So many memories
of and thoughts about Dale Winton. Few knew what a prolific London club DJ he
was during the Seventies and Eighties. His knowledge of popular music was
encyclopaedic. It was what led Phil 'The Collector' Swern to cast him as host
of BBC Radio 2's 'Pick of the Pops' in 2000. Dale hosted the show for a decade,
and was born to the role.
His TV-presenter image was at times uncool, in
the Michael Barrymore/Les Dennis mould. This was unfortunate. While he relished the roles, he never seemed completely at ease in
them. I often felt how much better his face was suited to radio, in the
figurative rather than the literal sense, and how much more comfortable he
seemed behind a microphone than in front of a television camera.
There have been
thankfully few bitter words about him. Many of those paying tribute have
applied the word 'kind', and he was nothing if not that. I remember once being
late for a medical appointment in Wimpole Street, and driving round and round.
Edging along Marylebone High Street for the fifth time, I spied DW gossiping
with a shop assistant outside the White Company, when it used to be on the
opposite side of the street. He must have spotted me circling, because he
started windmilling frantically, jumped in his Range Rover, rolled it forwards
to make way for my Renault, and cried, 'Don't worry about the meter, I'll be
here for ages and I'll keep an eye!' He relished doing a favour. Anyone and
everyone. It is the little things.
Much has
been made of his failure to attend his great friend Cilla Black's funeral in
2015. But that was easy to understand. Dale had never recovered from the loss
of his mother Sheree, upon whom he doted. His personal void could never be
filled, because he had not been able to bring himself to come out to his mum.
He had never plucked up the courage to reveal his true identity - though it is
reckoned that Sheree probably knew. Cilla, a little over a decade older than
Dale, became an adoring mother figure to him. He could not face Cilla's funeral
because it was like having to confront his mother's death over again. A similar
thing happened to Queen's bassist John Deacon. Having lost his father when he
was only eleven years old, John was forced to relive the loss when Freddie
Mercury died. Freddie had long been his father figure. His death backed John
into the corner where at last he had no choice but to deal with denial. John
was unable to cope, lost the plot, quit the band, betrayed his wife with
another woman, let down his kids... grief does things. Though it is
inappropriate to speculate, perhaps Dale went there too. Reckon in the fact
that Sheree took her own life. I won't be surprised to hear what I fear to
hear.
R.I.P., kind
man. I hope they have vinyl up there.
