Thameside Radio Revisited

The Mark Ashdown show closes this extended Thameside Radio broadcast. Mark asks for suggestions for new listener events. Part 3 of 3

The Intrepid Birdman produces another inimitable show for this extended Thameside Radio broadcast. Part 2 of 3

Bob is late so Dave starts his show. Bob takes over and then hands back to Dave. The broadcast went on to midnight. We hear from  Mark for the the last hour.  Thameside Radio were subject to a lot of attention from the DTI at this time - but still managed to have occasional extended broadcasts! Part 1 of 3

The show has  highlights from the Birdman’s holiday at Hayle in Cornwall where his bike broke down – so he had to buy a new one (well new to him, it was a 1963  Triumph T90 which needed new tank badges and a speedo). The bike makes  a terrible racket. Paul James has been on the “Voice of Peace” for the last 4 weeks or so. Bob tells us that “I Eat Cannibals” by the Belle Stars is the best record out at the moment. Mark brings in an unrelased live Genesis track from a flexidisc on the cover of “Flexipop” magazine.We hear lots more from The Mystics.

The first show presented by The Curlyman who ran a comedy telephone answering machine service which was featured on the Thameside Radio news and the London Evening standard. Sadly there were no premium rate phone lines then so there was no viable business model.  The Curlyman also took calls from Thamesde listeners which were played on next week's show. One of ther callers complains that Thameside used up all but 30 minutes of drinking time.  In 1981 pubs used to close at 10:30pm sharp on Sundays This is the final hour of a 3 hour broadcast. I don't have the first two - do you? If you have any more Thameside recordings please get in touch.

Following a couple of Thameside broadcasts which ended early due to technical problems Bob Edwards hosts a limited two hour broadcast. Everyone else seems to be on holiday. Bob plays more from The Mystics and tells us about a girl that he spent 24 hours with!

Bob plays a track from Bruce Springsteen’s new album called “The River”. There’s more from Incognito – one of the bands that Thameside championed as well as a Garry Glitter SpeciaL as Gary Glitter is in court for bankruptcy! Tony Lloyd is in Australia. No-one mentions Bob's Triumph Spitfire blowing its big end on the M4. Mentions for: Dave Rowan, Habs (Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School), Julian Cole, St Georges Medical School, Arian from Harrow, John Lyon School, Buzby's Mum, Shari, Martin Gould,

The show includes a recording of the rather wonderful Radio 1 interview with Bob Edwards and Dave Birdman about Thameside Radio on Adrian Love’s B15 show (photo). The interview was originally broadcast by BBC Radio 1 at 4pm 12 Oct 1980. Some things change, some stay the same: The Thameside Radio music news includes: WEA being accused of accused of “chart rigging” (what’s that?), The Specials playing a gig in Trafalgar square in aid of the Campaign fo Nuclear Disarmament (what’s that?) and Blondie have a new album out (still happening), Stiff records are fined £50 for a t-shirt  that says “If it ain’t Stiff it ain’t worth a f***” (now every other chart record has that word in!). Mentions for: Ealing Green High,  Sparrow Throng, Her Majesty's Borstal in Medmenham,  Mandy Squiers, Alan Thorogood, Boris, Annette, Bamber, Teddy, Graham Stapleton, Adrian LoveThis is the first half of a 3 hour broadcast. If you have any Thameside recordings please do get in touch with me: al @ fmthen com

We hear from Mark for the first hour. He is sitting in for Paul James who is spending some time on The Voice of Peace in Israel. Later Bob Edwards chats with the Mystics about making electronic music. The recording finishes early with a burst of static. The hot weather had set off the sprinkler system at the Thameside transmitter site!

It’s a sunny day and everyone has been  at the Barnes Common fair. Dave Birdman returned from holiday in Spain – his show was looked after by Alex and then The Curly Man while he was away. He makes up for his absence by playing lots of great jingles, looking for a new tag line for the show  and finishes by fiddling with the  “Do you ever have difficulty” jingle after the show finishes. During the week Bob drove through a riot in Southall - see photo…  People throwing bricks, police with riot shields. Remember then? Has anything changed?We hear about Fireball (who have had their demo played by Thameside) plaing a concert at St Benedict’s school hall in Long Lane Hillingdon. They are supported by Alexandria. I remember both those demos – Fireball’s Chinese Takeaway was very catchy and Alexandria were definitely anthemic. Whatever happened to them? Bob also tells us that this week Radio 1 are  running a series called “25 years of Rock”. That would be over 50 years of Rock now…The third fast food sees Alex taking

The Interpid Birdman presents the last two hours of this extended Thameside Radio broadcast from the Summer of 1982. He has lots of unlikely sounding police reports. Of course with the Birdman the show isn't over till it's over. Keep listening after the official end of the show.   Part 3 or 3

Paul James says "goodbye" to Thameside Radio for the next 3 months as he is going to work on "The Voice of Peace" in Israel. Bob plays songs from a demo tape by the Mystics who use "a lot of new electronic equipment" to quote Bob. There aren't many demos that have stuck in my mind since the early 80's - but this is one of them.  The first track starts 48 minutes in, the second is  1h30m, third at 1h59m. Band members include Dave Booth, Sandra Cook, Dave Newson, Yvonne Carns, Nick Hogarth, Gavin Blair Watson. The band come in to the studio and tell us a bit more about who does what. Whatever happened to the Mystics? Mentions for: Mike of Chalfont, Paul Marshall, The Intrepid Birdman Appreciation Society, Mazzy Margaret, John Brennan, Ian Bell, Bob Gower, Cindy of Ealing, Mothball, Hairy Pete, Dave Booth, Gary Williams, Colin Pratt.   Part 2 of 3 of this extended broadcast    

Paul James and Dave Birdman take the first two hours. The authorities had been chasing the Thameside Radio crew for the previous few shows, but they weren't out this evening so the Thameside crew extended the broadcast to 1am.   Part 1 of 3    

Nice to hear from Ian Stewart (who is also the Thameside Radio engineer) who takes the first hour while Paul James is on holiday in the south of France. His show is followed by The Intrepid Birdman.   Sadly the transmitter knew that the engineer wasn’t paying it full attention and started having problems with the PLL circuit – so the transmission finishes early.

Part 2 of this broadcast from the Summer of 1982. Bob Edwards tells us that Thameside Radio is now the most powerful and longest running pirate station in London. He also mentions that  that “the good news that we’ve nearly got them in the Falkland Islands”.   Listeners letters include: Jeff Dawkins E2 Bethnal Green. The Mathematics department at  University College London. North London Polytechnic Law students. Nick Doherty in Elgin Road. Listeners at the BBC.  

Paul James and The Intrepid Birdman host the first two hours of this four hour broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2. Paul tells us all about the difficulties of doing exams (he’s doing his exams at the moment too) and plays the sax solo from “Will You” by Hazel O’Connor for Rosalind – one of the behind the scenes people who help keep Thameside going. The Birdman tries to finish a little early so Bob Edwards can start on time.

Bouncing Bob Edwards presenets the second half of this broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2 VHF.

Paul James and Dave "the Intrepid  Birdman"  from the summer of 1982. Part one of a 4 hour Thameside Radio show. Because of problems with the power supply (it had been lent out and not returned on time!) for the first  45mins the transmitter was powered by a car battery with charger across so there is some background hum.

Alex (photo) takes over for the  last hour as Dave is on holiday. The first of the fast food surveys comes from McDonalds in Hammersmith where listeners decide that the boxes are more tasty than the burgers! This is a 3 hour show put together from two separate recordings: The recording of Bob's show has some of the the music edited to fit onto a C90 but Alex's show is complete. Alex has a cast of thousands in the studio including: Buzby, Hilly, Natty, Bamber, Aidan and Chris - who all tell us why they listen to Thameside Radio.      

9-11pm Dave hands over to Bob who has just turned 24 now and thanks the listeners for for all the cards and presents including an extra long moustache! The team have been on a 12 mile sponsored trail to raise money for Oxfam. The next Thameside Radio disco is on Friday Jun 4th at the Tabard pub in Bath Road Chiswick.  Listeners are still writing in for copies of Time Out (50p) which had a feature about London’s radio pirates.There is also the official statement on the two Thameside staff who were fined £25 each for stealing 0.25p of electricity. They weren’t charged under the Wireless Telegraphy act though!Paul James tells us that he eats two packets of Maltesers a week (that’s almost £100  / year)