Sixties Pirate stations knew a real No 1
ENGELBERT HumpERdiNck didn’t have it all his own way in keeping The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever/ penny Lane off the No 1 spot (mail). most young people in 1967 listened to the pirate radio stations, broadcasting from ships and forts in the North Sea. These stations compiled their own charts, often bearing only a passing resemblance to the national charts. The most popular was that broadcast on Sunday mornings/lunchtime from Radio London (known as ‘Big L’). its Fab 40 was weeks athead of the national charts and in early February placed Strawberry Fields Forever/ penny Lane at No 1 for two weeks. Humperdinck’s Release me was held at No 2 before dropping three places and never made it to the No 1 spot. Big L obviously thought its younger audience wouldn’t appreciate The Beatles being held off No 1 by a crooner. When kenny Everett appeared on the Juke Box Jury panel and an Englebert record was played, he said: ‘Why am i here listening to this rubbish when i could be at home listening to The Beatles?’ i had a pen friend at the time, author Lynn peters (with whom i’m still in touch), and recall us lamenting in our letters that the charts were ‘full of rubbish’. despite it being ‘the Summer of Love’, the charts featured a lot of ‘mum and dad’s music’ including The Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones and ken dodd singing Tears. i can still remember Lynn’s comment that Tom Jones’s record should be buried under the Green Green Grass. Sadly, Radio London and most of the other pirate stations were closed down in August 1967. A bereft teenage audience was left to the mercy of the BBc and a chart dominated by oldies. Now, an oldie myself, i admit i’ve mellowed somewhat, but i could never bring myself to like Release me and its ilk.
TREVOR BAILEY, Gedling, Notts.