Nuff Said 99

Radio Caroline Top Fifteens

Circa December 2020 one evening I got bored enough enough to submit another Top 15 to Radio Caroline. I looked at the other playlists of crap music that people had chosen and thought I could do better.

Six months later and my tunes were played. It was only partially successful. Maybe I’m slow on the uptake but I thought my first choice would be played last as it was track one and I thought the idea of a Top 15 was a countdown to your favourite song. The music was played in the reverse order to what I expected. I thought Aphrodites Child would close the hour, not start it! Also tracks one and two Radio Caroline played completely different (inferior) versions of the songs I chose. And although Rainbow Chaser is an ok sixties song, with novel-for-the-time phasing effects, but I’m pretty sure I chose a Black Sabbath track for number 14? Hey Ho! So here is the track listing. In September 2021 having listened to a lot of music this year (don’t watch TV any more) I may have chosen a somewhat different selection but it’s a better hour than many that appear in the 9.00am slot on Radio Caroline but I would say that wouldn’t I?

PS: Why not submit YOUR Top 15 to Radio Caroline by following this link???

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1/ Back in November the newspaper mentioned that there was an interesting story in the 1987 Bunty Annual. A science fiction story set in the far flung future of 2020 when a deadly virus circulated the planet. Humans could only survive by living in “bubbles”. These were giant bubbles that enclosed whole cities. To leave would be instant death.

So I had a look on ebay. There were loads of 1987 Bunty Annuals for sale. Most cost approx £5. Being a cheapskate I bought one at a Buy-it-now price of £2 plus postage. I thought no more about it until a week later I noted an ebay refund on my bank statement. The seller hadn’t honoured the order and instead was re-advertising the book at £66. You what? To add insult to injury ebay emailed me a few times asking if I still wanted a Bunty Annual with a link to that inflated price. I absolutely hate things like that. If I had accidentally advertised Amazing Fantasy 15 for £1 instead of £10,000 I would honour my original price.

A similar thing happened to me on ebay last year. Someone was offering a bunch of early 1960s Flash comics for very reasonable prices. I snapped them up only for the seller to change their mind. Perhaps they’d now seen the same issues selling for much more elsewhere. I received a refund and the comics duly re-appeared at much higher prices.

2/ Three or four years ago I had my “Top 15” played on Radio Caroline. I didn’t actually listen to the hour long show. I had more important things to do that day, collecting my new car from the dealer. I did actually record the show so who knows I may listen to it one day.

Anyway I hadn’t listened to Radio Caroline since but back in November I was at such a loose end I revisited their website. It seems “Top 15s” were still broadcast daily at 9am. You could see the list of tracks that people had chosen for the next 7 days. Without exception the lists were unbelievably uninspiring. Genesis. ELO. Queen. (place your crap mainstream 1980s band here). I thought I could do better. But first I had to submit 6 of my chosen tunes for moderation. Three were rejected. Three were accepted. If I had placed a bet I would have said the three accepted would have been turned down and the three that were rejected would have been welcomed with open arms as they were (excellent) cover versions of popular songs Radio Caroline often play. So I don’t know by what criteria a tune is deemed unsuitable. Anyway my “Top 15” has been submitted. If by some fluke they decide to broadcast it, expect it in 12 months time, such is the long list of contenders.

3/ In late December 2020 the now-newsworthy 1987 Bunty Annuals were being advertised at prices varying between £25 and £250. Last week there was just one at a Buy-it-now price of £9.99 including postage which I immediately snapped up. Let’s see if the seller of that book plays fair or not.

Ronan O’Rahilly

21.05.1940 – 20.04.2020

The Nineteen Seventies

The Nineteen Eighties

Caroline’s radio

This catchy tune never made the charts. It doesn’t seem to have received the number of UToob visitors it deserves. Some crap videos receive literally millions of “hits”. What is wrong with people?

They’ve all gone away

Radio Seagull

The first version of Radio Seagull appeared quite unexpectedly from the Radio ship Mi Amigo at 9pm on the 24th July 1973. I recorded extracts over the next few days on my (t)rusty reel to reel tape recorder. But only having a 30 minute reel to spare I had to just record the DJs rather than the music. So a few years ago I was pleased to see someone else with more blank tapes/money than I had recorded an hour of Barry Everitt from 26th July 1973 of not just the links as heard on my recording but also included the music and placed it on the Azanorak site. Barry had been involved in the music scene, the underground scene and Radio Geronimo prior to his few weeks aboard the Mi Amigo (First Radio Seagull show: 24th July, Last show: 7th September). He would go to the States where he continued DJing. Later back in the UK he remained in the music business. He passed away in 2017.

Radio Seagull Barry Everitt 26th July 1973 

Barry is third from the left, arm raised, behind Andy Archer.

 

Here are a couple more copies of Monitor magazine covering the first period when Radio Seagull was broadcasting from the Mi Amigo. (Aerial trouble beginning 1st October would put the station onto low power and eventually completely off the air from 18th October 1973. Radio Caroline managed to return for a couple of days over the Xmas period. Radio Seagull would re-commence 7th January 1974 until 22nd February 1974 when the powers that be decided the station should once again be called Radio Caroline).

Monitor 04 Summer 1973

Monitor 05 Winter 1973

Last words

At 11pm on the 19th March 1980 the numbers 59, 60 and 25 were announced over the air and not long after that:

“Radio Caroline broadcasting on 319m, 963khz. Well we’re sorry to tell you that  due to the severe (con) weather conditions  and also to the fact that we’re shipping quite a lot of water, we’re closing down and the crew are at this stage leaving the ship. Obviously we hope to be back with you as soon as possible but we’d just like to assure you all on land that there’s nothing to worry about. We’re all quite safe. Just for the moment we’d like to say goodbye. Tom?”.

“Yeah. It’s not a very good occasion really. We have to hurry this because the lifeboat is standing by. We’re not leaving and disappearing. We’re going onto the lifeboat hoping that the pumps can take it. If they can we’ll be back. If not, well I don’t like to say it”.

“I think we’ll be back one way or another Tom”.

“From all of us for the moment goodbye and God Bless”.

• Caroline by the Fortunes.
• Silence for the next three years……

Top Fifteen

For the last twenty years Radio Caroline has been available first via the Astra satellite and then later via the Internet. Later this year they will be returning (legally) to 648khz on the Medium wave band (Note: This officially/actually happened on Dec 22nd 2017) , but you’ll only be able to listen using that “old fashioned” method if you are in the Suffolk or Essex areas. Although no doubt “anoraks” living far further afield will manage to hear it too! I recently visited the Radio Caroline website and saw that they broadcast a Top 15 chosen by listeners each weekday morning. They give you a clickable list of their Top 500 albums to select your Top 15 from. I struggled to find much there. How many more times can people listen to “Dark Side of the Moon” or “Stairway to Heaven”? Anyway this was the list I ultimately chose:-

15 Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz
14 Lou Reed – Perfect Day
13 Loving Awareness Band – Existence
12 Hazel O’Connor – Will You
11 John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth
10 Bob Dylan – I Want You
09 Alice Cooper – Poison
08 Love – Alone Again Or
07 Iggy Pop – Some Weird Sin
06 Argent – God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You
05 Beach Boys – Here Today
04 Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love
03 Earth & Fire – Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Tonight
02 Elvis Costello – What’s So Funny ’bout (Peace, Love & Understanding)
01 Shakespear’s Sister – Hello (Turn Your Radio On)

It was only after I’d submitted that list that I discovered I could have chosen tunes not in the Top 500 albums, but they’d only be used if Radio Caroline had the songs in their library so I’m sure that would exclude most of my current favourites. I doubt they’d play Robb Storme’s version of “Here Today” if I’d asked them, much as that is the sort of variety they should be aiming for.

 

My Top 15 was played on Radio Caroline a couple of weeks ago. But given free rein and my very own radio station I would no doubt be subjecting people to stuff like this:-

Thirty Two

Thirty Three

Thirty Five

Test Transmissions

It’s almost a third of a century since Radio Caroline began broadcasting on 319m from the Ross Revenge. As Peter Moore wrote elsewhere on the Interweb, “So, from the best radio ship ever built, albeit painted the wrong colour, on the wrong date, wrong channel and with the wrong music policy, Radio Caroline had returned”. (Ronan had expected the new station to be transmitting on 558m and with a “Pop” format. The hippies on board had other ideas.) There was only a day or so of “test transmissions” beginning on Friday 19th August (having missed Ronan’s hoped for start date of the historically significant August 14th) before “official” programming began at noon on Saturday 20th August 1983. I couldn’t tell the difference. Most of the “tests” had consisted of near-continuous music/whole sides of live LPs along with announcements either twice or four times an hour. Normal programming was all too often the same. Three or four bland “Adult oriented Rock” tunes followed by an announcement or a tedious advert for a foreign lottery. So underwhelmed was I with this “new” Radio Caroline that I was pleased when they were joined in the north sea by the far jollier Laser 558.

These Test transmissions of Caroline 319 are already available elsewhere on the Interweb (although they do suffer from the accompaniment of a most annoying mains hum) which saves me bothering to upload my recordings. But here’s a brief aircheck to add to my audio library before I chuck my tapes in the bin.

Rocking the boat

Sometime around Easter 2014 when Radio Caroline celebrated her 50th birthday this (mostly correct) article appeared in a women’s magazine.

Booklet

Compared to the organised chaos of its’ 1970s and 1980s versions, 1960s Radio Caroline presented quite a professional appearance with offices in central London and promotional material like this.

Radio Caroline Booklet