 |
 |
October/November
2004 (September
2004 is
here...)
Dave Godin 1936
– 2004 In the 60s and 70s, we probably took the availabilty of all the great soul music for granted, and it's only in later years that we're finding out more about the people who were behind its success. In the last few years, the influential Dave Godin's name probably got a wider audience due to his great CD collections of 'Deep Soul Treasures' – this is not your run-of-the-mill 'Gold' stuff either. Among many other
things, if it wasn't for Dave we may never have had Motown in the UK when
we did, and the story of the origination of the phrase 'Northern Soul'
is just priceless. Dave Godin probably deserves the accolade 'Soul Legend', just as much as some of the artists. |
 John
Peel 1939 – 2004Radio London is sad to report the death of John Peel, while on holiday in Peru with his beloved wife Sheila. Peelie joined Big L on March 8th, 1967, but did not sneak his famous Perfumed Garden into the overnight schedule until May '67, only three months prior to the station's demise. During that short time, the programme gained a huge following. A far cry from Radio London's Fab Forty format, John introduced night-owl listeners to a rich brew of blues, psychedelia, poetry readings (sometimes in Latin) and everything in-between. Following Radio London's untimely close-down, John found himself on the steps of Broadcasting House, alongside a host of other ex-Big L and offshore jocks, posing for photos as part of the new BBC Radio One team. He was the only original Radio One DJ who was still presenting shows on the station in 2004. He also presented 'Home Truths' on BBC Radio Four, did many narrations for TV programmes and for several years wrote a column for Radio Times. John won many awards in his long career. He was honoured with an OBE in 1998, voted 4th in the Radio Times 'Favourite Male Broadcaster' poll in 2002 and awarded a place in the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in 2003. The Perfumed Garden is empty; the Head Gardener has left us. See
Fab
Forty 5th March 1967, for info about the week Peelie joined Radio
London. |
|
The new Marquee in Leicester Square |
Psychedelia in Leicester Square – Hendrix Back in Town! The Famous Marquee Club, home to the Radio London afternoons, with resident musicians such as David Bowie, has long since left Wardour Street. However, the Marquee name and logo have been transferred to a new venue in Leicester Square. As reported in our September Happenings, the club is hosting an exhibition of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. At £9.50, admission is pricey, but the display of artifacts, stage costumes and psychedelic art is fascinating to anyone interested in the music and culture of the Hendrix era. Radio London's full page of images from the exhibition is here. The organisers say that there is insufficient room to display all the memorabilia simultaneously, but their intention is to regularly change the displays to incorporate different material. At the end of the exhibition, all the items will be auctioned. |
Psychedelia rules! |
|
Hancock's creators, Alan Simpson and Ray Galton |
H-h-h ........ancock's Half Century On Wednesday, 6th October, the Radio Academy hosted
an early celebration of the 50th anniversary of the lad from 23 Railway
Cuttings, East Cheam, created by Ray Galton
and To mark the transmission of the first Hancock's Half Hour, (November 2nd 1954) the brilliant Galton and Simpson were interviewed by Adrian Juste, who stood in at short notice for an ailing Danny Baker. The writers first made their mark with the Hancock radio series, and later wrote episodes for TV. As part of its programming to mark the half century, comedy station BBC 7 organised a poll in which listeners chose their all-time favourite Hancock episode. Those who attended the Radio Academy event already know the outcome, but everyone else must wait until Saturday 30th October when the Galton and Simpson interview is to be transmitted on BBC 7 at 8pm and 9pm (also available via the Net). The 50th anniversary also saw the release of "Hancock's Half Hour", the Complete BBC Radio Archive from BBC Audiobooks. This boxed set contains 41 CDs representing all six of the radio series broadcast between 1954 and 1959. It is a numbered limited edition with only 1000 units being produced. (Click on the photo, right, to purchase. Radio
London's photos of the evening are
here.)
|
|
Click on photo above to order 'Smile', or below, to order the 'Smile' Limited Edition  |
SMILE in the album charts after 37 years! Thirty-seven years after its original anticipated release
date, a studio recording of Brian Wilson's
lost musical masterwork 'Smile', was finally issued on Nonsuch Records
on September 28th. A 'Smile' Limited Edition, exclusive to Amazon.co.uk, is also released this month, on Atlantic. This UK-only limited-edition format, comprises a white box with 3D shadowbox embedded in the lid. This shadowbox is a recreation of the artwork from the centre pages of the album booklet and contains movable figures. The CD is housed in a custom slipcase. One in four copies will be signed by Brian Wilson; these will be randomly allocated. Alan Hardy, who wrote the Radio London review of Brian's superb live performance of the work at the Royal Festival Hall on February 21st 2004, says:
|
|
The
Godfather
|
 |
|
Click on the photo to order 'In the Best Possible Taste' |
Kenny Everett - The Complete Naughty Bits! Radio London listeners are usually big fans of the station's most famous and hilarious export, Kenny Everett. Kenny took a bunch of zany characters, some of which (like Captain Kremmen and his busty sidekick Carla) had originally appeared on his radio shows, and turned them into TV stars via The Kenny Everett Video Show. Strangely, with the notable exception of Carla, played by Anna Dawson , they all bore a close ressemblance to Cuddly Ken himself! Now you can meet the likes of Angry of Mayfair, and Sid Snot, (posing delicately on the cover, right) on DVD. It has to be assumed from the Amazon description, that the clips on this DVD are taken from the original Thames TV series, The Kenny Everett Television Show, rather than the later BBC one. There was some dispute with Thames over ownership of the characters and new ones such as Cupid Stunt (the glamorous, but hirsute, starlet whose catchphrase gave title to David Lister's 1996 Everett biography, right) and punk hero, Gizzard Puke, were created for the BBC series. David Lister's biography
includes several chapters devoted to Ken's days with Radio London and
describes his 1966 tour with the Beatles.
 |
Click on the photo to order the 'The Complete Naughty Bits' |
|
That Right Royal Ding-Dong! When Caroline's North Sea aristocrats, Tony Prince and Emperor Rosko locked in a friendly battle at The Oceana nightclub in Kingston-upon-Thames on September 16th, nobody admitted to being the loser. "The gig with Rosko went very well. We didn't exactly ram the place but the 300 people who turned up had a great time, although they probably wondered who the hell we were!!" says Tony, of his first appearance with Rosko since 1966. "I let Rosko off lightly. He's an old man, you've got to be kind." Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of this historic occasion for offshore radio. |
 |
|
|
Radio London is delighted to announce that BBC Essex has won prizes in three categories of this year's Frank Gillard Awards for the best in BBC local Radio. The awards are named in honour of the late founder of BBC Local Radio in England, Frank Gillard. Not surprisingly, the Pirate BBC Essex team took bronze in the Outside Broadcast category for their week-long Easter broadcast, which admirably recreated the spirit and sounds of offshore radio. Pirate Ray Clark's documentary All at Sea, in which Ray told the story of offshore radio through the ears of listeners, scooped gold in the Radio Feature section. BBC Essex also won silver in the Station of the Year section. Congratulations to all concerned. |
Whilst all we hear on our radios is bad news and negative things, I have decided to focus on people who are actually trying to do some good. Unsung heroes that are bringing people of this region together, creating dialogue , and giving hope for the future.
|
Beautiful
New Photos
Hans Knot has written to tell us about
a series of beautiful black and white photographs taken by Leon
Keezer, one of the deejays from the period 1972/1973, when the MV
Mi Amigo came back off the Dutch coast. Leon also has a collection
of pictures from a visit to The Voice of Peace, anchored in the harbour
of Marseille, in 1974. Please click here to read Hans's introduction to his new book, The Wet and Wild History of Radio Caroline 1964 – 2004, with full information on how to purchase it. |
 |
Well
done, BBC Essex! Well done, Pirate Ray!