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November 2000 – June 2012
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The Happenings pages contain details of recent updates and amendments to the Radio London website
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In the news section all new, or currently active stories (apart from obituaries) are headed in orange, including stories that are liable to remain current for some weeks. Naturally, you may need to scroll down the page to see older items which may have been amended. The latest updates and amendments will always be found on this first page, while older news items will be saved on separate pages. Older obituaries are transferred to a separate archive section.
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Every Sunday
at 1100 UK time, in conjunction with Radio London, Oldies Project will broadcast the Big L Fab 40 from the same week 55 years ago. The same Fab 40 is repeated the following Wednesday from 1800 UK time.
If you are not in the UK, you can find the time difference for your part of the world, here.
During the rest of the week, Oldies Project plays a great mix of music, with frequent Fab 40 tracks mixed in.
The What's Happening Index covers archived news from November 2000 to June 2012.
From July 2012, 'What's Happening' consists of a page of current stories linked at the bottom to archives of older news items.
Previous obituaries can be found in the separate archive section.
(21/10/23) We finally resolved the confusion over a plethora of bands called the Sundowners
Following the news of Steve Harley's untimely death from cancer, we heard from our friend Tony Lawther, who was Steve's long-term stage lighting director. Tony had only recently learnt from Steve that his illness had forced him to cancel his latest tour. Tony wrote:
"I am deeply sad, as I have worked for Steve for nigh on 20 years. Touring with a band makes you quite close and I shall not only miss him and miss seeing his music live, but I shall miss my other friends in his band and being part of a team. Of course I shall also miss the satisfaction of doing a good job in providing decent lighting. Fortunately, I have loads of personal photos and there are lots of the gigs on YouTube for posterity. Above right, is a photo from Steve's last gig, the acoustic band, in Newark on 30th June 2023."
(Left) Steve during an appearance at Aylesbury Civic Centre with John Otway. Photo: Chris Payne
It was all go over Easter(0704)
We compiled this page to cover all the events, some of which are still available via catch-up services.
The two original Caroline ships
Caroline South's Mi Amigo (left) and the North ship Fredricia (aka Caroline)
It's the Radio London Website's 25th Birthday With all the other March celebrations, we mustn't forget our own!
On March 29th, the Radio London website was 25 years old. Radio London was forced to close after 31 months and 22 days, but between its first and 25th birthdays, our website has continued for 300 months.
It's hard to believe that Chris and I have been running the site for so long and even harder to believe that Big L, Fab Forty and other offshore radio stories continue to be unearthed.
Here's to us and Big Lil!
Many Happy Returns Roger 'Twiggy' Day (red shirt) had a birthday on March 29th, and his shipmate from Radio England and Radio Caroline, Johnnie Walker, celebrated the following day, March 30th.
Meanwhile, Tatty Tom Edwards enjoyed a big birthday on March 20th.
We must not forget to send greetings to Knees Club Official and member 381, Pauline Miller, whose birthday is 1BC – one day before Caroline, March 27th. Appropriately, Pauline celebrated aboard a ship.
Steve England has found some more offshore recordings in Leon Tipler's enormous tape archive; correspondent Peter Parish provides a recording of Radio City's return to the air after the raid on Shivering Sands in June 1966; we have updated the selection of offshore programme schedules from the sixties; and we hear from one of the 'lost' Caroline DJs of the seventies, the mysterious Doctor Boogie.
My thanks, as always, to everyone who has contributed,
Jon
Lesser-known offshore stations March
The 275th edition of the Hans Knot International Radio Report, since the beginning of this century, is now available for download, with 34 pages full of memories. Robb Eden explains in detail how the Ross Revenge was acquired in Cairnryan, Scotland, but also brings his own insight about the Caroline organisation in the 1970s and 1980s. There are many photo updates and Martin van der Ven has written three excellent articles on the lesser-known offshore stations: Goddess of Democracy, Radio Marue and Radio Diego Suarez. Also, reminiscences by Don Stevens of Ken Dicken and we reflect on the deaths of Jan van Veen and Steve Wright, among others
You can download the International Newsletter here.
Offshore Radio Nostalgia Martin van der Ven writes: 'In December 1996, my website 'Offshore Radio Links' went online for the first time. A few years later it became the 'Offshore Radio Guide' (offshore-radio.de). Over the past 27 years, hansknot.com, radioday.nl, seesender.de, radiocaroline.de and broadcasting-fleet.com have gradually been added to the original site. Now it's time for a more modern layout and, above all, a streamlining of the various sites.
The new Internet platform Offshore Radio Nostalgia - A kaleidoscope of the Watery Wireless era is now online. It contains hundreds of articles by Hans Knot, interesting news, contributions and links as well as access to 30,000 photos and numerous videos."
Radio London Webmasters' note: the disappearance of offshore-radio.de maymean that there are broken links on our site, for which we aplogise.
Frank and Kees on 192 Radio Frank van Heerde and Kees Brinkerink host 'Offshore and More', a weekly show on Thursday evenings from 19:00 - 21:00 UK time, on 192.com
"From time to time, we will present an episode from “UK singles from this week in…….”, a series of over 200 episodes with lots of single A-sides from the years 1966-1969. Only the original, almost always mono, single versions are played. These shows are non-stop with the occasional announcement and jingle. This series is a shared production of Kees Brinkerink and Oldies Project, and the voice you will hear at some points is that of the late John Edward, Radio London DJ in 1965 and 1966.
If you have listened a lot to the offshore or similar stations in the above mentioned years, you will recognise many songs, but you’ll probably also hear some gems that you didn’t know yet. Anyway, (re-)experience the atmosphere of the late 60s!
Happy listening!
The show's regular team: Production and presentation: Kees Brinkerink; guest presentation: former Radio 227 disc jockey Look Boden, sharing many memories from his time with Radio 227; engineering: Rob Schel
Happy Birthday, Birdbrain! Many congratulations to Tony Brandon, who celebrated his 90th birthday on December 12th. Nicknamed 'Birdbrain', Tony spent less than four months as a member of the Big L DJ team, but fondly remembers his time aboard the Galaxy, regarding it as a career highlight.
In the summer of 1997, during the recreation of Big L aboard the Yeoman Rose, Tony was filmed visiting the ship with his great friend and fellow DJ, Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart. Below are some stills of them with their old pal and Ship's Tour Guide, Mark Roman.
The 'other' royals in the news A CBS news feature reports on Sealand and its 'daring' royal family.
Former Caroline DJ Bud Ballou reports from California: "This past Sunday (November 26), the CBS 60 Minutes newsmagazine program had a segment on Sealand, complete with interviews with 'Prince' Michael Bates and the only fulltime resident, Mike Barrington. They did a tour of the fort and showed the history with old photographs from WWII as well as the pirate radio era, complete with brief newsreels of the Mi Amigo and Radio Essex. It was fun viewing."
Golden Anniversary of Land-based Commercial Radio
Our friend Penny Bowskill has kindly searched out a photo taken at the launch of the UK's first licensed commercial radio station. LBC (originally known as the London Broadcasting Company) went on the air on Monday, 8th October 1973. Penny and her colleague Caroline, wearing their 'LBC 417' teeshirts, are standing in front of Communications House, with bird cages full of doves. Penny, who was PA to the CEO/MD is on the right of the cages and Caroline, to Penny's left, was PA to the Financial Director. Once the Town Cryer had announced the station opening, Penny and Caroline released the doves.
Another friend, Paul Rowley, organised a conference at Goldsmith's, University of London to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of land-based commercial radio. Paul took the photo above of the blue plaque that was unveiled outside LBC's first home in Gough Square (off Fleet Street) on Friday October 6, 2023. John Greenwood single handedly spent five years trying to get the various authorities to agree to the siting of the plaque and Paul is proud to say that he wrote most of the wording on it.
Roger 'Twiggy' Day was also kept busy with commemorative events. He hosted a show on Boom Radio, where he talked about being the first voice on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and he also made a live-link appearance from his home in Spain at Paul's Goldsmith's conference. Roger made another live-link guest appearance on the GBNews breakfast programme and has posted the interview on his Facebook page. You may find you need to increase the volume control slider at the bottom righthand corner. (Thanks to Pauline Miller, Jon Myer, John Hutle and Paul Rowley for their tip-offs).
A Loco Called Radio Caroline Ray Clark has kindly provided a photo of a locomotive at Mangapps Railway Museum, that has just been christened Radio Caroline. The 126-tonne Class 31 diesel loco was built in 1959 and worked out of London Liverpool Street Station. She may well have hauled the trains that carried the Caroline, London and SRE DJs to and from Harwich for their journeys out to the ships in the Sixties.
Keyboard wizard and offshore radio enthusiast, Rick Wakeman, was the special guest who unveiled the loco's new nameplate on Sunday, October 1st in front of an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.
Did Tony 'Bessie' Blackburn really say in a newspaper interview, "Harold first asked me to join him and move to the BBC, but I told him I was really happy at sea, with Radio Luxembourg." We doubt it! (Be warned, the feature is headed by a topless photo of Bessie!)
Pirate of the Airwaves
Roger 'Twiggy' Day holds the unique record of hosting a daily radio programme since May 1966, when he started his broadcasting career on Swingin' Radio England, aboard the good ship Laissez-Faire. His unwavering commitment to his craft has touched the lives of countless listeners over the decades. Roger's long-awaited autobiography 'Pirate of the Airwaves' is out now. "It's been a long road getting it out there," he says, but he's pleased to report, "It's getting good reviews."
The book is available to order from Waterstones and other other book shops, plus Amazon.
Dr Otway In his Autumn newsletter, Aylesbury Microstar John Otway writes:
"Not long 'til I head back down under to play the dates that were cancelled due to Cyclone Gabrielle. Hopefully I'll take some better weather with me this time. But before then I've got another birthday and playing Aylesbury and Nottingham with the band. Also after getting my doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, I said I'd give a lecture to the students so they could learn from my experience. It's open to the public and it's really free.
As I said in my last newsletter, Life Begins at 70 :-) Cheers, Otway"
Francis's Annual Big L Tribute On the 56th anniversary of the closing down of Big L at 3pm on 14th August 1967, I shall as I have done every year since, be remembering and reflecting on this quite extraordinary radio station, and its subsequent influence on what followed in the decades afterwards, although often imitated, but never duplicated.
I shall be forever grateful that you and Chris have kept the legend alive via the website for more than 24 years.
To paraphrase Paul Kaye, 'There is an unsettled outlook for tomorrow ', and so it continued….
Cue the Sonovox Big L theme…
Francis Pullen, Cambridge
August 14th and 15th
John Richardson-Dawes kindly sent clips from newspapers reporting on August 14th and 15th.
"Thank you so much for all you do to keep Big L alive. I still miss it! I'm particularly enjoying going through the Fab 40s, especially the lower 20s, finding those songs on YouTube and hearing things I'd forgotten over these fifty years!
Kind regards, John"
Click on the pictures to read the full stories
69 Years of the Wombat! (August) ID The Wombat has posted on Facebook that he's celebrating 69 years on the air.
'This weekend (July 29th) marks 69 years since I first went on the air at 2RG, Griffith, New South Wales, Australia at the tender age of 19! Everything in 1954 was manual – 78s for commercials, 16" transcriptions at 33RPM. 45s didn't even arrive at the studio until a few years later! I remember having to use my own reel-to -reel to copy off the 45 of Rock Around The Clock as it wasn't released on 78 in Aus! Studios today are like spaceships in comparison! Cheers - Wombat!' (Many thanks to Hans Knot for forwarding this post)
A Fabulous Forts View Over the years, the offshore stations have on many occasions had cause to be grateful to the RNLI for their dedication and support through stormy seas and medical emergencies. Recently, the Sheerness crew was on training manoeuvres in the vicinity of the Red Sands Towers in the Thames Estuary. They have shared some great photos showing the views of the former home of Radio City that they enjoy from their lifeboat ALB Judith Copping Joyce. Photo credits: RNLI/Vic Booth
Talking of the RNLI... which we were... Radio London has a full-page feature on the Walton and Frinton Lifeboats and the history of their Watery Wireless rescues.
In 2014 Mike Barraclough discovered some YouTube footage of a plaque unveiling ceremony at Walton and Frinton Lifeboat station from 1991.
Unveiling the Lifeboat Plaque Mike Barraclough spotted some interesting YouTube footage:
There are interviews with Johnnie Walker and John Peel, the Harp Lager Rock Award, a plaque unveiling ceremony at Walton and Frinton Lifeboat station and an interview with some lifeboat crew.
John Peel talks about being taken off the Galaxy one Sunday by the lifeboat, suffering from blood poisoning. The incident is referred to on page 225 of Chris Elliot's 'The Wonderful Radio London Story' and was sometime in June 1967.
Music and Radio News in Brief
A Whiter Shade of Pale - more credit for Procol Harum's huge success is given to Radio London and Mark Roman
Ray's new book reviewed Mary Payne reviews Ray Clark's autobiography, 'Stay Tuned – I could say something brilliant at any moment!'
"Although Ray is five years my junior, I could very much relate to the stories of his childhood, as we were both obsessed with music and radio from an early age and particularly loved the pirates. The difference between us is that despite experiencing a few missed opportunities, Ray followed his dream of broadcasting. He become a DJ aboard his favourite offshore station, Radio Caroline, during its later, Ross Revenge era in the 1980s. A long and successful career in land-based radio followed, with Ray winning awards for his BBC documentaries. Naturally, he has plenty of stories to relate and we have to be thankful for his bright idea that culminated in several memorable pirate radio recreations in Harwich, under the banner of Pirate BBC Essex. Despite officially retiring, Ray has continued to broadcast on several stations (he just can't give it up!) and has found the time to become an author, this being the third of his non-fiction books. As with his books about Caroline and the Weeley Festival (see below) 'Stay Tuned...' is an entertaining read."
Ray says: "Signed copies will be available via my website. I'd be happy to include personalised messages, but sadly, the UK price will be £14.99 to include postage and packing - European delivery price £21.99, US delivery price on request. You can also purchase Ray's two previous releases, 'Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Boat That Rocked' and 'The Great British Woodstock - The Incredible Story Of The Weeley Festival 1971' via the website.
(left) The official press release. Click for a legible version.
Bill Hearne's Post-pirate Story In April 2023, Jon Myer from The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame received information from correspondent Trevor Enefer regarding Bill Hearne. Over the years, many visitors both to Jon's site and ours had been asking if there was any news of Bill, who broadcast on both Caroline and Radio London.
It was sad to learn after so long that Bill Hearne had passed away in 1990. Of course, this was pre-internet and he probably never thought that anyone was interested in his offshore radio and subsequent career. Bill is best remembered as a Caroline DJ, but he did spend three months aboard the Galaxy between June (14th) and September (date unknown) 1966. Bill had been scheduled to join Radlon's proposed new 'sweet music' station UKGM (United Kingdom Good Music) operating from Shivering Sands Fort. He would have been working alongside Duncan Johnson and Keith Skues, but the venture was shelved after the tragic shooting of Radio City's Reg Calvert. Already in his mid-to-late forties, it appears that Bill's main reason for joining had been to become a part of UKGM and perhaps he was not enamoured of the Big L Fab Forty format. He returned to Caroline in early September and became well known as the voice of the extremely popular Caroline Cash Casino competition.
The Pall Mall Catalogue You will notice frequent references to Radio London's music publishing company, Pall Mall, in the Big L Fab Forties. Brian Long, author of 'The London Sound' (sorry, there are no copies remaining) has compiled the definitive Pall Mall catalogue. The book lists every song that was assigned to the company and tells fascinating stories of the writers and musicians behind the songs, including Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix. The third and final edition has just been published and is available from Brian for £45 + shipping. brianpallmall@gmail.com
Webby and John in Brisbane Kenny Tosh has very kindly shared photos of Caroline's Graham Webb, whom his friend John Rosborough went to meet recently in Brisbane. John reports that Webby was in great form and says hello to everyone.
Many thanks to John and Kenny for sharing the photos.
April's 'Oh Dear' Section
According to Pirate Radio in History, an American listing page,we've been commemorating the wrong day for the Big L closedown. The site lists the date as August 5th '67. Goodness knows where the information on this page came from, but it's all extremely garbled, confusing and inaccurate.
How a Ship Started a Radio Revolution relates a rather muddled history of Radio Caroline via a series of photos. View them full screen to read the captions that tell the story.
News in Brief Award for Rosko
Congratulations to the Emperor Rosko! On March 20th, Radio Pluggers in California presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Radio and Media.
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208 Couldn't be Towed
Commemorating March 3rd, the anniversary of the towing away of the two Caroline ships, Euronews reports on how the pirate stations changed the course of rock music. Unfortunately, the feature states, "One of the first examples of a pirate radio station was Radio Luxembourg." (208 was a station that would have taken some towing!)
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Sailing North
The Western Telegraph has memories from Kevin Davies of tuning in to Caroline in July 1964, as the Fredericia sailed north to anchor off the Isle of Man.
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A Short History of #17
Radlon's office building, #17 Curzon Street, has an interesting history, having been owned originally by the Rothschild banking family.
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Baron True of Sealand Wales Online reports on Dorian True, a businessman from Swansea who is both a duke and a baron of Sealand.
Visiting 'Bucket List' REM Island REM Island (REM Eiland) in Houthaven harbour, is listed by News 24 as one of '8 spots to add to your bucket list when visiting Amsterdam'. The 262-foot-high structure once housed both radio and TV stations, but sadly, the broadcasts lasted only four months before falling foul of government legislation.
The renovated structure now serves as a restaurant with 360-degree views over the NDSM Wharf and the centre of Amsterdam. Tony Lawther visited recently with his partner Angie and found it an experience, if rather expensive.
"REM Eiland is a great location and rather scary on the catwalks. Food is very poncey - tiny helpings on large plates with the waiter describing in excessive detail what each course consists of. Only two choices - meat or vegetarian, and you get 'what the chef thinks is good today', which may mean the same thing every day. We had very long waits between courses (long enough to go out and get a burger) and it was very expensive. We were also cold. They brought in a small electric fan heater for us, which had negligible impact. Although effusive in their welcome, they just left us to find our own coats and leave by ourselves when we'd finished eating."
Happy Birthday to Bessie Congratulation to Radio London's best-known DJ (and Knees Club member #274) Tony Blackburn, on his 80th birthday, January 29th.
For fun, everyone aboard the Galaxy was rechristened with a girl's name, so Kenny Everett became Edith and Tony was renamed Bessie. Tony revealed to me during an interview, that later when he and Kenny were working for the Beeb, they sometimes encountered each other in Broadcasting House.
When this happened, they would alway exchange the greeting,
"Good morning, Edith." "Good morning, Bessie."
JP and the Double D Dave Dennis, aka 'The Double D from Twelve to Three', became John Peters' boss when they both worked for the United Biscuits Network in Osterley in the 1970s. John recently paid tribute to Dave on his Saturday afternoon programme on Boom Radio, John's Jukebox, by playing one of the Double D's favourite records. John revealed that 'Walk on By', by Leroy VanDyke was one of two singles that Dave used to carry around in his briefcase, the other being 'Deep Purple' by Nino Tempo and April Stevens.
Aboard the Galaxy in 1965, the Double D put out an appeal on his Big L show for a copy of 'Walk on By'. We don't know if he'd lost his, or what, but we think the intention was that he would record it onto a cart and send it back. My friend (and Knees Club Official) Mozz and I, being loyal listeners, posted Mozz's own copy of 'Walk on By' to 17 Curzon Street. I gather DD had quite a good response to his appeal, but sadly, Mozz's copy was lost and she never saw it again. We wonder if Mozz's record was what DD was carrying around in his briefcase!
John, who is a huge Radio London fan, also played Dum Dum's theme tune, 'Marble Breaks and Iron Bends' on his Friday Fandango show.
Stonehouse's Biggest Blunder Den of Geek makes an extremely valid point concerning the recent ITV drama starring Matthew Macfadyen about former Postmaster General, John Stonehouse. The website's review points out that one of the then-PG's biggest blunders was omitted from the drama, namely, Stonehouse waging war against pirate radio. The politician's jamming of the popular Radio Northsea International was instrumental in costing Harold Wilson the 1970 general election.
News in Brief Biggest Load of Tosh This feature on the MyLondon website wins the Radio London award for the biggest load of tosh ever written on the subject of offshore radio. It claims that in 1965, squatters established a station on Rough Tower fort, called Wonderful Radio London. We're sure you have all had enough experience of panto to shout, "Oh no they didn't!"
Press On Vinyl is well on its way to becoming the biggest manufacturer of vinyl records in the UK
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Someone whose voice had been heard on the radio for even longer than Bessie Blackburn, died recently. Described as 'the world's most durable DJ', Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro, was known to Hong Kong listeners as Uncle Ray.
Get Well Soon, Jon We are very sorry to learn from Tony and Heather O'Neil that Jon Sketchley has been taken ill. On Dec 19th, Jon told them he is running his two stations, Hermitage Radio and Carillon Radio, from his hospital bed.
"Hi all,
It’s good to hear from you. I am still in hospital and still being fed artificially by a tube so no chance of getting out at the moment. Please keep the lads up to speed and hopefully next week will see some improvement. I am still controlling the radio stations from a hospital bed. I hope you are all well."
Chris and I send our best wishes to Jon for a speedy recovery and discharge from hospital and will be thinking about his wife Jan and family.
Jon in the Radio Mi Amigo studio aboard LV18 in Harwich, August 2022
Chris Commemorates 208 Closedown Hi Everyone,
Here's a link to my Wireless of the Week site, in which I am paying tribute to the Longwave transmission of RTL France - formally Radio Luxembourg (the home of the English service before the 208 meters Medium-wave transmission started) which closed on New Year's Eve 1991. It also includes a video of the transmission being received here in Ipswich, UK on a 1930s radio.
'Pirate Radio' is composed by Joe and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore musicians. Joe DeFilippo: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar; Bill Phelan: electric guitars, electric sitar; Bill Pratt: drums, organ. Produced & recorded by: Bill Pratt @ the Bratt Studio, Baltimore, MD.
We asked Joe how a Baltimore band came to record a tribute to a UK pirate stationfrom the Sixties and he replied, "Any rock and roll enthusiast would have to love the 'Pirate Radio' story. We are an 'older' band and grew up listening to the Kinks, Beatles, Stones, Who, etc."
The Ian MacRae Tapes On CX e-news, Brian Coleman gives a fascinating glimpse into Ian MacRae's radio career in Australia and how he started at Melbourne's 3AW in the early 60s.
"As a record librarian, panel operator and general office boy, his only on-air window of opportunity was the one-hour test programs from 5-6am on Sunday mornings. Ian says it took the austere station six months to wake up to the fact that he was playing what he says was, 'The grungiest rock 'n' roll of the time'".
£1000 raised in memory of John Ross-Barnard
Donations made in memory of John Ross-Barnard, who died in October, raised over £1000 for Alzheimer's Society.
Visit our photo tribute page to the Radio 390 and Britain Radio Broadcaster known as J R-B.
Meeting Pete Murray Kevin Mulrennan, who has rewritten his book about the popular Sixties ABC TV series, Thank Your Lucky Stars, writes: "I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Pete Murray, the author of the foreword to my Thank Your Lucky Stars book. We had a good old chat with Pete and he joked that he was almost as old as the B.B.C.! Many thanks to my old buddy Simon Winters for organising it all."
In his foreword, Pete (left, with Kevin) writes:
'Thank Your Lucky Stars was a great sixties tv show that has been sadly neglected in the archives in recent years. I am delighted that Kevin Mulrennan has brought out this long overdue book. I'd like to say that not just on behalf of myself, but also on behalf all the others who worked on that lovely show.'
Kevin also mentions TV Pop Diaries, a site run by his mate Tony Rees, which details British Pop Music on TV by decade, between 1955 and 1999 and a site dedicated to one of the earliest TV pop shows, 'Oh Boy' run by Geoff Leonards.
...and talking of Pete Murray... Circa 1950, Pete became an English service announcer on Radio Luxembourg, broadcasting from the Grand Duchy. After his return to London, he was heard on the station for many years presenting pre-recorded programmes. Joining 208 a little later than Pete, was Canadian David Gell. David's Facebook Page, contains a collection of fascinating photos with familiar faces from his broadcasting career, including Simon Dee and Stewpot. You do not have to be a Facebook member to view them.
Dusty's Google Doodle November 11th 2022 saw a 'Google Doodle' appear that was dedicated to the late Dusty Springfield. It commemorated the date in 1963 of the release of her first solo single, 'I Only Want to Be with You'.
Seekers' success thanks to Offshore Radio
Our Down Under Correspondent, John Preston reports:
"Australian Story is a long-running series which this week was, 'A World of Our Own' – the story of how The Seekers and Judith Durham took Aussie music to a global audience. It was a really good documentary and a great tribute to Judith Durham who passed away in August. I was pleasantly surprised to see Ian Macrae interviewed and that Radio Caroline was credited with playing their releases and contributing to their UK success."
TW was, of course, promoting the music of his fellow Australians right from the start of Radio London and the group enjoyed many weeks on the Big L playlists throughout the station's life.
Congratulations!
Many congratulations to BOOM Radio on the results of the October Rajar figures, which reveal that the station has doubled its listenership during the past twelve months. Appealing to the audience now abandoned by the Beeb has obviously proved a very good move on BOOM's part. We were not surprised that the station had a massive response to its August 14th Offshore Radio Day, featuring Johnnie Walker, Dave Lee Travis, Roger Day, Keith Skues and of course, John Peters, with his terrific presentation of the final Big L Fab Forty.
BOOM received 'congratulations' on the station's success from Sir Cliff Richard, who was at number 2 in the Final Fab on 6th August 1967 with 'The Day I Met Marie'.
John is back for another special on Sunday 20th November, to mark the 70th Anniversary of record charts. Simon Bates, Mike Read and Kid Jensen will be guest presenters on the day and John will be playing the first ever chart from 1952, compiled by Percy Dickens for the New Musical Express.
The Telegraph has published a feature about BOOM's success, with a very good photo of Twiggy Day, although we understand it is missing from the printed version of the story. In order to read the feature, it's necessary to sign up for a trail subscription of the online newspaper.
Nottingham post.com also features BOOM's success, although we are sure that Phil Riley and David Lloyd are not 'fiends'!
Graphic above from BOOM website
56 Years Ago Hans Knot very kindly sent this scan of the cover of Jukebox magazine for October 1966 - 56 years ago this month!
Classical 33 - Mail Order Vinyl Records and CDs Colin Davenport runs Classical 33 - Mail Order Vinyl Records and CDs, a mail order website specialising in Hard to Find, Vintage and Collectable music, with a huge collection covering all genres and decades.
Spilling the Beans Steve Scruton hosted the Secrets of the 60s Conversation Tour at Clacton's West Cliff Theatre on the afternoon of Wednesday October 12th, where punters were able to, "Ask those questions you always wanted to know, take part in a pop quiz, and meet the stars after the show."
Steve was also going to be talking about the very popular offshore radio recreations from Harwich, Pirate BBC Essex. Unfortunately, Radio London has not received any reports of the event, but if you're in the mood for nostalgia, you can revisit our photo reports from 2004, 2007 and 2009.
WONDERFUL – there's that word again!
In collaboration with Radio London, BOOM's chart expert John Peters (left) presented the Final Big L Fab Forty, between 12 noon and 1400 on August 14th 2022, the 55th anniversary of the station closedown.John is a massive Radio London fan who took part in Big L '97, from Walton-on-the-Naze.
All our Radio London visitors are bound to have been immensely impressed by John's fantastic presentation of the Final Fab Forty, complete with both original PAMS jingles and new BOOM re-sings, all provided by S2Blue.
John says, "It meant so much to me to do the Fab 40. The whole thing was so wonderful, albeit exhausting, and quite a few folks have posted the show on platforms to listen again. I think I dropped two songs in all, but played those on my John's Jukebox show on Saturday 19th. The previous Saturday (13th) I played all of the last climbers that were allocated for DJs past and present."
Everyone at BOOM was more than delighted to receive the following email:
"Hi, I'm listening to Boom for the first time after finding out about your tribute to the terrible events of 1967.
Boom is a wonderful idea. Despite being a huge,well heeled demographic, baby boomers are neglected by most of the media. Creating a distributed radio station to address that market is brilliant. I love the sound of the station and will stay tuned.
Stephen Birch (son of Philip T. Birch RIP)"
Tony's Final Fab Tony Gillham, who, like John Peters and many others, launched his broadcasting career on the United Biscuits Network, also recorded the Final Fab Forty and has posted it on Mixcloud. The show includes interviews with both Mary and Paul Rowley.
Cardboard Shoes aboard LV18 Radio Mi Amigo from Lightvessel LV18, broadcast over the August 14th weekend, was dedicated to the memory of John Sales. John was a devoted volunteer on the ship who died suddenly last December. Tony O'Neil and his wife Heather of The Pharos Trust, the charity that maintains the ship, organised a special lunch for John's friends and family.
Cardboard Shoes, Keith Skues, on air in the studio on the bridge.
Keith with John's brother Roland
Heather's mother Caroline made a lovely 'Watery Wireless' transistor radio cake in memory of John, which was cut by Cardboard Shoes.
Jon Sketchley (left) and Garry Lee, manning the studio
Offshore Radio Collection launched on YouTube
In partnership with Ben Meijering, Radio London is proud to announce the creation of a new YouTube channel, Offshore Radio Collection.
Three major Offshore Radio events took place in 2002, 2007 and 2017. With the exception of the Radio Academy event in 2007, they were not open to the public, but many photos were taken, video was shot and now we have made the footage these very special occasions available.
Offshore 50 – Tattershall Castle, London, 14th August 2017 Flickr Pictures – Martin van der Ven, Hans Knot and Gerry Zierler
Kenny's Carts Jon Myer from the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame sent us a link to a Youtube feature about carts of promos recorded by our hero Kenny Everett for Portsmouth's Radio Victory.
Jon says, "It's a bit long-winded, and uses a photo of the wrong radio ship, but you might enjoy it."
James Eadie QC cites legislation that was passed in response to the advent of Sixties offshore radio, as an example of something that had a major impact on domestic law
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Farout Magazine has a feature about a 1960 meeting between John Peel and a pre-presidential John F Kennedy.
The annual 14th August tribute to Big L from loyal site visitor Francis Pullen
On the 55th anniversary of the closing down of Big L at 3pm on 14th August 1967, I shall once again be remembering and reflecting on this extraordinary radio station, which played a huge role in changing the listening habits and radio policy of a nation. I shall also be remembering the presenters, staff and management who are no longer with us, but forever grateful that Mary and Chris have kept the legend alive via their website for more than 20 years.
Cue the Sonovox Big L theme…
Francis Pullen, Cambridge
Rick's Retiring
Radio England's Rick Randall writes from Florida
Your 4th July holiday greetings always bring a little extra joy to our celebrations here in the US. This year I am anticipating my final retirement from my daily live on-air and on-line radio shows, probably at the end of this summer. There are just too many personal issues and unfinished projects to which I wish to devote my time and energy. I do so with a sense of accomplishment for having created and built a local (legal) FM station in the past decade, now being run by one of my partners, and content to know it will continue to operate and serve the community in which I have lived most of my life.
I look back at my ever-so-brief tenure as part of the offshore radio phenomenon in your part of the world as the most unique and distinctive experiences in my life-long broadcast career, and am grateful for the continuing friendships that have evolved with colleagues and associates such as yourself.
Thanks for keeping such extraordinary memories alive.
'Sailing' is about a group of musicians aboard a yacht that hosts a Rock n Roll radio station, where they encounter yacht rock, a beloved smooth rock genre that captured the airwaves in the 1970s.
This rather unlikely plot bears a resemblance to the Richard Curtis comedy 'The Boat that Rocked' (retitled 'Pirate Radio' in the USA) which, as we all know, was about a fictional mid-Sixties British offshore radio station.
Queensland PiRATical RATS Reunion
Our Down Under Correspondent, John Preston, has alerted us to a broadcasting reunion attended by a few former pirates.
Organiser Walter Williams kindly allowed John to send us photos taken at his RATS (Radio and TV Survivors) reunion on June 8th. Walter dressed as a pirate for the occasion, but none of the offshore renegades followed his example!
(Left) Walter with 242's John Kerr
(Below left) with Caroline's Graham 'Spider' Webb
(Below right) with Big L's Norm St John
Kiwi pirate Paul Lineham from Radio Hauraki was also present.
This story leads us neatly into a new three-page feature of clippings about offshore radio DJs on Australian radio: Pirates Down Under
Rewriting Offshore History During the 23 years of running this website, we have witnessed some extremely inaccurate writing about offshore radio and have done our best to correct errors. However, nothing comes close to the piece of sheer fiction that Jon Myer spotted recently on the Essex Live website. The item, penned by Senior Reporter Holly Hume, states that the first-ever offshore radio broadcasts were made from the LV18. As we all know, Caroline and Atlanta were broadcasting from the ships Mi Amigo and Fredericia in 1964, while LV18 was in active service until the late 20th century as a Trinity House light-vessel and has never been a permanent home to an offshore station. As Jon says, this feature rewrites the history of offshore broadcasting.
Eddy Butcher has attempted to make amends with comments about Radio Caroline, the Mi Amigo and her current ship Ross Revenge, but the page is so swamped with adverts that it is quite difficult to find Eddy's correction. Even more unfortunately, it always seems to be extremely difficult to eradicate misinformation once it has been posted on the Internet.
NB Since this item appeared on Essex Live, it has been corrected, but sadly, we continue to see items on the net that rewrite offshore radio history.
Quality Perfumed Garden Recording Rob Chapman, author of 'Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio' has uploaded to Mixcloud the complete Perfumed Garden from August 14th 1967. It's worth noting that although recordings of John Peel's final show have been available for some time, this one is of particularly good quality.
Rob's Mixcloud page also has several hours of recordings of Caroline from the Sixties.
Why did Lulu and Cliff both pick Neil Diamond songs? Mike Richardson wonders if anyone else recalls hearing why two versions of Neil Diamond songs appeared in the Fab Forty in May '67.
"Reading the Fab Forty notes about the Disc of the Week for 210567, brings a memory back that has been hovering in the back of my mind as part of the listening experience that we all enjoyed in the 60s. I was listening mostly at the family's petrol station Red Wings at Alconbury Hill on the A1 in Huntingdon. While serving petrol and passing time, I was of course tuned to Big L 24/7. I never wrote down any of the charts but I do remember being a Neil Diamond fan ever since 'Cherry Cherry' and feeling so disappointed at his lack of personal chart success. I did keep a list of my record collection as it was growing and wrote "At Last" next to Neil's 'Cracklin' Rosie' after its success a few years later (1970).
Returning to this time 55 years ago, I remember a Big L DJ (unknown) but probably Cardboard Shoes, as I listened to him a lot. He explained that Lulu and Cliff had got together to extol the virtues of Neil and like me, were disappointed with his lack of chart success. They decided to record one of Neil's song's each. 'The Boat That I Row' and 'I'll Come Running' were released simultaneously to highlight his talent. I listened to Big L almost exclusively at the time, so the info is pretty certain to have come from that source. I did listen to Fluff on Sundays, but as his shows were so brilliantly fast and furious, I doubt I could have gleaned that much info in the time scale. As nobody on your fabulous website has ever mentioned hearing about Lulu and Cliff's decision, I thought you would like to add it somewhere. It might jog another memory and perhaps put me straight in getting the facts right!"
Please email if you want to respond to Mike
Mystery Publication
Brian Nichols from the Felixstowe and Offshore Radio Facebook Page has kindly forwarded a newspaper feature from early in Radio London's life, when reporter Sue Bickley became the first female visitor to the Galaxy. Unfortunately, the name of the paper is missing and the photographer is not credited. Brian Long, in 'The London Sound', records Sue's visit as being in April 65, but does not name the publication that Sue is reporting for.
(Click on picture to see a legible version)
Anyone with additional information, please get in touch.
First Quarter Rajar figures RadioToday reports that RAJAR listening figures for 2022 indicate that almost 50m adults in the UK continue to listen to the radio.
Our congratulations to Boom Radio on their 20% increase of listeners, to reach an audience of 290,000, which is impressive for a new station.
Founder Phil Riley talked to CEO Today about the station's success.
The Birds, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Dave Davies,The Doors, Elvis, The Everly Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Kinks, Darlene Love, Kenny Lynch, Paul McCartney, Barbara Mason, Nirvana, Keith Richards, Rolling Stones, Del Shannon, Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Pete Townshend, Ike and Tina Turner, Scott Walker and The Who are all on the list.
Finally, there's the vinyl release of a Dr Who story, where the David Tennant incarnation of the doc travels to a monster-infested pirate radio ship in 'the late Sixties'. That would be Radio Caroline, then.
BOOM does us proud! Boom Radio has done us proud! David Lloyd included a great birthday greeting for Cardboard Shoes in his morning show on Friday, March 4th.
On Saturday March 5th, John Peters included a lovely dedication in his John's Jukebox Show, in memory of John Sales. It was intended to have featured the week before, on Feb 26th, which would have been John's 70th birthday, but had to be postponed for a week. Unfortunately, Boom had suffered serious technical problems thanks to the battering the UK had received during storms Dudley and Eunice.
We are grateful to Boom Radio for allowing us to include these dedications on the Radio London site for the benefit of those who missed them.
Creating the Big L Blips Fab Alan Field has forwarded a link to Shortwave Radio site, Radio Fax, concerning the creation of the famous Radio London 'news blips' by Russ Tollerfield and Kenny Everett. The easiest way to go directly to the feature is to follow the link and then do a search on 'Tollerfield'.
There is more about the blips under Paul Kaye's entry in the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, where Duncan Johnson says: "Kenny Everett and Russ Tollerfield, who could 'read' Morse, spent all one night putting the sound effect together. Kenny splicing small slivers of tone on tape until Russ finally agreed to the 'spelling'....."
Ben Meijering's YouTube Channel now features video footage of the major Offshore DJ Reunion in 2002 at Doggett's in London and the even more incredible Offshore 50 event in London in 2017.
Back in 2002, when the team was putting together the 35th Anniversary Offshore Radio Reunion at Doggett's Coat and Badge pub in London, we hadn't realised just what an incredible collection of offshore DJs would be able to take part and make the event the success that it was. Ben was also there recording the proceedings.
In 2016, Jon Myer had the idea that we shouldn't let the 50th Anniversary of the closing-down of the offshore stations pass without a special event, so Jon roped in us (Chris and Mary) and Alan Hardy, to create Offshore 50. Knowing full well that as organisers, we always regret not being able to take more pictures at radio events, we decided to ask Ben, and his wife Inge, if they would be prepared to capture the day for posterity. For various reasons, it has taken nearly five years for the finished edit to see the light of day.
Here is what Ben says about the two
events:
Ben's Radio Visuals passing the 150 videos mark
At the end of September last year I announced the creation of Ben's Radio Visuals on YouTube.
During the last four months I've been adding videos of the Dutch Radiodays with so many very interesting interviews and discussions, perfectly organised by Hans Knot, Martin van der Ven and Rob Olthof † and their team.
Amongst others, I've added videos of RSLs in the UK, the Belgian radioday and a number of Veronica reunions and events, all perfectly organised by Juul Geleick, Ad Bouman and their team.
In my announcement message of September 29th I wrote:
As Mary Payne once wrote on her website: "No Big L RSL would be complete without the sight of Ben Meijering with a digital video camera grafted to his arm!"
Mary, her husband Chris and their team have been organising great offshore radio events in the UK.
I was so fortunate to attend two of those in London: "The Wet Club" reunion in 2002 and "Offshore 50" in 2017.
Now the supply of videos from my personal archive is drying up, I want to close the 4 months of posting videos with:
• An overview of the reunion of "The Wet Club" that took place on Saturday August 10th 2002. This video will be on-line coming Sunday, January 30.
• On Monday, January 31st, I will post what I consider to be the jewel on the crown for Ben's Radio Visuals. It is the overview of Offshore 50, that was held on August 14, 2017 in London.
Please keep enjoying the memories of (offshore) radio (events) from the past and if, in the future, I might come across some more footage, that I captured, I will add it to Ben's Radio Visuals.
John Sales's funeral took place on December 23rd 2021, exactly two years to the day since we had last seen him at our annual gathering for Radio London's birthday.
In his final Album Track du Jour for 2021, Nicky Horne very kindly agreed to feature the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life' for Big L's birthday and he dedicated the track to John.
We are grateful to Nicky and to Boom Radio for allowing us to post the clip on the Radio London website.
Album Track du Jour: 'A Day in the Life'
Photo: L to R – George Saunders, John, Alan Field, Stephen Chesney, Paul Rowley
Get Well Wishes to Norm and Maureen
Our best wishes to Norm St John and his wife Maureen, who, Jon Myer tells us, have both recently been suffering from Covid.
(left) Ray Clark and his wife Shelley met Norm and his wife Maureen when they visited Sydney in 2018. Photo courtesy of Ray.
Jon also reported the sad news of the death of Howard Hesseman, who starred as DJ Dr Johnny Fever in one of our favourite sitcoms, 'WKRP in Cincinnati'.
John Peel's Record Library Mike Terry sent us a link to a feature by Kevin Core of 6 Music, about John Peel's Record Library. The feature, as Mike points out, mentions Radio Caroline, but not Radio London, the station from which John launched his groundbreaking 'Perfumed Garden' show in 1967.
Musicians who delved into the late Radio London DJ's library found a few gems. The feature reveals that Damon Albarn was surprised to discover a record by Jeff Lynne's early band the Idle Race. (Kenny Everett fans will know that our hero always promoted the band), while musician Four Tet AKA Kieran Hebden, unearthed a rare, and very valuable single
"It was an original 1967 psychedelic seven-inch from session guitarist Caleb Quaye," he told Core, 'Baby Your Phrasing is Bad', with valuations online estimated at £950."
We have firsthand information from Raoul Verolleman that the single's B side, 'A Woman of Distinction' was played on Radio Scotland by Tony Allan, who had actually intended to play the A side. Does any former 242 DJ still have a copy? More to they point, do they realise how much it's worth!
Bessie's Birthday On January 29th, Mike Terry posted birthday greetings with a pic of the Galaxy on Tony 'Bessie' Blackburn's personal Facebook page, on behalf of all the members of the Wonderful Radio London Facebook group.
Tony replied via his personal page:
"Thanks very much, I love the picture of Big L and loved the time I lived out there. Today's radio stations owe so much to that great Big L sound and wonderful jingles."
We couldn't agree more! Tony revealed in a 2009 interview with Mary Payne that he and Kenny 'Edith' Everett retained their Galaxy girls' names long after they joined Radio 1. If they met in the corridor at Broadcasting House, they always exchanged greetings of, "Good morning, Bessie" and "Good morning, Edith".
Boom Radio's Second Rajar Figures Boom's second Rajar listening statistics since the station launch on February 14th 2021, revealed that in the last three months, the station has seen a rise in the number of listeners and a 35% growth in total listening hours.
David Hamilton, Boom Radio:
“We launched to speak directly to the growing discontent felt among the Baby Boomer generation – an audience on which the BBC has turned its back – and the results speak for themselves. Outside RAJAR, our own listener polls tell us almost three quarters of our listeners are former R2 stalwarts who are listening less to the BBC.”
Under New Management John Bobin is pleased to report that he continues to use the same knees that enabled him to join The Knees Club at Wycombe College, when he was a Fab Forty artist and a member of The Fingers.
John's current band, Da Management, has released a new CD, Under New Management and John has written a feature about it and who's who in the band
The CD has ten covers from the golden era of pop - 50s, 60s and 70s, plus two original songs, which have been written by band members. ('A Caravan on Canvey Island' extolls the virtues of hot dogs, candyfloss and lemonade. At live gigs, the audience enjoys singing along - Webmaster)
John says, "I thought your readers might be interested in hearing how a five-piece band with three brand new members managed to cope during lockdown.."
King Tony of Brisbane
Our Down Under Correspondent John Preston found an undated newspaper feature about 'DJ King' Tony Withers starting a new show on Brisbane's 4BH. The show was also to be networked to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, making TW Australia'sfirst national DJ.
Click on the small clipping to read a legible version.
Caroline DJ Ray Clark, is advertising his book about the station history on Boom and we hope every one of the 233,000 listeners buys a copy!
The Origins of 'The Story Lady'
Kenny Everett loved to include all sorts of quirky clips from international radio in his shows on Radio 1 and later, Capital. (Remember the adverts for Willard's Potato crisps – "it's what you eat when you drink beer"?) Jon Myer (at one time Kenny's Capital Engineer) discovered a site hosting recordings of another feature of Kenny's Capital shows 'The Story Lady' and says that according to a poster on Facebook, the series was produced by Mel Blanc. (Kenny became friendly with Mel's son Noel).
Our friend Ed Ryba in Los Angeles knows all about The Story Lady. Ed writes:
"'The Story Lady' came from a package called 'Superfun', which contained gag commercials, funny bits and The Story Lady. It was made available to radio stations that wanted to buy it. It was produced by my dear friend of 45 years, the late Gary Owens, and world famous cartoon voice (and radio actor, before there was television) Mel Blanc. The voice of The Story Lady was longtime voice actress Joan Gerber.
This information was told to me personally by Gary Owens (I used to see him quite often), so I would tend to believe its authenticity. I actually have one reel from the package (which had something like 50 7.5 inch reels in it) and was so popular that they made a second one, entitled 'Superfun II', which contained an equal number of reels of the same kinds of silliness, including a second bunch of The Story Lady. Both Mel and Gary can be heard all over both Superfun packages.
Gary did an afternoon show here in Los Angeles for many years, and he also used The Story Lady on his own show! Many years ago, I was able to find the music track they used on those segments. It's on the Elektra Sound Effects Library, and the cut is entitled 'Music Box'."
Your webmasters, Mary and Chris, used to love hearing Kenny's American horror stories and a particular favourite was 'Organs Hanging', which it turns out was actually called 'The Dark'.
Two Visits to the Ross Revenge Peter Messingfeld visted the ship and posted a report about a big reunion.
Jon Myer shared a Facebooking posting from the Caroline Community group:
"An episode of the BBC Two programme Antiques Road Trip which includes a visit to Radio Caroline's radio ship Ross Revenge on the River Blackwater, will be aired this Friday, 12 November, at 7pm. The programme follows two celebrities and two antiques experts, driving around in classic cars, buying antiques and then selling them at auction. The celeb who makes the most profit wins. The show also features local places of interest and in Friday's episode Reality TV star Dani Dyer (Love Island) and antiques expert Philip Serell were on board Ross Revenge where they interviewed station manager Peter Moore. Dani’s opponent in this episode is her dad, actor Danny Dyer (Eastenders)."
Manx stamps honour Barry Gibb Sir Barry Gibb has been honoured by his birthplace, the Isle of Man, with a set of six commemorative stamps, depicting portraits of him at various stages of his musical career. Barry was born on the island in 1946, with his twin brother Bee Gees, Robin and Maurice, arriving in 1949.
The Gibb brothers have always been extremely proud of their Manx heritage and and the island is equally proud of them. A bronze statue of them based on their 'Stayin' Alive' video was unveiled on the sea front of the Manx capital Douglas in July 2021.
Our Down Under Correspondent John Preston drew our attention to Bee Gees Way, an art tribute to the Bee Gees in Redcliffe, Queensland, where the Gibb family lived after their immigration from the UK in 1958.
John says: "It is very well done and worth a visit to anyone travelling (eventually) down under!"
'Mark Roman' statue? Our small village of Stoke Mandeville has hit the news internationally, with the exceptional find of ancient Roman statues, uncovered during a dig on the site of the former St Mary's church.
John Preston in Australia has suggested that maybe they are Mark Roman statues and having looked a bit more closely, we can see a certain likeness.
Paul Leaves the Beeb Talking of Kenny Everett, which we were, our friend, the award-winning journalist Paul Rowley, has left the BBC. In Paul's 47-year broadcasting career, "My proudest moment was being at the swanky Grosvenor Hotel in Central London in 2002 after being shortlisted for a Sony Radio Award," he told Radio Today. The Sony shortlisting was for his excellent documentary about Kenny Everett's programmes on BBC Local Radio after he was fired from Radio 1. The programme has subsequently been broadcast on Radio 4 Extra around 30 times. A follow up, called 'Happy Birthday Maurice Cole', won silver for Original Journalism in the 2010 Frank Gillard Awards.
Paul admitted to us that even after working in the broadcasting business for so long, he still gets a thrill of hearing his name on the radio.
Left: Paul attended Offshore 50 to report on the 50th Anniversary to BBC local stations nationwide.
(Thanks to Jon Myer)
The week after Paul's departure, we received the following email.
Hi Mary and Chris. It's the end of an era. Or maybe even, the end of an error. From midnight on Sunday, I ceased to be a BBC employee after almost 28 years with the corporation, more than 34 years at Westminster, and 47 years as a journalist. I've taken voluntary redundancy.
I am by far the BBC's oldest political correspondent, I've had a wonderful career, and it feels the right time to step aside after a manic few years covering three General Elections, Brexit and Covid
Away from the politics, the most satisfying things I've done have been the documentaries about the 60s pirates, Kenny Everett, and early commercial radio. I couldn't have done them without the support of the pair of you who've kept the flame burning for Radio London. It was only on air for a little over two and a half years, but it set the standard for modern day radio as the first with a 'Top 40' format, the best jingles and the finest presenters. Without Big L, I wouldn't have spent almost half a century in the trade. So thanks to you both, along with Jon Myer, and the two Mikes, Barraclough and Terry. The Radio London website and The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame are the best in the business.
I kept my announcement quiet until the day before departure, which seemed to cause quite a stir on social media on Friday when I did a round of broadcasts on more than 30 BBC Local Radio stations from 0630 to 1800. I got more than a hundred messages on twitter including warm words from the likes of Jeremy Vine, Martha Kearney, Victoria Derbyshire, Jo Coburn, Sybil Ruscoe and Iain Dale, plus some lovely messages from listeners.
I faced a "beat the intro" quiz on Radio Gloucestershire, a politics quiz on Radio Leeds, while on Radio Lancashire, a listener called Heather from Bamber Bridge phoned in, and started crying. It was like August 14, 1967 all over again!
On Radio Humberside I chose my favourite song, "A Day In the Life" by the Beatles, the last record played on Radio London.
Twin Towers Tragedy September 11th is the 20th Anniversary of New York'sTwin Towers tragedy. It's also the anniversary of our (Chris and Mary's) first meeting with the USS Density crew in Fort Worth, Texas. Our report from Texas of the sombre atmosphere pervading the USA and the kindness of the USS Density Family to two strangers far from home, is here. Most of the Density Family members who attended that 2001 Reunion are sadly no longer with us, but they will always be remembered with great affection.
John's 'Spotted Dick' List Our Down Under correspondent John Preston and his wife Lynn have, unfortunately, been unwell recently (NOT COVID he hastens to assure us) and during convalescence, John got bored and put together his own 'Spotted Dick', sorry, SPOTIFY playlist based on the Boom Radio list of Top 50 instrumentals, plus a few of his own additions, which he thought might be of interest to our viewers. John says, "The only track I couldn't find was 'Man of Action'. No action there I'm afraid..."
Last Meal on the Galaxy
With back to camera, Chuck Blair, Paul Kaye, Mitch, Tony Brandon, John Peel, Willy Walker, David Hawkins, Mike Lennox, Russ Tollerfield
The fantastic photo above of the final meal on the Galaxy, was kindly supplied by John Whelton, Brother-in-Law to Big L's late Engineer, Russ Tollerfield and was previously on our Home Page for August 14th. John says: "Look at the time on the clock, far right."
Arriving in Felixstowe, L to R: Mike Lennox, Pete Drummond, John Peel, Michel Philistin, Willy Walker, Paul Kay (lighting cigarette), Chuck Blair, Mark Roman and Tony Brandon (reaching) towards fans
(Photo by Terry Disney/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Brian Nichols of the Felixstowe & Offshore Radio Facebook Page explains that the main tendering by Offshore 1 transferred to Felixstowe in June 1966, but on August 14th '67, Radio London had to use the Gaselee & Sons tug, Ocean Cock, because Caroline was using Offshore 1.
Otway's Gig 5000 Aylesbury microstar John Otway, the man who had us wearing face masks well before the pandemic, is building up to his 5,000th gig on April 2nd 2022 at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and tickets are selling well, with only six seats left in level one as of mid- September .
(Right) Chris and Moosie wearing Otway masks in Cannes, with the real Otway behind them to the right.
These days favouring the 'Mad Professor with Monogrammed Shirt' look, John has produceda daft one-minute promo for the mega event.
For longer viewing, there'sa video slide show of photos right from Otway's early life to his illustrious musical career as Rock 'n' Roll's Greatest Failure.
There is a number of gigs to go before the 5,000th and these are listed up to the end of December on johnotway.comwhere he is appealing for any photos and memorabilia fans may have from any previous gigs
Over on Youtube, is some ancient footage of Otway narrating the musical history of Aylesbury, High Wycombe and environs.
Watchet Pirates The UK Festival Guides site posted this great photo of revellers at the Watchet Festival, 2021, with Pirates as its fancy dress theme.
Agama and Dateline Diamonds
Thanks to Mike Barraclough for informing us that the Radio London film Dateline Diamonds has been posted, as TW used to say, "in its entirety", on Youtube. However, we suspect that it will not be long before the film is spotted and taken down by the holders of its rights, so if it's gone by the time you read this, you will understand why.
Your Favourite Instrumentals Boom Radio devoted the August Bank Holiday, Monday August 30th, to playing listeners' Top 50 favourite instrumentals and revealed that thousands of votes had been received. Numbers 8, 9 and 10 are offshore favourites. #8 Soul Coaxing, #9 Because They're Young and #10, Man of Action, with DLT's themetune, A Touch of Velvet, a Sting of Brass, down at #23 and Kenny and Cash's theme, Nut Rocker at #27.
Big L Tribute from Francis 14/08/2021
On the 54th anniversary of Big L closing down at 3pm, I shall be recalling the on-air tributes and goodbyes that formed so much of this amazing radio station. From their first day of broadcasting, I still remember the presenters’ exciting talent and enthusiasm, and the explosion of seemingly endless new music every day. Pete Drummond summed it up well during the final hour: "We’ll probably never see the like of it again". Big L was often imitated, but never duplicated, and that’s what made it unique and so well remembered. We are indeed fortunate and most thankful that Mary and Chris have spent so much of their own time and resources publishing and maintaining the Radio London website.
Francis Pullen, Cambridge
Alan's New Fab Forty Mix
Alan Long writes:
I have been compiling a series of programmes based only on the new entries for the Radio London Fab 40. I wanted to see how many records I had in my collection and found I had enough to compile 12 programmes of three hours each. Here is a link to the first of these weekly programmes Radio London Fab 40 New Chart Entries Part 1 I've rightly pointed out to my listeners that I've credited your brilliant website in general and your Fab 40 pages specifically as the THE source of these programmes.
In this the 54th year since Big L left the air I thought it a right and fitting tribute to produce as many programmes as I could. I hope you like both the programme and my comments about your awesome website.
Thank you so very much, Alan Long.
Red Sands Museum Project Thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers, says The Mail online, Red Sands fort is being faithfully restored and turned into a heritage museum which will tell its incredible role in keeping Britain safe from Nazi attacks. Kent Online reports that Structural engineering firm Structural Repairs has been inspecting the forts to see how they can be restored to their former glory and brought into public use.
In a new documentary on streaming platform History Hit, historian Dan Snow is seen touring the towers which make up the fort. He also speaks to David Foulkes, who is part of the restoration team at Project Redsand.
The World's Greatest Record Store No browsing is allowed at 'the world's greatest record store' - R&B Records run by Val Shively in Philadelphia. Customers either purchase their selection from the four million in stock on line, or have to know exactly what they want if they visit in person. The shop, which specialises in vinyl, probably qualifies as the world's most eccentric record store and the website offers free cockroaches and other bugs with every purchase.
"Honoring the station that did so much to promote them in the early days" '
The Who Sell Out' has been picked as Recording of the Month for July 2021, by Stereophile magazine and Radio London fans will be interested to read the comments by reviewer John Swenson.
"You need to know two things to understand The Who Sell Out. When this album was released in 1967, selling out was one of the nastiest things you could say about a band. Yet, the early Who were champions of the three-minute hit single, a format that fitted seamlessly into the hype that was 1960s AM radio, in which commercials, station IDs, and songs formed a seamless, relentless whole. Radio London, the legendary "pirate radio" station that perfected the format in the UK, went off the air permanently a few months before The Who Sell Out was released. So, the concept for The Who Sell Out was at once iconoclastic and a glorification of the idea that the best pop hits were themselves brilliant commercials. The Who would sell out with slashing, sonic elan while honoring the station that did so much to promote them in the early days. Some of the commercials are great Who performances; there are even alternate takes of the commercials here."
Felixstowe Museum Reopens Felixstowe Museum reopened on Sunday, May 30 as a Covid-secure venue.
A new attraction is the enlargement of the 1960s corner as 'Step Back to the 60s' in the Felgate Room, including a special pirate radio display by the Felixstowe and Offshore Radio enthusiasts.
Don's New Station Don Pierson's new offshore station Swinging Radio England/Britain Radio launched on May 3rd 1966 and the two handsome lads pictured above, right, joined the DJ line-up. They were quickly given the new identities, Johnnie Walker and Roger Day and were taught the art of being a radio DJ by the experienced Americans on board. 55 years later, we are pleased to say they are both still on the air, Johnnie on BBC Radio 2 and Roger on Boom Radio.
Roger celebrated his 55th anniversary during his regular weekday slot of 1800 to 2000, on Boomradio and on Monday May 3rd, he was reminiscing about his offshore days.
Many congratulations to both Twiggy and Johnnie on their outstanding 55-year careers. Johnnie responded:
Hi Mary & Chris,
Thank you very much for your congratulations.I think we’re both very proud to have spent 55 years on the radio and we’re still there!All the best to you both,Johnnie
Above, left: Radio England's ship Olga Patricia, (NOT pictured on the North Sea!) was rechristened Laissez-Faire
Twinkle was aboard the Laissez Faire to assist in the station launch, alongside Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry.
She looks absolutely frozen to death!
(Photo by John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images. Other photos courtesy of Grey Pierson, from the Don Pierson Archive)
'Beanz Meanz The Who' The Who has teamed up with Heinz to launch a charity project as a tie-in with the April 23 reissue of the band's 1967 album featuring the Radio London jingles, 'The Who Sell Out' (Story below). The album also features spoof commercials and the cover's artwork depicts Roger Daltrey holding a giant can of Heinz's famous beans in tomato sauce, while sitting in a bath full of them. This relates to the album's track 'Heinz Baked Beans'.
Being sponsored to publicly endure the discomfort of sitting in a bath of beans has become a charity fundraiser on many subsequent occasions.
Dum Dum contributes to 'Who Sell Out' reissue The Who are reissuing their classic 1967 album containing the PAMS Radio London jingles, 'The Who Sell Out' as a Super Deluxe boxed set. It comes with studio outtakes, unreleased tracks, early takes, and Pete Townshend's original demos for the LP.
The limited edition of 'The Who Sell Out' was released on April 23rd and comprises 112 songs across five CDs and two 7-inch singles, including 46 unreleased tracks.
Included in the package is an 80-page, hardback, full-colour book, including rare period photos, memorabilia (there's even a replica Big L Club sticker) track-by-track annotation and new sleeve notes by Pete Townshend. There are also contributions from Big L DJ Pete 'Dum Dum' Drummond and Roy Flynn, the manager of London's famous Speakeasy club.
Dead City Exit On April 12th, Mark Wesley (aka Mark West) was interviewed by David Lloyd on Boom Radio about his most recent book, Dead City Exit. He spoke about his long broadcasting career on Radio Luxembourg, but time did not permit him to recall his many stints on offshore stations Radio Essex, 270, Scotland and RNI.
Credit for The Roman Emperor In the weeks up to Easter, Boom Radio listeners voted for their Top 200 favourite songs, for a rundown to be played over the Easter weekend. Top of the list came 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', and John Peters (who participated in Big L '97) announced it, rightly crediting Mark Roman and Radio London for its success. Most Deejays and stations would not have done that! The Roman Emperor was tickled pink to hear about this and John very kindly sent him the appropriate audio clip, for which he was very grateful.
Sadly, none of my own Top Three:
Along Comes Mary Craise Finton Kirk
and
Love Years Coming
made it into the chart, but I didn't really expect that to happen!
Radio Caroline fans voted the Fortunes' 'Caroline' in at #51. Naturally, Twiggy Day was delighted about this and especially that several Beach Boys tracks featured in the chart with two in the Top Ten – 'God Only Knows', #3 and 'Good Vibrations', #7.
Alan Long's 'Big L Strikes Again' Alan writes:
I have recently done another 3 hour Radio London mix which I've called 'Radio London (Big L) Strikes Again'.The programme is hi-fi quality and on Mixcloud which a legal royalty-paying UK website on which I've uploaded nearly 300 programmes now. If listeners click on the link, they will be taken directly to my programme. There is no signing up to do, just click on the play button and enjoy. There are a healthy mix of original jingles and all the music is from 1964 to 1967. I've omitted all the adverts of the day and just mixed the music and jingles. The programme is best played through a hifi system as it is in WMA 320kbps quality.
Thank you for such a fantastic website full of all the history of my favourite radio station.
Alan Long,Spalding, Lincolnshire.
BOOM shows for Twiggy Day Congratulations to Roger 'Twiggy' Day who told us how delighted he was to be invited to join the newly-launched UK station Boomradio. Roger broadcasts from his home in Spain every weekday evening between 1800 and 2000 and sounds as if he's very much enjoying himself. Saturday mornings, 0800 to 1000, Twiggy is emulating Brian Matthews' 'Sounds of the Sixties' and between 1500 and 1800 Sundays, he's delving into his personal record collection.Boomradio has now gone on the nationwide DAB system DAB+.
On Saturday Februry 27th we were pleased to hear him play 'Craise Finton Kirk' during his Boom Radio Saturday morning show AND he referred to it as'Craise Frinton Kirk' and explained that it was always known by that name on Caroline, as the ship was off the coast near Frinton-on-Sea. Twiggy also played his favourite Jimi Hendrix track and talked about introducing him at Billy Walker's Upper Cut Club on Boxing Day 1966.
The only ex- pirate on the station, Roger joins fellow former United Biscuits Network jocks, Graham Dene, Nicky Horne and John Peters. (Some of you will remember that John was also heard on Big L '97).
LG Radio
Radio Former Radio 2 and Jazz FM presenter, Leo Green, has launched his own subscription service station LG Radio from his garden shed.Hysterical Lyrics Many thanks to Fab Alan Field for discovering the most amusing Youtube post since the start of Lockdown #1. Singer Malinda raises the laughs with her hilarious version of 'Sounds of Silence', as mangled by Google Translate.Extremely Poignant Photos In The Offshore Radio Guide, Martin van der Ven has posted 86 poignant photos of the mv Galaxy in Kiel Harbour, taken by Theo Dencker. Colour photos show the salvage and scrapping of the ship in August 1986 and there are also black and white pictures, including some of the lower deck.They make very sad viewing.
Martin has also been collecting radios with offshore stations marked on the dial, which he has photographed for the site. His wife Ulrike says their home is starting to look like a museum. We know the feeling, as ours resembles a museum too!
Protesting outside Number 17 The Getty Images caption for this recently-discovered photo of Dave Cash reads:
"Dave Cash And Friends Radio One disc jockey Dave Cash (1942 - 2016) with a group of young women campaigning for 'Free Radio London', shortly before the offshore station's closure, London, UK, August 1967. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)"
Obviously, Dave wasn't a Radio One DJ - the station had yet to launch – although he was working for the Beeb. He had long since left the Galaxy, but we believe he continued to host onshore gigs for Big L. Whatever the case, Dave still retained a Radio London connection or he would not have been protesting the station's closure outside 17 Curzon Street. All the girls in the picture are wearing their RL Club badgeand black armbands
Richard Swainson tells us :"The girls in the picture with Dave often stood outside Curzon Street. I cannot remember their names, but they were frequently invited in and they talked to any of the DJs that they knew were off that week. I spoke to them several times on my week off."
If anyone recognises their younger self in the photo or can give us more information, please get in touch.
Cardboard Vaccination Keith Skues reports that he has had his first anti-COVID jab. He reports that he is, "Still plodding along, but missing the broadcasting."Paul's Guest Spot Paul Rowley writes: "You may be interested in a piece I did on Friday January 15 on Radio Suffolk as the 'sofa' guest on Lesley Dolphin's afternoon show. I talked about my love of radio, the pirates, Kenny Everett, writing a comedy serial as a schoolboy on BBC Local Radio, early ILR, Wigan Athletic, and a bit about politics. They wanted a record to illustrate it, so I told them to play 'A Day In The Life' by The Beatles, still my favourite song."
The Life of Mike Lennox Until recently, Mike Lennox's son Lucas had known little about Mike's life or his time spent as a DJ aboard the Galaxy, but he has recently contacted The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame and is now putting together a film about his late father and has posted a trailer for it on YouTube.
Most recent Archived Stories from 2012 to the present are here
Most recent Archived Obituary page from 2012 to the present is here
or 
flash.F
Kevin Mulrennan, who has rewritten his book about the popular Sixties ABC TV series, Thank Your Lucky Stars, writes:
Hans Knot very kindly sent this scan of the cover of Jukebox magazine for October 1966 - 56 years ago this month!
In collaboration with Radio London, BOOM's chart expert John Peters (left) presented the 
broadcasting career, "My proudest moment was being at the swanky Grosvenor Hotel in Central London in 2002 after being shortlisted for a Sony Radio Award," he told Radio Today. The Sony shortlisting was for his excellent documentary about Kenny Everett's programmes on BBC Local Radio after he was fired from Radio 1. The programme has subsequently been broadcast on Radio 4 Extra around 30 times. A follow up, called 'Happy Birthday Maurice Cole', won silver for Original Journalism in the 2010 Frank Gillard Awards.
