Radio London tribute by Mary Payne
pp Chris and Mary Payne, Radio London Webmasters

Chris and I met John on July 24th, 1997, during the first week of the Big L '97 Radio London recreation, broadcasting from the Yeoman Rose off Walton Pier in Essex. The station was, as far as possible, a recreation of the original and included many of the 1960s features. The purpose of our visit was for me to be a Coffee Break guest. This was the event that started it all for us; it revived our interest in Radio London and culminated in us launching the RL website. I'll never forget driving towards the coast and suddenly being able to pick up Radio London on medium wave after 30 years' absence. I wish I could have bottled that moment and I know that John shared the same 'shivers down the spine' feeling.

John never forgot his participation in Big L '97 and the chance to work with original Big L jock, Mark Roman. He described it as, "One of those amazing lifetime experiences... Radio London was always my big inspiration and I take it with me wherever I go." In fact it was a regular occurrence for John to mention Radio London or the Fab 40 during the course of a Boom show.

When we met, Chris and I had just come off the tender from our memorable visit to the Yeoman Rose and John had been taking a break ashore from his DJ duties. Chatting with John, we discovered that he had been a fellow disco DJ around 1971/3, at the Bird's Nest pub in Twickenham, with our close friend Alan Hardy. In 2021, John was tremendously shocked to learn via the RL site of Alan's untimely demise. Unfortunately, he had lost touch with Alan when he moved away to Nottingham.

In 2003, having launched Saga Radio, John emailed to tell us he was hosting the Breakfast Show. He said he loved our RL website and especially the Fab Forties, which at that stage we had been adding weekly to the site for around two years. John was the first person to inform us of the death of ex-Radio London DJ, Dave Dennis, who post-RL, went by his real name of Neil Spence. John knew Dave, aka 'The Double D from Twelve to Three', very well, as he had been John's boss when they both worked for the United Biscuits Network in Osterley. Later, when John was presenting the Radio Trent Breakfast Show, Dave became Trent's Programme Director.

Chris and I were delighted when Boom Radio began and John was on the schedule. When 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' topped the chart of Boom listeners' favourites, The Roman Emperor (now living in Spain) was tickled pink to hear John credit both him and Radio London with the single's success.

Audio Clip: John Peters talking about Mark Roman and 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'

In 2022, we gladly gave permission for John to present the Final Radio London Fab Forty, as published on our website, during Boom's Pirate Radio Day on August 14th. Many more than forty tracks were crammed into that chart, but John missed out very few of them. On the Saturday edition of John's Jukebox before the actual chart, he played all of the final DJ climber list, where the new releases had been allocated to Big L DJs past and present. John told us he was feeling a little nervous about presenting the final Fab Forty. "This weekend will mean so much to me and I hope many others too. Boom's streaming is up some 25% already with all the recent press coverage!"

John was peerless when it came to chart rundowns and of course, the Final Fab Forty sounded perfect. Afterwards he admitted that, "The whole thing was so wonderful, albeit exhausting!" The icing on the cake was when the programme prompted a very complimentary email from Stephen Birch, the son of Big L's late MD, Philip.

On December 23 2024, John hosted Boom's 60th birthday tribute to Radio London, with Fab 40 tracks and listener memories. We have limited information about what was being aired at the start of the station's life, but we know that the DJs were very short of new records and had to rely heavily on those that had sailed with the mv Galaxy from Miami. John made a point of consulting the Fossilised Fab Forties, to include some of those US hits.

Chris and I had always been hoping for the chance to meet up with John again, but sadly, it never came.

John has departed to join his numerous old friends, spinning the hits from the the Great Radio Station in the Sky.

Au revoir, John. We wish you Smooth Sailing.

Chris and Mary

Link to Fossilised Fabs

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