![]() |
The Swinging Sixies! The Radio London website celebrated its 6th birthday at the end of March. We (Chris and Mary) are proud of what has been achieved during that time and we know from your responses that you love visiting the site. Maintaining a 700-page site is a very costly, demanding and time-consuming job. If you appreciate our achievements, and have enjoyed the free service we have provided for six years, we'd love it if you would support us by buying a tee-shirt from the Radio London Store! |
|
Big
L Fab 40 updates
April 05 |
![]() |
West Five | ![]() |
Cannon Brothers |
An update to the fascinating Chuck Blair saga reveals that Chuck applied to join Radio Caroline! |
An ex-Caroline jock turned author proves that he is not 'missing'! |
Mini Memories Page 6 (updated March 05) The Pall Mall contract for a £700 single! |
Caroline
Towed Away Mi
Amigo Sinking
(new March 05) April 20th 1965, Radio London saves the life of a US Airman. Full story on the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame. |
And
now, the news....
|
Kenny, Cash and Charlie
We have now put Dan in touch with Ben. To commemorate the Kenny and Cash anniversary, Radio London brings you a page of Kenny and Cash Kolumns from 'Music Echo'. |
![]() |
Amateur Documentary Outranks Professionals Patrick Mountenay, aka Pat Edison, has written and produced an excellent documentary, 'Free Radio the Story of Clandestine Radio in the UK', telling the little-known story of the land-based pirates that sprang up following the demise of the offshore stations. The tale emerges via interviews with key personnel from the likes of Radio Jackie, Radio Kaleidoscope, Invicta and Skyline. The 65-minute documentary is available on DVD, and Patrick has a 'making of' section on his Radio Kaleidoscope site, which also gives purchasing details. The Radio London reviewers were very impressed by the high standard Patrick has achieved and found the documentary superior in quality to many which have appeared on television. |
Saturday March 26th was when the clocks went forward and the years rolled back to Easter 1965. When Pirate BBC Essex played the offshore hits from 40 years ago, they sadly could not broadcast from the correct ship for the period, with both original Caroline vessels Mi Amigo and Fredericia long gone. But this slightly bizarre and historically-unique occasion saw Pirate BBC Essex broadcasting from a crowded studio aboard the Ross Revenge, while Radio Caroline broadcast its own programmes from the ship's other studio! Pirate Steve Scruton was at the helm, with contributions from renegades Tim Gillett, Ray Clark, Ian Wyatt and Twiggy Day. During the 4-hour programme, Caroline's current engineer, Alan Beech, took listeners on an audio tour of the transmitter and other original equipment which he had painstakingly reconstructed. LV18's Captain Tim visited the Ross and Tony (O'Neil) and Alan, aboard the Harwich Ferry, sent a text revealing how lonely the ship's glamour-girl Daphne, had been since Easter 2004. Text messages and e-mails came thick and fast from around the globe. Dave Cash, Keith Skues and Daph-knee, copyright Pirate BBC Essex, 2004. At the end of the programme, it was announced that Pirate BBC Essex will return to Harwich and the LV18 in 2007, broadcasting from August 4th to 14th, to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the enforced closure of the majority of the offshore stations. Photos from the 2005 broadcast are on Martin van der Ven's site. For more about the 2004 Pirate BBC Essex broadcast from aboard the LV18, read our report and visit the Pirate BBC Essex's own website. |
April 4th 2005 marked the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of Kenny Everett.
A new page has been added to Radio London's own collection of tributes, bringing the total to five. The 2005 addition contains newspaper clips from 1980. (See also our new page of Kenny and Cash Kolumns)
Paul Rowley's superb documentary Kenny Everett The BBC Local Radio Years was rebroadcast by many BBC local radio stations over Easter, but there are still chances to hear it. Paul says:
From April 4th, Southern Counties Radio, which covers Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire put out my documentary in 10-minute chunks on their mid-morning show every day between Monday and Friday.
The station was Kenny's 'local' during his spell when he worked for BBC Local Radio, as he produced the programmes from his farm at Cowfold in Sussex in the early 70s. One of the six stations he worked for at the time was BBC Radio Brighton, which was the forerunner of Southern Counties. The boss of the station is Neil Pringle, who worked with Kenny at Capital Radio, and is the twin brother of Keith Pringle, the current boss at Capital.
A number of listeners phoned Southern Counties Radio after the extracts were played. One wanted to know whether the show was being released commercially! I also got an e-mail from a listener in Shropshire, thanking me for making his weekend, when he heard the show on Radio Shropshire.
BBC Radio Devon were due to re-broadcast "Kenny Everett : the BBC Radio Years" on April 4, but because of the death of Pope John Paul the Second, the management thought it might be inappropriate, and postponed the broadcast . So they will now put it out at 1800 on the May Bank Holiday May 2 instead.
Being brought up as a Catholic, I'm sure Cuddly Ken would have found it funny. I suspect the pair of them are up there now laughing at it now. Ev would probably be saying "there were almost as many at MY funeral".
GMR (Greater Manchester Radio) are also scheduling the programme for May 2nd. These days BBC local stations are available on the web. (Click on Local Stations. Please check broadcast dates and times on individual station websites.)
Paul's hour-long programme tells how Cuddly Ken, anxious to continue his radio career after his sacking from Radio One, recorded shows for many BBC local stations in return for very little money. Fortunately, fans lurked everywhere amongst the BBC staff, and tapes of the shows, which were supposed to have been recycled to save money, were rescued for posterity.
Keith Skues described the documentary as, "First class, fully professional, and most entertaining" and Peter Young called it, "A joy. Well put together and researched by someone who knew their subject through and through."Don's name will be familiar to fans of the 'Cruisin'' series of album recreations of top US stations of the Fifties and Sixties. He featured on the 1967 album, WQXI Atlanta Georgia "Quicksie in Dixie" as he used to call it.
Alan Hardy says: "I thought he was one of the best if not the best of the DJs in that Cruisin' series. Fast-paced, punchy, great jingles and the music of '67 helped too! Sadly, I haven't heard him on 'real' recordings from anywhere else."
To gain an understanding of why Ron's show was at the top for ten years, visit his website, and make sure you read the section about how he created his 'dog' Roscoe. Don said, "It seemed that Roscoe could get away with things I could never get away with! He was an integral part of the program!"
Thanks to Howie Castle, Alan Hardy and Peter Young
Summer
Fab 40 stays at 11.00am |
![]() |
Chris Edwards has updated his Offshore Themes website. He says:
There are now more than 550 (558 to be exact!) theme clips on the site. There's a new title page, a few more pictures, some updates and corrections.
In the Tributes section, Tony Aldridge, drummer with the Pathfinders has been in touch with some information on their song "I love you Caroline". Under "Deejays Sing", Ed Stewart croons "I like my Toys", while Kenny Everett gets on his "Knees". (More about the 'Knees' single here) Meanwhile Kees Manders (of RNI hijacking infamy) tries to grab vocal fame.
'I Like My Toys' was written by Jeff Lynne and appeared on the first Idle Race album' Birthday Party'. Stewpot was not the only Big L DJ to use the song. Kenny Everett (a huge fan of the Idle Race) adapted it for a Capital Radio jingle in the 70s.
Idle Race and Stewpot's version says: "I have a train set and a garage full of toys and a soldier with a gun..."
Kenny's says: "I have a trannie and it's permanently tuned to the station I adore..."