Daily Echo Southampton Supporters Report

Emma Streatfield report Daily Echo Supplement 16th April 2011

Text source:- http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/

Driving along the seafront at Netley Abbey, you could pick out the Royal Victoria Country Park and yacht club. But you would probably never guess that behind the doors of the Victoria Social Club on the corner meet some of pirate radio’s most die-hard fans.

It may have been many years since they sat listening, to their transistor radios In the school playground, but the passion of these Radio Caroline devotees has never waned. While at first glance this could just be a lively pub, what distinguishes these fans is their Radio Caroline jumpers and T-shirts— and of course the obligatory Radio Caroline playing in the background. There is an impressive almost encyclopaedic knowledge on display, with members bandying around dates, names, radio stations and frequencies like they are second nature.

Radio Caroline, started in 1964, is described as the world’s most famous offshore radio station, and came back into the mainstream consciousness again with the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked.

The Radio Caroline Support Group has been going 28 years and Radio Caroline itself celebrates its 47th anniversary this week.
From small beginnings at its first meeting in a Southampton pub, the group has grown from strength to strength meeting in people’s houses and eventually finding its home in Netley Abbey five years ago.

It is hard for later generations, with the modem technology we have, to comprehend the significance of Radio Caroline then and its impact even today. In the early l960s the BBC controlled UK sound broadcasting.

The post war baby boom generations were hitting their teens and hungry for modern fashion and music.
Radio Caroline began when Ronan O’Rahilly set up his own radio station after failing to get any air time for artists he was trying to promote. Although this was prohibited in UK law, he bought a ship and placed his radio station offshore beyond UK jurisdiction. It was the first time airwave audiences had heard all day music.

Radio DJs worked on the station for free and faced many challenges, including problems with their vessel. The sinking of the Mi Amigo ship in 1980 could have heralded the end of Radio Caroline, but it was restarted with the new ship the Ross Revenge in 1983. Among the most famous former Radio Caroline DJs are Tony Blackburn and Johnnie Walker. The Netley Abbey group is thought to be the only appreciation group in the south — the only other group is up in Yorkshire — and its four meetings a year attract people from far and wide. Two men have driven two and a half hours from Wales to be there, but in previous years a man from California has been known to make it.

Meeting organiser Roland Beaney from Romsey has been with the group for the last five years and is part of the restoration team. The 61-year-old spends a lot of his time at Tilbury Docks where the Ross Revenge, the last ship to broadcast Radio Caroline, is now kept — broadcasts are now done mainly in the studio. “I remember listening to Radio Caroline under the bedclothes at night and with ear pieces,” he said. “It was cool in those days because everybody was listening. “Rebellion was part of it, but it was just different, we never had an all day music station, so when they came on the air they became so popular — it was the beginning of music radio. “It’s always been part of my life and when I found this lot I decided we could raise a bit of money down here.” Where Roland falters is when he is asked what makes Radio Caroline so special to him. “It’s something I can’t describe why — it’s been with us all our lives — modem radio is nothing like it was then — coming from a ship it’s just different.”

Although the group is a meeting of minds, a chance to share memories and talk about the station, fundraising for the restoration of the Caroline ship the Ross Revenge also plays an important part. The group showed off a new £2,250 generator bought off an Internet auction site and money is raised through selling memorabilia and merchandise as well as raffle tickets and donations. Themed products on offer include mugs, books and even a puzzle. The group is also part of a campaign to bring Radio Caroline back to medium wave — it can currently only be listened to through Sky and the Internet.

Following the release of The Boat That Rocked, starring Bill Nighy, the group were caught up in the media interest that surrounded the film and some even helped transfer original equipment to Shepperton studios for filming.

But for those that have been in since the group started this is clearly not about fame. Andrew Webb, 53, from Bishopstoke, is still a devoted listener and has been since he was first introduced to it by his two brothers aged 15. “I wasn’t aware of whether they were illegal — how could it be illegal to listen to something that’s coming through your radio especially at that sort of age. “I was actually listening the night the Mi Amigo sank and you knew something was wrong. “It was evening and there was a very bad storm, you knew something was wrong because they had codes they used then they went into tape music because it was too rough to play records. He compares his passion for the radio station to other people’s for cars or fishing. “It’s just something that takes us in this way. “You realised what the situation was that the authorities didn’t like these stations. “Caroline stayed on the air and defied the British government. “I think it’s a big part of my life, but there’s more to it than that — it’s the efforts made by the people and what they gave up to do that for you — you are returning the thanks by being there for them.”

David Williams, 56, an unemployed cleaner from Bursledon, said his house was a shrine dedicated to two things — one half to UFO sightings and the other to Radio Caroline. He was introduced by his music teacher and remembers playing his transistor radio through school corridors. “There’s always been something about off shore radio, I can’t explain it — it’s as if they’re entertaining you as an individual and the DJs don’t seem to be on ego trips. “It’s the history and the passion that Caroline fans have got for the station, I have been listening since 1968 virtually non-stop.” The group has made several trips out to the ship off the coast notably in the mid-1980s and said they were closely monitored throughout by government personnel.

Tony Cheney, 59, of Ringwood, said: “I listened because it was something that wasn’t supposed to be there — thought there’s something about it, something different.”

And what of the film that re-sparked the public’s interest?
“Do you know, I haven’t seen it,” says Roland.