The former BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles, who recorded the last interview ever given by John Lennon, has died aged 76.

Peebles interviewed Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, in New York for a radio series just two days before the former Beatle was shot dead in December 1980, aged 40.

The DJ, who spent 14 years at the BBC, where he also presented episodes of Top of the Pops, was remembered by former colleagues as “a lovely man and a great broadcaster”.

Peebles started his career as a club DJ in the 1960s before joining BBC Radio Manchester in 1973. He went on to help found Manchester’s independent station Piccadilly Radio a year later, where he first presented his Soul Train show.