Sgt Pepper Heard For The First Time! On Radio London

On Friday May the 12th 1967, the world heard Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for the first time. It was played over the airwaves by DJ’s Ed Stewart and John Peel on Pirate radio station ‘Radio London’, or the ‘Big L’ as it was known.
I was lucky enough to find a tape of most of this broadcast which I thought would be great to share as its rare Beatles find. In this video I’l also tell the story of how radio London came to get this world wide exclusive.
Obviously the copyrighted tracks had to be edited but I’ve included other bits of the broadcast t get a real sense of the time. I found it fascinating to jump in on how life was back then, certainly a different world!
Footage from www.offshorepi...
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#thebeatles #sgtpepper #radiolondon #bigl #edstewart #johnpeel #rarebeatles #newbeatles #pirateradio #offshoreradio

[@mikewa2]

I was a big L listener and had a reel to reel tape recorder so I was onto this as it happened. The only problem was that Radio London overplayed their Big L logo on every track. Interest in music was almost manic at the time, the Beatles were centre stage and spearheading the future. Unfortunately all my tapes were stolen by one of my ‘friends’ in the early 1970’s so this is a reminder of what Big L sounded like. Great times, Big L DJ’s became Radio One DJ’s when the pirates were sunk by UK govt

[@frankedwardcurry]

I remember listening to this broadcast as it happened on Radio London in 1967

[@cafsixtieslover]

so did I

[@davidaston5773]

This is special beyond words. The irony is that a pirate radio station were the ones who went out of their way to broadcast the enire Sgt Pepper album and all the 'official' stations didn't? As if music belongs to anyone? And they've never stopped listening to it ever since. Groovy.

[@eti313]

13:04 "Once again it puts The Beatles about 2 years ahead of everybody else, and everyone else is going to be feverishly trying to catch them up again for the next 6 or 7 months, and it's going to be very interesting." Yes it was!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Absolutely!

[@Kae6502]

I was going post the same thing! Yeah, he really nailed it!

[@alexhendriks4177]

Nice to hear the voice of my good friend Keith Skues as newsreader !! Hope to see him soon again.

[@dudstep]

Love those old AM broadcasts. You can hear interference from time to time, which tells me there was a storm going on somewhere between the transmitter and the receiver.

[@StephenMerchant-up8sg]

I never knew that John Peel was capable of speaking that quickly

[@mixingmasteringonline]

True! Seems he relaxed a bit over the years..

[@nickwyatt3243]

I remember hearing this at the time and realising it was both extraordinary and exciting. It must have been the late afternoon slot after I got home from school, because I loaded a blank tape into my father's Grundig reel to reel tape recorder and recorded it pretty well completely; quality was awful, but it still sounded so exciting. Something I remember is that every thirty or seconds or so of each track, they would play a Radio London jingle over the top. I think it was to make it difficult or impossible for other stations to copy and then re-broadcast the Radio London exclusive. I earned significant prestige points at school on Monday to be able to say that I had a copy of an unreleased Beatles LP!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Great story, thanks for sharing your memories! I grew up in the 80's so I always wished I could have experienced the Beatles emerging first hand.

[@JimCutler]

Terrific find. I bought so many records because of John Peel's BBC's World Service show. He is missed.

[@robertmarlow255]

Hands off the Pirate stations!

[@dodgeboy8022]

Just wonderful! The DJ here was only 2 years earlier a DJ on Oklahoma City juggernaut, KOMA, under the name John Ravenscroft!

[@mikemorris5074]

This is so great, thanks. It's a real window onto the pirate radio days and how amazing it must have been to hear Pepper for the first time.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you, what a time it must have been, so much cultural change and incredible music!

[@denniseldridge2936]

Some years ago I attended a yard sale to buy some records they had advertised. It turned out that the guy selling them had been a DJ at that radio station at the time. He was present in the studio at the time of the Sgt Peppers debut.

[@MarkStevens8899]

John Peel what a legend, spinning Tim Buckley, The Doors and Love back in the day. Much missed.Great upload.

[@josephmango4628]

It's difficult to believe, but that's how people listened to R&R in Europe. The BBC pretty much played classical music, and if you wanted to hear what was going on in other parts, pirate radio was the alternative.

[@kabiam]

People think they're overwhelmed nowadays with information bombardment. Listening to this broadcast is a document that shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

True, I actually edited a bit out where JP repeats the announcements straight after delivering it the first time. it went on for ages.

[@LukSter18998]

@@mixingmasteringonlinehahahahjjjhhh classic Peel antics

[@nu385]

Nice find. Also gives insight into the concept of The Who Sell Out.

[@ADAMSIXTIES]

Great recording! First time I heard Pepper was at camp in 1977 during a party where the girls camp comes and meet the boys. It was the day Elvis died, and the other albums they played were the White Album and Heart's Little Queen. I bought the Pepper LP a couple months later for $5.25, got the White Album for as a gift.

[@johnmcglinchey]

I officially became a Beatles' fan on 26th May 1977. The 10th anniversary of Sgt Pepper's release . Radio 1 aired all the songs in their afternoon show. As I was at school, I asked my Mum to stand by and record them all when they were played - she did and that's where it started. .

[@MreViewer]

I actually heard this when it was first transmitted! 'Big L' was mostly our station of choice and not Radio Caroline as is often mooted - albeit a good listen. I was 15 and it's impossible to impart the impact that this album had on our young minds back in those days!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

What a great age to hear this. Thanks for sharing your memory.

[@johncracknell2479]

i was on the beach opposite my home listening on my new transistor radio to "Big L" on that hot spring day ~ still a teenager it was so exciting and of course I rushed to secure my copy of Sg*t Pepper which i took with me to Europe when my friends and I hitch hiked to Istanbul next year - particularly memorable was playing it on my portable plastic record player to students in Sophia (Todor Zhivkov*s hardline communist Bulgaria) . Wonderful days.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

What great memories 😃, thanks for sharing them!

[@jimmylee2678]

Thank you for sharing this historic tape! Even without the actual Beatles album, this is awesome. Jimmy Lee in Chicago.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you Jimmy Lee!

[@jimmylee2678]

@@mixingmasteringonline Thank you! I hope you can post the unedited version on a different platform. Please keep us posted if it is. Happy Holidays!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you, Happy Holidays to you too! Here its is: soundcloud.com/nick-dawes-234594188/sgt-pepper-radio-london?si=6002e382bf0d4d15b38e19f50d65445c&

[@FenderTele]

I can picture people listening to their transistor radios on the Medium Wave! Is it me or do 1960s records through a 1960s transistor radio sound perfect! This really is a piece of history 👍👍👍👍🎸🎸🎸

[@jimmylee2678]

@@mixingmasteringonline Oh gosh! Thank you! Merry Christmas too!

[@rkmklz7562]

I wish I could find unedited copies of this radio station 😮

[@luvmyrecords]

Fascinating! Nerd alert - from the pitch of "She's Leaving Home," we know that they were given a proper mono mix of "Pepper," which only makes sense. Also, rather poignant that on the same broadcast, there is an alert for a missing teenaged girl.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Yeah, eerily apt! Nice nerd spot there!👍

[@shovedhead]

Very neat to hear those ads and bumpers.

[@billyr4556]

I hope 15 year old Christine was found. She's leaving home indeed. And the news of the poor 9 year old stood out among all the silliness.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I hope that all turned out well too, I tried to find out but couldn’t find any information.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Yeah, very strange to hear that!

[@martinfenton1275]

@@RM-zo2nhI’ve got a clip of a Family Favourites from around this time where, in the course of about 20 seconds, they announced the name, age and home address of an 80-year-old woman. They added the helpful information that she was living alone until her daughter returned from Canada, and the date of the daughter’s return.

[@theqrm]

As a hardcore Peel fan, this is great to hear. Many thanks!

[@colinmackay5883]

I remember listening to this at the time, as a 13 year old schoolboy, although my recollection was that the DJ who got the advance copy of Sgt Pepper and played it on Radio London was Kenny Everett (who was close to the Beatles, producing some of their Xmas records) , so it shows how your memory can play tricks on you! Very poignant, as Big L only had another 3 months to live - it went off the air permanently on 14 August 1967, once the Labour govt's Marine Offences Act came into force.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

That’s a really interesting example of how the memory works. I suppose it would have been Kenny playing it had he stayed, so your brain just played it out.

[@user-mq3ee2gi2z]

I also had the thought that Kenny Everett was the DJ in question, but then I had another seeming recollection of Kenny debuting the White Album at some point, not on pirate radio though.@@mixingmasteringonline

[@garrysmout6095]

I used to record the John Peel Show onto reel to reel and captured the breaking news of Elvis’s death. As it became more apparent the news was real, Peel said something like ‘I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of Elvis tomorrow, so here’s some reggae’. Sadly I have lost the tape…

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I can just imagine John Peel saying that.😂

[@SteveFBS]

The day after my birthday. Very cool find.

[@DaveGava]

My favorite album period. I love the abstractness especially on John's part . A true masterpiece .

[@georgewatson3954]

The boat that brought it out was the Ocean Cock and it was on acetape, it was fitted onto cartridges and played over the spot master, think the story about the original poor quality was a spoof because the Disc and Music echoed previewed it about a week earlier and was a great supporter of the offshore radio scene so i think that you can put two and two together

[@strathman7501]

A great little piece of history. Thanks.

[@Bururaian]

Wheelbarrow and beer race?? Sign me up!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Me too, a future Olympic sport? I think they actually still do it..

[@HippiMasta]

Love this!! It’s so insane to hear them not talk about the tunes after they play em 😅 Is there any way you’d upload the full version with the full songs somewhere else to listen to?

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Yeah, very nonchalant aren’t they… I’ll try and put it up on SoundCloud if they let me. I’ll post a link when I can.

[@dodgeboy8022]

@@mixingmasteringonline That would be fab!

[@jimmylee2678]

I second the motion!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Here it is soundcloud.com/nick-dawes-234594188/sgt-pepper-radio-london?si=6002e382bf0d4d15b38e19f50d65445c&

[@map856]

Thank you ! That’s very kind of you to share this unique moment in time in Beatle and Big L history. 👏🏻👍🏻

[@MarkPMus]

You’d never be able to dox someone on the radio these days! 😮

[@keith1222]

Amazing time capsule!

[@navillus15]

A few people have commented that they would liked to have heard more reaction to the individual tracks from John Peel and Ed Stewart but in fairness, there's not a lot to say apart from either, 'that was good, l liked the bit with...' or talking about the instrumentation/production which was info that they weren't privy to. Mark Lewisohn was still only scribbling The Beatles' logo on his school pencil case at that time.

[@TTM9691]

Thank you!!!!

[@harmono8766]

It's interesting from an American perspective. He's talking to fast to understand sometimes but I can slow it down

[@389383]

Cool hearing The Paul Butterfield band's recording near the end.

[@Harcix]

Wow, what a find!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I’m a massive Beatles fan as well so it was really cool!

[@iconicshrubbery]

Young psychedelicly-shirted Peelie rightly predicting that the Beatles would leave everyone else two years behind. Nice to see young Ed too,( in all his shirtless glory.)I was a child brought up on his Saturday morning request show. Thanks too for your beautiful presentation!🎉

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Thank you!

[@johnbarry1965]

Unbelievable, but true xx Was this before the "Mama Cass" playing?

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I'm not sure, I presume the party at Cass's might have been before but I don't know when that was.

[@johnbarry1965]

@@mixingmasteringonline I seem to think it was about 7 a.m!

[@mixingmasteringonline]

And nobody complained as it was the Beatles!

[@johnbarry1965]

@@mixingmasteringonline McCartney said that it was a beautiful sunny morning and this glorious music poured out ☀️💓

[@alanr4447a]

0:28 It has the first FIVE songs missing, actually.

[@hen3vz]

A bit disappointing how little the dj actually talks about the merits of each song. That would have been great to hear.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Yeah, some reaction would have been nice to hear. Maybe just been stoically post war British (just another day at the office).

[@noblemann4898]

4:26 really disturbing

[@JESTERFISH1]

Electricity up by 10% …. Nothing changes there then

[@JESTERFISH1]

I wonder if the authorities ever went after the advertisers for aiding and abetting a “crime”

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I don’t think it was illegal to broadcast offshore at that time, more a loophole. But it was made illegal a few months later and the station shut down.

[@bustedfender]

…and this final track is by Finnish dark techno Kabuki mime duo Technical Excrescence. Miss John Peel…

[@mixingmasteringonline]

😂

[@bustedfender]

@@mixingmasteringonlineThanks for this, man. There are a lot of things I wish I could experience again for the first time 🤘

[@rkmklz7562]

Why is this edit... playing the whole thing

[@Purplesquidfingers]

It's crazy that pirate radio stations had adverts?!?

[@mixingmasteringonline]

It is! I bet the commercial stations were annoyed with them.

[@richardgordon2098]

There were no commercial stations in the UK at that time. The BBC had a monopoly on radio and, at that stage in 1967, had three stations...the Light programme, the Home Service and the Third Programme. There was very little pop music broadcast on the Light programme which tended to focus on middle of the road music. That's why the pirate stations were so special for young folk in Britain at that time. Not just Radio London but Caroline North and South, Radio 270 off Scarborough and Radio Scotland on 242 metres, no relation to the BBC station with the same name. The pirates had a vital role in the pop music "explosion" in Britain in the mid 60s. Commercial radio was introduced in the UK in the 1970s.

[@mixingmasteringonline]

I didn’t know that, thanks for the info.

[@bryanfarnet2037]

“Ed, wad’s the negzd track bate?”

[@danehlers9989]

If you say so

[@valuetraveler2026]

Lot of commercials

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

I was a fan of pirate radio, still am, but somehow this is quite boring to hear.

[@llewellynGS1]

It’s strange and interesting to me that during the announcements they play all that awful Jazz music…

[@tompraska6858]

What garbage! It makes😢me appreciate the mellow, less commercial fm stations in the US ❤

[@willbuckley54]

What a depressing time it was in 1967 - according to this rubbish. It wasn't as bad as it sounds - was it?

[@mixingmasteringonline]

Great time to be alive!

[@christopherlawley1842]

Can confirm

[@garethde-witt6433]

Ugh wort album ever made