of declaring bankruptcy was to avoid having to pay anything back?

I have no knol;edge of his financial dealings but live and let live I say.

...on Radio Luxembourg in the late 70's, but once he went to 247 wonderful Radio One it wasn't long before he was far to prim to even think about relaxing and going to it when he wanted to come, and that was the end of that.

Oh, and when I found out he'd written a musical about John Betjeman, I wanted to give him a massive kidney punch.

This bloke was once as famous and ubiquitous (if nothing like as well paid) as Jonathan Ross. Then, like most DJs, he was forced to labour in relative obscurity. He has tried various business ventures which have gone wrong. Now he has to sell the only thing of any value he owns. The fact that he once wrote a musical about John Betjeman or played Cliff Richard tunes whenever he got the chance shouldn't condemn him to this kind of contempt, should it?

And Pop Quiz was considerably better than Never Mind The Buzzcocks. A music quiz show actually about music rather than a bunch of nobodies trying to outsmart each other.

There are two kinds of people that are declared bankrupt, hardworkers who have had an unlucky break and wideboy chancers. Without knowing which category Mike Read is in I can't comment.
I don't think I would ever gamble my record collection.
What is more interesting to me is what must be in that collection of vinyl. Surely the average record these days is worth only about 50p, that would put the size of his collection at 2 million! That's unlikely. My guess is that in order to get to that value it includes lots of rare promos that he was given for free that he was astute enough to keep but mean nothing to him.

His obsession with writing a musical was always the strange thing.
Didn't one close after a single performance?

Anyone could have told him that the recent BIG L resurrection was doomed to fail (remember the Channel 4 documentary when everybody did exactly that over and over again?!).
I e-mailed him about it and received the reply 'Do You think you could run it better?'
I answered 'Well......Yes'.
BIG L was a 60's pirate station and the 'new' version just sounded like old Radio 2 and played little that you could hear on bland stations like Heart or Capital Gold.

As for Radio 1 in the 1980's.......whilst I don't wish him ill, I don't think I could forgive anyone for that!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3708351220_cf7d7278a9.jpg

seriously though - i last remember him in connection with a strange woman called "mrs mike read" who was stalking him as she was rwongly convinced they were married.
he was a product of his time i suppose - but thanks for pop quiz, which gave music geeks like me a bit of role model, and you know he was nowhere near as bad as noel edmonds.
he's a music fan,just like us - so he at least deserves some sympathy.

A bit sanctimonious (but that sort of went with the job in those days). Any bankruptcy is traumatic I would expect but if he has that many records, he is collecting them rather than listening to them and, to me at least, that makes them more like an asset than a treasured possession.

Hope his luck changes though.

he was quite entertaining in his Radio 1 days, at least he was to my 12 year old ears. I imagine he's feeling pretty lousy at this turn of events and I'm sorry he's having to sell his records.

People forget that he was a kind of Steve Lamacq in his early Radio One days. When he was on the evening show and he played (and probably launched) a lot of great new wave bands. Unlike many DJs of his time he adored his music.

He was then my breakfast show DJ and was genuinely entertaining and then there was Saturday Superstore and Pop Quiz.

He seems to have been thrashing around looking for a niche these last couple of decades, and it's clearly cost him. I reckon I'd listen to more from his record collection than I would John Peel's.

That equates to the best part of £3000 per box!

What could possibly be in those boxes?

He's a bit of a tit and everything, but I'd be heartbroken if I had to sell my record collection.

And he was once really nice to me and my friends when we knocked on his door and asked for a request on the breakfast show. He lived down the road from my school and he let us in and everything. No funny business!

he did a late-night show on Radio One called The Record Collection, or something, where he played rilly good toons with many rarities from his, er, record collection. Think I may even have *cough* taped some of them. Stuff like Robert Plant before Zep n'stuff.

When he was good he was very very good. When he was bad...see above. Not a fan but I have the Betjeman CD and his solo effort. Did I mention I collect bad records..?

I'd be selling off the Sussex pile before I let my record collection go; apparently the records are housed in one 'wing' of the place. Presumably the massive digs are more important to him than the vinyl.

this mostly harmless bloke has spent his life playing records and entertaining people and people are taking the p*ss. And I think we would all sell our records (however sadly) before having to sell the house get real.

If life imitates 'art', he'll be following Edmonds onto daytime telly any day now

Mike Read might have been able to keep hold of his record collection. When Bob Harris faced losing his he pleaded in court that his records were the tools of his trade and that he could not do his shows without them. Back then that was true, particularly as his programmes were of a specialist nature. The judge recognized this and ruled in his favour. However nowadays radio stations have all their music on computer, so that argument would no longer apply in the case of a more mainstream DJ like Read.

down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

You know I’m down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

I sold all my vinyl yesterday
At a boot sale out on the highway
And now my room is full of fresh air

I’m down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

Somebody owns all my albums now
They probably don’t even wonder how
My name got written on the sleeves

I’m down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

I opened the window
I let in the sun
My record collection has ended
For someone else it’s just begun

I’m down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

You know I’m down but I’m not out
But Lord I’m hurting
I’m down but I’m not out
But I feel blue

Yea yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea yea

-Billy Bragg

I would treat these claims of likely valuation at ca. £1m as inflated, myself. There's been a discussion ongoing about Mike Read's record collection over at another board populated by record dealers, vinyl junkies and "crate diggers" such as I. Apparently (and this is of course hearsay), this very same record collection has been up for sale before, with no buyers, which is reported as being because of:

a) the large amount of chaff (or chuff, if you prefer) included therein amongst the good stuff;
b) the seller's unwillingness to break up the collection;
c) the seller's insistence on an unrealistically high reserve price.

Still, I'll certainly be following the story with interest.

that the old Radio 1 guard of the 80s get a real bum deal. As a perpetually bullied schoolboy in the early 80s, those voices on the radio were my only friends for a long time. Their shows were not half as bad as people make out they were. They were of their time, and who's going to remember Reggie Yates in 30 years? Bloody no-one.

Mike Reid's musical knowledge was extraordinary. He had a section on his show where punters could call in and ask him any question on music. He was only stumped on a few occasions, as I remember. I'd like to ask Fearne Cotten if she knows the b-side to "Killing An Arab" by The Cure.

Those old Djs weren't half as bad as you think they were, nor were they as naff. You could regularly hear The Bunnymen, Cope, New Order etc played on the station. And it may come as a shock to some to know that the first Radio 1 Dj to play a Radiohead track was Gary Davies, as he made their first ep his record of the week. The band never forgot this and thanked him personally years later when they bumped into him at some awards show.

A very close friend of mine (now sadly passed away) lived next door to Read and so I met him on a number of occasions. I found him to be a personable fellow. The most remarkable fact I know about him: he once went out with an M&S bra model - who was also a lovely person. Hope it turns out well for him. What is so wrong with writing a musical about Betjeman? I recall his songs were rather trite though but he's not the only one guilty of that!

...Mike Read once playing Scarlett O'Hara by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan on Radio One, and delaying the news rather than miss out the neat little turnaround on the fade.

That's a real music fan...

his dubious excursions in taste he has made, I think his heart is in the right place generally, even if he's sometimes a bit po-faced about it.

He's a bit of a music geek (as are most of us in our own ways) so I hope he manages to work through his current financial woes, which would also stick it to the scum Daily Mail royally.

"Mickey Manchester" at one point?

Can't get worked up about this at all. Sorry he's bankrupt and all that, have nothing against the chap - but IT'S ONLY RECORDS. They've not taken his first born. It's just stuff.
(he's probably still got access to Spotify anyways)

www.mikereadsrecordcollection.co.uk

Hi,

We are handling the sale of this collection.

In response to some of the comments above :-

We are producing the first full, detailed catalogue, which will take a further 4 weeks. There are a mixture of records including many signed and rare, if not unique items
We will sell the collection in any manner which raises the maximum return for the creditors.
As far as we're aware, there has never been such a significant record collection up for sale and Mike Read has confirmed that it has never been catalogued before.
Genuinely interested parties should contact us at the email address on the web page listed above.

Many thanks

Ashwells Nationwide Services

is another victim of this country's desire to deride someone who has the temerity to become popular and then lose that popularity. I listened to him play The Jam before anyone else in 1977, he was my Breakast Show DJ, I was listening on the "Relax" morning, I saw his Radio 1 roadshow in Newquay and he did an awful version of White Wedding and we all loved him for it. Saturday Superstore and Pop Quiz are classic BBC TV shows, simple light entertainment and none the worse for that.
Like Cliff he doesn't deserve some of the press and disdain he recieves. Going bankrupt is ultimately his fault we all make bad decisions and obviously a few of his went wrong and it looks like he is paying a heavy price. I for one am not gloating and hope it works out ok in the end.

"Mike Read, Mike Read 275 and 285, Mike Read, Mike Read, National Radio 1"

Good times!

The plonker title has stuck to poor old Read after his Relax outburst. He is not a bad man but being a radio DJ does some thing to a person. It makes you believe in your importance to the public. When you believe that then the ramp only runs downhill. Even after many years he still belived in his importance and his misguided buisness ventures reflected that.
When the lid comes down for the final time all your worldly goods will go, including the LP's. Just pick the ones you love and get shot.