Kenny Everett's first show on the beeb

A treat for jingle fans today as BBC Radio 2 replays The Kenny Everett Show from 11 to 1 today. Who else could get away with starting their very first BBC show with the word "oops" after a Capital Radio plug?!

All the original tracks, competitions, observations of those tiny things that people miss (like all the bums in a Four Tops record), comparison of old and new versions and odd timechecks are there and remind you of just how knowledgeable and brilliant he was.

If you missed it the Listen Again feature available on the Radio 2 site will give you another chance. Record it and you'll be able to cheer yourself up at any time. Total Recorder will do the job simply - not free now but the tiny licence fee is well worth paying.

The Kenny Everett Show was first broadcast on Radio 2 in 1981 and it is good to see its inclusion in the 40th anniversary fayre despite being 27. Lots more during the day too. The Oldies Project have stopped the Fab 40 shows but are still streaming tracks from the shows of 40 years ago on Radio London, Big L, and will be running new chart shows again in 2008.

This is their new Sunday programme:
11 AM (UK) - Back from a watery grave Two hours of songs from the Radio London playlist that did not chart on the Fab 40.
01 PM (UK) - 40 years ago
Two hours of new UK releases and hits from exactly that week, 40 years ago
Check The Playlist for both shows.

14 August 1967: When the music died

A few disc jockeys on tiny ships like these brought exciting new music to teenagers in the 1960s and had a huge influence on a generation. In those days, for radio read BBC. Home Service, the Third Programme and the Light Programme. These were the sort of thing your parents listened to, and then only occasionally. The contrast between them and the bright, unscripted and free ranging output of the pirates like Radio London and Radio Caroline was remarkable. These were programmes that you would choose to listen to from start to finish. Jingles, adverts and entertaining intros from djs who played what they liked and knew about what they played. You could hear tracks from the American charts months before they'd ever get played on the BBC. You'd hear tracks that may never reach a Top 40 at all.

You got the feeling that no-one was making much money from the stations, that the individual djs were broadcasting from small boxes aboard an old boat some distance off the coast with little by way of home comforts for their several weeks at a time out there. They cared for the music and shared it with people like me.

The Labour government of the day hounded them and this brought yet another dimension to the huge divide between the generations. Your parents might mumble occasionally about some legislation but seemed always to go along with it. Not so the pirates and we realised that it was OK to object to government, that ministers had views but they weren't necessarily right. I was genuinely surprised that anyone should have been so offended by the pirate stations as to draw up legislation specifically to ban them. I have never believed that they interfered with other transmissions nor that it would not have been possible to permit them to broadcast under some approved licence. But no, on this day 40 years ago, Kenny Everett played the Beatles' A Day In The Life at the end of a brilliant three hour show on Radio London. I shall never forget the incredibly emotional moment as the track's crescendo faded, the needle scratched and bumped to the centre of the disc, a small click as it lifted then another click as the transmitters were shut down.

Radio Caroline bravely carried on with Johnnie Walker carrying the pirate banner high for a few more years but the killing of Radio London, Big L, my best friend and companion, was unforgiveable. I shall never forget.

Stone fish

That PP4 Poem

4 US

As I waddled round my field one night
I couldn't believe my eyes
Men with poles - what a sight
And a banner proclaiming a prize

With all the strength that they could muster
Their erections stood tall and proud
While Maggie went round with her duster
Muttering "Messy lot, this crowd."

The sign said knock twice for Sarah
But which one - one or two?
As the night wore on the knockings were rarer
They just grabbed one and said "You'll do!"

Imagine my shock when the pig arrived
Completely nude and headless
With a prong sticking out his backside
And scorch marks all over his chest

Piggy was sliced up and plattered
For a queue that stretched a mile
And they all just stood there and nattered
About the weather in single file

The Chairman showed us his organ
And bare feet tapped out the time
All thought of embarrassment forgone
Passers-by asked should they throw him a dime?

In the food tent the saladeers scurried
And laid out their wares in smart dishes
Rob looked decidely worried
He'd two loaves . . . but was short of five fishes

Penny and Sue remained calm, of course,
Everything under control
In its right place was every sauce,
Folded napkin and shiny fruit bowl.

Smoke rose from Andrew's fag and the fire
A grin spread on Adrian's face
Rob brandished his rod of desire
As if about to set fire to the place.

Selling tickets and counting the money
At the gate sat Chris with no shoes,
Crying out "That's ten quid, honey,
Go help yourself to some booze"

Darkness fell and a strange noise grew
Older people wished they'd gone
But the rest were pleased to listen to
Tom - and his band played on.

The crowd sure seemed pretty hale
And some were notably hearty
And apart from an occasional wail
It was an amazing Fourth Paddock Party.

So Much For Mary

I've finally got it. "So Much For Mary" by Jon. Made Number 40 this week on the Radio London chart on 11 June 1967. And that's when I last heard it, a teenager in Kings Langley, dancing around the lawn to tunes from a transistor radio. This track just got me and I loved it but it was so seldom played that I doubt if I heard it more than three or four times. A simple, classic Sixties sound, nice young American vocal. Just great. I searched for it several years ago and that's what brought me to the Oldies Project as it was the one and only result that came up as an entry in their BigL Fab Forty charts they'd published.

Prior to that I might have been forgiven for thinking that I'd imagined the whole thing. I'd looked in record catalogues, listings, everywhere without any luck. But not only was it there but the Oldies Project actually play the whole Fab Forty show 40 years on. The original show, minus adverts. How on earth they do that I don't know - I think it's been a matter of collecting everyone's tapes from those days and rebuilding the programme. But that meant if I waited until June 2007 I'd get the actual song too. Amazing. It was a 'climber' a couple of weeks ago but it was one of those weekends when I was running this way and that and completely forgot to do the recording. This week I was much better organised to the point that, if necessary, I'd have bolted the doors and refused to move until I had it!

To record from an internet stream I used Total Recorder's device which works a dream. I had to buy the cost option for the laptop to get rid of the annoying bleep they now put in every 30 secs or so on the free version. I had the free version (with no bleeps) on my PC but as the internet connection to that isn't as strong as to my laptop I wasn't going to take any chances.

I've now extracted the track from the whole programme (which had some other great memories too) and will be putting it on my main site shortly so will make a link to it for anyone who wants to hear it. After next week, when it'll be in the chart show again at 23, that'll be it. It dropped out of the charts (possibly because it wasn't actually released over here and radio London just had an airtime publicity copy from the States) and that was that.

So I feel absolutely brilliant now. That was one of my life's ambitions - now fulfilled. Few readers will understand and most will think I'm just plain silly but there you go. I know what it feels like and that takes some doing these days.

The traffic lights turn blue tomorrow

Returning to the village after a year and a half's absence may give me a chance to catch up with news on the shed front. If you'll forgive a slight change of theme, thought I'd use this site to add some items of interest on the pirate radio scene. Well, sheds are where you do things you want to without being disturbed and the one thing that I really didn't want was my parents asking whether I wanted any tea whilst I was trying to keep the transistor on the BigL station to catch the latest track or Kenny Everett jingle. So I spent a great deal of time in dad's greenhouse with the radio and what looked like homework.