WITH the weather as cold and damp as it was, Tony Blackburn could be forgiven for wishing his surname was Barbados.

As part of, 2Day, a 12-hour on-air celebration of BBC Radio Two, the 69-year-old DJ broadcast a one-hour show from his namesake town.

He was joined at the Thwaites Empire Theatre by fellow DJs Mark Radcliffe and Janice Long, as well as special guest Paul Heaton, former lead singer of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South.

There was also a world-first performance by Tony of Chop, Chop, Chop, a children’s song performed complete with an out-of-this-world sparkling jacket.

Mr Blackburn said: “I last did Chop, Chop, Chop 41 years ago but I’ve never sung it in front of an audience before.

“Although it did come out as a single in 1971.

“I’m actually bringing out all the songs I have done at the end of June on a CD called the Tony Blackburn Singles Collection.

“It was great fun performing the song here and the audience joining in was really good.

“But I am not trying to launch a singing career – it’s just a bit of fun.”

Having opened the show with the quip, “next year I’m changing my name to Tony Barbados”, Mr Blackburn said the weather hadn’t given him a chance to see the town.

He said: “It has rained ever since we came so we have had no chance to explore.”

Mark Radcliffe said: “Tony is a great guy. He is a genuinely lovely fella.

“And he has always been in all of our lives. He has such an old school way of talking to the audience and doing gags.

“We stayed at the Dunkenhalgh last night and heard some great stories over red wine.

“And that is one heck of a jacket!”

Paul Heaton, who performed The Beautiful South’s 1992 hit Old Red Eyes Is Back live, said: “I like Blackburn. I often cycle through the area and on to Burnley and Colne.

“I have played King George’s Hall a couple of times before but this is a really nice theatre.

“I’d love to play here.”