Bruno Brookes

Bruno Brookes (born Trevor Neal Brookes in Stoke-on-Trent, 25th April, 1959) is a British radio presenter who shot to fame in the 1980s.

Brookes got into DJ-ing through youth club discos in his home town before he sent a successful tape to his local station, BBC Radio Stoke-on-Trent. He spent three years there before being recruited by BBC Radio 1, the national pop network, where he worked as a stand-in presenter before taking over the teatime show from Peter Powell.

This programme proved popular with younger listeners, as Brookes immediately began a career-long association with the UK Top 40 singles chart. In the mid-1980s, the chart was still announced on Tuesday lunchtimes by Gary Davies but kids unable to get to a radio while at school got the chance to hear a re-run of the new countdown with Brookes in the early evening. In 1986, Brookes took over the Sunday afternoon Top 40 show, which at the time was still counting down a chart which had been announced five days earlier and had been used for Top of the Pops the previous Thursday evening. From 4th October 1987 onwards, the Top 40 was revealed for the first time by Brookes in its now traditional Sunday afternoon slot, as new technology meant the chart took just hours instead of days to compile. Brookes briefly lost the chart to Mark Goodier in 1990, but then regained it in 1992, though there was never an element of tension or competition between the two DJs, and both were equally proficient at the programme.

In 1989, Brookes moved to the weekend breakfast show, co-hosting with Liz Kershaw, and also regularly deputised for Simon Mayo on the weekday breakfast show. Three years later he moved to the early breakfast slot, where he remained until he was sacked in 1995 as controller Matthew Bannister continued his cull of elder presenters. Brookes was referred to by Trevor Dann, Bannister's head of music as 'bestriding the earth like a behemoth, the biggest dinosaur of them all', despite the fact that he was only thirty-six years old (other culled DJs had been in their forties or fifties).

During his Radio 1 heyday, Brookes was on the Top Of The Pops host roster and also presented Beat The Teacher on BBC television, a popular teenagers' quiz where pupils would take on teachers in a general knowledge game based on noughts and crosses. He also hosted the dating show Love At First Sight on Sky.

Brookes also infamously played the uncensored version of Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine, which contains 16 instances of "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" culminating in "motherfucker".

After Radio 1, Brookes worked for numerous radio stations, presenting a networked show called Bruno At The Millhouse, while hosting a daily mid-morning slot for Leeds station Radio Aire. He was also involved in a public spat with ex-Radio 1 colleague Bob Harris, whom Brookes had lent money for a flat. When Harris lost his job and couldn't pay it back, Brookes laid an unsuccessful claim to his extensive and valuable record collection.

In recent years, Brookes has kept a low public profile but has made a fortune with his company Storm, which was the UK's first 24 hour internet radio station.

Brookes was involved for many years with TV presenter Anthea Turner but in a twist of irony, she left him for Peter Powell, the man whose gig had been taken by Brookes when he got his break