Wham Bam, thank you Jam!

Who would have thought it? Apparently Tony Blackburn was the first person to have a name ID jingle. On that basis, he was invited to speak at the Radio Academy's recent talk on the role of jingles, 'Wham, Bam thank you Jam!' in London. More of Tony in a moment.

Howard Hughes organised the evening, and had recorded an interview with JAM's President, Jon Wolfert. It was very enlightening and great to hear such enthusiasm about jingles! But that was why we were there.

The BBC's Johnny Beerling gave a rundown of how the first Radio 1 and 2 jingles were put together and the reasoning behind them. He played part of a 20th Anniversary JAM CD, which also paid homage to the Radio 1 jingles of the time. Johnny played many examples, and the audience enjoyed hearing Duncan Johnson's dulcet tones promoting "Where It's At". We were also treated to a very rare recording of John Lennon and Kenny Everett singing "Where It's At" promos.

At the time that Matthew Bannister took over Radio 1, such was his misguided lack of enthusiam for the station's current jingles (my words - not Johnny's, but he implied as much and everyone agreed!) that the master tapes were consigned to the skip. Fortunately, an engineer called Nick Pitts, rescued them in more ways than one! Johnny also mentioned that there was a great sign at JAM – "Selling Spoken Here". Maybe some current stations should take note!

So, on to Tony Blackburn. He said he thought Johnny preferred the Radio One jingles to the records! Tony then revealed that when he heard the Radio London jingles while he was on Radio Caroline, he felt he just had to join Big L so he could play all the great jingles! Johnny Beerling agreed with Tony that Radio London had changed radio. Sadly no-one had thought to bring any pirate jingles for the evening, which would have shown some of the younger members of the audience why we pay homage to them and where it all started for the UK. One of the main points of the evening, I would have thought. Ho hum.

Tony went on to say that Radio London was definitely the best of the pirate stations, with properly-recorded jingles and not just copies of backing tracks with the station name over them. He said that he went to Tin Pan Alley to have his famous "The Tony Blackburn Show" jingle recorded at a cost of £50. However, he was quite scathing of British-made jingles, and said, "Go to America and learn how to do it!"

In Tony's opinion , "No-one in this country has jingle packages like the US. They're so powerful! We should get back to basics and spend money on jingle packages. The first person to go to America to make their jingle packages will succeed."

You can't argue with that!

Jam – THE Jingle Makers – www.jingles.com (what else would the link be?!)
IQ Beats – www.iqbeats.com – Mark Hall played some of his company's latest jingles
Nicky Schiller – www.NickySchiller.co.uk – Nicky is an avid jingle collecter, who shared some of his favourites
LBC's Chris Lowrie aired what he admitted were some horrendous examples from the early days of LBC, including ones written by Jeff Wayne, he of 'War of the Worlds'. Jeff obviously thought it was, 'War of the Radios' or maybe that was the only tune he had written at the time! – www.lbc.co.uk

A Starr is Born - an early picture of Edwin

Carl had the good fortune to meet the soulful Motown man who made his home in the UK

Edwin Starr, the great Motown legend, has sadly passed away from a suspected heart attack at his home in Nottingham, England.

He had been an integral part of the soul and dance floor music scene since the mid-fifties and the formation of his first band, The Future Tones, in 1956. He continued to be an ambassador of the Motown sound and remained a top-performing artist for over 40 years.

Born Charles Hatcher on January 21st, 1942 in Nashville, Tennessee, Edwin was raised and educated in Cleveland, Ohio. After completing two years of military service in the USA and Germany he moved to Detroit, the motor city, in 1962. By the middle of the 1960's he was a member of the artistes' roster on the up-and-coming Ric-Tic record label in the city. Between them, the musicians released classics such as 'Agent 00 Soul', 'S.O.S (Stop her On Sight)' and 'Headline News' which laid the foundations for Edwin's worldwide fame.

In 1968 Berry Gordy's Motown records acquired the Ric-Tic and Golden World concern, along with the labels' artists and Edwin suddenly found himself on the great Motown record label. In 1969 things paid off even more, with the release of '25 Miles' and in 1970, with the great war protest number, 'War'. Edwin was unusual in that he co-wrote a number of his big hits. His 70's disco hits, 'Happy Radio' and 'Contact' are still floor-fillers and are highly revered.

After living in the UK for many years, Edwin continued to record new material and perform throughout Europe and the US. He was highly regarded in all circles, especially the Northern Soul scene in the UK, where his fans would follow him to venues to see his electric performance, along with his great backing band, 'The Team'. He recently won a Northern Soul poll as both 'All-Time Favourite Artist' and 'Best All-Time Live Performer'.

I was lucky enough to meet Edwin in the early 1990's when he appeared with other Motown performers at a London venue and we chatted about his days at Ric-Tic and Motown. He was surprised when I enquired about his Ric-Tic colleague Al Kent, and took great interest in satisfying my hunger for more information. As luck would have it, I was privileged to meet him again a few years later, at a works Christmas party! He introduced me to 'The Team' and family who accompanied him on the gig and I felt truly honoured. Being inspired by many writers, producers and artists from Detroit and Philadelphia, I began to write songs about four years ago and recently sent some material to Edwin's manager for appraisal. I tend to write retro soul and had hoped Edwin might have been interested in one of my songs. In particular I wrote a Motown-style shuffle melody and lyrics that would have suited his wonderful style and delivery.

Edwin will be sadly missed and our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this difficult time. His music will live on and never be more appropriate than at this time.

Please visit his website to leave tributes and condolence messages.

Twiggy's 'Grim News' for the Golden Guys

Nobody old in this photo! Roger Day with Paul Burnett, Mary and Mike Ahern

See Twiggy in the 'hairy' days of 1971 here.

Happy Birthday to the Hall!
To celebrate its third birthday, The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame has some great gifts for its visitors. There are the ground-plans of Radio City's fort, and there is news from Ross Brown, aka 'Frantic' Freddie Beare aka RWB – last heard on Radio Caroline North just over 35 years ago.

The DJ spotlight falls on Tony 'Teacosy' Blackburn. A 3-minute clip from Tony's afternoon show of Dec 29th 1966 was sufficient to prompt some research on a couple of Big L Climbers, which resulted in an update to Field's Fab Forty for Dec 25th 1966.

New audio also includes a great clip of Kenny Everett on a Big L Breakfast Show and the voice of Ron O'Quinn with the very first moments in the life of Swinging Radio England, from May 1966.

PLUS! Benny - the fastest protest singer in the west!
Jonathan has also drawn our attention to a 50-track double CD from Castle Music, called 1965 – The Soundtrack, currently available from Amazon. 1965 - The Soundtrack contains 50 titles, many of them Fab Forty entries, including Keep Searchin', Getting Mighty Crowded, Give Him a Great Big Kiss and the lesser-known Diggin' My Potatoes by Heinz. In the year of the protest song, Universal Soldier and Eve of Destruction make strange bedfellows to Benny Hill's spoof on the subject, What A World. Jonathan features a clip from What A World, which appropriately mentions pirate radio.