The widow of legendary DJ Johnnie Walker has poignantly revealed how his final DJ set was hosting a kitchen disco with friends playing his favourite songs.
Speaking for the first time about his final months, Tiggy Walker, who was married to the former BBC DJ for 23 years, recounted how her ailing husband ‘decided he wanted to do a final kitchen disco despite being in a wheelchair and on oxygen’.
Taking to the airwaves for her first ever solo show to celebrate what would have been his 80th birthday, she said the gathering last August became the last time he DJ’d for a live audience and he signed off with a Bette Midler tearjerker.
Just weeks later on New Year’s Eve the trailblazing DJ, who started his stellar career on offshore pirate station Radio Caroline, died after losing his battle with lung disease.
‘Johnnie decided he wanted to do a final kitchen disco,’ she said. ‘He used to tend to at the end of supper parties. He either went to bed very early, or he decided he was going to start playing music and everyone would get dancing and you never knew which way it was going to go.
‘Anyway, this time he said he specifically wanted a kitchen disco, and I kept saying, Are you sure, Johnnie? Yes, I am. Are you sure? He was.’
Speaking as she took to the airwaves to record a special Boom Radio tribute show to be broadcast Sunday at 8pm, she recalled how she ‘moved all the furniture, hung up fairy lights, and a bunch of friends came over’.
‘And this for him was, it was a really symbolic event in fact, because he knew it would be the last time he’d be playing live music to an audience.
The widow of legendary DJ Johnnie Walker has poignantly revealed how his final DJ set was hosting a kitchen disco with friends playing his favourite songs
Tiggy Walker, who was married to the former BBC DJ for 23 years, recounted how her ailing husband ‘decided he wanted to do a final kitchen disco despite being in a wheelchair and on oxygen’
‘So our friends duly danced to all his songs until 11 o’clock when he decided he’d had Enough.
‘This is the final song, he announced. And I truly expected him to end on a big banger, but being the old-fashioned guy he was, for him parties should end with a slow dance. And what a choice.
‘The final song he played for all of us was this, Bette Midler singing The Rose.’
During the two show from the home ‘den’ where Johnnie broadcast his own Boom Radio shows, Tiggy also plays some of the couple’s favourites, revealing the personal stories behind them.
She said: ‘I can’t think of a better way to celebrate what would have been Johnnie’s 80th birthday.’
And she revealed ‘he’d be so bloody proud’ of her solo show, adding: ‘He loved me doing radio, probably more than anyone else, because he was just so inordinately proud and supportive of me.’
Paying tribute to their partnership, she revealed how she teased him about his music knowledge: ‘Johnnie and I had a fantastic 23 years together.
Tiggy Jarvis, wife of Johnnie Walker, wipes her eyes as the cortege leave after the funeral service held for him
‘I mean, you know, it had its challenges, partly because he was sick quite often and was a right old handful, and also because we were two very strong people sharing one roof.
‘I will never forget the day I said to him, somewhat challengingly, Johnnie, everyone thinks you know an awful lot about music, but it’s a bit of a con, isn’t it?
‘You just do a lot of research before interviews. Well, I’ve never seen him respond with such a serious face to anything I ever said. He looked at me with force and simply said ‘I think you’ll find I know an awful lot’.’
