Andy Kershaw (1959–2026)

Born in Rochdale with a distinctive Lancashire accent, he studied Politics at Leeds University where he got extensive experience as Entertainments Secretary putting on concerts in the Refec, “the greatest venue in the world” as he called it. Artists he booked or helped book included Iggy Pop, The Clash, Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, Bert Jansch and Black Uhuru. Ultimately, he spent so much time putting on gigs that he failed his degree.

Following work on local radio, he began a long relationship with the BBC, starting out as a presenter on BBC2’s Whistle Test (formerly The Old Grey Whistle Test) from 1984. The following year he got his own weekly show on BBC Radio 1 and was one of the BBC’s presenters for the Live Aid concert in July 1985, which featured performances from Queen, David Bowie, Elton John, Phil Collins and many others.

His show on Radio 1 ran from 1985–2000 and brought African artists such as Ali Farka Touré, Youssou N’Dour and Bhundu Boys onto mainstream radio. In 1987, while working as a radio producer on Radio 4, I contacted Kershaw to ask if he would present a couple of programmes called Traditional Heirs on the state of folk music in Britain. These led to more adventurous trips in Louisiana and Mali, when the latter was being recognised internationally as one of the world’s greatest sources of music. In 1989, three episodes of Now That’s What I Call Mali! were broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 1 (the pop music network) and Radio 4 (the speech station), an unprecedented arrangement which has never been repeated.

In 1999, Kershaw also started writing a regular Backpack column in Songlines, which had just launched as a new magazine specifically for the burgeoning interest in world music.

After Kershaw had been moved into a midnight to 2am slot by Radio 1, which was becoming increasingly mainstream, he was approached by Radio 3 controller Roger Wright, who told him what he liked about his programmes was that you never knew what was coming next, and he joined the station in 2001. As well as DJing on Radio 3, with producers Roger Short and James Parkin, Kershaw also presented documentaries from Iraq, Iran and North Korea – the so-called ‘Axis of Evil’ – as well as Algeria, Mauritania, Haiti, Turkmenistan, Ethiopia and Mali, once again, for the Festival in the Desert. He also reported occasionally for Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent and presented travel films for Channel 4. By then living on the Isle of Man, Kershaw left Radio 3 in 2007 after his relationship with partner Juliette Banner broke down; he subsequently served several prison terms for breaching a restraining order.

He published his very entertaining autobiography No Off Switch in 2011, which was warmly praised by Stephen Fry, and which he toured as a one-man show. He returned to Radio 3 in 2011 for a limited number of Music Planet programmes with Lucy Durán and there were several Sunday Feature programmes, titled The Kershaw Tapes, in which he revisited recordings in his archives. Some are still available online (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000vqjl). He also did occasional reports for The One Show on BBC1.

He moved to Todmorden, West Yorkshire in 2012 where his huge record collection was meticulously archived. In Issue #1 of Songlines, he wrote: “To this day, I don’t understand a word of 95 percent of my record collection.” In 2021, with producer Peter Everett, he started broadcasting his own podcasts with ‘live’ sessions recorded in his kitchen. These continued until June 2025. He much enjoyed walking in the local countryside with his dogs Buster and then Bertie. When he was diagnosed with cancer in the spine, he joked, “I am determined not to die before Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Ant and Dec. That should keep me going for a while.” Sadly, he didn’t make it that long. He won seven prestigious Sony Awards and leaves behind his children Sonny and Dolly and his elder sister, broadcaster Liz Kershaw, known as “Our Elizabeth”.

Andy Kershaw in Mali (photo by Simon Broughton)