July/August/September
2007

The archived Happenings index is here...

Another Radio Academy
Photo Album

The Radio Academy Celebration of Offshore Radio, held at Sugar Reef in Great Windmill Street, W1 on August 4th, marked the 40th anniversary of the demise of most of the offshore stations with the exception of the two Carolines. It was attended by many of the pioneers of the world of watery wireless. Five panel sessions were held during the afternoon: The Sound of the Nation (Caroline), The Stations on Sticks (sea fort stations), The Jocks Who Rocked (stations from the north of England and Scotland), It's Smooth Sailing (Radio London) and No Man Shall Ever Forget... (Caroline continues). The event was dedicated to the memory of the offshore pioneers who are sadly no longer with us.

The Academy has now posted audio files of the panel sessions on its website.

There are two albums on the Radio London website, consisting of both photos of our own and contributions from others.

Praising the Organising Committee, Radio Academy Director Trevor Dann wrote:

"What can I say? A brilliant afternoon, superbly produced and impeccably staged – one of the best Academy events ever. Ralph Bernard, Rolf Harris and Ronan O’Rahilly at the same event... Did that really happen?"

Yes it did. And we also had a royal visitor – Prince Michael of Sealand!

Right: Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart and Norm St John guested on the Radio London Smooth Sailing session, produced by Mary 'Knees Club' Payne.

"RemembAAAARRR, RemembAAAARRR the 19th SeptembAAAARRR!"

Are you ready for International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2007?

Honoraaaary Anaaaarrraks, Mark 'Cap'n Slappy' Summers and John 'Ol' Chumbucket' Baur, the instigators o' International Talk Like A Pirate Day are gettin' busier and busier with public appearances, cutlass demonstrations an' book signin's. But we're still waitin' fer them ta make it across the briny to the UK. The guys say:

"We're everywhere: International Talk Like A Pirate Day has truly entered the mass media lexicon. Practically every media reference to the 2007 "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie mentioned the holiday, numerous museums around the US referred to it as part of a rash of pirate exhibits set up to coincide with the movie's opening, we're informally affiliated with pirate festivals all over the world, and we get new Google Alerts to TLAPD references in the news almost weekly."

On the Radio London site, the nine-page P.A.R.R.O.T. (Pirate Anoraks Revere Real Offshore Terminology) TLAPD Special Supplement has its own index. You can learn the lingo from our picture dictionary and choose an appropriate outfit from our fashion feature. Or maybe singa longa our specially-written 'Sound of Music' sea shanties.

2007 poster (right) designed by graphic design student Adam Kreuger

Useful Links for the Big Day:

How to talk like a pirate - instructional video on youtube

Piratical speech translator

Musical medley to get you in the mood

How to KNIT like a pirate!

Now that the busiest August we can remember for a few years is finally over, the figures are in!

On 'that' day, Pirate BBC Essex ended and we were chosen as Website of the Day on Radio 2, causing the number of hits for our site to double!

The graph says it all. Thank you to everyone who has been to the site, especially new readers, and we hope to carry on giving you an insight into what's happening today in the world of the kind of radio that apparently 'died' forty years ago. Boy are they wrong!

Happy Birthday, Bud Ballou!

Howie with party organiser Mary Payne. Husband Chris is reflected in the mirror as he takes the photo)

Caroline's Bud Ballou, aka Howie Castle, was in the UK for both the Radio Academy celebration and Pirate BBC Essex.

On August 13th, he celebrated his 60th birthday not in California but at a surprise party at the Pier Hotel in sunny Harwich!

Representing Radio Caroline at the birthday party was Graham 'Spider' Webb. Howie was also given a calendar of British pubs and an A4 photo of the Caroline South ship Mi Amigo, which appropriately was produced in the Netherlands with the kind assistance of Rob Olthof.

Part of the birthday celebration was a visit to the LV18, where Howie was nicknamed 'The Voice' by Dave Cash. On the tender he met fellow Californian Gary Walker of the Walker Brothers. (See story below)

A Fab Forty Megastar boards the LV18

It's well known that the Walker Brothers got their break in the UK thanks to watery wireless and that Kenny and Cash were particularly instrumental in promoting the trio's amazing and powerful new sound. On August 13th, drummer Gary Walker guested on the Dave Cash show on Pirate BBC Essex to talk about the band's offshore radio connections. The Walkers enhanced the Big L Fab Forty on many occasions and Gary's solo release 'Twinkie Lee' peaked at #6 in the FF on 5th June 1966.

Chris and Mary were honoured to travel out to the ship with Gary and Sue, who is webmistress of Gary's official site. Sue has added a lovely report of the visit, with some brilliant photos and video clips, some shot in the studio . As you'll see from the pictures, Gary got on famously with Daphne (also pictured below)!

You’ll see Bud Ballou, Gord Cruse and Norm St John plus a glimpse of Tony Currie as we rush to catch the ferry – and Graham Webb narrowly misses it! There's also a REAL Walker – Nick – the manager of the Ha'penny Pier! There’s even a shot of Dave Cash et al singing “Happy Birthday” on air to Bud Ballou (clip 5).

Daphne, pictured after a rather rough night aboard the LV18, is delighted with the news.

Pirate Radio Skues continues to cruise

Good news from Cardboard Shoes is that his boss in Norwich has confirmed that Pirate Radio Skues will continue on Sunday evenings for the foreseeable future. The programme goes out on BBC Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northants and 3CR, 21:00 to 0100 and on the internet.

Keith left a message on our answerphone concerning the two huge 40th anniversary events – The Radio Academy Celebration of Offshore Radio and Pirate BBC Essex:

"I just wanted to say how good it was to see you and thank you for all your help over the past fortnight. It really has been a magic, amazing two weeks of my life and two weeks that I shall never, ever forget."

"I just got the last lolly in the Pier Cafe and it's mine, all mine!"

Watery Wedding for Rick and Joy

Radio England's Rick Randell has written about the unusual venue for his marriage to fiancée Joy.

"We have made arrangements for our wedding ceremony on August 30th in a rather unusual setting - a chapel built on a boat that will tie up right off the sea wall adjacent to our property on Tampa Bay. There are pictures of it and a brief description at www.weddingsonwater.com.

Joy's brother will be coming to Florida from Canada – which is where she was born and raised. My sister is also making the trip from Missouri, which is my native state. Of course her son and his family, and my son, and my brother and his family - all of whom live nearby – and special friends we have known over our lifetimes will be with us.

After a couple of days in seclusion, we will celebrate with a wedding weekend open house at our place, with more friends and neighbors coming by for informal get-togethers. Then we'll be heading up to Canada ourselves for a month long honeymoon. Among other friends and family we'll be visiting there, we'll be stopping by for a visit with Keith Hampshire, whom you know from Radio Caroline. We've managed to become friends over the past couple of winters during his visits to Florida with wife Cathy, though this will be our first time to see him north of the border.

We are making plans for a visit to the Radio Day event in Amsterdam in November, and I'm glad to know you'll be there. I'm hoping the other American "boss jocks" (I've never been comfortable with that title) will be on hand too, but will be totally surprised if all four of us who originally put Radio England/Britain Radio on the air get there. We have never managed to get together at the same time and place since our fateful days on board the Olga Patricia."

Warmest congratulations, Joy and Rick. We wish you much happiness together.

The Tony Allan Memorial Fund

Elija Vandenberg, who worked for Caroline in 1973/4, was Tony Allan's closest friend and cared for him during the final three years of his life as he sadly lost his battle with cancer. Elija welcomes donations to the memorial fund she has set up to assist Cancer Research and the Marie Curie Hospices. Some of the money will be set aside to benefit Radio Caroline – especially the radio ship – and the Redsand Fort restoration project, both powerful symbols of the things that Tony stood for – free radio and free spirit.

Visit the website here. (Tony's photo used by permission of Elija)

Elija enjoyed attending the Radio Academy Celebration of Offshore Radio and has very kindly sent some her photos for inclusion on the site, when time permits.

Hans looks great in his Radio London teeshirt. For a larger picture, see our photo gallery.

Hans's Longest Newsletter Ever!
With so many events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Marine Offences Bill, Hans Knot International Newsletter for late August was the longest ever and has swiftly been followed by another! The new newsletter incorporates Geoff Baldwin's feature on the aftermath of Pirate BBC Essex, 2004 and 2007, taken from the Radio Review issue 176 published in July 2007 and an attempt at a 40th anniversary broadcast 'with no previous advertising and a rowing boat'.

Hans's previous newsletter included the unfortunate news that Laser 558 DJ Charlie Wolfe has been diagnosed with cancer. There's a brief tale of land-based UK pirate radio 1968–1972 and a long-lost interview that Robbie Dale conducted with John and Yoko.

To sign up for a personal copy of the free emailed newsletter, contact Hans at hknot@home.nl. You can also read the newsletter on line, at www.hansknot.com where you can see a huge compilation of programmes that could be heard on offshore radio, listed station-by-station, not to mention a very long list of the advertisers on Radio London!

Hans in his new Radio England teeshirt, supplied by Rick Randell (see SRE reunion photo pages) and minus his beard!

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Dave Cash celebrated his 65th birthday on July 18th, and has great plans afoot (or maybe that should be a-knee) for Pirate BBC Essex. (Contrary to rumours, he's not being invited aboard merely because he's such a good chef!)

As a warm-up, the Cashman's Sunday show on BBC Kent (July 8th, 1800 to 2100) included a special called The History of the Pirates according to Dave Cash and Johnnie Walker, produced by Jonathan Witchell. The ex-offshore duo were bombarded with phonecalls and e-mails, one call coming from Cashman's ex-shipmate Ed Stewpot.

Dave's programmes can be heard on 'Listen Aagain' via bbc.co.uk/kent.

The Cashman is also planning another big double-header with Emperor Rosko. (Full details above) In fact, it's already proved so popular that it's now going to be TWO events. Rosko's last big pirate double-header was in 2004, when he and Tony Prince hosted a Caroline North vs South battle of the DJs.

(left) Dave impresses with his skills in the LV18 galley during Pirate BBC Essex 2004. Photo courtesy of Duncan Johnson.

Harvey's Echoes
Harvey Shield who was the drummer with Big L's favourite group Episode Six and appeared in the Fab 40 on numerous occasions, writes from Los Angeles:

Here's a recent pic of me (left) with my a cappella group The Mighty Echoes and Danny De Vito on the set of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'.