I was thrilled to receive a phonecall from Radio
Times saying that I had won four tickets in their phone-in competition
to attend a special showing of Harry Potter and
the Philosopher's Stone at the BAFTA theatre in Piccadilly on Saturday,
November 17th. |
 A wandering Wizard poses with Kay (left) and Laura |
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We were also delighted to see the large number of owls enhancing the
production by performing their own stunt flying without the aid of broomsticks
or SFX. Clearly destined for avian superstardom, I imagine they will soon
be buying up luxury redwood tree mansions in Beverly Hills. There are a few creepy scenes which would make the film unsuitable
for very young children. By the end, I had recognised what was the scariest
aspect of the whole thing. "Think how old we shall be by the time we get to see the final film of the final Harry Potter book!" I wailed to a horrified Jan. Now that IS scary! |
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Dawn
and Paul Rusling have undoubtedly put a great deal of time and effort into
producing this book, which lists people employed throughout the radio industry,
and not simply those behind the microphone. They have also taken the trouble to
humanise biographical data with personal anecdotes. It is sad then, to discover
that Who's Who in British Radio 2002 has fallen victim
to that scourge of modern publishing - inadequate proof-reading. From my own perusal,
and from reports received from other readers, it is clear that the book contains
many errors.|
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On The Road AgainRod Argent (top left) writes:
More new photos of Rod and Colin can be found here at their gig in March at the Stables in Wavendon. |
We were contacted this week by an Internet company called The
Video Beat www.thevideobeat.com
offering "over 600 rare and impossible to find VHS NTSC videos" specialising
in material from the 1950s and 60s. Naturally, this is something likely to be
of great interest to many visitors to the Radio London site, BUT,
a word of warning! Do please note that this company only supplies
videotapes recorded in American (NTSC) TV standard.
These tapes will not play on many domestic video machines built to (PAL)
European or Australian standards. Having said that, it is possible to
get NTSC tapes converted to PAL, (many photographic shops offer the service)
but this can prove expensive. Please also be aware that standards conversion
will affect the quality of the original recording. Some up-market VCRs will
play NTSC tapes, so it's worth checking your manual if you didn't buy the machine
specifically for that purpose. Avid collectors may also consider it worthwhile
purchasing VCRs designed to play NTSC tapes.
Here's a little more information for those who have access to NTSC-standard
equipment:
The Video Beat specialises in VHS NTSC videos in the following genres:
1950s & 1960s Rock 'n' Roll Movies; 50s/60s Juvenile Delinquent Crime Dramas; 50s/60s Teen Movies; 50s/60s Hot Rod Movies; 1960s Surfing and Beach Movies; 1960s Biker Movies 50s/60s Rock n Roll, Rockabilly, Rhythm & Blues, Blues, Vocal Group, Doo Wop, Country, Hillbilly, Surf, Garage, British Beat, Mod, Psychedelic and more; Special Interest Documentaries and Shorts on Fads, Fashions, Teen Scenes, Hot Rods, Hippies, Beatniks, Artists, Icons, Personalities, Secret Agents, Sex Symbols, etc. Newsreels, Commercials and Educational films.The latest titles available from The Video Beat include:
'Tetes DeBois - Tendres Anne' es 1965: a French TV teen music show with, "Wild footage of Gene Vincent playing the Cavern Club."
The 1968 Cilla Black TV Show: (UK) guests include Sandie Shaw and Cliff Richard.
The Munsters - Herman the Rock Star: (1965) An episode of the US TV comedy. Herman sings and plays guitar into Eddie's tape recorder and ends up being heard by a disc jockey.
The Beatles Down Under (1994 AUS TV documentary) Very interesting documentary on the Beatles' 1964 visit to Australia and what it meant to the country and the teenagers.
The team at Media UK www.mediauk.com has sent the following news update for contributors to their forums.
The forums have been updated at Media UK with new software. Now, you can see who else is reading a forum with you, rate threads to show other users how good they are, spell check messages if you want to, and private messages can now be longer.
In addition, the new software has made important security changes - the most important of which is that your password is now encrypted in our database, which acts as a powerful deterrent to would-be hackers.
We have also made many behind-the-scenes changes in new registrations, aimed at removing the more mischievous elements of Internet users. While we'll never eradicate them, we're confident we've gone a long way towards making Media UK an (even) nicer place to be.
With over 5,500 users, we're hugely proud of the community we have: we look forward to seeing you again soon.
To our knowledge there are quite a few weekend pirates operating from the UK on this band. Can anyone assist Robertas in identifying this station?My name is Robertas, I am a Lithuanian Dx-er currently studying at the University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
On Sunday 4th November, between 10:17 and 10:44 UTC, I was receiving a very weak signal of some British pirate station on the frequency of approximately 6213-6216 kHz (sorry - my receiver does not have an electronic frequency meter). The programme contained much talk and some pop music. At 10:26 UTC a list of former pirate radio DJs was being read (it included Graham Gill, Richard Warner, and some others). I was not able to identify the station for sure; however, Radio London was mentioned a few times.
Sweet of Software! |
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It's not all 60s at Radio London, you know. We do venture bravely into other decades at times. Read our report of just about the best 70s soul band this side of Milton Keynes, as they performed a sell-out show in Aylesbury. With lots of pics! Read it here... |
When London's Capital Radio began broadcasting in 1973, everyone knew that Kenny and Cash and Duncan Johnson had worked for Radio London, but how many listeners realised that Kerry Juby had been a Caroline DJ? Kerry's very brief spell aboard the Mi Amigo secures him an entry in Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, www.offshoreradio.co.uk.
In addition to new audio clips and photos, webmaster Jonathan also has news regarding a programme intended for broadcast at Christmas, featuring rare Kenny Everett archives.
Mebo II at 4.00amJeff Martin has launched a website dedicated to his love of offshore radio, (but not forgetting Luxembourg) which he faithfully followed throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. geocities.com/jeffgold220 Jef's personal story is well worth reading. The following extract
is his account of his discovery of Radio Caroline, at the age of seven: "One day in the summer of 1964, I was sitting on Margate beach with my Grandma. She had her brand new tranny with her and it was playing The Hollies, The Beatles, The Searchers and others. She pointed out to sea and told me that the Radio station was on a ship. "Out there" she said, and it's called Radio Caroline. My life was changed forever. All this seven-year-old wanted for Christmas that year was a radio." Moving on in time to the RNI years, we couldn't resist the following
quote: "Radio Atlantis was fun pop radio at its best, but the signal
in Derby was usually poor. So I stayed faithful to the guys and girls
of the Mebo II. Yes, I did wake at 4am some mornings, just to listen to
Louise on Skyline." |
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Cling-on stars: The Barnacles, with thanks to Colin Lamb and Phil Mitchell for these superb portraits |
Everyday Crustaceous RNI FolkIssue Five of the Radio NorthSea International Fanclub Magazine contains a report of last summer's RSL with listener feedback, a Rogues' Gallery and a bottom-scraping episode of Tony Currie's clamtastic underwater soap, The Barnacles. Colin Lamb is anxious to recruit new club members and particularly to receive ideas as to how a proposed fourth RNI RSL might be successfully financed in 2002. Colin was delighted that we had passed on his knee-mail address to RNI's Larry Tremaine, and has already received a message from Larry, which no doubt he will be reporting on in Issue Six. The RNI website is at www.rni.org.uk. |
With John Shirley and others expressing interest in a book about the Big L Fab Forty, (Sept/Oct Happenings) Hans Knot informs us that he and Bert Bossink have already published a book on the subject. I contacted Bert to find out more and he replied:
Many thanks to Bert. Anyone who is interested in obtaining a copy of the book should contact him as soon as possible, so that he knows what quantity of new copies he will have to produce.The Radio London Book was a 360-page photocopied book written mostly in English, with pictures of sleeves of records that reached the Radio London charts. Included are sleeves from Elvis, Beatles, Jim Reeves, Cliff Richard, Shadows, The Attack, Unit 4+2, etc.
During 1997 and 1998, I sold 350 copies, but it's now sold out until we have new copies made. I will make some for devoted fans of the Big L on request, but this entails a lot of work and takes five or six weeks.
The price of my Radio London book is 45 Dutch Guilders (that's almost £13 Sterling) but the postage to the UK is £15.50, which makes it very expensive.
In a few weeks' time I will be also an author on the website of Hans Knot. We're doing an article on Roger Miller and we will publish also an old London Chart from March 1965 with Roger Miller's "King of the Road" at number one!
I have just seen in Oostende, Belgium on Sunday, a concert with the Swedish Spotnicks and Dutch group The Maskers. There will also be published a Spotnicks Story on Hans's site but that's written in Dutch.
Very nice that you do keep Radio London in our minds with your site. I will never forget Big L so long as I live and have still a lot of fun playing old tapes and some things that I have put on CD with old Radio London Programmes!
Good music and good times will never die!!
Best wishes from Holland to you, Bert Bossink
Izzy
wizzy, let's get bizzy! The man with the pointy hat demonstrates the scientific
principles behind the multiplication of spherical objects and their practical
applications in everyday life.
