After more than 40 years spinning discs, the man thought to be Medway’s oldest DJ is hanging up his headphones.

Robert Ball, 79, known to many as Bobby, played his final gig at the White Hart pub in Cuxton on Saturday and said it was a brilliant ending to his career.

The grandfather-of-three said: “All in all, it’s been brilliant. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself. My life as a DJ has been absolutely excellent and I have no regrets at all. I can’t say that about my wife, though.”

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He started out in 1970 with his colleague from the Peter Jones department store in Chelsea, Harold Best, as one of London’s first mobile discos, Sounds Unlimited.

The pair sound found they were working Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Mr Ball would not get home to his wife, Esme, and their two children in Cuxton until gone midnight.

One of the shows Mr Ball played as Sounds Unlimited was a dinner and dance for a masonic society at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

“The doorman came out and we said ‘we’re the disco’,” Mr Ball said. “He had no idea what we were talking about because discotheques were virtually new.” One of the guests at the dance was a producer on Radio Caroline, who asked Mr Ball to produce a demo for him.

Watch: DJ Bobby Ball is retiring after four decades behind the decks

Although the sample was played on air, Mr Ball never made it on to the radio himself.

After working in London for 15 years, Mr Ball decided to spend more time with his family in Medway. He took up a job as a driving instructor and also worked as a squash coach at the then Black Lion Sports Centre in Gillingham, now Medway Park.

But he continued DJing and said he thinks he must have played most clubs in Medway and Maidstone. He also spent some time working as a children’s entertainer. He said: “Things are a lot easier now than when I first started out. I was taking vinyls around, great big boxes of vinyl, but all I do now is take a laptop and two mobile phones. It has changed quite a lot.”

He tried to retire two years ago but people still called on him for 1960s- and 1970s-themed parties, including the group that booked him for his final gig.

Mr Ball said: “They said they’d only come back this year if I provided the entertainment. I said I didn’t even know if I’d be alive next year let alone DJing – I didn’t tell them I was 78 at the time. The whole pub stood up and sang For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow, my face was really red. Every single person in there came up and shook my hand, which doesn’t happen a lot.”

Although he will not be playing gigs any more, he said he may do a DJ slot at his 80th birthday party next year.