for Sunday 5th March 1967

An innovative influence in music and broadcasting arrived aboard the Galaxy this week, in the shape of John Peel

Fond farewells feature heavily in this week's Fab, with Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, #1, Wish You Didn't Have To Go, #5, Love Is Here And Now You're Gone, #10, I'm Going Out (The Same Way I Came In), #18, You'd Better Get Used To Missing Her, #35, and Darling Be Home Soon, #38. Climbers from the departure lounge were Walk Away Renee and It's All Over.

11 9 Peculiar Situation Young Idea Columbia DB 8132 "We were very chuffed at the reception our record got as we were not sure if it had been widely heard in the North" Young Idea were Tony Cox, from London on piano, guitar and vocals alongside the grandly-named Douglas Ugo Granville Allesandro MacRea-Brown, (known for short as Douglas MacRea-Brown) from Florence, Italy on guitar and vocals. Last seen in Field's Festive Forty, Dec 25th '66, with Gotta Get Out Of The Mess I'm In, Young Idea were currently on their first nationwide tour with the Hollies, Paul Jones, The Spencer Davis Group and the Tremeloes. The group's account of their experiences on the tour, as told to Record Mirror, can be read by clicking on the picture. Unfortunately, nobody thought to caption the photo as to which of the Young Idea is Tony and which is Douglas. It sounds as if they were concerned that only Radio London and other southern stations were playing the record, but it appears that those up North were airing it too. The duo was probably included on the tour because Messrs Clarke, Hicks and Nash wrote Peculiar Situation, which the Hollies had included on their 1966 album For Certain Because. Read the lyrics to Peculiar Situation here.

Kiki Dee received a great present for her twentieth birthday, March 6th, when she saw her single shoot nineteen places up the Fab to #18.

Aboard the Galaxy this week

March 8th:
Norman St John's place aboard the Galaxy was taken by John Peel. Nobody could have guessed what an impact his five-month stint on Radio London would make on the world of music and radio, although his famous late-night mish-mash of blues and psychedelia, The Perfumed Garden, did not begin till May. It is easily forgotten that The Perfumed Garden, that far-cry from the Fab Forty, was not the only programme John presented on Big L. He would probably have preferred to forget that he ever did 'live-read' commercials for 'Look' cooking film and 'Green Shield stamps', but a great audio clip on the Vintage Broadcasting site reveals that he did do so. This is an extract from the three-till-six show on Saturday, July 1st, during which Peelie has problems with an uncomfortable chair, memorably describing it as, "Designed to be capable of overthrowing the existing form of government."

Webmaster note: What a shame nobody thought to prevent the passing of the Marine Offences Bill, by infiltrating the Houses of Parliament with a batch of decrepit chairs.

Peel plugs the following day's Fab Forty, revealing that he has a great climber. (It transpires to be Jeff Beck's Tally Man.) The clip also includes a strange edition of the news, where Peelie reads the first item and Keith Skues takes over the rest of the bulletin.

Martin van der Ven's Offshore Radio site contains some wonderful slides taken aboard the Galaxy, including several of Peelie.

Brian Long reports that Tony Blackburn appeared on the cover of 8mm magazine, to tie in with a promotion which was being advertised five times daily, commencing March 10th. The magazine was giving away the prize of a Bauer Super 8 movie outfit, worth an impressive £225. At around that time I was earning about £9 per week, which was an above-average wage for a girl of seventeen. The prize-winner was to be "invited to Radio London to try the equipment". Assuming that this meant a trip to the Galaxy, rather than the Curzon Street Offices, someone must not only have walked away with a truly 'Super' prize, but have used it to take some fantastic footage. Are you out there, lucky prizewinner? We'd love to hear from you!

On Saturday, March 11th, I noted in my diary that Keith Skues said hello to me and Knees Club Official, Jenny Mance. At work the following Monday, someone told me Keith had mentioned the Knees Club on Sunday 12th, possibly on the Colgate-Palmolive Request Show. Whether the person had actually heard the Saturday mention and thought it was on the Sunday, or whether Keith deemed the Knees Club worthy of a plug two days in a row, is unknown.

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty, Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.

As far as it has been possible to establish, Mustang or The Mustang, according to some references, were American. The single issued in the UK on Parlophone, came out in the States on Ascot 2231. Lennon/McCartney's Here, There and Everywhere, from the Beatles' Revolver album, was on the flipside. Previously, we had erroneously named Why as a McGuinn/Crosby song, recorded by the Byrds as the b-side of Eight Miles High. However, Margaret Still has kindly corrected that information and tells us that she owns the single, where the songwriter is credited as 'Sheldon'.

Unfortunately, Chuck Blair's climber remained a climber for only two weeks (not designated as anyone's 'pick' in week two) before disappearing without entering the Fab Forty. The single appears to be equally collectable on both sides of the pond, fetching (as of Nov 2004) around £22 here, $30 in the US.

Another hairdresser shapes the playlist! With former clipper, Barry Benson already at #25, here comes Kenny Everett's climber by Steve Gold and Frank Aiello! The clipper in question is Steve, who met Frank when Frank popped in to have his mop-top trimmed. Truth, from North London, chose their moniker from a Ray Charles song, Tell The Truth. Following a race for chart honours against St Louis Union with a cover of the Beatles' Girl, the duo had reached #14 in the Fab of 15th May 1966 with their follow-up single, the Ray Davies composition, I Go To Sleep.

Truth's next release, Jingle Jangle, appeared as a climber for one week on Nov 6th 1966, but failed to chart. The group made a better impression on the Fab in March 1967, taking their cover of Left Banke's Walk Away Renee to #13.