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Brilliant documentary feature length


This is the full freeze fm documentary directed & produced by Ashley J featuring over 60 DJs Mcs & Artists originally on freeze fm a West London pirate radio station that started in 1999 and continued to broadcast up until 2009. playing most genres but was mostly known for uk garage D&B and then grime. this is the story please subscribe to the channel as we have many more videos coming and unseen footage and interview from 20 years ago featuring Acts Like Wiley, Kano, Bashy, Chuckie Online, D Double E, Chunky Sunship, Spin E B,
 
Kool FM legend - good interview

Have you ever heard the incredible, heartwarming tale about the '90s rave DJ who was brought up in foster care, left school without any GCSEs, was often in trouble with the law as a gang member, and then after successfully defending himself in court became a barrister? No? Well check out this episode featuring one of the most amazing stories to come out of the '90s rave scene! Despite his tough upbringing in East London, FOOTLOOSE defied the odds to become a jet-setting star of the jungle scene and Kool FM resident in the mid-90s DJing at events alongside the scene's biggest names, and later a BBC 1Xtra presenter.
Click to expand...

But after growing fed up with the music industry Footloose - AKA MARK ROBINSON - decided to go into youth work. Within a year he found himself back in front of a judge, wrongly accused of ABH. Fed up with his legal team, Mark decided to sack them and defend himself - and won! He was then convinced by those who witnessed his performance in court to go into the legal profession and, at the back end of last year, qualified as a barrister. Here Mark tells ROAR: The '90s Rave Podcast all about his inspirational life story in our latest episode, Footloose - From Bad-boy to Barrister (via the '90s rave scene).
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Looking forward to seeing the Reggie Yates UKG film Pirates
www.pirates.film

Pirates | Official Website | On DVD, Blu-ray & Digital Now

Watch the trailer, order the DVD, Blu-ray & Digital for Pirates on the official site. On DVD, Blu-ray & Digital Now brought to you by Picturehouse Entertainment. Written & Directed by: Reggie Yates. Starring: Elliot Edusah, Jordan Peters, Reda Elazouar
www.pirates.film www.pirates.film

...but no way of seeing that as of yet
but whilst looking for it I've found this

www.imdb.com

1480: Radio Pirates (2014) ⭐ 5.9 | Adventure, Drama, Music

1h 45m
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
basically a film about a pirate station that was the equivalent of Caroline in New Zealand - launched at the same time as Caroline too#

looks good!
cupid_stunt
 
Centreforce 883 has made a comeback and is good for some mainstreamy house. Seems to always be actually live shows too. Shame about the West Ham links but can't win em all
 
ska invita said:
...but no way of seeing that as of yet
but whilst looking for it I've found this

www.imdb.com

1480: Radio Pirates (2014) ⭐ 5.9 | Adventure, Drama, Music

1h 45m
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
basically a film about a pirate station that was the equivalent of Caroline in New Zealand - launched at the same time as Caroline too#

looks good!
cupid_stunt
Click to expand...


That's a great film. :thumbs:

Someone on here, I forget the username, was actually in NZ when Radio Hauraki ended-up on the rocks, here's the last few minutes, including the l words. 'I love you mum & dad'. :(

 
Almost as much drama as when Radio North Sea International was bombed!



I heard an interview with that DJ after the event, he had no idea that fuel tanks were just below the studio, when the ship was on fire! :eek:
 
cupid_stunt said:
Almost as much drama as when Radio North Sea International was bombed!



I heard an interview with that DJ after the event, he had no idea that fuel tanks were just below the studio, when the ship was on fire! :eek:
Click to expand...

everything about this is incredible, getting firebombed by another pirate station shows how literally cutthroat it was...but its the muzak playing underneath that SOS that really does it!
 
ska invita said:
everything about this is incredible, getting firebombed by another pirate station shows how literally cutthroat it was...but its the muzak playing underneath that SOS that really does it!
Click to expand...

Technically they were not bombed by Radio Veronica, just a rough director of the station, still at least no one was hurt and the ship wasn't damaged too much.

Even worst was a former Radio Atlanta/Radio Caroline director shooting dead the owner of Radio City, Reg Calvert.

Sadly, the death of Calvert forced the UK government to take action against the offshore stations, and the bombing of RNI later forced the Dutch government to do the same.

RNI not only had a colourful ship, but history too. When it briefly moved to the UK coast, the Wilson government decided to jam them, resulting in the parody below, the reference to John Stonehouse/2 am his dirty work is done, is because he was Postmaster General in charge of the jamming operation & RNI closed at 2am each night.



ETA - the music during the SOS broadcast was 'Man of Action' by the Les Reed Orchestra, RNI's theme tune.
 
great time for DnB on the FM in London at the moment - Kool FM is back up, London Wax is on and new station Infrared is up to, plus a bit of drums on RInse and Flex (not that I listen to flex tbh)

infrared.fm

infrared.fm infrared.fm
<<<strong signal too and quality selection


www.koollondon.com

Top 10 Nhà Cái Uy Tín Nhất Việt Nam Và Châu Á (Tháng 5/2024)

Nhà cái uy tín là các đơn vị cung cấp dịch vụ cá cược trực tuyến xanh chín, minh bạch. Review Top 10+ các nhà cái uy tín nhất Việt Nam và Thế Giới hiện nay.
www.koollondon.com www.koollondon.com
 
www.urban75.net

UK Bass Radio - is anyone in the Brighton, Exeter or Southampton areas able to receive this pirate on FM?

I stumbled across this pirate yesterday with a very strong signal in Worthing on 87.5 FM, much better signal than Brighton's long estimated pirate, CodeSouth, and noticed they have a club night in Worthing next month, so I am not sure if their rig is in the Worthing area, or they are just...
www.urban75.net www.urban75.net

Apparently it's also being received in at least south London, Surrey and even into Hampshire.

Can anyone hear it on 104.3?
 
Interesting podcast here, about early urban pirate radio in London.

* Ninja Tune head honcho and Coldcut co-pirate Jonathan More returns to the Bureau to talk about his adventures hi-jinxing and hi-jacking the airwaves in the Wild West of South London.

* For the second in our trilogy on illicit broadcasting, we hear tales of DJ derring-do during the birth Of Kiss Fm, once one of the coolest of the urban pirate radio stations and its transition to the commercial mainstream.

* And in the mix, we debate how the mainstream is dependent on the underground, the culture feeds on the counterculture, and along the way go crate-digging into how Jon caught the disease of collecting vinyl, putting on warehouse parties, life-changing meetings in London taxis, pirate TV, Coldcut's Solid Steel show - and nuclear power station ephemera..

Countercultural Broadcasting: Urban Pirate Radio

It's first podcast on that link, scroll down for the one on early offshore radio.
 
Here's another interesting podcast covering the 70's & 80's era - Pirates of the Airwaves.

Pirates of the Airwaves is a new podcast where Mark Wakely (founder of the Land Based Pirate Radio of the 70's 80' Facebook group), talks to some of the people involved in landbased pirate radio from that time

First episode interviews Pyers Easton who built many transmitters for landbased pirate stations in the 70s and 80s, described as a technical wizard, as well as DJ'ing as Chris Miles.

Stations he was particularly involved with included London Music Radio (LMR), Kiss FM prior to them getting a licence and Radio Horizon.

He talks about how he first came across pirate radio when young, how he got involved with it, his memories of the London landbased pirates in the 70's and 80's he knew or worked with, why he left and his extensive career in broadcast radio since.

Mark Dezzani (DJ name Roger Vosene) of Radio Zodiac gets a mention, I used to know Mark well and was on site with him a few times, including a live broadcast from a legalise cannabis gig somewhere in London, 2 guys from the GPO turned up with a couple of coppers, there was around four hundred people in the very smoky venue, the coppers decided it was too risky for a raid, and ushered 2 pissed off looking GPO guys back out again. :D

Paul McKenna, the famous hypnotist, is also mentioned for his involvement in the scene, he later ended up going out to Radio Caroline in the 80's too.

They also talk about the loophole that Radio Jackie found in the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, which meant the GPO/DTI couldn't actually confiscate transmitters, which resulted in some stations first going full-time, instead of the usual of a few hours at a time.

It finishes up with the guy talking about his legal work for the BBC and various commercial stations, including Capital, and touring with the Rolling Stones.

Second episode, due in a couple of weeks, features an interview with someone else I've met and been on site with, Nick Catford (DJ name Mike Knight) of Radio Jackie, who IIRC is the only person ever jailed, for 28 days, on his fifth conviction, for his landbased pirate activities.
 
The second episode of the Pirates or the Airwaves podcast is up, a very interesting interview with Nick Catford (DJ name Mike Knight), one of the founders of Radio Jackie in 1968, who continued his involvement in the station up to 2010, key points of interest -

From about 16mins – He starts talking about the raids, resulting in them ceasing broadcasts from houses and starting to use fields instead. Not having a car between them, they used an old pram to transport the kit. :D

2k.jpg

From about 21 mins – He talks about Eric Gotts, who would organise the GPO raids, and the occasion he assaulted one of the Jackie crew, so they took him to court for assault, won the original court case & the appeal. Raids then ceased for 4 or 5 years, allowing Jackie to extend broadcast hours.

The conversation leads into the loophole they found in the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 that meant the GPO/DTI couldn’t actually confiscate transmitters during raids, only test them on site, and then apply for a court order for confiscation, which was when 24/7 transmissions started. That's when they took on two floors above a travel agent for studios & offices.

2kkk.jpg

From about 37 mins – how they became a ‘proper’ VAT registered business, with 20 staff on the payroll, paying NI and income tax, returning a reasonable profit, and how they were finally closed down, a couple years later, as a pirate due to raids after a court injunction was taken out by Crawley based Radio Mercury, who's licenced area included SW London, on the basis that Jackie was 'stealing' potential advertisers away from a legal station.

They lost out on their licence application to ‘Thames Radio’, which failed, so they ended-up buying it for just £1, and continue today as a legal station. They now have studios, offices & shop across the road from Tolworth Tower in Surbiton, which is their FM transmitter site.

2kk.jpg

There’s two things missing, which surprised me, the first being how a tape of Radio Jackie was played in the Commons during a debate on introducing licenced commercial radio, the second being the fact that he was jailed for illegal broadcasting.

'Radio Jackie: A Very English Struggle - A David and Goliath story that is inspiring and entertaining, as well as being uniquely English', tells their great story, it's a very good read, according to the Radio Jackie website it's available in their shop for £10, or a rather inflated £18.33 on Amazon, or a more reasonably priced kindle edition for only £2.99.

2kkkk.jpg
From the kindle link -
This is the story of the most famous land based pirate station, Radio Jackie, and it’s 34 year struggle to win a licence to broadcast. This book is full of high comedy, daring ‘catch-us-if-you-can’ escapes, vivid and eccentric characters. A determination to succeed and with both breath-taking highs and abject lows on the way.

It is a true story that included senior politicians of the day: Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit Dame Angela Rumbold. Radio Jackie finally won their licence to broadcast in 2003.

It is the story of a few youngsters who wanted to start a commercial radio station in their local area. This was at a time when it was either illegal or very heavily controlled and limited. It contains the inventive and the sometimes totally impractical ideas that were employed in order to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

There is a “boo hiss” baddy, Eric Gotts ( who gets his comeuppance). There is Jim Crow, the leader of the Home Office team, directed to catch us and put us off the air, who is extremely sympathetic and helpful.

The story includes characters like Harry Secombe, Ken Dodd, Janet Street Porter, Michael Aspel, Frank Ifield. It also shows the solid backing of all the local councils.

There is a comic character, Brian Horne, who is a cross between the Artful Dodger and Arthur Daly and who is always willing to challenge authority.

There is an engineer, Maurice Ogden, who was wild eyed and reminiscent of Christopher Lloyd from ‘Back to the Future’ - only chain smoking and ash grey!!!

Radio Jackie exists today because of the steely determination of the central character, Tony Collis. He too was always willing to ‘take on’ the authorities.

We blazed a trail in the early 1970 and showed the legal broadcasters what could be achieved with non-stop music radio. Every pop music station now plays formats that we developed and broadcast. We took music radio to a new level and everyone else, in the end, has copied us.
Click to expand...

-------
The third episode will be up in 2 weeks, and be an interview with DJ Steve Marshall, about his involvement in the London pirate scene, his time on the Voice of Peace, a pirate ship off Israel, and his time on various Irish pirates. Steve is an old mate of mine, we worked together at ABC Radio in Tramore, Co. Waterford back in the 80s.
 
I've just picked up the Radio Jackie book, and only on the second page of the story, I am laughing out loud to myself. :D

There's six of the Jackie crew lined-up on a street by a copper taking their details, they had already hidden the kit in near-by hedges, when Brian Horne, who is 10 years older and a cross between the Artful Dodger and Arthur Daly, appears from nowhere, in a suit with a clipboard asking the cop what the problem is.

The cop says he suspects them of illegal broadcasting, Brian responds by saying his boys are on a sponsored walk for the Royal Marsden Hospital, taking complete control of the situation, he tells the boys to get going to the next checkpoint, whilst he deals with this officer, so off they walked.

Brian then turned to the confused copper, using his clipboard to add weight, 'this is a sponsored walk, can I put you down for a pound?'

And, he only fucking got it too! :D :D :D
 
I've just finished that Radio Jackie book, I am glad I picked up again after more than 10 years, there was so much detail I had forgotten about.

That Brian Horne was such a class act, he started of just being a guy that would hang around in the background, and would suddenly appear out of the blue if there was a raid, to help 'his boys', like some sort of super hero, much to everyone's amazement, but later became firmly part of the on site team, there's loads of examples of him baffling the authorities, these are the best two examples.

The crew had hidden the gear after another raid, six of them were walking down the road when a cop car pulls up, details were taken, and three were put in the back of car, when suddenly Brian appeared to lock horns [sorry about that pun :oops:] with the cops, "officer, what are you doing with my boys?", "we suspect them of illegal broadcasting, and are taking them down the station".

"Surely, officer, you know that broadcasting is a civil offence, and not a criminal one?, 'err, no'. "Well offences under the Wireless Telegraphy Act are purely a civil offence, therefore you have no authority to detain these boys."

Taking control again, he opens the rear door, "come you three, get out, these officers are exceeding their authority, and have no right to detain you'. out they got, as Brain turned to the copper and started to lecture him, "now I will let this go this time, but if you do this again I shall have to take your numbers and make a formal complaint', he opened the front door of the car, motioned to the cop to get in, "now off you two go, but don't let this happen again', suitably chastened, the cops drove off.

He was indeed correct, but the front of the man in dealing with it in such a manner! :D

There had long been a rumour that Jackie transmitted from a van, and that helped with Brian playing his best part ever. He spotted a GPO detector van, with its large extendable pole sticking out of the roof, parked up in a near-by street, just as police arrived to assist the GPO raid. He walked up to the cops to greet them, seeing him in a suit, they assumed he was with the GPO and said, "I assume that's them over there, in that van?.

Back came the reply, "yes, they so blatant these days, they have even put post office stickers on the side, it fools most people." "What are these guys like", "oh, they are OK, but don't believe a word they say, these guys could sell their own grandmothers".

The cop & Brian nodded a mutual outstanding, then Brain added, "you'd better go over there and arrest them, and check out their cigarettes, I bet they are highly dodgy, you know what I mean?' The cop nodded, it was their lucky day, not only catching radio pirates, but a drug bust too, the cops headed over to the van.

Brian stood back and watched as the cops escorted the van back to Epsom police station to check out their story'. :D :D :D
 
The third episode of the Pirates or the Airwaves podcast is up, another very interesting interview. this time with Steve Marshall, who I worked with for a short while at ABC Radio on the south coast of Ireland.

He was a listener, then helper, then presenter on London soul station Radio Invicta, after which he joined The Voice of Peace somewhere in the Mediterranean and then ended up in Ireland working on many of the pirates of the early 1980’s. Known to the listeners of London, the middle east and Ireland ( and everyone else for that matter) as Steve Marshall. We chat about going up tower blocks at 14, Life on the peace ship, his working friendship with Tony Allen and life as a pirate in Ireland during the boom years.
Click to expand...

The Voice of Peace was anchored off the Israeli coast, but always ID'ed as 'from somewhere in the Mediterranean, this is the Voice of Peace', not wanting to alienate Arab listeners across the region, yet they used to relay the news off Israel's state radio. :facepalm: IIRC they were actually anchored inside Israel's territorial waters, at the request of the Israeli navy, so they could protect them, which is ironic for pirate operation. They certainly used to sail into port for bulky supplies, such as diesel and fresh water, and continued to broadcast as they did.

First 20 mins is about his time on the London scene, then VoP and Ireland. There's a funny story towards the end, concerning Riverside 101, which was right on the border, main transmitter just inside the republic, whilst studios and transmitter switching gear were in the north, and the confusion this caused, especially when an official from the Dublin based Department of Communication turned-up, and discovered he was in the north with no powers.

The owner of Riverside 101 ended-up getting an OFCOM licence for the Derry area, after four years of illegal broadcasting from the republic and therefore not the UK, that continued until the night before the launch of Q102, with the same presenters and studios, but with a new transmitter located just inside the north.

The North West’s loss of an official station was finally satisfied in 1989, when a new station arrived on the air, Riverside 101. The station was not legally sanctioned by either the British or Irish radio radio authorities, and exploited a number of loopholes in both country’s broadcasting legislatures. The station continued broadcasting for four years, resisting attempts by both the UK and Irish authorities to shut it down.

By 1993, the unofficial reign of Riverside 101 as the North West’s independent radio representative was to come to an end, with the Radio Authority announcing an official licence for the North West, 10 years after their original licence plans were shelved. The Riverside group, who had ran a successful operation for four years, gained the license, and to facilitate becoming “official”, changed the station’s name to Q102.9FM on 31st October 1993, keeping a similar register of presenters and studio base in the old Waterside Railway Station.
Click to expand...

transdiffusion.org

From Downtown to out of town

ILR hits northern Ireland.
transdiffusion.org transdiffusion.org
 
The fourth episode of the Pirates or the Airwaves podcast is up, this is only 33 mins., the others were all around an hour, the interview is with Steve Leyland (Steve West on Radio Jackie North & others), talking about the Liverpool/Merseyside scene in the late 70s and 80s.

I was aware of Jackie North and MAR (Merseyside Alternative Radio), but that was all, so it's interesting to hear stories from that area.

The guy behind Weed-FM, a reggae station, sounds a bit of a loon, breaking into boarded-up houses, ripping a hole in the root, then poking the aerial out. 😲

Known to the listeners of Merseyside and the North West of England as Steve West, we hear about his time on Radio Jackie North, MAR and many other stations, he tells us about almost being blown off the top of a 22 story tower block, laughing at the GPO and accidentally almost setting fire to a flat with a transmitter power supply.
Click to expand...
 
skyscraper101 said:
Thai just popped up on my Facebook feed. Apparently they’re on 106.5 FM in London.


www.facebook.com

Wk-END | London

Wk-END, London, United Kingdom. 1,047 likes · 2 talking about this. Underground Dance Music. Live from London, Rolling 24/7
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

Anyone familiar?
Click to expand...
Can't pick up where I am in South, will check the stream.

Btw was listening to Point Blank stream this week, they used to be on FM as a pirate, but I've not picked them up in a while... New jingle says they are on DAB which suggests they are legal now. Well deserved if so, a really quality station, basically soul inflected music across genres that have got soul


ETA yes legal as of last year!

en.m.wikipedia.org

Point Blank Radio - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Pirate since 1994
On DAB in Surrey Sussex and london
IMG_20220809_222903.jpg
 
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ska invita said:
Can't pick up where I am in South, will check the stream.

Btw was listening to Point Blank stream this week, they used to be on FM as a pirate, but I've not picked them up in a while... New jingle says they are on DAB which suggests they are legal now. Well deserved if so, a really quality station, basically soul inflected music across genres that have got soul
Click to expand...

I used to listen to Point Blank all the time in West London :cool:

I didn’t know they’d gone legal either. Hopefully the music doesn’t suffer. I went right off Flex FM after they went legal.
 
Having lost most of my radio station connections, I've been listening to Select on 94.4 fm in London this year.
They too have a licence now, since 2021, and are on DAB in Norwich.
Underground and House music - only a couple of adverts on the hour.
datatransmission.co

Select FM Launch Today on 94.4FM London - Data Transmission

Select will become the only FM radio station in London to cater exclusively to House & Electronic Music - It's time to turn on your radio and lock into 94.4FM.
datatransmission.co
 
There's some interesting bits & pieces about D.B.C. Rebel Radio, London's first black music pirate, in this blog.

This was after their first raid, when the search was on for a new transmitter...

The name ‘Dread Broadcast Corp’ came to me in a stoned state one night lying in bed as a parody of the BBC, in those days was just around the corner from us in Latimer Road on Wood Lane. When I ran that past Lepke he stopped laughed and it was adopted.

Now we had a radio station ‘DBC-Rebel Radio’ but alas we were off air. The station had strong visual representation in flyers and T Shirts and we were attracting a lot of attention, Europe’s first Black Radio Station made up of this group of varied peoples……
Click to expand...

1cc.jpg

www.mhwilliams.co.uk

Dread Broadcast Corp ~ I&I Survive

Whilst working at Better Badges I became friends with Leroy later known as ‘Lepke’ as we made a badge for him called ‘I&I Survive’. His concept and beautifully imagined by Megan Green, the in house designer. This would lead to a long friendship and later the creation of ‘Dread Broadcast Corp’...
www.mhwilliams.co.uk www.mhwilliams.co.uk
 
cupid_stunt said:
There's some interesting bits & pieces about D.B.C. Rebel Radio, London's first black music pirate, in this blog.

This was after their first raid, when the search was on for a new transmitter...



View attachment 350945

www.mhwilliams.co.uk

Dread Broadcast Corp ~ I&I Survive

Whilst working at Better Badges I became friends with Leroy later known as ‘Lepke’ as we made a badge for him called ‘I&I Survive’. His concept and beautifully imagined by Megan Green, the in house designer. This would lead to a long friendship and later the creation of ‘Dread Broadcast Corp’...
www.mhwilliams.co.uk www.mhwilliams.co.uk
Click to expand...
great article

reminds me of....
loved this show as a kid - video should start at the relevant point


Brixton Broadcasting (wellhard) Corporation
 
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