1 - The Story Of Big L - Wonderful Radio London Pirate ship

[@cafsixtieslover]

Radio London was my favourite station. So many of today's acts would never have been heard without the pirate stations. On the day it closed down my friend and I (aged 12 and 13) planned to be outside their offices in Curzon Street at 3.00 pm when they closed down but we never actually looked up where Curzon Street was before we left so we never made it in time.

[@SiriusXAim]

Have one of those old AM transistor radio. New old stock. Magnificent machine. I wish I could go back in time and hear it sound in all its 60's glory!

[@kevmichael2064]

Right now In 2024 we need radio London..we don't have anything like this anymore....the music 🎵🎶 was fantastic

[@cafsixtieslover]

I remember writing to the stations and asking for autographs from the DJs. I got them as well. I still have them in my autograph book. I had a birthday dedication once - very exciting!

[@glpilpi6209]

This was once only event in our social history that changed everything we thought we knew about radio and popular music . Free radio , no wonder the government wanted to stop it.

[@jrgboy]

Being a Beatles fan I used to listen to Kenny Everett, he played many of records before they were released & interviewed them lots of times , a lot of records would never have been hits had the pirates not plugged them...

[@critch1901]

remember as a young lad searching on the radio for this new station..Then suddenly in a new wavelength I heard with a strong signal The Beatles playing "She's a Woman". when the music stopped there was an announcement that this was a test transmission from Radio London. (Just like it was yesterday) ...🙂

[@kawasjaki]

Time for a new sea pirate radio , much better than the shit we have now

[@philipm06]

But you need better pop music.

[@citizen1163]

Heartbreaking to look at this & know the freedoms we've lost & also losing in 2021. Resist!

[@Roger.Coleman1949]

Neally the 50th anniversary of ' the soundtrack to our lives ' of the ' Baby Boomer ' generation.On August 14th ' 67 , aged 17, I was on a training course at Bletchley Park, then used by Post Office Telephones ( BT ).I had instructed my mother to set my 2 -track GEC tape recorder going to record the final hour from 2.00p.m.She succeeded in recording the last half hour, which I still have.Just before 3.00p.m listening to a boring lecture,I can still recall the sense of forboding of the loss of Big L.It put a dampener on the joy of being young in the mid 60s, and despite Radio 1 being formed later that year with many of the Big L DJs, it never regained that magic of Piratical Waters !.

[@jrgboy]

Yes, I recorded the last hour on a Grundig reel to reel , I thought it might be rare only to find you could get it on a CD

[@miwalk21]

I did not know this. Thank you for posting it!

[@daviddixon6043]

Radio London was the best!

[@dhd1100]

We need present day radio people to listen to how Radio London & Caroline did it and learn how to get away from the mostly boring offerings we have now. Jingles! You need jingles for a start.

[@sunsetradioeurope3367]

That was a great jockumentary :p

[@philipm06]

Just raised a glass 50 years to the day and hour since Big L closed down - on that day I was a school boy on holiday in Folkestone (how exotic!). Now I'm due to collect my pension.

[@stuartbrixton6260]

Those were the days. The only way we as teenagers got to hear the likes soul and motown or many other genres of music for that matter.

[@goldbluntz]

Big L RIP

[@michaelcorke2992]

The UK government talk of "LAW", what about what they did in Diego Garcia. The UK government evicted 2000 local people off and gave the island to the USA as a military base. Its south of the middle east.

[@louisokeefe8307]

Best D.J on Radio London was the Godfather of Soul /Jazz/ and Funk... Sir Robbie Vincent.... IF IT MOVES FUNK IT...

[@MrsZambezi]

He wasn't on it!

[@louisokeefe8307]

@@MrsZambezi He was from approx circa 1978 till 1983. Then he went to Radio 1 from 1984 till 1989. He still has a show on Jazz fm on Sunday afternoon 3pm till 5pm.

[@MrsZambezi]

@@louisokeefe8307 That was BBC Radio London!

[@maryrafuse3851]

My husband, an Anglican Priest, worked in radio when he was young and foolish. The record companies gave the stations free copies of their records and pleaded with the DJ's to play them. No money exchanged hands but the record companies and artists appreciated every spin of the record. Whole bands would visit the stations for interviews introducing their own singles. Such BS from the Wilson Government. Don't believe it.

[@freedomvigilant1234]

I am amazed that Tony Benn made those comments on unlicensed radio transmissions.

[@benters3509]

Big L - The Best

[@adrianeverett7168]

Radio London "The Big L" could easily make a digital come back in Online Radio Form in England as a Live On The Air Training Facility for the next generation of DJ's and Announcers.

[@paulm.7422]

The problem is that "the next generation of DJs" are not into radio. Things have moved on in a very different world. Also, these days, radio stations have become automated using computers and there is no money in it as a DJ.

[@bioskahabinivous9906]

@@paulm.7422 Yep, even if you are broadcasting like many pirate stations used to be in the good old days, people aren't gonna listen to you. They are probably move on to listening to online radios or watching TV. so better get a radio station automated these days.

[@meppelnu3682]

I listen a lot of time to Big L..grtz Jan Brandenburg

[@Muswell]

Love that early footage of the Density. Wow. Never seen that before.

[@philipm06]

Strange name for a ship, but a tough little bugger.

[@sailorette1]

It is too bad they did not use "Anchors Aweigh" in this production. The great "Marine Corps Hymn" does not apply here. She was a United States Navy minesweeper. Other than that, this is a great tribute to her and her new life as a radio ship, in a sense, another fighter!

[@deanhall4064]

If your all missing the sounds of the great, 'Wonderfull Radio London 'Big L', then please do everyone check out the this fantastic internet radio station above which is an authentic recreation of 'Big L', it features many of the hits of the 60's and obscure ones too, plus recordings of the time of the actual DJ's no less and also even includes, the jingles, the adverts of the time, the news and weather even the 'pip's', it's all in all a fantastic station and it broadcasts 24 hours a day here's the link everyone, please let me know what you all think!!, personally I love it and listen to it daily on my stand alone internet radio.

[@wossisname4540]

2 years later and I think you'll find that Big L online has vanished.

[@deanhall4064]

@@wossisname4540 Just to let you know, I've just put my standalone internet radio on and Big L is still there and still streaming at this point, now admittedly it does for whatever reason sometimes goes offline (probably a problem with there server); but it always comes back eventually. So please check it out. Best wishes here, Dean.

[@deanhall4064]

Music and radio stations today in general are absolute crap. I can't abide modern music that's if you can call it 'music' (that's not i call it tough!). I grew up as a kid in the 1980s listening to the music of the 50s and 60's and all these years later i still love the music back then and always will. I love the music of the of the pirate radio stations of the 60's and 70's such as Radio Caroline, Wonderful Radio London 'Big L', Radio England, RNI (Radio Northsea International, Radio Scotland and many more. I think the DJ's back then on the pirate ships are far more enjoyable and 'listenable' then the modern ones we have now, heck I even love the adverts and jingles back then.

[@bioskahabinivous9906]

Its getting worse when the pirates started playing Drum and Bass thingy. But yeah time changes, music changes. Like "Jazz is dead, Rock and Roll is here" in 1950s.

[@JediTreeSmoker]

Well, this isn't what I thought it was. Wrong Big L. RIP BIG L

[@Sopmylo]

Hope you like stock footage of ships.

[@tommyd5238]

Tony Benn had no idea what he was talking about, as for stealing music and musicians money they instead gave an unbelievable amount of exposure and publicity to old and new artists alike, also the government could have easily found a suitable new waveband for Radio London if they had wanted to, but no, it was always about having total control, never mind what the public thought about it.

[@jacknifedbl]

ha im a memeber of ham radio club in Wichita Falls they will get a kick out of this i had read about it before , but never have seen this vid!!

[@andymorris6636]

Nowt on now like Big L real radio

[@PAULLONDEN]

7:55 🤛😣 Ten bloody minutes of this adhd tune .....should've been the whole 30 minute docu ......jéééésus......

[@Imnevergonnapostvids]

Rip the real big l

[@johnmacleod4481]

Big L back then was even better than what now is on medium wave as in big l international except that reception of it is almost nonexistent in Scotland.

[@bartwesterveld]

Still mis it

[@MrVinamp]

Hallo Jaap, heb er nog een paar. Zal ze binnenkort uploaden!

[@HomoEconomicusX]

3 fact stretched to 30 minutes.

[@williamkinsey4979]

The subtitles absolutely suck unless we are traveling by travelpod,isn't that star trek? LOL, but fascinating stuff none the less.

[@roberttreborable]

Nothing came close to Radio London, Radio One may have started with the Pirate DJ's. However we soon got fogged off with Jimmy Young and his Recipes ... Plus they allowed their presenters to grown arrogant old and boring, as Harry Enfield pointed out... P.S I took a friend from Columbia to see; The Boat that Rocked, she couldn't believe the British Government would do that .....

[@jrgboy]

Most joined Radio One except Tony Windsor who admitted he was nearer 55 then 35, shame

[@michaelphelan6325]

John idan

[@harrienijland5533]

harrie

[@MrVinamp]

Harrie?

[@Tyler-ml3ft]

Fed up wit da bullshit. Wheres big L

[@johnrobertson1786]

tony benn ruined radio..FOREVER

[@seekflights9808]

I prefer the rapper