Charlie Gillett: tributes pour in for DJ

1259PM GMT eighteen March 2010

Comments 4 |

Gillett, who was 68 and was credited with finding Dire Straits, had a extensive air wave career with a clinging following recruited during his stints on BBC London - and the predecessors - and Radio 3, the World Service and Capital.

The presenter, who additionally managed Ian Dury for a spell and was reputable for an lawful book on the story of rock"n"roll, was described currently as ""an impulse to everyone who desired music"".

Charlie Gillett talk for Sound of the World Otro Mundo Michael Jackson tributes inundate in BBC iPlayer choices - Wednesday 4 Feb Video Edgar Mitchell - Interviews with the men on the moon Michael Jackson the most appropriate of the tributes

The broadcaster died in a London sanatorium yesterday. He suffered a heart conflict last week after constrictive a disease of the autoimmune system.

Gillett, who was innate in Morecambe, Lancs, stepped down from his unchanging container on Radio 3"s World on 3 for health reasons dual months ago.

He is credited with finding Dire Straits in 1976 after personification Sultans of Swing from the band"s demo fasten on his successful BBC Radio London show Honky Tonk.

Gillett additionally championed universe song stars similar to Youssou N"Dour, Salif Keita and the immature thespian of Portuguese fado music, Mariza.

During the past decade he entertained millions of listeners by his World Service programme, Charlie Gillett"s World of Music.

World Service executive Peter Horrocks pronounced ""His broadcasts brought together song and air wave fans from far-flung corners of the globe. He was a unequivocally special broadcaster and he will be sorely missed.""

Gillett presented Honky Tonk in between 1972 and 1978.

He afterwards changed to Capital Radio with his show Undercurrents that additionally featured universe music. He was sacked in 1983, but brought behind by open direct and stayed until 1990.

Gillett wrote an acclaimed story of rock"n"roll, The Sound of the City, in the 1970s that had been formed on the topic he wrote for his masters at New York"s Columbia University.

Roger Wright, controller of Radio 3, pronounced ""News of Charlie"s genocide is terribly sad. To his audiences he was "Mr World Music" and the village of listeners is left richer for his untiring await of an unusual range of artists.

Chris Difford of the rope Squeeze additionally paid reverence today. He pronounced ""Charlie Gillett was a great friend, a big fan of Squeeze and a smashing honeyed man - not most of them left in the world. So unhappy to lose him.""

Friend and co-worker Robert Elms, a presenter for BBC London 94.9, pronounced ""Charlie was an impulse to everyone who desired music, and a poetic bloke with it.

""His unrestrained was eternal and his believe profound, but he usually ever used that resources of believe to excite and inspire. Nobody I have ever met had some-more songs in their heart than Charlie.""

Radio 2"s Bob Harris pronounced ""He was a genuine impulse - a loyal song partner and a unequivocally great guy. Very couple of have been sanctified with his knowledge, bent and feel for what was right. It"s unequivocally formidable to find words.""

Close companion Mark Lamarr pronounced ""When I initial met him it was similar to assembly the stone "n" hurl homogeneous of Dickens or Shakespeare.""

Gillett is survived by mother Buffy and young kids Suzy, Jody and Ivan.