Radio is how many of us first hear music. When I was a small child, my elder sisters listened to the Pirate stations, which broadcast Pop music that the BBC wouldn't play, from boats and rigs on the North Sea. I can remember the jingles. I can remember the final broadcast of the Pirate Station Radio London. It was in April 1967 and I would have been four. It was closed down by Harold Wilson's Labour government. He got the BBC to set up Radio 1 in response. My sisters view was that it was not a patch on the Pirates. I next became interested in Radio in 1974/5. Kenny Everett was what one may called a Madcap DJ and presented the morning show. In truth, I wasn't interested in the music he played. I just loved the anarchic lunacy. Everett was my radio hero. In June 1977, I discovered punk rock. Two things happened. The first was I discovered the John Peel show on Radio one. Peel played punk rock, with almost no filter. I loved Peel. Most of the bands I now love, I first heard on his show. The second was that Kenny Everett said he was going to play some punk rock. He played "Oh Bondage Up Yours" by X-Ray Spex. I was delighted. It was proof that he was a kindred spirit. After around 30 seconds, he stopped the record and said it was rubbish. That was the end of my admiration for Everett. He was a charlatan in my view. On his TV show, he had a character called 'Sid Snot', supposedly a punk. It was a poor, stereotype and it confirmed my view that Everett was not what I thought. When he came out as a Margaret Thatcher supporting Tory, I felt completely vindicated.
I have come to realise that there were two types of radio DJ. There are the loud mouthed show offs, who enjoy saying "look at me", and there are the ones who love music, genuinely want to see new artists develop and care about their audience and the artists they put before them. As Kenny Everett proved beyond doubt, the look at me DJ's can be highly entertaining and a good listen, but it is the ones such as John Peel, Robert Elms and Gary Crowley who actually leave a legacy, in the artists they put before us. I genuinely don't think the bosses at the BBC, who hire and fire DJ's and set the show briefs understand this. As I result, I think they are managing themselves out of existence. The BBC only exists to enhance the cultural life of the UK. When it fails to do that, it has no purpose at all.
Like every band in the UK, I wanted The False Dots music played on the John Peel show. I sent cassettes of all our early demos. I never got an acknowledgement or reply. I am sure he got thousands and never held it against him. By about 1980, I'd lost interest in his show. He'd moved on from Punk. There were other shows playing interesting music. Dave Rodigan playing Reggae and Charlie Gillet playing what he felt like on Capital. Sadly, no one seemed to be playing the sort of music The False Dots were making when we were at our best in our first incarnation (1983-84).
By the 1990's, Indie had come along and The False Dots had gone into a ten year hibernation. I started managing a band called The Sway. There was a new radio station in London called GLR and it had a great DJ called Gary Crowley, who played indie bands who were unknown. Gary played both of The Sway's first two singles and was complimentary. He helped break bands such as Suede, Oasis and Blur. He's still on Radio London and always worth a listen. IMHO he is criminally underused and should have a nightly evening show. The Sway split up after two singles. Robert Elms started presenting a show, also on BBC Radio London. As he went to the same school as me, Orange Hill, I made a point of listening. especially when he started playing one of my studio customers, Amy Winehouse. Elms had a show Monday to Friday and would have regular guests in the studio doing sessions. As well as Amy, he had established artists I loved, such as Richie Havens and Dr John. For reasons I will never fathom, after Covid, BBC bosses decided to cut down his hours, which left little time for new music.
For me, this is a tragic dereliction of duty. The BBC is a publicly funded corporation, they should support London arts. I don't think I've listened to Radio one since Peel left. I am not in their demographic, so they don't care. As someone who runs a studio where up and coming artists build their careers, it is devastating to hear the way great musicians are ignored. The BBC has a service called 'BBC Introducing', where you can upload music and it might, if you are lucky, get a play on a graveyard shift show. It almost never gets played on daytime radio (Robert Elms does a slot on his show). It breaks my heart, as radio is probably the best way to get your music known. It used to be that the BBC had dozens of shows on local radio playing new music. The shows producers had free reign. Budget cuts have put paid to this (The Sway were BBC West Midlands artist of the week and did a session at Pebble Mill studios back in the 1990's).
Over the last couple of years, I've become more aware of a new, less regimented outlet for recording artists, who are not getting played. I am talking about online radio stations. These are run for the love of music, by people who feel specific genre's and subgenres of music are neglected. If you like a specific musical genre, you will find that there are plenty of online stations playing it. They may not have the pull of the BBC, but their listeners sit in the demographic of the music they play, so it is a great way to connect with real people who like the music artists produce.
So make sure you listen on Monday, by clicking the link above. The show is on between 5pm and 7pm.
I was on his show back in August and we had a blast! If you can't wait, have a listen!
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