On February 3rd, Radio London had been the first station and Kenny Everett the first DJ, to play Strawberry Fields Forever. Kenny had forged links with the Fabs when he represented Radio London on the 1966 USA Beatles tour. So turned on was he by Strawberry Fields that he played it twice in a row, described it as the most amazing record he'd ever heard.

However, on Friday, May 12th, 1967, even more amazing sounds were heard on Radio London when the station got its biggest-ever exclusive - the premiere of the much-anticipated Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Kenny, who had been present at one of the Beatles Abbey Road recording sessions, had already been raving on to anyone who would listen, about how fantastic the new album was going to be. But it wasn't Kenny, who had left Radio London in March, who got the Sgt Pepper exclusive. Now working for the Beeb, he was unable to air extracts from the album till eight days after Big L.

(Right) Radio London webmaster Chris Payne poses with a signed, limited-edition print of Peter Blake's artwork.

Some preview tracks from Sgt Pepper's had recently been heard in the US. Paul McCartney had allowed A Day in the Life, She's Leaving Home, When I'm Sixty-Four and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to be aired on a small number of American stations when he took the new material over to play for friends, but nobody had heard Sgt Pepper's (to borrow a TW saying) in its entirety.

(Left) Blake's artwork

The album was scheduled for a June release and like everyone else, Radio London had been desperately trying to obtain a preview copy, without success. The story goes that on May 12th an unnamed young man arrived at the Curzon Street offices, bearing a reel of tape. His equally-anonymous girlfriend worked for EMI and he explained that she had secretly taped the new Beatles album during a staff production meeting, using a tape machine secreted in a shopping bag. The couple were not even trying to cash-in on such an amazing opportunity. They had deemed it their public duty to present the tape to Programme Director Alan Keen so that their favourite station, Radio London, should be given a world exclusive. As might be expected from a recording made on a low-speed portable recorder from inside a shopping bag, the sound quality of the illicit tape was very poor.

Alan immediately phoned music publisher Dick James and told him about the stolen treasure he had in his possession. He said that if Dick didn't give Big L an exclusive preview copy of Sgt Pepper's, the station would air the bootleg recording, warts and all. True north-sea piracy!

(Left) The printed sleeve

EMI chiefs had always been very anti-offshore radio, believing that a large amount of airplay reduced, rather than enhanced, their sales figures. Other record companies strongly disagreed and felt that getting as much exposure as possible was the easiest way to produce hits. One example was Tony Hall of Deram, who had asked Alan Keen to give 'Whiter Shade of Pale' a trial spin, as a favour. Just one play provoked an incredible public response and with further assistance from the offshore stations, the record went on to become a huge international success.

Some have said that the ‘bootleg tape’ story was merely invented to blackmail EMI into giving Radio London an exclusive. Admittedly, the tale does sound somewhat far-fetched and is compounded by the fact that the participants have remained unnamed since 1967. But whether or not the boyfriend, his girlfriend or indeed the tape ever existed, the ploy worked! Dick James agreed to supply Alan Keen with a proper tape of Sgt Pepper's on the proviso that he did not reveal where it had come from. As a music publisher, allowing a radio station an unauthorised copy of the album could have landed James in a lot of trouble.

Administrator Richard Swainson was called on the ship-to-shore communicator to come off the Galaxy immediately to collect the promised tape. Swainson went straight to Dick James's office, travelled immediately back to Liverpool Street station and caught the return train to Harwich, clutching the extremely precious reel of acetate. He managed to send a message to the ship to tell the DJs that he was on his way back with it and told them to start building up audience anticipation for the musical Exclusive of the Century, which (trains and tender permitting) would be heard at around 1700 that afternoon. Everyone from the DJs and personnel aboard the ship and the management ashore, to the listening public, held their collective breath.

Ed Stewart had a sponsored segment of his regular afternoon programme called 'It’s All Happening' that went out every Friday between 1700 and 1800 as a 'What's on in London' guide for trendy youngsters. It was during this part of his show that Stewpot introduced Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, no doubt to the delight of the sponsors. Naturally, everyone aboard the Galaxy had gathered round to listen. The sounds of Sgt Pepper's had such a profound effect on John Peel that he burst into tears, so Ed took pity on him and allowed Peelie to take over the programme. The album did not merely get one airing. Everyone was so bowled over by it that it was played in full several times that evening.

Richard Swainson alleged that although Sgt Pepper's was aired with Big L jingles played over the tracks to prevent any further bootlegging by rivals, the Caroline DJs were so keen to get their hands on it that they recorded it off air and played it to their own audience, Radio London jingles and all!

EMI bosses went mad. The MD Ken East, phoned Alan Keen to threaten a police raid if Radio London did not stop playing Sgt Pepper's, but Alan cleverly told him he would have to take his complaint to Radlon Sales' registered office in the Bahamas.

The Beatles' publicist Tony Barrow revealed that he had no objection to Radio London playing the album early, and neither had the Fab Four. In fact he believed that this early airplay was responsible for EMI bringing the release of Sgt Pepper's forward by a week. It came out twenty days after its first outing on Big L.

Journalist David Hughes admitted that because Disc and Music Echo had been given no preview copy, he was only able to write his review for the paper by listening via a small transistor radio, to the album as it was played on Radio London.

It was May 20th before Kenny Everett got to play Sgt Pepper's. He and fellow ex-shipmate Chris Denning were now working for the BBC and Kenny aired extracts from the sensational new album on the Light Programme, during Denning's show 'Where It's At'. Needle time restrictions at the Beeb would not have allowed the album to have been played in full.

Sgt Pepper's caused such a stir that Alan Keen then took the unprecedented step of placing the grand finale track A Day in the Life – never released as a single – at number one in the Big L Fab Forty for June 11th. Meanwhile, the Beeb banned it, citing lyrical drug references. Like most bannings, this move merely enhanced the existing publicity.