RAYMOND LEFEVRE 20/11/1929 – 27/06/2008

Orchestra leader Raymond Lefèvre has died in Seine-Port, France, aged 78.

Those who broadcast from the Caroline ships post-MOA were not over-enamored with many of the Major Minor tracks they were required to play, but the stations did assist the label in achieving one or two hits. Composed by the singer-songwriter Michel Polnareff, 'Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline - pronounced 'Am caleen)' is one of the best-remembered tunes from that era in the station's history and was frequently used as a talk-over bed for promotions.

The single reached #46 in the UK chart and the popularity of the track combined with heavy Caroline product promotion led to successful sales of albums Raymond Lefèvre Vol I (1967) and II (1968).

Raymond Lefèvre trained at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris after passing the entrance exam aged only 16. At various times he became involved in musical collaborations with friends and fellow conductor/arrangers Franck Pourcel and Paul Mauriat, and he played piano with their respective orchestras.

M Lefèvre led the Eurovision Song Contest orchestra on five occasions and frequently included orchestral arrangements of winning songs on his albums. He also composed a large number of French movie soundtracks.

"I am by nature a romantic composer," he said. "I make soft, sentimental music."

Full Pierre Perrone Independent obituary

YouTube: Raymond Lefèvre 'Soul Coaxing'; Michel Polnareff vocal version.

Radio Luxembourg Reunion
Alan Bailey, author of '208 It Was Great' the entertaining book about his engineering career at Radio Luxembourg from 1958 to 1975, has kindly sent a report and photos from the reunion which started on Friday 2nd August at 1408 – that's 208 to you!

"The weekend saw the once-great 208 Radio Luxembourg rise like a phoenix from the ashes, as former DJs and staff descended on The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Over the station's seventy-five year history, it has seen many personalities of the broadcasting world emerge as household names.

Friday night was the first night of celebrations as we met at the Italia Restaurant. It was literally a Who’s Who of radio and celebrations went well into the early hours.

The big night was Saturday 3rd when the DJs relived the station's past with many anecdotes (most un-broadcastable) and recordings of past years seeing the light of day again. One special moment was a mention of our sadly departed friends like Jack Jackson, Muriel Young, Don Moss, Stuart Henry, Dave Eastwood, Chris Cary (Spangles Muldoon), Alan 'Fluff' Freeman and Barry Alldis whose widow, the elegant Fern, made a very welcome guest.

Due to prior commitments, some unfortunately couldn’t make it and recorded greetings were sent by Pete Murray, Rob Jones, Neil (Dr) Fox, Jimmy Savile, Chris Moyles, Steve Wright and Noel Edmonds.

Come Sunday morning, it was time for emotional goodbyes. We saw our very happy radio family once again disintegrate, but made a strong vow that this wouldn’t be the last time. In our minds 208 Radio Luxembourg would live on."

Radio Luxembourg Reunion photo gallery.

Click here for Alan's website and details of how to obtain his book '208 It Was Great'.

Emperor Rosko talks to Dave Christian (left above) and David Jensen.
Photos copyright Alan Bailey.

Hans looks great in his Radio London teeshirt. For a larger picture, see our photo gallery.

Caroline Music Policies
Hans Knot's International Newsletter for August has Tom Lodge answering questions about the music policies of the two Radio Caroline stations and Michele Monro is seeking information about Luxembourg programmes recorded by her later father, the singer Matt Monro.

July's newsletter was a special, devoted to two subjects. First the naming of Radio Atlanta. Ex- Atlanta jocks give their views about why the name was chosen. Then, in tribute to Keith Ashton, who died recently, there is an extract written by Don Stevens, from the book about the work of Abie Nathan and Voice of Peace.

Check Martin Van der Ven's website for current and back issues of the International Newsletters and see a very cute photo of Hans as a young lad!

To sign up for a personal copy of the free emailed newsletter, contact Hans at hknot@home.nl. You can also read the newsletter on line, at www.hansknot.com where you can see a huge compilation of programmes that could be heard on offshore radio, catalogued station-by-station, not to mention a very long list of the advertisers on Radio London!

Hans in his Radio England teeshirt, supplied by Rick Randall (see SRE reunion photo pages) and minus his beard

PRHoF entry for Johnny Dark
In the August update, the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame includes a new entry for Johnny alongside Paul Hollingdale (of CNBC) and rare recordings of DJs Simon Ashley (Radio Invicta) and Jon Sydney (Caroline South) have been added. There's more on the 1964 Caroline programme format which was published on the PRHoF last month and two 'Titbits' magazine articles from 1966 in which Simon Dee "takes the lid off Radio Caroline", kindly provided by Keith Martin

(Left) Johnny (real name Harry Putnam) today, with his wife and grandchild. Photo and Home Page photo courtesy of Harry's wife Cherl Putnam and daughter Michele Trankovich. Thanks to Jack Curtiss for forwarding them. Jack says; "Harry is thrilled to have been found and amazed that fans still remember 'The Night Ride' and Radio Essex, too."

The story of how Jack Curtiss found Johnny Dark is here.

South Herts Radio
South Herts Radio, run by Gary Drew, is available via various frequencies and online.

Emperor of the New Forest
Paul Freeman of Radio Essex now broadcasts on Forest FM92.3 and writes to tell us that the station has acquired a legendary broadcaster. He says:

"I thought you would like to know (if you don't already) that Emperor Rosko is back on British radio with his show called, 'LA Connections' on our station FOREST FM 92.3 down here in the East Dorset and the New Forest area. His show lasts two hours, noon until 1400, Saturdays. For those who do not live close enough to the transmitter the show can be heard at www.forestfm.co.uk He is just the same as he was forty years back and with the same music... it's JUST GREAT!

By the way, we also have 1970s Caroline DJ Roger Mathews on the station. (See the programme schedule for details.)

I'm still presenting two weekly shows on Forest. The 'Swinging 60s Show', Tuesdays 2200 and again on Sundays at noon, and 'The Fabulous 50s Radio Show' with my old mate Geoff Kemp, on Wednesdays at 2200 and again on Sundays at 1400. The Fifties show has gone down very well, with mail coming in from all over the world and it is now also podcasted, so you can listen any time, from KFMJ the Oldies station in Ketchikan Alaska (www.kfmj.com ). The station is said to play the best music on the planet!"

All the very best, Paul Peters (Paul Freeman Radio Essex)

Photo: Paul (left) with Geoff Kemp (courtesy of Paul). The Emperor Rosko Show appears though the auspices of Radio Six International.

Tom's tribute to Sydney Pollack
Tom Danaher is the co-founder of both Radio London and later Radio England/Britain Radio, who kitted-out both the USS Density and the Olga Patricia for broadcasting off the coast of Essex. At the 2008 premiere of the Swinging Radio England documentary, Tom was named by Grey Pierson as his late father Don's best friend. Although not one to blow his own trumpet, Tom has enjoyed an amazing life and as a skilled light aircraft pilot, has appeared in numerous films.

Tom's local Wichita Falls paper, the Times Record, asked him to recall his part in the shooting of the film 'Out of Africa' as a tribute to director Sydney Pollack, who died on May 26th. (Interview here). This has prompted us to add a much earlier interview to the Radio London site, which reveals even more of the station founder's star-strewn life.

Duncan's narrow escape
On July 7th, Big L's Duncan Johnson had a narrow escape from an accident on the A26. He writes:

"On a day of heavy showers and gusting winds and as I approached the roundabout (still some way off), I pressed hard on the brake - presumably locking them- as I turned 45 degrees and slid across the diesel residue at the entrance to a council depot. No one else was involved.

The car is a write-off, my right collar bone is cracked at the shoulder end and I have some colourful bruising. Apart from the rigours of typing with my left hand I am getting by with just the occasional sharp pain through the shoulder. I am getting a reasonable amount of sympathy mixed with the chastising 'keep your arm still!'  But it is difficult."

We are delighted to hear that Duncan suffered only a minor injury, and hope his arm will mend swiftly.

Listeners choose the playlist
Ian MacRae's 72nd edition of his newsletter, The Radio Wave, includes the following stories: Radio personality and Presley backup Singer dies * Book at bedtime terrifying listeners * Increased listening by U.S. youngsters * Radio station director knocks off a million and half

Top story in this edition has to be this:

Listeners Choose the Playlist

Rock station WXMM in Norfolk, Virginia is claiming to be the first radio station in the world to actually allow listeners total control programming the music. Listeners can select from thousands of rock titles on 100.5 MAX-FM.

Max Media president Eric Mastel explained: "We feel it's extremely important to be honest with our fans; when we say we are Hampton Roads' Rock Station, now we really are, programmed by our listeners."

"How can one PD and research based on less then 100 people, decide the tastes and musical preferences of an entire market of rockers? They can't! We have hundreds of program directors selecting from decades of great rock!"

Carl's Motown Sessions on Youtube
Regular visitors to 'Happenings' will have seen stories of our friend Carl Dixon and his love of Motown and Philly music. In fact, so great is Carl's knowledge of Motown, that it was immediately recognised by label founder, Berry Gordy. Carl met him when working on Sky TV's Book Programme, where Berry was appearing to promote his biography 'To Be Loved'. When David Freeman asked him a question he couldn't answer, Berry immediately replied, "Ask Carl – he'll know!"

Over the years, Carl has forged many friendships with his recording heroes and in March 2008 he flew to Detroit with his wife Michelle, to achieve a lifetime ambition to record his own musical compositions with legends of the Motown stable.

Otway's 'failure tale' has reached 1998

John Otway is progressing well with his the second volume of his autobigraphy about being rock 'n' roll's greatest failure. He says:

"The tour with Wild Willy Barrett was an unbelievable success. We survived it and enjoyed it so much that we decided to do the first two weeks of Edinburgh Festival together too.

Whilst I try to finish the book (I'm now writing about 1998, and the preparations for doing the Royal Albert Hall.) there are a sprinkling of live shows before the Big Band tour in November."

Full list of tour dates and venues www.johnotway.com

A little-known fact that may not make the book: the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame's webmaster Jon Myer produced one of Otway's records!

Times Archive free for trial period
Mike Barraclough says:
The Times has put its entire archive (up to 1985) online and access is free for an introductory period, though you do need to register.

I put "Radio London" in the search engine for articles from 1964 to1968 and got 43 results

Putting "Radio Caroline" in the search engine for articles for the same period gave me 166 results.

'Music lovin' Pete Young' – on a par with Peel and Scott
Not everything heard on commercial radio is "crap repetitive bland programming". So says Sony Radio Academy Awards judge Paul Robinson in a blog written for the Broadcast Now website. (You are required to register to read the features)

Paul maintains that two of the best DJ-based shows on UK radio can be enjoyed every weekend. Peter Young's Soulful Saturday has now departed from Smooth Radio 102.2 and become a Soulful Sunday on Solar Radio between 1400 to 1600. Solar is on Sky Digital 0129 and on line at www.solarradio.com. David 'Ramjam' Rodigan's Reggae programme is 2300 on Kiss 100, Sundays.

Says Paul, "[Rodigan's] authoritative, passionate DJ style on Kiss defines what a music-loving DJ should sound like... Peter is also a complete music fan – you know from every DJ link that he loves soul music and he exudes knowledge and enthusiasm."

"When you think of music-loving DJs, the names that first come to mind are John Peel or Roger Scott, but David Rodigan and Peter Young are in the same class, and rather happily, both very much alive."

PY also commands Homourable Mention in a recent Radio Times. In the 'Face Behind the Voice' column, James Cannon names PYas both the first voice he recalled hearing on radio and as one of his biggest broadcasting influences.

(Right) PY proves he's alive!

Keith Ashton
1944 — 2008
Keith Ashton, who is believed to have broadcast from three shipborne stations – Radio Hauraki, Voice of Peace and Radio Caroline, died suddenly on June 21st 2008. Keith's long media career commenced in 1953 in his native Australia, where he retired to Fairfield, near Sydney in 2007, at the age of 63.
A full obituary is here. (NB some of the chronology is askew. London's Capital Radio did not exist in 'the swinging Sixties' - it went on air in 1973. Also, although Keith is known to have produced some commercials for Caroline during the Seventies, it is not established that he broadcast on the station.)
(thanks to John Preston in Brisbane)

House of Manannan exhibition Commemorates Caroline closedown

2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the demise of Radio Caroline North. The ship Fredericia was anchored in Ramsey Bay (left) and the station’s address, 'PO Box 3, Ramsey' was the most written-to address in the northwest of Britain. The Isle of Man Post Office needed dedicated staff to handle the volume of mail flooding into the station.

Manx National Heritage (MNH) is opening its 'Pirates of the Irish Sea' summer exhibition at the House of Manannan in Peel on Augst 1st. Curator Matthew Richardson says he has has received a huge response to his appeal for memorabilia of the station and its DJs.

A convention is also to be held on the over the weekend of 19th to 21st September. The island will play host to former Caroline North deejays, engineers, executives and fans who will visit the exhibition and Caroline North’s former base in Ramsey. At a conference to be held on the Saturday, delegates will discuss the station's part in the Island's radio and political history – and in the wider British broadcasting background.

...and talking of Caroline North
Daffy Don Allen's friend Kenny Tosh has uploaded some home movies and Daffy's theme tune to YouTube. Also on YouTube some very good footage of the station with an interview with Roger Gale and another with the speaker of the House of Keys, 17th August 1967.

News from Cruse
Gord Cruse (right) says:

"I'm sending some memorabilia to the Manx exhibition. Imagine being old enough to be in a museum!

All is well with me. I'm continuing to flog my book and sales are strong. I have had some national radio and TV interviews I also visited Mick Luvzit at his home in Abbotsford. I had a good visit and he appears to be recovering fairly well.

Thanks Mary and Chris...I certainly enjoy staying in touch with my English friends!"

In his book 'Juvie: Inside Canada's Youth Jails' Gord writes about his 26 years' experience of working in Victoria's Youth Custody Centre. Click on the book jacket photo for more information.