Description

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A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A joy to read' Guardian
'I loved this book' Irvine Welsh
'What a story! I adored it' Lauren Laverne

As a DJ and broadcaster on radio, tv and the live music scene, Annie has been an invigorating and necessarily disruptive force. She walked in the door at Radio One in 1970 as its first female broadcaster. Fifty years later she continues to be a DJ and tastemaker who commands the respect of artists, listeners and peers across the world.

Hey Hi Hello tells the story of those early days at Radio One, the Ground Zero moment of punk and the arrival of acid house and the Second Summer of Love in the late 80s. Funny, warm and candid to a fault, including encounters with Bob Marley, Marc Bolan, The Beatles and interviews with Little Simz and Billie Eilish, this is a portrait of an artist without whom the past fifty years of British culture would have looked very different indeed.

About the Author

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Annie Nightingale CBE is Britain's first female DJ, and longest serving broadcaster on BBC Radio 1. She celebrated her 50th anniversary in 2020. Her radio shows are listed among 50 cultural highlights by the Observer critics' panel, March 2020. A presenter, documentarian and journalist, she was the sole anchor of BBC's music TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test and associated TV programmes for 11 years during 1970s and 80s.
Her previous published memoirs are Chase The Fade (1982) and Wicked Speed (2000).
As well as touring the world as a live DJ, she has also released music compilation collections, including Annie On One (Heavenly) and Masterpiece (Ministry Of Sound).
Annie was born in South West London and lives in West London.

Praise For…

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I loved this book. Annie Nightingale is my heroine. The woman is a legend—Irvine Welsh

Absolutely terrific. A memoir, an overview of the pop and rock eras, and a great deal of wisdom and insight—David Quantick, writer, Veep and The Thick of It

Annie was important to me back when I was a teenager, when not only was she one of the few people playing records I liked, she was a WOMAN doing it, which was inspirational to me. I wrote about her in my book Another Planet, where I quote a diary entry from 1978 which listed things I was loving in between watching Bowie on tv and taping a Bruce Springsteen album, the entry simply says, 'Listened to Annie Nightingale'—Tracey Thorn

It wasn't until I heard Annie Nightingale on Sunday evenings after the chart rundown that I understood what music radio could be. Nightingale had a broader music taste than, say, John Peel, but was alternative enough to introduce me to songs I never would otherwise have heard. She's still on Radio 1 now, at the very Nightingale time of 2am. She still plays tracks I hate, tracks I love. She's still the best—Miranda Sawyer, Observer

Many of her stories are entertaining [...] and the book includes short, funny, informative interviews with leading lights of the day.—Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express

Full of brilliant anecdotes, this autobiography offers a rare insight into a woman who has lived at the forefront of pop culture.—The Sun

What a marvellous memoir. From the very start, Nightingale engages directly with her reader. She welcomes us into an intimate conversation like those she has been creating for decades on the radio . . . as we read, it's almost as if we're listening to the voice that's so distinctive, warm, funny, and honest—Louder Than War

Nightingale was the first female broadcaster on Radio 1 in 1970 and her tales of surviving in a stifling, male-dominated arena are told vividly within Hey Hi Hello . . . Jam-packed with stories and events that span decades of music and culture, from the Beatles via Marc Bolan to Primal Scream and Little Simz . . . very hard to put down—Buzz Magazine

Eccentric but entertaining—Jude Rogers, Guardian

I can't imagine what growing up without Annie Nightingale would have been like. I don't want to contemplate the limitations that would have been imposed on my cultural life and my own ambitions in that sphere without her presence. Thank god I don't have to and she was there every step of the way from a voice on the radio to an enthusiastic comrade in the chill out zone and post-rave party—Irvine Welsh