40 Years of Vince Peach on PBS

This September, Vince “The Prince” Peach celebrates 40 years of volunteering at PBS.  The host of Soul Time, the world's longest-running radio soul show, Vince has spent a lifetime chasing and championing soul music. As a teenager in 1960s Liverpool, England, he was in with the in-crowd, clutching their holdalls, making the pilgrimage to venues such as Manchester's The Twisted Wheel and Wigan Casino. Legendary underground clubs where those in the know danced all night to Motown and rare soul 45s imported from the USA. This became a weekend ritual for working-class youth, and the subculture grew across Northern England, and beyond. All dressed up, dancing the working week away on sprung floors, a sprinkling of talc, energy to burn, all-nighters, weekenders, all-dayers. The scene and the genre became known as Northern Soul. This was music for the dancefloor. By the 1970s, Vince had collected enough records to DJ on weekends. By the 1980s it was time to leave Thatcher's Britain. Vince's passion, taste and unmistakeable  Liverpudlian accent have been heard on PBS since 1984. The award-winning announcer tells his PBS story.

Back in 1982
I arrived in Melbourne in 1982. I was supposed to go to Whyalla to work for BHP but got the sack before I got actually got there! I sold my house, given me job up shipped me gear over and then they said ‘no you can’t come!’ I’m a foundry worker, so I worked in ferrous and non ferrous industry melting metal, making moulds, et cetera. Then the Australian government said I could come to Australia if I came to Melbourne…. Cruising the radio one Sunday afternoon, and I heard a song I liked… on a show called Soul Patrol with Peter Rourke. I phoned him up, he put me in touch with someone and next thing you know I’m asked to make a tape – Ross asked me to make a tape. That was 1984.

At PBS Park Lake Building in St Kilda
I did my first show on my own in mid-September 1984. I used to share the spot on a Wednesday night with a guy called Dave Blackwell and we’d do alternative weeks and then Dave dropped out and I just carried on.  I thought it would only be, you know, for a short while and here I am 40 years later, I'm still here.  It was only coming to PBS that sort of opened my eyes to what was on around town and so from then onwards I've been out listening to bands most weeks ever since. 

Co-Hosts and Special Guest Presenters
The first guest I ever had join me was Soulman Stephen Williams and he was with me for a couple of years and Pierre Baroni joined us and the three of us done the show on a Saturday afternoon from St Kilda for years but when we moved over to Easey Street, my son was getting into his early teens and I needed to take him to football matches, cricket, etc. On a Saturday afternoon so I switched over to the, I think it was the Thursday then and Pierre took over the Saturday slot and now I have Richard who comes in and helps me, Richard Ewart and Carol Quinlan, DJ Lady Soul and so it's good to get some different people in who like different styles of soul music than myself.  

Highlights at PBS
I think the most memorable was Bettye LaVette coming into the studio with two flutes and a bottle of champagne and she wouldn't go, she stayed for the whole show, it was amazing. We've had Eddie Floyd on the show, Marva Whitney and Bobby Womack… Some of the people who were my heroes, get to meet them in real life and sit down, have a chat with them, fantastic.  There have been hard times at the station but listeners have always come to the rescue over the years, many times.

The Soul A-Go-Go Years (2007-2024)
That was started when the booker, a guy called Paul McNamara (Section 8) came up to me and said, can you put a soul night on at The Laundry? And I said, oh yeah. And he said, what room do you want, the top room or the bottom? And I said, oh, take both. We'll have a funk room and a soul room. And I approached Adrian Basso with the idea and he wasn't keen. I said, well, it's a bit late now, Adrian, because it's all booked and everything. So, we went ahead, done a couple of studio carts and it sold out. And it sold out every month for the first year, well, right up until the pandemic. And then that sort of changed everything, anyway. So, it's good that the next one we're doing is sold out as well.

40 Years - 40 Northern Soul Stompers

Vince Peach celebrated 40 years on-air in-person at the sold-out Soul A Go Go on Saturday, September 7 at Fringe Common Rooms, Trades Hall.  As always, soul folks can tune into Soul Time from 3pm-5pm every Wednesday or listen back to program archives here.