The Early Radio London Fab Forties
Sunday 17th April 1966

Frank's little girl must have had ten-league boots made for jumping straight from a climber to the Fab Forty, at #22

Last
This

Presented by Mike Lennox

Week
Week
4
1
I Put A Spell On You Alan Price Set
3
2
That's Nice Neil Christian
5
3
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me Dusty Springfield
6
4
The Pied Piper Crispian St Peters
7
5
Alfie Cilla Black
2
6
Substitute Who
9
7
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) Cher
11
8
Daydream Lovin' Spoonful
1
9
Somebody Help Me Spencer Davis Group
13
10
(You're My) Soul And Inspiration Righteous Brothers
24
11
Pretty Flamingo Manfred Mann
18
12
Frankie And Johnny Elvis Presley
27
13
Little Latin Lupe Lu Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
10
14
Homeward Bound Simon & Garfunkel
26
15
Let's Run For Cover Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
15
16
Twinkle Toes Roy Orbison
33
17
Walkin' My Cat Named Dog Norma Tanega
34
18
A Sign Of The Times Petula Clark
19
Sloop John B Beach Boys
38
20
Splendor In The Grass Gullivers People
36
21
Secret Agent Man Johnny Rivers
22
How Does That Grab You Darlin' Nancy Sinatra
8
23
A Legal Matter Who
12
24
Super Girl Graham Bonney
35
25
How Can I Tell Her Foresters
32
26
I Feel A Cry Coming On Hank Locklin
27
She Can Build A Mountain Paul Dean & the Soul Savages
28
Come On Home Wayne Fontana
23
29
Elusive Butterfly Bob Lind
30
Cheat And Lie Miki Dallon
39
31
Baby Don't Push Me Alan Bown Set
19
32
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore Walker Brothers
33
I'm Comin' Home, Cindy Trini Lopez
34
Together Again Ray Charles
35
One Track Mind Knickerbockers
36
You'd Better Make Up Your Mind Koobas
37
Once Geneveve
38
Take It Or Leave It Searchers
25
39
Run For Your Life Harbour Lites
40
I Take It That We're Through Riot Squad

28
Come On Home Wayne Fontana Fontana TF684

Wayne Fontana's new entry was written by Jackie Edwards. He named Come On Home as his favourite of all the songs he recorded. No doubt he was delighted when it took him into the Fab Forty Top Ten.


36
You'd Better Make Up Your Mind Koobas Pye 7N17087

Having two months ago been obliged to share their first Fab Forty entry Take Me For a Little While, with soloist Stevie Lewis, Liverpool's KoobasKeith Ellis (bass) Stu Leatherwood (gtr/vocals), Roy Morris (gtr/vocals) and drummer Tony O'Riley are back at #36 with their second release You'd Better Make Up Your Mind. The band members' names vary in spelling depending on the source. In the April 9th edition of Record Mirror (below left) birthday boy Stu's name is spelt Leathwood.

Kooba vinyl is quite collectable and mint copies of You'd Better Make Up Your Mind can command upwards of £60, The Koobas, the eponymous debut album released in 1969, in excess of an amazing £600.

The lads apparently had a thing about sporting matching over-the-top trousers - described in the item above left, as 'Kooba-trews'. (Click on the picture to read an enlarged version of the text) Other unforgettable band fashions beside the chequered creations, included the floral pants above, right, which would undoubtedly have stopped the bus.



Click on the picture to see a larger version of the Koobas in the SRE Tour Programme.

The Koobas were in the line-up for Radio England's Swinging 66 tour (see their page from the tour programme, left) alongside fellow current FF artists Crispian St Peters, Neil Christian and Wayne Fontana. Commencing in August 66, it played Lewisham Odeon (12th), Finsbury Park Astoria (13th), Birmingham Odeon (15th), Sheffield Gaumont (16th), Leeds Odeon (17th), Glasgow Odeon (18th), Newcastle Odeon (19th), Liverpool Odeon (20th), Manchester Odeon (22nd), Cardiff Capitol (23rd), Exeter Odeon (24th) and Southampton Odeon (25th). Neil Christian and Wayne Fontana appeared only in the London shows - Dave Berry took their place for the rest of the tour – with the Small Faces topping the bill. Shows were hosted by SRE Boss Jocks, Roger Day, Larry Dean, Ron O'Quinn and Jerry Smithwick.

The proclaimed 'tour of the year' unfortunately fared very badly, mainly because many of the venues booked were well outside the Radio England reception area. The potential audience was not only unfamiliar with the station, which bhad launched on May 3rd, but it had not heard any promotions for the concerts, resulting in poor attendance. In an attempt to recoup some of their losses, station management resorted to selling autographed copies of the programmes.

You'd Better Make Up Your Mind appears to have been ignored by both the City Sixty and the Caroline Countdown of Sound.

The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame has a clip of Jerry Smithwick introducing a promo for the tour.

 

DJ Climbers:
The World You Left Behind Larry Cunningham Dave Cash
Lies A Million Roving Kind Dave Dennis
I Could Make You Fall In Love Rockin' Berries John Edward
Sippin' 'N' Chippin' U.S. T-Bones Duncan Johnson
Ain't That A Groove James Brown & the Famous Flames Paul Kaye
I Love Her Paul & Barry Ryan Mike Lennox
That's A Magic Moment John Summers Earl Richmond
Never Leave Your Baby's Side Tony Jackson Mark Roman
Love Ya Illya Angela & the Fans Ed Stewart
Come Summertime Gibsons Tony Windsor

Until April 2021, we cited 'Ain't That A Groove' by James Brown as TW's climber. This is as per Brian Long's Curzon Street list in The London Sound. However, we now have two sources, Roy Taylor (from his 1966 notes) and Kees Brinkerink (from an archive recording), both citing 'Come Summertime' by the Gibsons as TW's pick. Roy lists the James Brown track as Paul Kaye's climber instead. Knowing that the Curzon Street lists often differed from what was actually broadcast and knowing that The Gibsons, like TW, were Australian, we felt that 'Come Summertime' was a more plausible choice of climber for him.

The Gibsons started out in 1960 as The HI Fi's, before evolving into The Cicadas. When the band came to England, their manager was Phil Soloman, a co-director of Radio Caroline, who renamed them The Gibsons. 'Come Summertime' is a Tom Springfield composition.

Climbers:
Then So Do I Johnny Carr
Come See Me Pretty Things
Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart Supremes
May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone Toys
I Know You Don't Love Me No More Felder's Orioles
I Can't Get Through Bill Oddie
You've Got To Learn Diane Ferraz & Nicky Scott
Behind The Door St Louis Union
Shotgun Wedding Roy C
What's Been Done Wimple Winch
Disc of the Week:
Love Around The World David Ballantyne
Album of the Week:  
Aftermath Rolling Stones


Advert courtesy of Brian Long


What's Been Done Wimple Winch Fontana TF686

Wimple Winch's singles are extremely collectable, with mint copies of What's Been Done valued at over £160. (Click on the picture for an Amazon link to more information about the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide.)

The band's story is a classic one of a combination of sheer bad luck and unfortunate timing conspiring to keep a talented and popular outfit from fame and fortune. One of the original Merseybeat groups, Four Just Men relocated to Manchester, experienced numerous personnel changes and suffered an enforced name-switch to Just Four Men before evolving into Wimple Winch. Demetrius (Dee) Christopholus, John Kelman, Larry Arendes, aka King, and Keith Shepherd released three Fontana singles under that name. None of them were National chart successes, but none is currently valued at less than £200.

Both sides of this single were penned by band members. Dee Christopholus wrote What's Been Done, while the B-side I Really Love You was by John Kelman and Larry King.

For the full story of the band, see the Manchesterbeat website which says that Wimple Winch is reputedly an old English name for a ditch. Larry King died in March 2017, but his personal website Pacific Drift containing clips and interviews, is still available.

Tales from the Sinking Ship – Singles, demos, acetates and unissued recordings from Just Four Men 1964 - 68, is a 20-track CD which contains both sides of this single and the follow-ups. Wimple Winch was resident band at The Sinking Ship club until a fire destroyed both the club and their equipment.



This week aboard the Galaxy
Around Monday, March 18th, Dave Cash
left the Galaxy to work ashore. I noted in my diary that Weds 20th was the day that Dave left, but other sources list it as being Monday 18th or Tuesday 19th. With Earl Richmond also going, the station was rather short-staffed. Chris Denning became the new DJ joining the station from Radio Luxembourg. He had been sacked for sending up the famous 'K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M' adverts. Somewhat ironically, Kenny Everett had been given the sack from Big L for sending up The World Tomorrow and ended up on 208 while Denning got sacked from 208 for sending up commercials and ended up on Big L. 208's Johnny Moran had been intending to join Radio London, but had pulled out at the last minute. Denning applied for the vacancy at the suggestion of Ed Stewart after they met in a club.

Dave Cash had been suffering with health problems and was consequently finding a shipbound life very dificult, but with the increasing number of Big L on-shore events, he was able to continue to work for the station hosting gigs.

This week ashore
Tuesday, April 19th
at Wycombe Town Hall. The group holding the #1 Fab 40 slot, The Alan Price Set appeared. I can recall no reason for them not joining the Knees Club, but it is possible that this was one of the rare occasions when we KC Officials were not allowed backstage to sign them up. The only other time I can recall this happening was at the appearance of Herman's Hermits who were smuggled out of the building to avoid their fans.

Weds, April 20th
This was the last day of the school Easter holidays, and Club Official and schoolfriend Mozz (member #2) and I walked all the way from Wycombe to Slough (a distance of about 15 miles!) to check on the welfare of the knees of the newly-joined member #172, Alan Bown, and take him a copy of the latest Knees Monthly. When we finally turned up on his doorstep after walking all day, we suddenly discovered we could scarcely think of anything to say to him. We then realised something that had slipped our attention, namely, how we would get home again! My long-suffering mother had to drive over and fetch us.

Saturday, April 23rd
Radio London driver Keith St. John appeared at the Big L Wimbledon Palais show and brought along one of his racing cars. How it was manoeuvred inside the Palais, sadly is not recorded.

After a merger of two publications, Disc and Weekly Echo, the first edition of Disc and Music Echo appeared on news stands on April 23rd, with Ray Coleman at the helm. The paper promised, 'More news, better pictures, more features and a Top 50 chart' and one of the new features was the Radio London column, Big L Show, the first one written by Paul Kaye. (With thanks to Tom Blomberg for his input.)




The information coloured PURPLE was kindly provided by Roy Taylor.
Kees Brinkerink identified Mike Lennox as this week's presenter
The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here

This week's Radio City 'City Sixty' on the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame is here

Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!

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