The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Hawkfall’s Radio 1 Roadshow Thread

Hawkfall’s Radio 1 Roadshow Thread

by 77 Comments

In a private email, Hawkfall confesses to “not having the confidence” to start this long-overdue thread “in spite of my Mastermind Special Subject knowledge.” In the hope that he’ll join in the fun, then, let’s get some sand on our Mivvis and relive those wonderful years of sunny fun times!

(I should point out that I’m doing this as a favour. I haven’t watched the YouTube clip, from Hawkfall’s private collection, so caveat emptor.)

1

Comments

  1. I went to a roadshow once, in Torquay when on holiday there in about 1984. Simon Bates was the presenter. He was a miserable git who clearly thought he was above it all, until they went on air when he was transformed into the Fab FM wonnerful Radio 1 type you might have expected from a roadshow host. Don’t remember much else about it other than what a huge crowd it drew.

  2. Can I just say a big hello to Dave, Karen, Mental Ernie, Mental Eric and all others in the sixth form please?

    And can you play I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts?

  3. As thread curator, I should say that there might be a Radio 1 (FM) pen for anyone who can link to John Peel’s story regarding Tony Blackburn, the wombles and the speedboat.

  4. I never went to a Roadshow but I did chance upon a Cheggers OB one Saturday morning in London back in the early 80s.

    As with Batesy up there – zero interaction with us kids when cameras off.
    And then…

    Cheggers to camera – “ooh eck Noel, it’s flippin’ MAD ‘ere, I tell yer! We’ve had jugglers, fire-eaters, acrobats -even a bobby paid us a visit! Probably cos of the noise from THIS lot!! Give us a cheer!”
    (Big cheer)
    Noel – “Looks like a great party going on down there! Thanks Cheggers!”
    Cheggers (finger in one ear) – “Ha Ha – oh I’m sorry Noel, I can’t really hear you!!! Bye!”

    It’s over. A now-sullen Cheggers marches immediately to the nearby caravan. We have stopped cheering because everyone’s gone.

  5. Took kids to see One Show in Hunstanton. The Green was filled with half of Norfolk (ie 5000 people). Somewhere in the distance a stage. The sound was dreadful, like listening to the neighbour’s transistor radio (transistor radio). “Dad, can we go now?” And go we did

  6. Once at Batley Variety Club, Slade were the guests Noddy in a flat cap think this was pre mirrored 🎩 (at a guess 71).
    On checking the DJ was Emperor Rosko according to someone else there.

  7. 11am – 1pm as I recall every weekday during the summer holidays. Never went to one live but Bits and Pieces, the Mileage Game and so on together with a firmly fabdabbydoozy selection of music was the background to many bored summer days at home in the late 70s.

  8. I remember getting quite excited when this was one, it felt like a big event, normally listening when on my own summer holiday with my parents. Never went to one.

    There was also “Seaside Special” a variety show on BBC Sat nights in the 70s during the endless summer hols. Sunny every day if I remember correctly.

  9. There’s a grimly fascinating extra feature on my DVD copy of “Never too young to Rock” that easily surpasses the miserable forced jollity of the tired main feature. Its a short documentary about the Radio 1 Roadshow,facilitated (and I use that joyless word without irony) by a stern faced Dave Lee Travis. The whole films oozes a chilling dark ambience. The grey brooding seaside sky. The icy whipping wind. A terrified troupe of Boy Scouts huddled against the cold while a wild eyed DLT snarls a series of pop trivia questions in their confused and fearful direction. To top it all off after the Roadshow ends Travis puts on a Frankenstein monster mask and strides away through the horrified crowd like some prototype Micheal Myers. Essential viewing.

  10. I just stumbled across this clip from a documentary about Radio 1, which contains footage from Mallory Park 1975.

    Words fail me to describe he madness that was Rollermania

  11. Queuing up to get Mike Smiths autograph for a lady friend (honestly!) at the Worthing roadshow in 1983 I think, Sarah Greene tapped me on the shoulder and asked if she could push in and surprise Mike. He didn’t know she was coming and was absolutely overjoyed to see her, it was really sweet.

  12. I think one of the things we can explore in this thread is whether we saw the same stroppy behaviour from DJs through the generations from the 60s to the 90s. Then we could perhaps investigate whether the Roadshow lorry was possessed by evil spirits and caused all this. Perhaps they parked it illegally over a sacred burial ground one night in Rochdale. There’s got to be a Stephen King novel in there somewhere. Or at least James Herbert. It would be like The Rats but with Wombles.

  14. Confession – I had a minor part to play in all of this back in the 70s. I had a small business printing T Shirts in Bristol. The whole Roadshow operation was run out of Bristol by Tony Miles (yes, smiley Miley) and he approached me to do some work for him, so I ended up printing all the Radio 1 T shirts (both of those designs in the film), as well as some for Seaside Special. It was something I sincerely regret getting into for all sorts of reasons, not least because I never made any real money out of it.

    He wasn’t the nicest person I ever met either – obviously relishing knowing all the fab DJs and spending 6 weeks having larks around grim seaside towns. His brother managed the Wurzels…oddly, they are in that film too.

  15. I had the pleasure of ‘Woo’ Gary Davies and Peter ‘hello mate’ Powell at a particularly dismal Radio 1 roadshow. Davies was all big hair and fake tan, while Powell was sporting a bubble perm and unfeasibly tight shorts. It was all spray-on bonhomie and ego trippage, topped off by the fact that it was raining.

Leave a Reply