Former offshore radio DJ Tom Edwards has written a long article (illustrated) for the Mail on Sunday reflecting on his offshore radio career that started on Radio City when he was just 19, after which he moved on to Radio Caroline. Tom is currently writing his autobiography. He and Johnnie Walker will be among the DJs recreating the pirate sound on the LV18 ship anchored off Harwich on BBC Radio Essex for four days over Easter.
on Mar 2nd, 2009 at 09:53
Interesting article by Tom who mentions American religion underwriting Radio City - but in fact it was Herbert W. Armstrong’s polemical program ‘The World Tomorrow’ in support of the CIA’s attempt to supress the creation of a United States of Europe that made the entire British era of 1960s pirate radio financially possible. Tom also refers to Ronan O’Rahilly as the creator of Radio Caroline, which in fact was named after the Caroline style sheet in Jocelyn Stevens’ ‘Queen’ magazine. Stevens (with O’Rahilly’s help) originally started the radio station with a faction of the British Establishment in an attempt to force a reversal of the Pilkington Committee’s findings against the introduction of commercial radio in Britain. Although some of my comments here have been previously published in academic journals with Eric Gilder, they have been expanded into book form called ‘Distant Drums’ due out later this year.
on Mar 6th, 2009 at 17:26
He mentions Richard Harris\’s MacArthur Park and Eloise by Paul and Barry Ryan, but I always thought these songs were released in 1968, unless my minds going. I look forward to his book and the film The Boat That Rocked.
Listen to Pirate Johnnie Walker on my MP3 player while walking along the coast, you can almost see the glint off a 190 foot mast on the horizon, greay stuff.