M • I • N • I
M • E • M • O • R • I • E • S
These pages are devoted to special memories of Big L in the Sixties.
If you have a particular memory of something that happened while listening to Radio London, won a station competition, or have unearthed some rare memorabilia, please click on the mail button to the right and let us know!

Our friend the offshore historian, Hans Knot, has very kindly shared this clipping concerning the 'Big L 270' Club. Hans says:

I received a package with newspaper cuts, photographs, personal notes and more from a former Radio 270 fan and collector. Edward Waterson. Edward has donated his personal belongings to the radio archive of Hans Knot and so I want to share this unique letter and advert to the Radio London collection. I must say honestly that I never heard before of this local Big L 270 Club.

We've never heard of the club either, although from the wording, it appears to have been active around the time of the station close-downs.

We'd be interested to hear from the proprietor, or any former members.


Feature from Dutch pop magazine Tuney Tunes, May 1966 (Click on the pages to see larger versions).

(Top photo, right) l to r, Dave Cash, Mark Roman, John Edward, with Earl Richmond at the back. Bottom photo, Dave Dennis and Earl Richmond (minus his glasses) in the studio.

If any of our Dutch-speaking visitors would care to translate the interview, we'd be very pleased to be able to include an English version.

Clipping courtesy of Bert Bossink

Daily Mail
May 26th 1967

It was hoped that a collaboration with Radio Andorra would prove the salvation of Radio London, but this was not to be.

Clipping from the Francis Pullen Collection

Journalist Donald Currie describes his opportunity to visit the Galaxy as "the thrill of a lifetime". Below is the Radio London schedule the magazine published for the week June 1st to 7th 1967 – with an interesting spelling of John Peel's name on Sunday. Clippings courtesy of Raoul Verolleman


Hans Knot says:

This is from the Television Mail April 15, 1965. In it, there are a lot of 'Appointments' 'New Campaigns', 'New transmitters' but also New on London.
It's all about new advertisers who were highlighted in the Television Mail. So we have radio promotion in a TV magazine for our beloved Big L.

Webmaster's note:
Trading stamps were popular during the Sixties and were the equivalent of today's 'store loyalty points'. Customers at the shops and garages that were participating in a particular scheme, would be given so many stamps per shilling spent. (Usually two, if I remember rightly) Shoppers would be tempted by special offers of 'double stamps' on selected goods. Supermarkets were the growing trend and they gladly enlisted trading stamps in their battles to attract customers. (Lord Sainsbury, however, disapproved of the practice of giving stamps as incentives)*. The two main brands were Green Shield and the S & H (Sperry & Hutchinson) Pink, which used the slogan, "Save as you spend".

Trading stamps had to be glued into books and they were not self-adhesive. The completed books were exchangeable for gifts, although sometimes half-and quarter-completed books were acceptable. The job took a lot of licking and was often given to the children of the family as a 'pocket-money earner'. After a stamp-sticking session, your mouth tasted foul! It would be interesting to know if the winners of Radio London's S & H Pink Stamps prizes, would have been expected to stick all 50, 000 of them into books themselves!

* See the retrowow website, for everything you ever wanted to know about Green Shield Stamps! There's not much information available about Pink Stamps, but there's a photo of them here.

Many thanks to Hans.

Derek Paice says:

I've just been reading the piece about Chuck Blair on the Radio London website.  How sad that he died so young.

I was twelve in 1967 and listened to Radio London practically every waking moment when I wasn't in school. When the broadcasts stopped I felt I wanted to do something to mark the event, but had no idea what.

My friend Paul and I decided to build a coffin out of cardboard and wrote "BIG L RIP" along the sides and decorated it with roses from the garden. We advertised for other people to join us, but only two other boys turned up to help.

Chuck had given an address in Harpenden, Herts, where he could be contacted once he came ashore. Paul and I went to Harpenden to see if we could find him.  The number on the address referred to a block of flats, not the individual apartment and as we stood outside wondering what to do next a young woman walked past and guessed what we were up to. All she said was, "It's number 3, up the top", so we went in and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so we sat and waited.

Within about half an hour Chuck came bounding up the stairs carrying some shopping and was obviously pretty surprised to find two young lads sitting on the stairs outside his flat. After introductions he invited us in and offered us a drink and said he would be delighted to meet us if we took our coffin to Bernard's Heath in St Albans in a few days time. We wanted a large crowd to come with us, but in the end just the four of us turned up to carry the coffin from Hatfield to St Albans.  Lots of drivers flashed and hooted as we walked the several mile journey.

I was sorry not to have been able to provide a larger crowd for Chuck. He deserved better. He was so kind and friendly and made time to join us while he was actually on his way to London for an interview at the BBC. As we know, he didn't get a job there.

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