The Real Pirate Radio: Music's Eternal Influencer
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Real Pirate Radio: Music's Eternal Influencer
I finally watched this movie the other night on HBO and wanted to research it further. The back story is always better than the movie about, well, Pirate Radio. If this interests you, you'll also enjoy the links below.
Offshore Radio Guide
Hans Knot
Radio Caroline
3 comments:
I'm pleased to see that you have taken the trouble to research the real story behind 'Pirate Radio' aka 'The Boat That Rocked' . The trouble with this film is that because it's very loosely based on the story of the UK offshore broadcasters of the Sixties, many people have come to believe it's factual.
A number of stations (not just one!) entertained millions of Brits, continentals and Scandinavians via powerful transmitters. The ships were anchored in the North Sea and the Irish Sea and some stations were based on ex-WWII forts in the Thames estuary.
The original output of the first 'pirate', Radio Caroline South, was fairly staid and MOR (although I can't speak for Caroline North, which being well out of head office earshot tended to do its own thing.) However, at the end of 1964, Radio London sailed in from Miami, bringing the US Top Forty format and jingles, which very quickly cornered the listener market. The Caroline sound had to be revamped to compete. By 1966 (which is when the film is supposedly set) most of the stations were Top Forty-based. It's a tremendous pity the film-makers couldn't stick to the music of that year for their soundtrack.
The film's theme is 'rock' and overcoming the 'banning of rock music by the BBC and/or government' - which never happened. Sixties Top Forty format offshore stations were all about pop, not rock. The word 'rock' tended in those days to refer to rock 'n' roll of the Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis era. What we did not have before the pirates arrived was any 24-hour music stations.
Although there was no banning of pop music on the radio, the Musicians' Union felt threatened. It restricted the number of hours of recorded music permitted to be aired, arguing that spinning records took work from its members. Much of the permitted BBC 'needle time' was devoted to the weekly 'Pick of the Pops' chart run-down.
Teens loved the pirates from the outset. They were new and exciting, outside of the law and playing music all day. As much as listening to the music, we wanted to know what was happening on the ships. (And what was happening on the ships was nothing like the film script!)
Those of us who love the offshore stations were very disappointed with 'Pirate Radio', as were most of the former DJs, who don't appreciate being labelled sex-maniac drug-takers! There was plenty of that type of action going on in the trendy clubs when they went ashore and very little happening on the ships, where girls were seldom allowed aboard.
The pirates didn't save the world, but they made big changes to the music industry and the world of broadcasting and caused the government to have a major rethink about what the public wanted as entertainment. (The pirates were forced off the air in August 1967. The national pop station Radio 1 opened at the end of September. Commercial radio eventually arrived here in 1973.)
The real story is yet to be filmed and it's much more interesting.
Mary Payne, Radio London Webmaster
PS to previous, I got a message saying my website URL was too large to publish. I've no idea why it's 'too large', but it's www.radiolondon.co.uk
Thanks so much for your input and for filling me in, Mary.
Your website is such a comprehensive history of offshore radio and 60s music. Very impressive.
Thanks again, Mary. I'm going back in for more.
Post a Comment