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| Golden Lava Lamp November 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of that ubiquitous Sixties icon, the lava lamp, created by British inventor Edward Craven-Walker. Mathmos lava lamps have been manufactured in Britain since 1963, and are one of the few products to have remained in continuous British production for nearly 50 years. The company is selling a limited-edition gold-coloured lamp with scarlet lava to mark the occasion. Radio London is in possession of an original lamp, but ours is sightly different from the norm containing cascading silver spangles. Also rather different from the norm is the world-famoose Cousin Moosie. |
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Model Galaxy for Sale Would anyone like to buy this boat, which is in perfect condition? As it is not yet out of its packing case, I can't really give a precise measurement, but I would say it would be about 4ft long at least and with the mast about 6ft high. The case is extremely heavy. I know the model may be of interest to someone who was involved with the pirate ships back in the Sixties. If interested, please email Mary |
He explains that Future Radio is a Community Radio Station for Norwich, based in West Norwich and funded by the EEDA and NELM Development Trust. The station is also part of Future Projects, a community-based arts, media, and education charity. It incorporates school inclusion projects for young people aged 13 to 16 years, post-support music media and radio training, films/DVDs and other educational projects.
After conducting a number of short-term trial licence broadcasts and gaining a following as a popular local station, Future Radio began broadcasting full-time in 2007 and has since been awarded an extended licencee and new frequency, giving an improved signal and coverage of the whole of Norwich.
Otway says: "When we made the movie last year I thought that the hardest thing to do would be getting it into the cinemas. To my surprise it has turned out to be easier than making the movie :) When I read that in order to be eligible for the BAFTAs we had to be shown in seven cinemas, I thought it was going to be a big hurdle. However, it is one we have crossed with a small Ot skip and jump. The press screening was a great success and the film must have made a bit of an impact on the stunned journalists, as following the press screening we were rewarded with a brilliant 4-Star review in the Guardian, which says: "Even non-initiates will find him utterly charming." We also got cited as one of the top films to see at Glastonbury. 'The Movie tells the tale of an Aylesbury lad who, after a brief brush with the charts that took him nowhere in particular managed to surf his own wave of inglorious obscurity through decades of nonentity whilst at the same time building a fanbase so large and so dedicated that when they decided to make a rock-u-mentary of his career the first cut ran to over seven hours.' |
And if you visit Felixstowe, you might catch a glimpse of the pirate ship that Tim Jones has built in his back garden. (Although as John Sales points out, it's missing that all-important big aerial.)
Jon's love of radio
Our friend Jon Sketchley, who was recently in Harwich for Radio Mi Amigo, is the founder of North West Leicestershire's community radio station, Hermitage FM. Jon was interviewed for the Leicester Mercury
270 in the Yorkshire Post
"The reception was often poor, the signal crackling and fluctuating, but it was the only way to hear the latest offerings from bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Hollies, the Who and many more fronting the decade's music revolution." Yorkshire Post.
All the lonely people
A new statue depicting Eleanor Rigby, the lonely woman featured in the Beatles' song from 'Revolver', has been unveiled at the Museum of Liverpool. It is the city's second statue of the mythical lonely character.
I joined with an old colleague recently in celebrating our 50th anniversary in radio. He started as a high school intern at a local radio station. I started while serving out the final half year of my enlistment in the military service at a radio station near the radar base in Montana, where I was stationed in September 1964. Two years later, I was on the Olga Patricia, heading across the Atlantic to begin our somewhat ill-fated adventure in the high seas off your coast line. I would still like to learn why Radio England/Britain Radio was such a colossal failure.
I am currently in the process of putting a new local FM station on-the-air here in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I'll be programming all-original music by local artists exclusively, just as I have been doing for most of the past 10 years on MusicTampa Bay, my streaming website. The FM will add live programming from a local venue where our main studio is being built, and will introduce student talent from local colleges. Myself and the 6 other members of our non-profit board of directors expect to launch the station in early 2015.
Congratulations, Rick and here's wishing you every success with the new station.
It was an excellent show as Paul McCartney finally made it back to San Diego for the first time in 38 years. He's played LA and nearby Anaheim over the years, but kept skipping us. The concert was held outdoors in our downtown baseball stadium, Petco Park, and was sold-out (42,000+). The night was beautiful; just a few clouds and showtime temp of 68F/20C.
The sound system was fantastic and the video screens were awesome. Paul carried on a friendly banter with the audience and told a few stories. He was in very good voice and had to strain only occasionally on some high notes, but otherwise sounded great. It was an epic night and I'm so glad I went.
Taking pictures was difficult with all the people around, but I'll include four. The setlist is here.
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The view of Petco Park from the outside Altitude Bar on the 22nd floor of the Marriott Hotel across the road |
The stage, as seen from our seats before the concert |
The same view as above, right, during the concert |
The video screen in front of me |
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Amazing tale of Reg Calvert The pop pioneer is remembered in a a feature by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner promoting 'Popcorn To Rock 'n' Roll' a three-part biography by Reg's daughter, Susan Moore. |
"He Crinned the Plurt and said be on the boat like almost immediately"
Mike Barraclough found a 2.5 page letter posted on David Hughes's blog, written by Kenny Everett on Radio London notepaper:
Kenny tells of about being sacked, going to work on Luxembourg and then rejoining Radio London. David was working for the Kent Messenger at the time, went on to Disc and Music Echo before a lifetime career in the music industry at first with Polydor and then EMI.
Other offshore radio-related entries on David's blog:
Going out to the Mi Amigo on a tender and organising a petition, although he's misremembered the start date and correct Caroline ship and the first record played; Radio London disco nights; Meeting Episode Six with Mike Lennox and Keith Skues
Chris and I had the pleasure of meeting David at Duncan Johnson's 75th Birthday Party in 2013.
John and Roger: both much missed Sony Radio Academy Awards judge Paul Robinson, in a blog written for the Broadcast Now website: "When you think of music-loving DJs, the names that first come to mind are John Peel or Roger Scott..." October brings the anniversaries of the deaths of two much-missed broadcasters. John Peel died ten years ago on October 25th, Roger Scott, 25 years ago, October 31st.
Radio London's sad demise on August 14th pushed John to join Radio One at its launch in September 67. With eleven Big L DJs on board, the BBC was trying (but failing) to recreate the 'London Sound'. Most of the shipmates would have considered John Peel the least likely among them to still be broadcasting for the station in 2004, which he did till his untimely death. Annie Nightingale has revealed in a Radio Times feature that John was concerned, "Because he played such an odd and sometimes decidedly discomfiting selection of music, always breaking new boundaries, taking risks", about the prospect of his show being axed, or moved to a later slot. BBC Broadcasting House's Egton Wing, the former home of Radio 1, is known now unofficially as Peel Wing. John won numerous accolades during his lifetime, including eleven Melody Maker DJ of the Year awards and he took Sony Gold in 2002. He held honorary degrees from seven universities and received the OBE in 1998 for services to British music. Since his untimely demise, a number of awards have been introduced in his honour and the Peel name has enhanced a variety of places. A John Peel Award For Musical Innovation is given annually by NME and at Glastonbury music festival new bands play the John Peel Stage. His picture appears in a huge Brighton mural depicting deceased rock icons, where he is flanked by Marc Bolan and Jimi Hendrix.- both artists whose music he played on Radio London. The annual John Peel Day sees musical events staged throughout the UK. In his Heswall birthplace a pub is named The Ravenscroft - John's real name - and a Merseyside train received the Peel name in 2008. A blue plaque marks the location of the former Tractor Sound Studios in Heywood, which was financed by John Peel in 1973 after the Rochdale band Tractor had sent him a demo tape. He even had a new variety of tulip named after him by Spalding's Springfields Horticultural Society. The renovated Corn Exchange building in Stowmarket, John's home for many years, has become the John Peel Centre for Community, Innovation and the Creative Arts. John's widow Sheila still lives in the area and his final resting place is the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, in nearby Great Finborough. A celebration of John Peel is on BBC R1, Tuesday 14th October. 2100 - 2200 John Peel Changed my Life Links: Marc Denis pays tribute to Roger Scott You'll recall that the former Capital Radio/Radio 1 star spent his early career years in America (1966 at WPTR 1540 in upstate NY) and then, in Montréal Canada for the better part of the years 1967 to 1971 at 1470 CFOX, located in my neighbourhood, the western suburb of Pointe-Claire (Québec). Roger desperately wanted to be in Montréal for 1967 to experience Expo '67, the most successful World's Fair still to this day. Over 50 million visitors came to the party in Montréal between April and October that year. Roger and many others broadcast their radio shows frequently from Expo's man-made islands. What an experience. Your audience? The world! There are so many Great Scott radio bits that are part of Montréal radio lore. Like the time Roger was "kidnapped" during a full week that summer of '67, microphone in hand, cuppa tea in the other. He delivered live daily clues in between the Top 40 records during his show, ultimately leading to where he was held captive, the winner snaring a slew of Expo '67-related prizes. As it turns out, the series of clues led to... the Great Britain Pavilion at Expo? No, that would have been too obvious. When Roger was finally found, he'd been broadcasting daily in a small remote booth behind a clump of trees just at the back of Expo's Youth Pavilion. Just one of many Roger Scott CFOX bits still remembered today. Then, there was the time in February of that same year when he drove after his show at 1am, from Montréal to New York City (10 hours return!), to retrieve a reel-to-reel copy of the hot-off-presses Beatles "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields" single he'd just heard as an American exclusive on the Charlie Greer overnight show beaming in on WABC. He drove back to Montréal immediately afterwards (overcoming a snowstorm on the return trek and car problems too), barging in, exhausted, that same afternoon live on the Dean Hagopian Show, so that CFOX could be the first in Canada to broadcast this Fab Four exclusive. Great AM radio theatre in those pre-internet days. Of course, CFOX was the daily exclusive local broadcaster in Room 1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel during those 10 days of May-June 1969 of the John Lennon /Yoko Ono Bed-In for Peace. Roger Scott was right there in the room delivering more radio magic daily. In one of our too-infrequent chats (see photo), Roger confessed to me in London in 1983 that, that week of radio bedside with John Lennon remained a top career moment and highlight. Rog' loved Montréal so much (the feeling was indeed mutual) and was having such success at 1470 CFOX that he decided to stay well-beyond the year 1967. Save for a heated dispute in the summer of 1968 that saw him, as he put it "off sulking childishly for a few months in Halifax, Nova Scotia". He was exiled at radio station CHNS, but he returned to great fanfare in January 1969 to resume at CFOX on Hymus Boulevard until mid-1971. Then he headed back home to Britain in anticipation of the arrival of commercial radio there, a year or so away. UBN, Capital Radio, Radio 1. The rest is history. Like many others, fans and colleagues alike, I miss you my friend. Je me souviens. Roger Scott (1943-1989), gone but not forgotten in 2014, 25 years later. |
Alan 'Neddy' Turner writes about our attempts to identify the former Caroline shipping office in Harwich. We took photos outside two buildings in Church Street (see photofeature) and now Alan has identified the correct one:
"I looked back through a lot of old papers and found that Anglia Marine was at No. 50, Church Street, Harwich. There were a lot of small businesses in Church Street fifty years ago and the buildings look a lot different when they have been turned into private houses. So now you know."
Unfortunately, Tony O'Neil recently had to give up the curatorship of the High Lighthouse, which housed a radio museum, but some of the exhibits have been transferred and are on display on the LV18, which is open regularly to visitors. The lighthouse now stands empty and has been taken over by The Harwich Society.
You may recall my challenge to the assertion that Kenny & Cash were the first radio/music double act in the UK. At the risk of being mega-nerdy I have just read some interesting information in the autobiography of broadcaster Derek Jones (Microphones and Muddy Boots – pub 1987 by David and Charles). I came across it in a brilliant second-hand bookshop in Alnwick.
Roger Williams Presents "A World Of Difference" every Monday night between 1900 and 2200 on Trentsound.
Manx Radio Golden Jubilee Stamps
The 50th anniversary of Manx Radio is being celebrated in what is the ultimate accolade by Isle of Man Post Office with the issue of a set of eight stamps to mark the "historic landmark" of the Island's national radio station.
The stamps, which go on sale from October 1, have been specially designed and pictorially reflect some of the key programmes and services that the "nation's station" broadcasts throughout the year.
Sadly, neither Daffy Don Allen nor Louise Quirk are 'stamp stars'. (thanks to Jon Myer)
"I am delighted to announce The Delgonives' new release 'I've got you on my mind' is now available to purchase from iTunes, Amazon and stream via Spotify and other digital download stores. I'd call the style retro beach/Catalinas/Beach Boys/Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons.
When this finally hits the charts it may allow me to leave broadcast TV and have a career singing here and there – once I complete my singing lessons. Ha!"
Otway the Movie: DVD launch Otway the Movie is being launched with a bang. Sunday 28th September, 1430, the Big Band are doing a 30-minute showcase gig at HMV in Oxford Street. Then the movie star is planning to drive his Sinclair C5 around the great London landmarks. If the weather is good he will probably go for a picnic in Hyde Park before a big Otway & Barrett Leicester Square evening gig. Details here Southend in November can't compete in the glamour stakes with the weekend in Cannes in May 2013, but it will cost a lot less and will be just as much fun. No doubt John will be continuing his tradition of taking a chilly dip. Details on the rigbt. Otway website. |
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More Fab Four from the archives A new collection of live recordings made at the Beeb by the Fab Four is now available to order. It comes as a 2CD set, or for traditionalists, a 180-gram vinyl package. 'On -Air Live at the BBC Vol 2' comprises 63 tracks, 37 previously unreleased performances and 23 previously unreleased recordings of band banter some of it with DJs Brian Matthew and Alan Freeman and 'Pop Go The Beatle's hosts Lee Peters and Rodney Burke. |
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Whilst recently in Australia, I came across a Radio London 'favourite' in a Sydney TV Guide. On Saturday 19 October I found that Digital Channel 44 (TVS) was showing a programme at 06:00 featuring Garner Ted Armstrong. I had returned to the UK by the time the programme aired, but assume that it must have been a TV version of The World Tomorrow! As Garner Ted died in 2003 this must have been a recycled recording. It makes me wonder whether any of his old radio programmes are still doing the rounds of stations around the world…..
Nothing else to report with a Radio London connection – I did see a couple of wombats but neither responded to the names 'Ian' and/or 'Damon'!
Land-based UK commercial radio celebrates 40th birthday
Penny Bowskill (left) whose late husband Jason Wolf was a Caroline North DJ, tells how she launched LBC with a pigeon release: "I was PA to the COE of LBC and it was me who released the pigeons and wore the T-Shirt at the launching on October 8th 1973. The Financial Director's secretary and I released the pigeons - and balloons - in Gough Square. The move to LBC in my career was, of course, instigated by Jason, who suggested I apply for the job with Terry Bate who applied for the licence with the London Evening Standard Group, I got the job with Terry, but when they did not get the licence I sold myself to LBC, who did." Penny is still searching for her photos of the occasion. No doubt the pigeons' descendants all over the city have been having a party. Mirror story; Torin Douglas for the Huffington Post; Tim Blackmore for Radio Today Of the Guardian feature where readers have contributed their 'memories', Jon Myer says: "Amazing how people's vivid memories are so often wrong - like the person who can remember listening to 'Honky Tonk' on Capital. That was BBC Radio London!" |
MP admired Radio London Hans Knot has kindly contributed a newspaper clipping from the Daily Mail of February 27th 1967. |
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John Peel
The UK's first two land-based commercial radio stations went on the air in London in October 1973. News broadcaster LBC arrived on the 8th, followed a week later, by Capital Radio.