Solar - Terrestrial Data

Sunday, April 05, 2009

It is the time of the year...

...when I remember what happened around Easter holidays 1964. There emerged a new radio station named Radio Caroline on the Medium Wave band and that station was playing my kind of music. More stations followed and in 1966 there were a lot of them on international waters around the coasts of the UK and most of them in the Thames estuary and south of the coast of Essex moored on the "Pirate Alley" From Clacton-on-sea to Frinton-on-sea.
It is now the 45:th anniversary of Radio Caroline and i will show you a QSL-card from that fabolous year of 1966 when offshore-radio was at its summit.



The BBC is also celebrating this, running special programs from the former lightship LV10 using the name "Pirate BBC Essex" from 10:th to 13:th of April.
Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/articles/2007/08/01/pirate_bbc_essex_listen_live_feature.shtml
http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/kneesflashes/happenings/aprilmayjune09/TonyandArnold.pdf

A great lineup of former offshore DJ:s including Tony Blackburn and Keith Skues will attend.
Not to forget "The Boat that Rocked", the fiction movie about the abovementioned subject that is now out in the UK and will be out in the rest of Europe 16 - 17-APR-09
http://www./theboatthatrocked.com/
Watch the trailers and listen to the music! The soundtrack will be hot!

6 comments:

grace said...

I grew up in England in the 60's 70's and I remember Tony Blackburn! wow , that is a name from the past. great post :)

Dale said...

What an amazing time in pop music history!
I am quite looking forward to the release of "The Boat That Rocked" in North America.

If it wasn't for Radio Caroline, I wonder where those early rock and rollers would have ended up...

grace said...

I was just catching up on my blog and comments. awesome, you are going to see Bruce in June! I am so excited for you. He is amazing. and seems so on fire. really when is he not? Oh, I expect a full report on your blog with pictures, you must take your camera?

:) xo

Hans said...

Dale,
Yes it was an amazing time in Europe, the rock-pop explosion and the offshore-pirate-radio stations trying to break the monopoly of the Public Radio stations running commercial radio from international waters.
I think it was a little different in the US when there had been commercial radio from the very beginning but though maybe difficult to find your favourite music on your radio dial...

Grace,
Yes of course! Ingela will bring her camera and you will see "Pictures of Bruce" (pun intended...) here in June :)
Btw, the DVD-CD set of "In the Attic" arrived here yesterday and money is transferred!
Thank you!

grace said...

you are very welcome.

I will look forward to those pictures of Bruce! Bruuuuuuce!

Vallypee said...

so strange, I remember reading this post, and also Grace's comments and your links. I was so sure I'd left my own comment too, but it seems not ;-( Anyway, just to say I too remember this as a very special time, and also listening to Radio Caroline, London and Luxemburg on my little red transistor with its gold mesh speaker cover. Mostly, I had to listen beneath my blankets after lights out as that was when we had the best reception!

 
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