Another character and a bit of my childhood gone.

I'm calling for a day of mourning here in North Leeds.

he can't fix. RIP Jim.

The first DJ to perform live, playing records for people to dance to?

utterly British, the subject of a million playground imitations and yet utterly inimitable. R.I.P Sir Jim.

I was about 7. He waited whilst I went for another pen as the one I'd been given to get his autograph didn't work. He seemed a very decent sort despite his odd ways. RIP

He'll always be Jim'll to me.

He introduced one of my favourite ever songs on TOTP, I must have watched this hundreds of times on my old Betamax video. Strange man but a legend (whatever that means) and a massive part of my TV and Radio youth. Let's not forget his charity work, RIP Jimmy

The Associates "Club Country"

A part of my landscape for as long as I can remember. 85 (minus a few days) is a cracking good innings. I'm sorry that he's no longer around.

What a bloody legend. Charisma in spades and more than a little weird. Excellent.

A life well lived. RIP.

but remember him this way

someone from a bygone but somehow better age.

made me laugh a lot.

Old school original. Moral philosopher without manifesto. Tough as old boots. Loved his mum, loved his life, and lived it to his own tune. What a singular bloke he was. Salute.

He was as eccentric as they cope and as British as fish and chips. Defined the 60's and 70's in many ways.We might not see his like again as he was something of a one off.

...will probably stand for reputation in pieces within a week or two if the tabloids cut loose with some of the rumours that were circulating for years including the above. I remember there was some famous outtake from HIGNFY where Paul Merton challenged him with regard to some of his actions, even to the extent of naming an alleged victim with something of a passive aggressive response from Mr. Saville. I think I heard iit on cassette tape which dates it somewhat. It was Jerry Sadowitz who used to say that Sir Jimmy did all that work for charity so they would go easy on him when his case came up.

Of course there may have been metaphorical smoke without actual fire. Time will tell.

The nasty rumours regarding JS, mortuaries and Chailey Heritage are surprisingly persistent, and I shall be interested to see if the tabloids have a smoking gun that was previously contained due to libel laws. Perhaps those involved in the media and music business on this blog can elaborate?

It's strange, isn't it? Jim was born in one age, prospered in another and died in one so divorced from what went on previously that he appeared to be from another planet. Never a fan, I do (I think) recognise someone whose entry into the whole business was based on a love of second-half 20th century music (which I share) and in this respect, I admire him. But somewhere, I reckon, Janie Jones is awaiting payback time...

Some mates of mine were once thumbing a lift back from a Port Vale game at Doncaster when a Roller pulled up. A Blond bloke told them to get in and asked where they were going. He went out of his way to drop them off in Stoke. For that alone he's a top bloke in my Book. My mates said he was great fun on the journey too.
For me,He means Sunday Lunchtimes,"Open bracket,Closed bracket". As a lot of you said a part of our youth gone and a one-off who we be fondly remembered because the memories he evokes are happy ones.
As it happens, name the artist for two points ?

When I were a lad 9th of July 1968 at the Inverness Empire Theatre. He signed my autograph book. Here's the spiel from the wrestling poster

Mr Show Biz Himself! Britains Top DJ
Jimmy Savile
You've seen him on Pick of the Pops. Now in Person. A Great Guy.
Versus
Scotlands Fiery Middleweight Tearaway.
Chick Purvey.
I'll Swing that man Savile round by his hair, states tough guy Purvery!

Still claiming to be alive, David "Diddy" Hamilton and Mike "Relax" Reed were both on the BBC News Channel tonight, providing no insight whatsoever as they emphasised what a top bloke the late Sir Jim was.

Hamilton of course is counting the days until he gets his telegram from the Queen, but Reed... Now looks like a strange parody of himself; you can't emulate Cliff Richard's eternal boyishness unless you have substantial capital to invest (which Reed, by all accounts, hasn't).

My teen daughter, who has no idea who either of these gargoyles might be, found Reed genuinely frightening. That "melted candle" look isn't good - but the DJs just can't grow old gracefully, can they.

As for Jim, great promoter of himself and his charitable causes. Let the muckrakers rake, but did he actually like pop music - or was it just his vehicle to fame?

He's been there as long as I can remember (and I can remember back a very long way).

I first heard Jim on Radio Luxemburg in the early 60s (several years before Radio One was launched) and he's been a fixture ever since.

Looking back at his life objectively, he was as mad as a hatter and a very strange man, of course. All that stuff about his old mum and his, ahem, confirmed bachelor status was more than a little creepy. But none of that stuff seemed particularly important or odd back in the sixties/seventies.

It was interesting hearing Stuart Hall talk about him today on Five Live. He said that he didn't really know him and that he doubted that anyone really did.

A rum cove, his own man, kept himself to himself..

Will the rumours now be laid to rest or proven?

And the ones about Sir Jimmy as well.

I met Jimmy Savile by accident in the late 1970s when I was about 13, doing some school-related volunteer project at Leeds General Infirmary. I somehow went into the wrong office and found myself in the hospital porters' duty room where Jim was holding court with his coterie of staff mates. I was expecting a telling off for being in an out-of-bounds area. but he was very down to earth and friendly - quite unlike the showman on TV. He even insisted on writing a message of praise in my project book, telling the headmaster what a great job I was doing, and signing off as Jimmy Savile OBE (smiley face). Top bloke.

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My grandmother (dad's side) idolized him for no readily understandable reason. Once he came to open a supermarket in my home town (Morley, near Leeds) and somehow she got wind of this - I guess via the Yorkshire Post which my grandfather sedulously read every evening while smoking a pack of Woodbines.

Anyway, she took me with her to meet him. He arrived late, got out of the car, swept past the waiting fans (most of whom were pension age women) and promised he'd be 'back later'. He never reappeared. I think the limo moved off while nobody was looking and picked him up out the back door. He struck me as slimy and untrustworthy, but I was seven, so what do I know?