using the name "Kickstart Roadshow" and then later "OHMS Roadshow" with an extensive sound system. Later he became DJ and promoter at the Kings Lodge club in West Kingsdown. Later moving venue to the Hill Top, also in West Kingsdown, he was responsible for breaking classics such as Lonnie Liston Smith's "Expansions" and Ritchie Cole's "Groovin on a New York Afternoon". In 1979, Tong became an advertising sales assistant for Blues & Soul magazine. After a year he also contributed some reviews, gossip and sales charts, which continued until 1983. He left Blues & Soul to join London Records as an A&R manager. Through his connections in London Records, Tong was exposed to the newly emerging house music sound from Chicago. In 1986, Tong organised a compilation album, The House Sound of Chicago, Vol. 1, the first British release to gather and expose this genre. Along with Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra, Tong was part of the 2015 BBC Proms season, performing the Radio 1 'Ibiza Prom'. Career Radio Tong's first appearance on radio was in the late 1970s on Radio Invicta, Europe's first soul music station. Later, he appeared on local radio station BBC Radio Medway, as part of the 'Soul Mafia' and performed occasional mixes for Radio London. In 1981, Tong made his first appearance on Radio 1 as the host of a 15-minute feature on Peter Powell's show—he played new tracks and covered the latest gossip and news from the dance music industry. When Invicta Radio started in Kent in 1984, Tong became the host of a regular soul show on the station. As Tong had joined the developing dance-DJ management company of DJ-turned-journalist Eddie Gordon, of the Kent Messenger, he built a prominent county profile and performed at Gordon's local club 'The Slammer'. Tong joined Capital Radio in 1988 to present a weekly dance programme. In January 1991, Tong began his Friday evening show, branded as the Essential Selection for its first 15 years, on BBC Radio 1. The show still continues every week (currently it is broadcast at 10PM for two hours, either pre-recorded from Tong's garage at his home in Los Angeles or live from the eighth floor of Broadcasting House) and Tong is the second-longest serving living DJ (after Annie Nightingale) on the station. Additionally, a one-hour Sunday edition of the programme, called "The Essential Selection - Part 2", was broadcast from