#6 on June 6th for Sandie. The pic sleeve is from the Long Live Love EP, and as Alan Field notes below, EPs (extended play singles, usually containing four tracks) were in their heyday.

Keith quotes Gene as saying, "Whilst on the ship I climbed up into the crow's-nest to take photographs. I was shown around the Galaxy and was interviewed on air. In all, I took something like five rolls of film, including shots inside DJs' cabins.

It was one of the things I wanted to do whilst in Britain. They even got me sweeping the deck! It was a pretty rough day, weather-wise, but I couldn't turn down such an opportunity. I also travelled on the tender with a member of the British Royal Family, Prince Richard of Gloucester."

Keith also reports that a Harwich Customs Officer asked the prince, who was at the time eighth in line to the throne, if he was British!

The purpose of the visit by Prince Richard and his two architect student friends, Bernard and Brian, was to write an article for the Cambridge University newspaper, Granta.

On closer inspection, Keith actually refers to TWO offshore trips in his book! He speaks of Gene visiting Radio Caroline on Tuesday June 8th and Radio London on Friday June 11th, with references to Prince Richard appearing in both accounts. With the weather being so rough, it's hard to believe that any of the visitors would have been prepared to suffer that horrendous trip twice in the space of three days!

Either Gene boarded both the Mi Amigo and the Galaxy on the same day, or the Royal party visited Caroline while the tender took Gene and the photographer on to Big L. The latter seems more likely, as there appears to be no account of the prince and his friends visiting Radio London.

The picture of Gene in the Galaxy lifeboat (right) is one of five from a photo spread that appeared in schoolgirl magazine, Jackie.

In 2000, I (Mary) attended a great Gene Pitney concert in High Wycombe and afterwards exchanged some e-mails with Gene. I asked him if he recalled his trip to Radio London and if he still possessed the mass of photos he had allegedly taken.

Gene replied:

Sounds like Keith summed it up pretty well. The only let-down I have for you is that the photo story was just that – conjured up by the press for the shoot. The only shots were the ones you have seen which I like very much. It was a rolling day at sea, but I don't get seasick so I was actually OK. The trip to and from the ship was much more harrowing than being on board probably just due to size. I remember the gruff old chef who fitted the ship to a 'T'. He made stuff that wouldn't come up even if you were sick!!

Ironic that I just punted on the Granta about three weeks ago. I visited the Rupert Brooke library as a guest of Mike Read who created the library. It was a super day and one that made me think I would have loved to have had the opportunity to be a student at a university with the history of Cambridge. Oddly enough we were using Cambridge to fill in for Oxford! I was doing a video for the song I recorded called Myfanwy at Oxford. It is a Betjamin poem put to music by Mike Read, and is to be released on CD.

It seems the whole trip and the fabricated facts about taking five rolls of personal snaps, was a publicity shoot to coincide nicely with Gene's single, Looking Through the Eyes of Love, climbing steadily up the Fab Forty.

Brian Long has kindly supplied a contact sheet for some of the other photographs taken during Gene's offshore excursion. (Click on the photo sheet to view a larger version) Brian says that contemporary newspaper reports, unlike Keith Skues, gave the date of Gene's visit as 9 June 1965. Brian says:

The photos were taken by SKR Photos, 49 Walden Street, London E1. SKR were the initials of the proprietor. I forget who he was, but I believe he is dead and his son took over the business.

Duncan Johnson was one of the DJs travelling on the tender:

I recall the visit very well, although not the exact date it took place. It was a rather blowy day and Gene was not on top form, although he did regale us with stories of a recent trip to New Zealand where he had signed his autograph on various parts of female fans' anatomy!

What I remember most of the day, (and I've just read the version on your site) is that as well as the changeover DJ crew from Big L and Gene, there were three people who had been out to Caroline, altogether making eleven or twelve passengers. It was illegal for the tender to carry more than ten. As we neared Parkeston Quay, we saw a small crowd on the quayside and we were joking with Gene about his fans finding him no matter where he was.

Suddenly, we realised that amongst the crowd were several men in uniform and at least one police car. Tony Windsor, not a great sailor in rough seas suddenly came alive, taking control in his inimitable style, pointed at the students who had been visiting Caroline, and shouted, "Get below, immediately, and stay quiet! Immigration is going to do a search and we have too many on board." The students, whom none of us from Big L knew, scurried below.

When we docked and climbed up onto the pier, the various police and immigration officials never said a word. I was the last one up the stairs and replied as such. The policeman looked worried and said, "But where's Prince Richard? We were told he was on board". With that Tony Windsor led the rush to disappear and the tender Captain said, "Oh, he must be one of the ones down below," and went to fetch them. No comment of any kind was made about the number of passengers on board, nor was there any inspection of passports in the usual way.

The drinks flowed on the train back to London as we appreciated our lucky escape, although Gene was slightly concerned about being upstaged by a Royal that none of us knew. So we had another drink. There are not that many incidents that I remember so clearly but the TW "get below immediately", in his best bass voice is definitely one of them.

I don't know about the dates confusion. Perhaps, the tender Captain's log showed two trips to account for the extra passengers. It would certainly be interesting to hear Prince Richard's version of the day and whether it would be at variance with what he wrote for the student paper at the time. Life was a bit lively in those days!

As Duncan's account reveals, this was to have been a regular changeover tender, rather than a special trip to take visitors to the Galaxy. I'd be inclined to say the date of the visit must have been Tuesday June 8th, as Tuesday was the regular DJ changeover day. Oddly enough, the suggestions for the date so far have been the 8th, 9th, and 11th!

(Left, Bert Bossink very kindly scanned an item from the Dutch Music Paper Muziek-Expres containing exactly the same pictures of Gene Pitney visiting the Radio London ship. And probably the same fabricated story!)

The CD referred to by Gene, Words and Music, consisted of John Betjamin poems set to music by Mike Read and recorded by thirteen artists. In addition to Gene's contribution, the CD features tracks by other Fab Forty alumni such as Colin Blunstone, Donovan and Cliff Richard.

Gene Pitney was inducted to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame on March 18, 2002, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. He died suddenly in 2006, while on a tour of the UK, aged 65. I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet Gene and to exchange a few e-mails with him. Official website: genepitney.com.

During the Radio London 40th Anniversary reunion, February 26th 2005, Cardboard Shoes related an amazing incident!

Earlier that week, he had attended a function for high-ranking RAF officials. Keith had organised the event himself and it was attended by HM the Queen. During the very formal evening, he had encountered a familiar face. It was Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who as 20-year-old Cambridge student, Prince Richard of Gloucester, had taken the trip out to Radio Caroline. It transpired that the Duke had very sharp memories of the occasion, but he admitted to Keith that the intended feature for Granta, ostensibly the reason behind the offshore adventure, had never been completed.