

. Are there any up and coming bands or artists that you rate?

Awe yes! There are a ton of new bands coming through, there a couple of new ones that we've played on the station that we've stumbled across Shine Down - American, The Parlour Mob from New Jersey they were over here playing in a place in Queen Street a few weeks ago they came in here for an interview, they were nice guys, I liked their music and went to see them live they were sensational so I'd watch out for The Parlour Mob, another American band called Black Stone Cherry they come from Kentucky, I get sad when it's all American bands but you can't say “ well I like that band because they're British ye know? It just happens to be that the new stuff coming through just happens to be American.

Quick fire questions….In your opinion!

. Best ever rock voice?

Miles Kennedy from Alter Bridge

.Best ever guitar solo?

Ritchie Sambora - Wanted Dead or Alive

.Best ever rock band?

AC/DC

. Best Band live?

Iron Maiden

. Best ever Rock album?

Appetite for Destruction - Guns'N’Roses can I just add that these answers are what I think today, if you ask me the same questions tomorrow I would probably give you different answers, it's so hard to answer.

. As a good football fan Tom how difficult must it be to work in the same studios as Ewan Cameron, How hard is it to resist the urge to strangle him for talking rubbish every night on “The Real Football” phone in?

Aghh! He's a Hearts fan you've got to feel sorry for him.

..

Thanks Tom