DJ David “Kid” Jensen reveals his favourite photo
REX/NC DJ David had both Michael Jackson and George Harrison together in the same room
"But as this photograph shows, it’s the only time they were together on my Radio 1 show. It was taken at Broadcasting House in summer 1979 on my Friday evening programme, Roundtable – which remains my favourite show to present in 50 years of broadcasting. The show involved premier artistes talking about other people’s music, reviewing the latest singles and telling us what they were up to. Both Michael and George were happy the other was going to appear and you can see by their body language – with Michael listening closely to what George is saying – that they were at home in each other’s company. George talked about his self-titled album George Harrison while Michael told us about Off the Wall, regarded by many as his best album, produced by Quincy Jones.
GETTY David hosted Roundtable on a Friday evening
I remember them getting on extremely well talking and listening to each other
It was fun. We also talked about other artistes who were getting plenty of press coverage, but who didn’t have a large catalogue of music, and those who were household names. We created a relaxed atmosphere so they felt at home, and I remember them getting on extremely well talking and listening to each other. The idea behind Roundtable was for guests to be open, candid and give honest opinions about the music, and they fitted the bill perfectly. We were able to get these calibre of guests because 40 years ago Radio 1 had huge audience figures. Back then, the Breakfast Show had more listeners than many TV shows.
Another thing about Roundtable was that we often got guests who avoided publicity, and both Michael and George rarely gave interviews and weren’t easy to get access to. It was therefore an industrial-sized feather in our caps to get both of them on. Credit for getting them together must go to my producer Mike Hawkes, who always felt, ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’ But it helped that I’d interviewed them before. I’d met George at Formula 1 events and built up a trust between us. Some artistes would come on Roundtable and talk about anything and everything except listen to the songs, whereas these two put on their headphones, listened to the music and gave a more academic review of what they’d heard.
GETTY Both George Harrison and Michael Jackson rarely gave interviews, so David was lucky
While these two giants of the music world were inside the studio with me, I had no idea what was happening outside Broadcasting House, but fans would have been aware they were in the building because I’d recorded trailers to promote the show during the week. This was the era of big-name groups and I took it for granted that outside, the area would have been absolutely packed. We lived in a time when pop stars meant something to the fans. It’s changed because young people nowadays have so many more distractions in entertainment. It was also when youngsters would sit down with their newly bought album, remove the record from its 12-inch sleeve, read the cover notes and look at the artwork.
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