Phil Swern

Phil Swern, the engine room of pop knowledge that drove Radio 1 and Radio 2 for many years, has died aged 76. 

He loved collecting pop records from a very early age, and first made a BBC connection with  neighbour Steve Race, later befriending Controller-Radio-1-to-be, Johnny Beerling. After hairdressing (including pop stars like Mama Cass and The Walker Brothers), he became a runner for a record company, and boosted his collection whenever he could. He became a completist, with every single that's appeared in the UK Top 40 since 1952, now stored in a temperature-controlled converted village hall. 

The BBC, inexplicably to some, decided to go out to tender for a supplier of digitised pop records, despite owning the world's biggest record library. Phil was ahead of the game on transferring to digital and won the contract for his company 'I Like Music'. 

He also wrote and produced pop records. Perhaps one of his biggest was Polly Brown, former lead singer of Pickettywitch, with Up In A Puff Of Smoke in 1974. It made number 16 on the US Billboard chart, but would have technically escaped Phil's collection, reaching only 43 in the UK.