Jeremy Vine's secret punk band past that even saw him in Smash Hits magazine
Jeremy Vine’s helmet cam sensationally caught the moment he was nearly crushed by a lorry in a cycle lane this week.
But it’s not the only close shave the Radio 2 presenter has had these past few days. Fate also stepped in to help him avoid another type of car crash - him reuniting with his old punk band for a spot at BBC Radio 2 In the Park this weekend. Jeremy, 58, had asked comedian brother Tim Vine to reform their 80s band The Flared Generation to take part in the two-day festival in Leicester - R2’s first event of its kind for two years and its first ever outside London.
But luckily for music fans, Tim is on a stand-up tour instead - leaving Jeremy to focus on hosting duties alongside fellow DJs Zoe Ball, Sara Cox and Vernon Kay while legends such as Bananarama, Tears For Fears, Simply Red and Kylie Minogue take to the stage. Considering Smash Hits once called Jeremy’s group “the most unfashionable punk band in the UK”, it’s definitely fortunate.
He says: “I had hoped to get the band together [this weekend] but it was not meant to be. But it’s probably a good thing for the audience as they will be spared my singing.” Born in leafy Cheam Surrey, Jeremy was inspired to be a radio DJ by his idol Kenny Everett. “I grew up wanting to be Kenny Everett. If he was alive now, he would have been on Radio 2. He was quite simply the best DJ we’ve ever had in the UK.”
But Jeremy attempted to conquer the music world first. At the time Smash Hits gave them that dubious honour - the band thought they had made it. “It might have been for the wrong reasons,” he admits. “But we really did think we were going to have a career. We were getting lots of coverage on the radio.”
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Jeremy Vine (far left) in The Flared Generation
Kylie is on the bill for Radio 2 In the Park (David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock for Global)Years later, after it dawned on them they “were never ever going to make a living from music”, Jeremy went into journalism. He adds: “There was a reporter on Radio 1 called Simon Leach who interviewed The Flared Generation and then I ended working on the Today programme with him. I always worried he would recognise me as the guy who came into his studio wearing flares.”
Over our Zoom call, Jeremy assures me the flares are gone but I can see the taste in psychedelic patterned shirts has not. When I comment on this, the 58-year-old laughs and jokes: “You’ve got to hold on to some things!” A self-confessed nerd, Jeremy has developed a somewhat unlikely bromance with new cool kid of the Radio 2 block Vernon Kay.
Former Radio 1 DJ Vernon, 49 joined the station in May 2023 as a new host of BBC Radio 2’s mid-morning show from May, replacing Ken Bruce. Jeremy says: “I’m on straight after Vernon, so we’ve got to know each other.“ The pair meet up outside of work and even share dad tips over lunch.
Jeremy is dad to two girls with wife Rachel Scholfield - Martha, 19, and Anna, 16, while Vernon shares two teenagers with Strictly host Tess Daly - Phoebe, 18, and Amber, 14. “We do talk about parenting,” says Jeremy. “I have said to him, he has got to remember that we are there to be the clowns. You have teenage girls, and your role is just to have the mickey taken of you the whole time. That’s basically your role, so you just accept it.“
Jeremy will be in Leicester with Vernon and the rest of the Radio 2 gang, including breakfast DJ Zoe Ball and Drivetime presenter Sara Cox. He’s hoping they can show the millennial and Gen Z DJs over on Radio 1 - famed for their own Big Weekend events - a thing or two when it comes to having fun.
“We’ll try to give Radio 1 lot a run for their money. We will definitely give it a go,” he says. “I’ve known Zoe a long time. And I see Sara a lot but I’ve never been out with her.” He adds: “We are all overdue a major party together. It’s time for Tony Blackburn and all of us to get our dancing shoes on.”
Jeremy might be upbeat but it’s been a tough time of late. Around 11am on Wednesday he was cycling in Bloomsbury, central London, when the white removals truck turned into a bike lane, crushing Jeremy’s bike, and leaving him desperately trying to get the driver’s attention by slamming his hands on the back doors of the truck.
And last week he was under fire after an on-air gaffe blew up on social media. The broadcaster was forced to apologise after playing Beyonce song ‘Halo’ on his daily mid-morning show just moments after talking about the RAAC concrete crisis that has led to the closure of more than 100 British schools.
The radio host played the song - which contains the lyrics ‘Remember those walls I built? Well, baby, they’re tumblin’ down’ - after reading out a listener’s comment which slammed the UK for its handling of the concrete crisis. So how did that happen? “It’s pretty much all automated but we do check what’s been lined up,” he reveals.
“We’ve had situations where there’s been a fire and then the next track queued is Disco Inferno, and obviously, you would not ever play that.” Once they were discussing the age-old conspiracy theories about a plot to kill Princess Diana. “By chance, the next track was Killer Queen. We spotted that,” he admits. “But Halo slipped through. I didn’t even realise until it started trending on Twitter.”
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Bananarama are one of the big attractions at this weekend's show (Mirrorpix)Others have also accidentally slipped through the net. “We did an item about torture that was followed by Dionne Bromfield’s Ouch That Hurt,” he adds. “We had a story about someone who’d been severely injured by having an electric shock and I played a track called This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two of Us. But we didn’t notice that the band was Sparks.
“We had an item about a zoo in South Africa that was transporting three giraffes on a flatbed truck and the driver forgot he was going down the motorway with low bridges. I played Dave Clark Five: Bits and Pieces.” The Twitter abuse that followed the Beyonce song is nothing like the nightmare Jeremy’s faced in recent years however.
Last September, Alex Belfield, a former BBC local radio DJ, was convicted on four of eight stalking charges, against broadcasters, including Jeremy. He was jailed for five years and 26 weeks. Much of it was through Belfield’s “Voice of Reason” Youtube show. “He styled himself as the UK version of Alex Jones and it was a constant bombardment of harassing nasty videos as well as tweets,” explains Jeremy.
“It was a very difficult, frightening time for Rachel and our girls. I didn’t know what he would do next - but we got through it. And I did not suffer as much as others. Before me, he’d been stalking four of his female colleagues for ten years, so can you imagine what it was like for them?"
Speaking about how the abuse began, Jeremy says: "Belfield had so much hatred towards me. He created this story that I had stolen money from a memorial service. He would talk about it on his show night after night after night. In the end, I just thought viewers are going to believe him and hate me. I thought I need to really start working out the danger here because something could go wrong."
Jeremy called the police who he says did a fantastic job in dealing with Belfield. "I'm lucky it only went on for a year to 18 months compared to the other victims but he was 24/7.
“It was a very difficult case to deal with because it rests on the fact that the digital world is real. And that stalking in the digital world is every bit as nasty and damaging and upsetting and hurtful as in physical life."
Jeremy knows what he’s talking about. He was subjected to physical stalking by a female fan who became fixated on his every move.
Jeremy described her as “absolutely remorseless, following me on the train, following me home, doing all kinds of stuff that created problems at home".
But he tells me: “She was a picnic compared to Alex Belfield.” It’s no wonder Jeremy is looking forward to a weekend of fun at last. Radio 2 in The Park was cancelled last year due to the late Queen’s death.
“It was right that it was cancelled last year,” he says. BBC’s Radio 2 In The Park festival opens on Saturday with Tears for Fears and Bananarama and continues on Sunday with Kylie Minogue, Sam Ryder and Simply Red. Previous events have been held in Hyde Park but Jeremy is excited about the new venue.
“We should have been in Leicester for the last 20 years,” he says. Jeremy is particularly looking forward to introducing the legendary Tears for Fears - in their only UK performance this year. “My teenage self would not believe it,” he reveals: “I was 13 when their first single Pale Shelter came out and remember thinking ‘What a record!’. Every time I hear it, it takes me straight back.” And for his dashed hopes of his own band reunion? “There is always next year!”
* Radio 2 In The Park is in Victoria Park, Leicester, this Saturday and Sunday. Listen live on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds or watch on BBC iPlayer
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