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Offshore Radio
Royal Academy
Offshore Radio
Celebration
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Radio Academy Celebration of 60s Offshore Radio - 4th August 2007 (page 1)
Introduction
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On Saturday 4th August the Radio Academy hosted a “Celebration of 1960s Offshore Radio”. Billed “On the 40th Anniversary of the Marine Offences Act, the Radio Academy pays tribute to the pioneers of UK music radio who ruled the medium wave throughout the mid-sixties”, it did exactly that.
For four hours we were treated to many amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes as the legends of Offshore radio told us what it was like to be on the ships and forts broadcasting to the nation.
I arrived at the Sugar Reef, a bar/restaurant across the road from the famous Windmill Street, in the heart of the West End, just after noon. There was already a fair crowd inside while I joined the registration queue. Very quickly I started to recognise various faces, including Keith Skues.
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Emperor Rosko
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Rosko, Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale
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Keith Skues and Graham Webb
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Duncan Johnson
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I made my way downstairs where refreshments were available, passing offshore radio memorabilia that were adorning the walls alongside the stairs. It soon became apparent that it was a case of “us” and “them” - “us” being the ordinary punters and “them” wearing name badges who were the VIP guests, the people involved with the event we were celebrating, the ones who had had some involvement with 60s offshore radio.
I don’t know whether it was me, but I found it slightly awkward going up to people with name badges, squinting my eyes to get in focus to read the small lettering, to work out whether I’d known of them. I kidded myself that I must have looked distinguished as a number of people came up to me and asked what my involvement had been – I felt somewhat inadequate explaining I was just a fan, a mere listener. Initially, I also felt awkward walking up to my heroes and introducing myself – it felt like a case of “we are not worthy”.
Anyway, after swapping pleasantries with a few other fans, I found myself talking with Woolf Byrne, who had spent time on City, Britain and 390. I started to get a picture of how those 3 or so glorious years had had an impact on the guys who weren’t the big names – he’d subsequently worked for the BBC World Service and done some acting. Not everyone stayed in broadcasting.
I then spotted a familiar face coming towards me - it was Hans Knot from the Netherlands, one of the organisers of the famous Radio Days in Amsterdam. By the time I’d introduced Hans and Woolf to each other, I saw Hans’ “Radio Day” co-organiser Dr Martin van der Venn who took a photo of Woolf and me. A few minutes later I was introduced to another of their friends, Rob Olthof from the Offshore Radio Foundation.
Soon afterwards, a call was made for the members of the press together for a photo-call. By then the Sugar Reef was just heaving, so I burrowed my way through the crush to try to get some piccies. It proved to be a bit tricky because of the sheer volume of people there, but I managed to get a few shots. At one stage, Emperor Rosko, Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale were holding a pirate flag complete with skull and crossbones. It was a very joyful affair but you needed an extra-wide angle lens to capture the whole crowd.
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Robbie Dale, Cathy Spence (behind), Keith Skues, Howard Castle aka Bud Ballou (behind), Mitch (Radio London steward), Graham Webb, Bryan Vaughan
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We milled around a bit more, but before long it was time to go upstairs for the main event. A lot of the seats were already taken, the front row was empty but all the seats were reserved, however I was fortunate to find a seat in the second row, next to Rob Olthof.
The afternoon was split up into five segments covering different aspects of the Offshore scene, each with its own chairman.
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