for
Sunday 6th August 1967
the last-ever Radio London Fab Forty
In a desperate attempt to include as much new material as possible in the final playlist, 44 singles were squeezed into the Fab 'Forty', 18 of them, new entries. Two singles tied for #1, but there was still a #2! As Alan Field points out: "In the final two charts we see a return of the double placing of unrelated records for the first time since TW's last chart on 29th January 1967." Not surprisingly, Tommy Vance's one-and-only Fab Forty presentation on Big L overran into Mark Roman's show by 22 mins.
In addition to all those new entries, the climbers, the Disc of the Week, the Radio London Exclusives and the 'Farewell Dedication to the Postmaster General', there were four singles in the Ballad Box plus three in the Soul Set. That's 73 records on the final playlist, with both the A- and B-sides being aired for three of them! Brian Long believes there were even more singles played during the last days of Big L than those listed here (see notes, page 2)
Because
there is so much to say about the final Fab Forty, the chart has been split
into three pages.
Page One contains the chart itself, chart notes and happenings aboard the Galaxy
and ashore.
Page Two has the climber lists and the
original Final Fab list, as typed in the Curzon Street office, plus notes about other singles aired, but not officially on the list.
Page
Three, the Ballad Box and Soul Set
The last chart contains many group names and tracks appropriate to the sad situation of Radio London closing down.
Heroes
And Villains was at joint #1, and nobody harboured any doubts that the
offshore stations were the heroes and Wilson and his Government, with their
'Thinkin' Ain't For Me' attitude, were the villains.
Listeners felt There Must Be A Way. We clung to
Our Plastic Dream. If the stations could have survived
On Love, we would have saved them. That's
The Way Love Is.
When Radio London was forced to announce, "There I Go",
The World We Knew was shattered. Since the end
of 1964, we'd enjoyed A Little Bit Of Shangri-La.
Now the Good Times of Foolin'
Around to The Sound Of The Summer was a
simple pleasure that was being stolen from us Forever.
Suddenly Things were no longer Happy.
The sand was running out for Big L. We needed a Time Seller.
On August 14th at The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp,
A Bad Night began for John Peel when he invited
us for the last time, "Come And Play With Me In The Garden".
During Their Final Hour, the tributes held personal Reflections,
and hopes that Some Other Someday we'd see Things
Get Better. Deejays past and present told us, "Thanks, for Your
Unchanging Love".
Then Radio London was gone.
Those leaving the ship reflected that Even the Bad Times
Were Good and thought, "I Want To Go Back There
Again". A thousand fans at Liverpool Street station screamed, "We
Love You!"
The Windows Of The World were filled with the sad,
Small Faces of Pattern People,
who wore black armbands and were crying. We were left to Wonder
Who could possibly replace the Warm Sounds
of Big L.
For those who swore to Radio London," I'll Stay By
Your Side", it's been a long, Lonesome Road.
When we listen to those old recordings, we hear Big Lil whisper to us, "Baby
I Love You. Don't You Miss Me A Little Bit Baby?" We reply, "Yes. Even
after thirty-five years".
© Mary Payne, 2002
Definitely heroes! The Beach Boys share the final Big L #1 with the Tremeloes Photo (left) from 'Teenbeat Annual' and (right) from 'Beat Instrumental' |
Last
|
This
|
Presented
by Tommy Vance
|
|
Week
|
Week
|
||
|
1
|
Heroes And Villains | Beach Boys |
40
|
1
|
Even The Bad Times Are Good | Tremeloes |
28
|
2
|
The Day I Met Marie | Cliff Richard |
18
|
3
|
Long-Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On) | Elvis Presley |
35
|
4
|
The House That Jack Built | Alan Price Set |
|
5
|
A Girl Like You | Young Rascals |
17
|
6
|
Excerpt From A Teenage Opera | Keith West |
21
|
7
|
Love Years Coming | Strawberry Children |
33
|
8
|
Time Seller | Spencer Davis Group |
13
|
9
|
Sticks And Stones | Warm Sounds |
|
10
|
Itchycoo Park | Small Faces |
|
11
|
Reflections | Diana Ross & the Supremes |
|
12
|
Your Unchanging Love | Marvin Gaye |
|
13
|
Everybody Needs Love | Gladys Knight & the Pips |
|
14
|
That's The Way Love Is | Isley Brothers |
|
15
|
Don't You Miss Me A Little Bit Baby | Jimmy Ruffin |
|
16
|
The Idol | Fortunes |
|
17
|
Lonesome Road | Wonder Who |
|
18
|
Hole In My Shoe | Traffic |
|
19
|
Thinkin' Ain't For Me | Paul Jones |
|
20
|
Baby I Love You | Aretha Franklin |
2
|
21
|
Death Of A Clown | Dave Davies |
1
|
22
|
I'll Never Fall In Love Again | Tom Jones |
6
|
23
|
Pleasant Valley Sunday | Monkees |
3
|
24
|
I Was Made To Love Her | Stevie Wonder |
9
|
25
|
A Bad Night | Cat Stevens |
4
|
26
|
Gin House | Amen Corner |
31
|
27
|
Craise Finton Kirk | Johnnie Young |
14
|
28
|
My Mammy | Happenings |
|
29
|
I Want To Go Back There Again | Truly Smith / New Formula / Bill Kenwright & the Runaways |
25
|
30
|
Back To Memphis / I Do Really Love You | Chuck Berry |
|
30
|
The Windows Of The World | Dionne Warwick |
|
31
|
Omaha / Hey Grandma | Moby Grape |
37
|
32
|
Some Other Someday | West Coast Consortium |
20
|
33
|
Things Get Better | Eddie Floyd |
27
|
34
|
King Of The World | Quik |
|
35
|
Climb Ev'ry Mountain | Madeline Bell |
29
|
36
|
Don't Let The Rain Fall Down On Me | Critters |
34
|
37
|
Come And Play With Me In The Garden | John's Children |
19
|
38
|
Suddenly Things | Ivy League |
39
|
39
|
For Brandy | Dave Justin |
|
40
|
Thank The Lord For The Night Time | Neil Diamond |
Meanwhile Down Under... All You Need is Love/Baby You're a Rich Man Go-Set chart photo used by kind permission of the Poparchives Webmaster. |
|
29
|
I Want To Go Back There Again | Bill Kenwright and the Runaways | Columbia DB 8239 |
In last week's (July 30th, '67) chart notes, I said of I Want To Go Back There Again, "Quite how the Big L DJs coped with two recordings of the same song being Chuck Blair's designated climber, is unclear..."
This week, Alan has noted not merely two, but three versions of the song entering the final Radio London chart simultaneously at #29. Truly Smith and New Formula now had competition from Bill Kenwright and the Runaways.
Searches for information on the band proved fruitless, other than to impart the information that this was the first of five singles they released between '67 and '69. Then, at the suggestion of Andy Thompson, I contacted music historian, Spencer Leigh. Spencer confirmed that the group's leader is Bill Kenwright KBE, the actor, theatrical impresario and owner of Everton Football Club and speculated as to whether the single might have been a spin-off of Bill's Coronation Street role as Gordon Clegg. Thanks to the late Alan Milewczyk, we were able to establish that Bill did not join the cast of Coronation Street till 1968.
Andy Thompson added, "I only wish I could hear some of these records on the Fab Forties I'm only 32 so I missed out first time around". Thanks to Oldies Project, Andy got his wish!
Bill Kenwright and the Runaways' version of I Want To Go Back There Again has the unfortunate distinction of an Internet listing as 'one of the worst fifty British-released records to have been played on the Northern Soul circuit'.Aboard the Galaxy (and elsewhere on the North Sea) between August 6th and 14th:
August 7th
Ian Damon presented his final show on
Big L, on the six-till-nine slot.
8th
John Peel's Perfumed Garden was extended
to 03.00. The 'Head Gardener' filled in some of the extra time by reading out
a poem written in Latin. A new song, titled The Perfumed Garden Blues, or
John Peel's Lament, specially composed and performed by Geoffrey
Prowse, makes its debut.
10th
Peelie picked the witching hour to read an extract from A A Milnes' children's
classic, 'Winnie-The-Pooh'.
11th
With last week's 'Big L Exclusive', Heroes and Villains,
rocketing straight into the Fab at joint #1, Keith
Skues returned to the Galaxy accompanied by the Beach
Boys' Bruce Johnson. Bruce was interviewed by Stewpot,
and even did a few live reads of commercials. (It probably never occurred to
anyone that this could be construed as a celebrity endorsing a product!) The
highlights of Bruce's visit were repeated during the following day's programmes.
10th
John Peel took a day's shore leave, leaving Pete Drummond
to stand in as 'Head Gardener'.
13th/14th
Peelie returned on the tender with Cardboard Shoes, Programme Director, Alan
Keen and an ITN news crew. Alan brought with him recorded tributes
to the station, which were to be played throughout the programmes on August
14th, or edited into a pre-recorded programme, Their Final Hour.
The final party of visitors was brought by the Viking Saga to sail round
the Galaxy.
Radio London would not go off the air again until 3.00pm the next day. The final
Perfumed Garden ran for five-and-a-half hours, from midnight. During the course
of the show, Peelie included three versions of Dust My Broom, one by
Elmore James, another by Howlin'
Wolf and a third with a variation on the title, Dust My Blues
by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. The whole
of side one of the Mothers of Invention's
Absolutely Free album (seven tracks) was included presumably to
give Peelie a bit of a break. Tracks from the Sgt Pepper and Revolver
albums also featured heavily and The Stones'
We Love You and the Misunderstood's
I Can Take You To The Sun both got double airings. The second airing
of the Stones single was to close the show.
Also in the final Perfumed Garden was Tomorrow's
My White Bicycle, co-written by Keith Hopkins (aka Keith West) who was currently in the Fab with ...Teenage Opera.
Chuck Blair followed John Peel at 5.30am,
as a miserable day, in all respects, dawned. (The contents of the show, which
included a dedication to the Knees Club, are covered elsewhere
on the site.)
Pete Drummond incorporated more farewell messages in his morning show, and Alan
Keen guested on the last Coffee Break.
Around noon, Tony Brandon and Mike Lennox
arrived on the tender with Eddie Blackwell, Godfrey
Morrow and Dennis Maitland from
the Curzon Street Offices.
At 12.30, Ed Stewart announced the time of the train that the DJs would be catching from Ipswich to London's Liverpool Street station. Listeners were encouraged
to wear black ties or armbands as a sign of 'mourning'.
Their Final Hour, containing a wealth of farewell messages and tributes from icons of the music world and DJs past and present, was the last Big L programme ever. The last celebrity message to be heard was the one from Ringo Starr. The message gave the impression that either he was at a loss for words, or had not given much consideration beforehand, as to what he was going to say. Perhaps Ringo had been asked to record a tribute, rather than volunteering to do so.
Managing Director, Philip Birch made a closing announcement before the final farewell was spoken by Paul Kaye, whose voice had been the first to be heard on Radio London. The station played out with the 'Big Lil' Sonowaltz, and the transmitter was switched off by Russ Tollerfield.
The sad band of DJs went ashore aboard the Ocean Cock, with Paul Kaye trying to cheer them up by playing his guitar and leading them in singing rude songs. They were to be astonished by the heroes' welcome they received.
Aboard the Mi Amigo, the crew and DJs were tuned to Big L's closedown, and broadcast a minute's silence in tribute. The two Caroline stations soldiered on.
Further north, Radios Scotland and 270 were to close at midnight.
Ashore
7th
Ringo Starr recorded his farewell message
at 17 Curzon Street.The recording is available on a 4-CD boxed set from Strawberry
Records: The Beatles Mythology, Vol. 3, 1966-69. Unfortunately, it
is listed as, "(recorded) Monday July 31st 1967 at Radio London's central office
in Curzon Street, for broadcast on Saturday August 5th 1967." Brian
Long, in his book The London Sound, lists the recording date
as August 7th, and as we all know, the message was most definitely broadcast
on August 14th. During the course of research, I have come across a few Beatle
sites that had the date of Radio London's closedown wrongly listed. Perhaps
for those who are unfamiliar with offshore radio history, the date has passed
into legend as having been 'August 5th'.
11th
John Edward hosted a Big L farewell party
at the Down Beat Club in Maldon.
14th
Kenny Everett was at Broadcasting House,
where Radio London was relayed on the internal monitoring system.
Keith Skues and Ian Damon attempted to meet their former collegues at Liverpool Street, and were almost trampled underfoot by the mob.
All over the Radio London reception area, people were in tears.
Chris Payne and Alan Hardy were tuned-in at EMI in Hayes, Middlesex.
Mary Wingert had taken a day off work and was sitting crying, desperately hoping that if she left the radio tuned in to 266, Big L would come back.
When Radio One launched eight weeks later, on September 30th, Tony Blackburn included no less than six records in the station's first show which had been in the final Fab Forty: Even The Bad Times Are Good; The Day I Met Marie; Good Times; The House That Jack Built; Excerpt From A Teenage Opera and Reflections.