By Duncan Eaton

FORMER King of the Jungle Tony Blackburn swung into Eastleigh with those golden hits from the swinging sixties.

He is one of the United Kingdom’s most beloved disc jockeys who seems to have been spinning discs forever.

Every week millions tune into BBC Radio 2 to hear Tony Blackburn wax lyrical about the biggest stars of the 60s in his Sound of The Sixties Show.

For the first time ever the iconic pop nostalgia show has left the studio and is being rolled out across the nation.

And one of the sixties roadshow’s first stops was The Concorde where pop pickers packed the Stoneham Lane club to rave to chart topping tunes which were the soundtrack to many teenagers’ lives.

Scooping the I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here title won the veteran DJ a new generation of followers but his enthusiasm for sixties music has never waned.

He started his radio career - his Radio One show attracted 21 million listeners - in 1964 and has happy memories of playing so many of the classic hits the first time round.

Growing up in the Bournemouth area the veteran disc jockey is no stranger to the Solent area.

The former Radio Caroline pirate jock had just jumped ship from Radio One when he was commissioned by Southern Television – the forerunner of Meridian - to front The Time For Blackburn show.

It was ground breaking programme which went out every week from Southern’s studios in a converted cinema in Northam, Southampton.

Screened on Saturday nights it was hailed as a new style pop special showcasing the latest pop singles or 45s as they were called in those days.

The Concorde audience were treated to a mouth-watering feast of sixties music, beautifully delivered by the multi talented Sounds Of The 60s All Star Band & Singers, under the director of saxophone and clarinet star Leo Green.

They set a blistering pace as they breezed through more than 100 dance floor fillers with blockbusting numbers from the song books of Sir Cliff Richard, Bobby Vee, Tom Jones, The Beatles, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Gene Pitney and the magic of Motown.

Tony acted as master of ceremonies as he guided the audience through his own pop journey with fascinating stories of his pirate ship days, including being shipwrecked, and the galaxy of stars he had met along the way.

It was sprinkled with his trademark razor sharp gags including one that there was so much flower power in the sixties that there was a danger of getting green fly.

The show was a complete sell out and Tony said: “It is lovely to see so many of you coming out tonight and hearing all these wonderful tunes.”

Fans had came from miles around but the longest journey was more than 5,000 miles by sixties fan, 64 year-old Kathryn Walkington, from Southern California.

Tony had earlier in the day given her a mention on his show and she was awarded with a nearly gold medallion, which bears the face of the famous DJ, and has become a prized collector’s item among Sound of the Sixties listeners.

The Concorde exploded into sixties fever as three hours of fun packed entertainment was rounded off with a medley of chart toppers which had them dancing in the aisles and nearly lifting the club’s rafters.

Tony who had been dancing along to all the foot tapping numbers dived into audience to exchange a sea of handshakes and pose for selfies. He is clearly still top of the pops to his legion of fans.

Sounds of the Sixties rolls into the Fernham Hall, Fareham, on September 14 and Regent Centre, Christchurch on October 20.