Pirate Radio -50 years on.

[erimus]

Well we are approaching 50 years since my evening listening station Radio London announced it was closing down,following the Government Marine Broadcasting Act......
Ah, sad days for us in bedsits in London!

Perhaps, if you would like a few memories of these days, you might have a look at this website....it is Shipping based history after all!¬

http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/

geoff

[pompeyfan]

Great stuff Geoff.

Radio London was my favourite, although I like all the pirates. Happy days

[erimus]

David, In the mid-60's I was living/working in The City, and three evenings a week I met up with an old mate from Middlesbrough,following his leaving the sea (Thos & Jas.Harrison) we were both music fans and went to concerts,Bill Haley & Johnny Cash being two......anyway we started using the Viking Restaurant (which was a spin-off within the Horseshoe Hotel on Tottenham Court Road. That is where Pentangle made their first appearance in 1967)......anyway I have digressed, when the DJ's of some of the 'pirate' ships came ashore the Viking was a meeting place..... I think it was 'Cardboard Shoes' Keith Skues who broadcast a plug for the restaurant by saying,on air, " Come inside and eat like an Norse"..many of those DJ's became the starting team for Radio 1.

geoff

[Dartskipper]

Originally Posted by pompeyfan

Great stuff Geoff.

Radio London was my favourite, although I like all the pirates. Happy days

Have a look at this site;

http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/index.html

[erimus]

Thanks,they have updated the site since I last looked...tee shirts too small for me!

Geoff

[pompeyfan]

Thanks Roy, brings back great memories

[Ron Stringer]

[QUOTE=erimus;6184] I think it was 'Cardboard Shoes' Keith Skues who broadcast a plug for the restaurant by saying,on air, " Come inside and eat like an Norse" QUOTE]


Believe it or not, old Cardboard Shoes is still DJ-ing on the air - he has a late-night programme on local radio - Sunday night on Radio Norfolk but it is available live on all the BBC local radio stations in the South-East and on the internet. Catchup via BBC iPlayer.

[King Ratt]

I loved the pirates. Home being only some 30 miles from Caroline North in Ramsay Bay. Sadly shut down by Harold Wilson and Co. I never voted Labour again. Radio One Under was not in the same league.

[pompeyfan]

King Rat

I agree. There was something magical about the pirates. Firstly perhaps because it was the sixties, songs we may have never heard without them, the joy of twiddling with the dial finding a new pirate station. It certainly was the swinging sixties, a wonderful era, pure nostalgia. I remember Radio Caroline North being very loud as she passed the Isle of Wight on her way from the Essex coast to her anchorage off the Isle of Man. And not to forgetting Radio Luxembourg on 208, straining our ears to listen to it as it faded in and out, told off by parents for listening to the top twenty around midnight on a Sunday. And what about Horace Bachelor from Keynsham. Thats KEY.............telling us how to win the pools

[GarethJ]

As an R/O working at GNF in those days - I can assure you the pirates caused significant radio disruption to ships working in our area. One of our coastguard stations was completely unable to work lifeboats on his own frequency which was jammed 24/7.

[pompeyfan]

Originally Posted by GarethJ

As an R/O working at GNF in those days - I can assure you the pirates caused significant radio disruption to ships working in our area. One of our coastguard stations was completely unable to work lifeboats on his own frequency which was jammed 24/7.

It is good to hear the problems the pirates were causing, something I never thought of or indeed heard of before, so the radio disruption possibly played a part in the government closing them down. However, love them or loathe them the pirates changed radio forever, playing songs the BBC would not have played many becoming No1 hits. Without the pirates, the swinging 60s may not have happened.

[erimus]

If any of you shipmates are in North Yorkshire this coming weekend then the North Yorks Moors Railway is celebrating a 60's weekend from Pickering to Goathland...vintage cars and music. Special attraction will be a Radio 270 event...this was the seasick radio station based in a trawler off Scarborough! They have an ex Radio London man from 1964-66 on hand for questions.
(The station at Levisham will be renamed Elvisham for the weekend......when they have War Weekends this station is turned into a French one called Le Visham,of course!)

geoff

[Naytikos]

posted by Erimus:

That is where Pentangle made their first appearance in 1967

That is the first mention I have heard of Pentangle in 48 years!
I saw them at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969 (supporting Bob Dylan), had never heard of them before and never since.
(Having been absent from the UK for the two years prior and every year since may have something to do with it).

I have their first Album on 12" vinyl.

[McCloggie]

Saw Pentangle live in Dundee in 1969 or 1970.

McC

[erimus]

For those brought up on Caroline South this may be of interest:-

"Radio Caroline has been running test transmissions on 648kHz from Orford Ness in preparation for their recently licensed service to Suffolk and north Essex. Full programmes begin on Friday 22nd December “weather and technology permitting”. More information at www.radiocaroline.co.uk."

Thanks to Offshoreradio.co.uk for this information.

geoff