Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Sheena has made a good point Peter. There were many that spotted the opportunity and were not quite able to make the best of it. Yours truly included.

However, shortly after I arrived, Canada became my permanent home and I am so proud to be able to say that. Thanks for the kind words by the way.

Back to the topic, I believe that after a steady diet of performers who were catering to my parents generation it was refreshing to find a number of groups that were catering to adolescents in general and especially to the emerging "mod" and "rockers' cultures.

That's what tipped me off that something unusual and rather profound was happening. Music became an intrinsic part of our identity over night, it would seem.

I was 9 and had heard the pre Sullivan hype and heard their tunes. Most importantly, I saw the effect the Fabs (and anyone who looked/talked like them) were having on my sister and her friends and the girls in school.

That did it for me. I saw the future and knew I wanted to be part of it!

From purely that of a British perspective, we, on this island, didn’t arguably begin to fully realise the musical magnitude of the so-called ‘British Invasion’ until come Easter 1964.

To find out what happened in and around the coastal waters of the British Isles from Easter 1964 that caused us Brits to become increasingly aware of the impact that our popular music was having on Uncle Sam go to –

http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/

What one needs to realise is that prior to Easter 1964 and with the late-evening exception of Radio Luxembourg, there were no 24-hour local commercial radio stations broadcasting within the UK. For the simple reason it had long been illegal. The British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] being the then only permitted organisation allowed to operate domestic radio broadcasts from within the borders of the United Kingdom. Therefore, with the exception of what we read in the press or fleetingly heard and saw via the broadcast media. We rather isolated British had little idea of the actual scale and speed of impact that was taking place across the States. That was until the arrival, just outside the UK’s then 3-mile limit and therefore technically in international waters and so outside this island’s legal jurisdiction, of that peculiarly British 60s musical floating phenomena - Pirate Radio Ships.

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It was probably The Beatles arrival back into UK from their first visit to States, that made us here in UK realise that the Beat boom had taken off in US.

Radio , which was the BBC answer to the Pirate Stations, first broadcast in 67.

This was the first track played on the new station specifically aimed at the UK teenage audience.

Link: http://www.yousendit.com/download/T2djblRnNDR6RTgwTVE9PQ

A moving number. Thanks for sending this track Roy. It is quite a complicated number for the very early days. Was it successful in the charts?

It was early 64 ,I was 10 years old, when I heard a song on the radio that was like nothing else before.

Australian radio then, with rare exceptions, was quite conservative, so when I first heard "I Saw Her Standing There", it literally knocked me over and from that point on, my record collection grew as fast as finances would permit. Mostly Beatles records but quite a few other bands as well.

I still have that single, Love Me Do/I Saw Her Standing There.

The funny part is that the ISHST still has exactly the same effect on me over forty years later.

Very interesting track Roy! Thanks for that!

Yes Peter it was a hit, big one in fact made number 2 in UK charts in September 67.

It is interesting how it took so long for BBC to react to the pirate radio stations, considering impact British music was having, mainly due to Beatles. Up until 67 there were only 3 radio channels in UK by BBC, commercial radio was still a while away.

We had the Light Programme (Light Entertainment and Music)

Home service (News, plays)

Third programme (Classical music)

On September 30th 1967 Radio 1 broadcast for the first time, George Martin had written a special theme called Theme 1 to launch the station and this was played prior to the first broadcast at 7 a.m on 30/9. Good atmospheric piece actually.

The UK or specifically BBC then adopted the number system still in operation today Radio 1, Radio 2, etc

The Marine Offences act of 67 brought in by British Government effectively brought an end to the pirate radio ships which had been prevalent around shores of Britain from 64.

A lot of the DJ's were offered jobs in the new BBC setup.

Whilst most people in UK, who have a interest in such trivia,can probably tell you the first record to be played on Radio 1, few could tell you the second!

It was Massachusetts by The Bee Gees