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Lucky for some – a leap of 13 Fab 40 places from #25 to #12, to bring a first major hit for the 'Pied Piper' from Swanley, Kent. And this week, an
well-known eccentric pop star who was no stranger to watery wireless was interviewed for the job of Big L DJ. |
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Last
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This
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Week
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Week
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1
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1
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My Generation | Who |
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3
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2
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Wind Me Up (Let Me Go) | Cliff Richard |
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11
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3
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Let's Hang On | Four Seasons |
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10
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4
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Princess In Rags | Gene Pitney |
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5
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5
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Tell Me Why | Elvis Presley |
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13
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6
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The River | Ken Dodd |
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7
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7
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Get Off Of My Cloud | Rolling Stones |
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2
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8
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Positively 4th Street | Bob Dylan |
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6
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9
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1-2-3 | Len Barry |
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4
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10
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Don't Bring Me Your Heartaches | Paul & Barry Ryan |
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30
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11
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Maria | P J Proby |
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25
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12
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You Were On My Mind | Crispian St Peters |
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23
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13
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Walk Hand In Hand | Gerry & the Pacemakers |
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39
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14
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Rescue Me | Fontella Bass |
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14
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15
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Is It Really Over? | Jim Reeves |
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18
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16
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How Can You Tell? | Sandie Shaw |
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17
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17
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Turn Turn Turn | Byrds |
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8
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18
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The Carnival Is Over | Seekers |
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27
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19
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This Year, Next Year | Honeycombs |
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9
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20
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A Lover's Concerto | Toys |
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31
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21
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To Whom It Concerns | Chris Andrews |
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29
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22
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Girls Girls Girls | Fourmost |
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35
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23
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Come Away Melinda | Wendy Huber / Barry St John |
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32
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24
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Till The End Of The Day | Kinks |
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–
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25
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My Ship Is Coming In | Walker Brothers |
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28
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26
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I Found A Girl | Jan & Dean |
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38
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27
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Go My Way | Valerie Mitchell |
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36
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28
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Ain't That Peculiar | Marvin Gaye |
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–
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29
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Take Me For What I'm Worth | Searchers |
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–
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30
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Fever | McCoys |
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–
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31
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Eight Days A Week | Alma Cogan |
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–
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32
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It's All Happening | Leapy Lee |
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–
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33
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You Make It Move | Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich |
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–
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34
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It Was Easier To Hurt Her | Wayne Fontana |
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–
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35
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Keep On Running | Spencer Davis Group |
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–
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36
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Leave It To Me | A Band Of Angels |
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–
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37
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It Comes And Goes | Mike Berry |
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–
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38
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Is This The Dream? | Zombies |
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–
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39
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Thunderball | Tom Jones |
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–
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40
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All Or Nothing | Patti LaBelle & her Belles |
Note: TW announced on the 'Dr Circuit' tape (see FF 21/11/65) that Ed Stewart was scheduled to present this Fab 40 show,
although there is no confirmation as to whether or not he actually did.
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25
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12
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You Were On My Mind | Crispian St Peters | Decca F12287 |
On March 7th 1965, Crispian St Peters arrived in the Fab Forty with his first single At This Moment. A second release No No No vanished without trace and then came You Were On My Mind, which was to be a national #2. The song had already seen success in the US, where it reached the Top Ten for Californian quintet, We Five. In the US Crispian's version of You Were On My Mind was released after he had found chart success there with Pied Piper, and it climbed to #36 around the end of 1966. Not bad, considering the We Five version had been #3 as recently as the summer of '65.
However, international Top Ten hits aside, the most exciting kneevent in Crispian's career which must surely have been etched forever in his memorknee, was May 17th, 1966, when he became member #253 of the Knees Club! (See Fab Forty 01/05/66)
Notice that Radio London was playing You Were On My Mind
in November '65, but it did not enter the national chart till January '66.
Sadly, Crispian St Peters died in 2010, after being in poor health for some time.
This Week Ashore
...in Curzon Street
Brian Long, in his book The London
Sound, reveals that on Nov 30th 1965, Screaming
Lord Sutch went for an interview as a Big L DJ. The eccentric singer
and would-be politician obviously felt himself well qualified for the job,
having previously claimed squatters' rights to the abandoned Thames estuary
ex-naval fort Shivering Sands, to house his own offshore station, Radio
Sutch. This was late in May 1964 and Sutch was the first to have the nerve
to commandeer one of several derelict wartime forts for the purpose, although
others were hot on his heels.
Sutch (1963 candidate for the National Teenage Party) promoted Radio Sutch as 'Britain's First Teenage Radio Station'. Although the fledgling Caroline and Atlanta were far more appealing to music-starved teens with trannies than the BBC Light Programme, neither could be categorised accurately as exclusively pop stations. Caroline played a lot of MOR material and Atlanta aired many cover versions of hits – which was exactly what the hip kids already loathed about the Light Programme - session bands playing covers in order for the BBC to to get around the restricted 'needle time' allowance.
In September '64, 'his lordship' sold Radio Sutch to his manager Reg Calvert, who renamed it Radio City and used it as a promotional vehicle for the pop acts he managed.
At the time of Sutch's interview with Radio London, he and Calvert
had fallen out. Sutch claimed he was being 'slagged off' over the Radio City
airwaves, so he applied to join Big L 'for a joke' in order to 'get his own
back' on his manager. It is not known who interviewed 'his lordship', presumably
at the Curzon Street offices, but he claimed, "I would be a good asset
to you. I'm a national name and I'm better than a lot of the deejays you've
got on there."
Radio London management decided otherwise, and the application
was rejected because Sutch's image was deemed 'too wild' for the station.
They might also have contemplated the consequences of the existing DJs having
to spend regular fortnights with the wild man in the confined space of the
Galaxy. However, as plain Lord Sutch,
he did appear briefly in the Fab Forty in May/June '66 with his forgettable
single The Cheat. This chart placing most likely happened because the
record bore as its B-side Sutch's self-penned ditty Black and Hairy,
a song published by the Big L- associated Pall Mall Music.
At around £50 for a mint copy, The Cheat is highly
collectable.
Offshore Echoes features the histories of the fort-based stations here.
...and in Charing Cross Road
the Big L Discotheque opened on December 3rd. (The word 'Discotheque'
had yet to be shortened to 'disco'.) The launch was attended by so many Radio
London stars that there can't have been many left aboard the ship – and
as the above story tells, management was looking for new blood. Pete Brady
had resigned to take a job with Radio Luxembourg and Kenny Everett had been
ousted for lampooning 'The World Tomorrow'. The religious programme provided
a huge source of income for Radio London and when the sponsor demanded his
sacking, Curzon Street management was forced to comply.
See news clipping in
our Mini-Memories pages
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–
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34
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It Was Easier To Hurt Her | Wayne Fontana | Fontana TF 642 |
Just one month after She Needs Love dropped out of the Fab 40, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders had gone their separate ways, and Wayne entered the Fab 40 at #34 with his first solo release, Garnet Mimms' It Was Easier To Hurt Her.
New in at #36 this week, A Band Of Angels featured Mike d'Abo (vocals), Christian Gaynor, John Baker, Dave Wilkinson and James Rugge-Price. The group had formed while its members were at Harrow public school, turning professional in 1964. They traded on their "upper class" origins, appearing in publicity shots dressed in matching suits and straw boater hats. The group broke up in 1966, when d'Abo beat all-comers (including Rod Stewart, apparently!) and was chosen in auditions to replace the departing Paul Jones as lead singer with Manfred Mann. The final Band Of Angels single, Invitation, reached the Radio London Top Twenty in March 1966. The band was also one of many which recorded a first birthday message for Radio Caroline. Mike d'Abo is responsible for creating the Cadbury's advert: 'A finger of fudge is just enough' and he likes to relate how that one jingle has made him more money than any of his songs, including Handbags and Gladrags which Chris Farlowe took to number one in 1967 and charted again for the Stereophonics in December 2001. Alan Field and Mary Payne |
| DJ Climber: | ||
| The Little Girl I Once Knew | Beach Boys | Dave Dennis |
| Climbers: | |
| Broken Hearted Clown | Foresters |
| Work Song | James Royal |
| I Hear A Symphony | Supremes |
The climber in BLUE has been added as a supplement to Brian Long's original listing, and was kindly contributed by Kees Brinkerink
with information gained from listening to archive Radio London recordings.
The Caroline 'Sounds of '65' chart (south ship) for this week is here
Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!