London pirate radio - news and discussion

[ska invita]

What year was this?

 

[ska invita]

A little feature me and stethoscope put together on Defection 89.4, including rare photos, article and dj sets
Mikus Musik: Defection 89.4 - Saluting the Pirate Legends

 

[ddraig]

Big ups both!!

 

[ska invita]

Big ups both!!

im a bit nervous as ive tagged a few old defection djs to a post on it on facebook and now im worried someone might be annoyed by it - just feeling a bit tired/para in general i think! only reason they could be annoyed is because of old photos i guess...

 

[ddraig]

Prob fine but could add disclaimer and offer to edit/remove
Bet you get loads of love for it
Good luck!

 

[ska invita]

amazed how ropey that studio is - look at the speakers they've got! Madness...always sounded so good on air too - nice signal, nicely eqd, good bass

 

[stethoscope]

A couple of 90s stories from DJ Clockwork (Eruption/Kool)...
Original Pirate material

 

[ska invita]

great tales!
Clockwork (and Demoliton crew) still plays on Kool today, but i had no idea about his past...salute

 

[ska invita]

Talking of tales, there are a few biographies getting written these days
Dirty : The Confessions of a Reformed Drug Addict and Soccer Hooligan Who Made it Big on the Dance Scene
BOOK: Rave Diaries & Tower Block Tales by Uncle Dugs - £20
BOOK: Mark Archer - The Man Behind The Mask - £20
BOOK - The Love Dove Generation - £20 (Bunter)

i think there are more than that but i cant remember now...anyone?

 

[ddraig]

Bit about pirate radio and UKG on people's history of pop 1997-2010 on bbc4

 

[stethoscope]

Bit about pirate radio and UKG on people's history of pop 1997-2010 on bbc4

Good to see Carl Brown on there - his garage site was one of the first I ever remember seeing about the scene on the net!

 

[ska invita]

New Kool FM studio and 3x webcam
Welcome to Kool London

 

[ska invita]

Talking of tales, there are a few biographies getting written these days
Dirty : The Confessions of a Reformed Drug Addict and Soccer Hooligan Who Made it Big on the Dance Scene
BOOK: Rave Diaries & Tower Block Tales by Uncle Dugs - £20
BOOK: Mark Archer - The Man Behind The Mask - £20
BOOK - The Love Dove Generation - £20 (Bunter)

i think there are more than that but i cant remember now...anyone?

JJ Frost has a got a book coming out too....Big Bad & Heavy its called

Current station scan (found elsewhere)
875 Raw and Live – co-channel, one dead air the other garage
878 Fusion
880 Pulse
884 Vision
886 B2B
894 Citylock
898 Station - audio quite low
900 Hot
902 Point Blank
908 Lightning
922 Metro love
926 Rock - overmodding badly
929 Blessed – Thanks to 4therecord for the ID
930 Fresh Soundz Radio – Dead air, I doubt this was "Slam"
938 Vibes
940 Touch
942 True Flavas
944 Flava
946 Kool
951 Origin
954 Roots
955 Ontop
961 S Dance
964 Surprise
966 Riddim
971 Unid, 00soul maybe
978 Bassline
979 Divine
981 Mystic
983 RJR
993 Select
995 Venture
997 Flex
1003 House
1011 Naija
1012 Unique
1013 Spice
1014/5 too messy to tell
1017 Flight
1018 Bizim
1019 Real beat
1020 Concious
1024 Wax - Dead air
1025 Galaxy
1028 Umut
1038 Buzz
1040 Muzik
1041 Omega
1042 Play
1047 Pozitif
1056 Playback
1065 Project
1080 Love Life

Current most common go to stations for me are Galaxy and City Lock

 

[skyscraper101]

Not sure if anyone saw this news but Flex FM has been given a licence by Ofcom.

Ofcom awards four new community radio licences

I am very pleased for them as they have been running an extremely professional operation for sometime and I like a few of their DJs. I just hope they don't go the way of Kiss and go all mainstream when they get their DAB and FM licence.

 

[stethoscope]

Not sure if anyone saw this news but Flex FM has been given a licence by Ofcom.

Ofcom awards four new community radio licences

I am very pleased for them as they have been running an extremely professional operation for sometime and I like a few of their DJs. I just hope they don't go the way of Kiss and go all mainstream when they get their DAB and FM licence.

Yes! Saw this

With a community license they shouldn't be under that pressure, hopefully follow the path of Rinse.

 

[ska invita]

Mr Shepherd said: “We are working hard to begin broadcasting on FM and expect to announce the frequency soon.”

Begin broadcasting lol
great news

 

[ddraig]

Lock down your aerial! London's 1980s pirate radio scene – in pictures

 

[ddraig]

did we have this?? a young Uncle Dugs and others
Pirate radio

 

[hipipol]

My fav for long number of years was Passion FM - chaotically run, buy a blinding resource for new tunes bizarrely added to well old skool playlists
Miss em
first time I heard this was on Passion - had to rush out and buy it....
Still in the box......

 

[newbie]

The Marine Offences Act was 50 years ago today. RIP Radio London, in those far off days of Workers Playtime and the Home Service you were the lifeline and the void after closure was just horrible.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The Marine Offences Act was 50 years ago today. RIP Radio London, in those far off days of Workers Playtime and the Home Service you were the lifeline and the void after closure was just horrible.

Blimey, you are fucking old.

 

[newbie]

Blimey, you are fucking old.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Well, you said the 'void after closure was just horrible', so I assumed you were at least in your teens in '67, I wasn't & I consider myself old.

Didn't everyone just re-tune to Caroline?

 

[newbie]

I consider myself old.

Didn't everyone just re-tune to Caroline?

in that case you ought to have got over that some people were born before you.

nah, Caroline was as dull as Luxemburg and reception wasn't great..

 

[cupid_stunt]

Sorry, been down the pub for a late lunch & not stopped drinking, I was only pulling your leg.

Saw the news coverage today, I am too young to remember the 60s, but remember listening to Caroline & Laser in the 70s & 80s, as well as many land-based pirates.

 

[ddraig]

BBC piece on Black pirate radio in the 80's
Black pirate radio: The 'Robin Hoods' of music - BBC News

 

[Sirena]

 

[cupid_stunt]

Programme details for 'The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs'

In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations exploded on to Britain's FM airwaves. Unlike their seafaring swinging 60s forerunners, these pirates broadcast from London's estates and tower blocks tocreate a platform for black music in an era when it was shut out by legal radio and ignored by the mainstream music industry.

In the ensuing game of cat and mouse which played out on the rooftops of inner-city London across a whole decade, these rebel DJs used legal loopholes and technical trickery to stay one step ahead of the DTI enforcers who were tasked with bringing them down. And as their popularity grew they spearheaded a cultural movement bringing Britain's first multicultural generation together under the banner of black music and club culture.

Presented by Rodney P, whose own career as a rapper would not have been possible without the lifeblood of pirate radio airplay, this film also presents an alternative history of Britain in the 1980s - a time of entrepreneurialism and social upheaval - with archive and music that celebrates a very different side of Thatcher's Britain.

Featuring interviews with DJs, station owners and DTI enforcers - as well as some of the engineers who were the secret weapon in the pirate arsenal - this is the untold story of how Britain's greatest generation of pirate radio broadcasters changed the soundtrack of modern Britain forever.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Here's the trailer:

 

[ska invita]

Two new stations to my ears (though theyve been on air a while) are NuSoul, somewhere around the 92 mark (i forget where now) - play some okay 70s funk and soul as well as some less good stuff, and 106.5 Project London - seem to play straight deep and techy house.