Listen to Absolute Radio Pirates
Commemorating 55 years since the end of Pirate Radio
Last updated 12th Aug 2022
For one day only today (Friday 12th August) Absolute Radio 60s presents Absolute Radio Pirates! A day celebrating the music and personalities of the pirate radio stations of the 1960s, 55 years after they were brought to an end.
LISTEN HERE!
To mark the anniversary, Absolute Radio Pirates combines new interviews with archive broadcasts - and loads of great music - to tell the real story of the pirates, their love of music and the move into illegality.
The whole day is hosted by pirate radio legends Tony Blackburn and Johnnie Walker and you can listen to all the shows in their entirety below! You can also listen to the station live RIGHT HERE.
Listen to Absolute Radio Pirates:
Details on the Absolute Radio Pirates shows:
• Tony Blackburn talks about his love of Wonderful Radio London - and their funky jingles. Tony presented the first soul music programme in the UK and developed the Fabulous 40 format which combines the best new music with greatest hits.
• Johnnie Walker tells us about falling in love with pirate radio while working as a car salesman in Birmingham.
• We’ll hear archive broadcasts of Kenny Everett and his chaos - and his reports from touring with The Beatles in 1966.
• We bring you the inception of that weird new music programming that John Peel was known and loved for in the Perfumed Garden from 1967
• Tommy Vance brings us the final Fabulous 40 from Sunday 6th August 1967.
• In 1966, a feud over money between two rival fort-based pirate stations - Radio Atlanta and Radio City, resulted in the murder of Radio City’s owner Reg Calvert. Susan Calvert joins us to talk about the life of her dad - and how his passion for music took him on a journey into the world of the pirates.
• Leona Graham - and her dad - talk about their love of music radio which all started with the DJs on the pirate ships.
• Radio historian David Lloyd gives us a fabulously detailed history lesson, packed full of archive, to show the evolution of music radio from the 1950s to the present day.
• Shaun Keaveny shares his love of music and broadcasting - and the impact and legacy of the pirate radio stations - and, yeah, he wangs on about The Beatles again.
• Jordan and Perri from Kiss Breakfast talk about continuing the pirate traditions on Kiss FM, so that the music you love gets played in the way that it does.
• Tim Blackmore - the man who helped to launch Radio One before becoming part of Britain’s first land-based commercial music station, Capital in London - tells us all that he learned from listening to Radio London and how it influenced his 50 year career in radio.
Absolute Radio Pirates is produced by Laura Grimshaw for unusual. The Executive Producer is Jon Holmes, with archive from Mike Leonard and the Offshore Radio Museum.
The story of pirate radio stations:
On Easter Saturday 1964, Radio Caroline burst into life on the Mi Amigo ship, anchored three and a half miles off the Essex coast offering all-day pop music presented by knowledgeable and fast-talking DJs. Over the next three years, other pirate radio stations sprung up on ships and discussed WWII forts - including Wonderful Radio London, Radio City, Radio Atlanta, Radio Scotland and Swinging Radio England. They all offered all-day pop music presented by hip and happening young DJs including Johnnie Walker, Tony Blackburn, John Peel, Kenny Everett and Dave Cash, Keith Skues, Tony Windsor, Tommy Vance, Ed Stewpot Stewart and Simon Dee. And they were pulling in around 20 million listeners.
On the 14th August 1967 a new law called The Marine Offences Act came into force which made it illegal for any British subject to have anything to do with a pirate radio station – whether it be presenting on air, a crew member on board, being an advertiser, promoting the stations, or supplying them with music.