Page Six
Bob Stewart tells all about his theme tunes

John Bennett wrote:

I have now received a few e-mails from Mick Luvzit, and to receive an e-mail or three from THE Mick Luvzit whom I listened to non-stop on Caroline North initially left me gobsmacked!! It was like getting an e-mail from God.

Mick has asked me to do a few drops and things for him, which is a very great honour . If he had asked me to roller-skate the Atlantic Ocean, wearing only a grass skirt with a banana in each ear I would have instantly agreed. A wonderful chap and a very, very skilled broadcaster

However, before embarking on the recordings, John had a few queries about theme tunes which he wished to straighten out with Bob.

Bob Stewart's theme on Caroline North is generally given as Image by Alan Haven. However, I can definitely recall that Bob used a few themes during his onboard career, specifically All For You by Earl Van Dyke and Hoots Mon by Lord Rockingham's XIV.
With the track All For You, Bob used to say, "Hi everybody" at the first dip, around 25 seconds in. All For You was also used by Rick Dane, but perhaps Bob used Image or Hoots Mon when Rick came onboard?

Bob's answer will be of interest to all Caroline North fans and we are sure John doesn't mind us sharing it.

I used Alan Haven's Image from the beginning. Alan wrote me to say thanks that due to my using this record it was reissued by Phillips records, I guess around 1966. Blackburn used it at a later date, maybe on Radio 1. Also Lord Rockingham's XIV and Hoots Mon, one of the greatest British R 'n' R records ever, together with Cliff Richard's Move It! As to the others, yes, I flirted with Earl van Dyke's All For You and Ray McVey's Kinda Kinky, but Image was the main one from my joining to leaving.

Each week the tender brought new records and it was an absolute blast to dig into them and find so many gems. So much great music that never made the chart, 'cos we were so far in advance of the English record companies' ability to issue. It was the golden age for British pop, but that only caused us to neglect unbelievably good stuff from the U.S. We received demo acetates from Motown (they would be worth a small fortune now) and that's what I was using for Earl Van Dyke and so on and so fifth. Ah, but it's all water under the bridge now.

B'bye now, Bob

Webmaster's notes: 1: Image by Alan Haven c/w Romance on the North Sea, was first issued in 1965 in Fontana TF 542 (above). The reissue, in 1967 was Fontana TF835. And I wholeheartedly agree with Bob about Hoots Mon, which happens to be one of the first ever singles I bought, in 1958. Cliff's Move It! is good too, but if I had to choose, I would go for Dynamite.

2: Very sadly, John Bennett passed away in September 2014.

Radio Caroline on 259... AND 199!
Raoul Verolleman writes from Belgium, "After seeing Hans Knot and Paul de Haan's Radio Caroline poster on your pages, I couldn't do less than send you a pic of my poster, (below) which is not only in better condition (sorry guys) but also older, as it goes back to the '199' days.

I think it's the same size (125 cm x 38 cm Ð that's 49.20" x 15.00" to you illogical, non-metric system people!). Hope you'll enjoy it!"

We certainly did, Raoul. Click here for an enlarged version of Hans and Paul's poster

Martin Kayne kindly shared with us this lovely photo taken by Mark Sloane in the days when he was a mere slip of a lad – and so was Mark! (If you look at the photo of Martin at the Caroline 40th birthday party, you'll see he has hardly changed at all!)

Many thanks to them both.
All contributions for our offshore scrapbooks will be gratefully received. Radio London scrapbook here.