August 2005
 July 2005 is here... The archived Happenings index is here...
(New Aug 13th) John Edward's Purple Knees are revealed in all their glory!
(new July 2nd) In the Big L Mini-Memories, Page 6, there's more about the Mascots – the Swedish group in the Radio London teeshirts.

Mike's Ross Revenge (new July 2nd)

Mike Stewart, who broadcast from the Ross Revenge, shares his photos of his lovingly-constructed model. The addition of this new page brings the total of model ships to be discovered on the Radio London website, to five. To make these labours of love easily accessible, we have compiled a new Models Index.

And now, the news....

Meeting the Fab Four
The story of Mary's unforgettable meeting with the Fab Four at the Wimbledon Palais, has already been covered briefly in our Recollection item. Some time afer the item appeared, it was spotted by a reporter for the Wimbledon Guardian, who was writing a feature about the Palais and wanted more information about the event. No more was heard and it was assumed that the idea had been dropped.

John, with unknown lady, during his 'blue period' as Oh-oh-Seven-and-a-Half. (This was after his 'purple period', but his knees refused to turn blue)

Sunday, August 14th – The Purple Knees conquered all!
and now they have their own feature!

On the weekend of August 13th and 14th 2005, Oldies Project treated us to a 1965 Big L timewarp, with a playlist of 600 songs played by the country's most popular offshore radio station, between December 1964 and August 1965. Many congratulations to the Oldies Project Team on a superb job, which we know involved a great deal of hard work.

The special edition Fab 40 show at 1100 on Sunday 14th, was the first Oldies Project programme with a presenter. It was hosted by Radio London DJ John 'Purpleknees' Edward, who was in a good position to disclose fascinating facts both about life aboard the Galaxy and about the Fab 40 artists and presented a fantastic show.

The London Sound weekend playlist is available as a pdf file (275k), which prints out to 14 pages. Download it here.

Oldies Project now has a guest book. One contributor writes: "Great weekend of music. No other station on radio or the Internet comes close. Other stations (apart from the BBC) simply do not have access to the records that you have. Long may you continue."

Big L's John Edward presented three hours of fabness!

Carl O'Neill Little – 17 December 1938 to 6th August 2005

The much-respected drummer Carlo Little, has lost a two-year battle against lung cancer.

Carlo was a self-taught musician, who started playing skiffle in the Fifties. He drummed with Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages and over the years was involved in numerous collaborations with ex-Savages such as Ritchie Blackmore and Nicky Hopkins. On the R 'n' B scene, he was with Cyril Davis's R&B All-Stars and also the Hoochie Coochie Men (alongside the also recently-departed Long John Baldry). Brian Jones wanted Carlo to join his new group, the Rolling Stones, but he declined. On a later occasion, he nearly joined Deep Purple. He coached Keith Moon and for a bargain 10/- (50p) per lesson encouraged him to play as loudly as possible.

When the famous Ace Cafe reopened in 2001, Carlo was there with his band the All Stars. He arranged annual tributes there to Lord Sutch.

You can read the story of Carlo's amazing musical career and leave a message of condolence at www.carlolittle.com, the website run by his daughter Giselle.
The truth about Fame
Hans Knot's first edition of the International Newsletter for August set out to quash the long-held and oft-repeated story that Ronan O'Rahilly was the manager of Georgie Fame and started Radio Caroline in order to promote him. In edition two, Hans has received a number of comments on the subject and on other radio myths.
To sign up for the free emailed newsletter, contact Hans at hknot@home.nl
Over-Exposure for Radio Host
The latest edition of The Radio Wave newsletter, #4, includes: Death of Star Trek crew member who began in radio * Station put off the air by magic? * Over-exposure for radio host * Announcer makes up news stories.

Fery Interesting...

A terrific collection of photographs of The Knack and later band incarnations Gun and Baker-Gurvitz Army, can be viewed on Paul Gurvitz's website, including some great shots of Gun wearing teeshirts depicting characters from the cult TV show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.

Read the complete Radio London feature about the Knack, the band who were in the Fab 40 of June 1966 with 'Stop before You Get Me Going', here.
Life's a picnic!

At the Annual Picnic organised by Fran and Roger Cooper, Knees Club Officials Pauline and Mary met Nashville Teen Ray Phillips, who was keen to show them his patellae.

More photos and a full account of this momentous occasion are to be found on Fran and Roger's website.

I do feel I should defend the honour of our small Canadian friend, Cousin Moosie. He is not a 'loose moose', and I did not 'pick him up' in Canada, although I have had to pick him up on the odd occasion since, after a couple of margaritas! Cousin Moosie was a gift from my kind landlady in Vancouver.

 

Les Braid – 5 September 1937 to 31 July 2005

Les Braid, who played bass for the Swinging Blue Jeans for over 45 years, (1958 to 2005), has died in his home town of Liverpool. When Les began playing with the band at the Cavern, they were still called the Bluegenes.

Although the Swinging Blue Jeans' heyday is usually cited as 1964, the year they enjoyed their biggest hit 'Hippy Hippy Shake', six of the band's singles which were released during the short life of Radio London either made the Big L Fab 40 or the Climber list.

The group is noted for its humour and Les was quick with the quips when bandmate Ray Ennis decided to reveal his knees during the Brighton Festival 2000. Les will be greatly missed by his fellow band members and many fans.

The Swinging Blue Jeans, as they were in 1966, feature on the Fab 40 for 20th February 1966.

Kenny's Big L Beatle Report
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame has a very rare and special audio clip. It's the 39th anniversary of the Beatles tour of the USA, where Kenny Everett represented Radio London and phoned daily reports back to Paul Kaye. The PRHoF is very proud to be able to share one of these reports in studio quality. Other Radio London jocks featured are Duncan Johnson and John 'Purpleknees' Edward. Duncan is trying to identify two mystery guests aboard the Galaxy, and you can hear a trailer for Purpleknees's Big L Fab 40 show on August 14th (full information above).
Bob's Mega-feature
 Bob le Roi's latest site update is Part Eight of his Radio Sutch and City mega-feature.

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