Greetings. I hope you have a great New Year, and many many thanks to everyone who has sent in tapes or mp3s so far. Last time I looked we had 20,000 downloads!  

 We’re nearly at the end of the pile now (although there is still a TV interview and a few other gems to go) so if you are looking for a New Year’s resolution: How about finally digging out those remaining Thameside Radio recordings to share with all the other ex listeners out there?

 Looking forward to hearing from you

 All the best

 Al

A 45 minute section of an early extended broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2.  This went out about 7 months after their initial broadcasts.

Thameside listener and regular competition winner Rupert Bailey is the special guest on The Intrepid Birdman Show. Rupert also DJs for a while on Bob Edward's show, he even interviews Bob!

Boris wins the phone competition.

Bob also features Sarah from Kew who reveals that in addition to reading the Thameside Radio news she answers listerners letters too. She tells us that Thameside  receive about 30 letters each week but they hope to have 100 letters next week.

Thameside listeners mentioned include Bob Lawrence, Jeff Hawkins, The Tony Lloyd Fan Club, The Alsatians, James Warren, Denise (Buzby),  the TV production class at Richmond College,  Martin Greaves of Wathmstow,  Andy Kearns, Peter Young from Capital Radio (who is a regular listener), Mick Kelly , Chris de Souza , Keith Harrison, Pablo Cabello, Micheal Galivn, Charlie Gibbons, Jeremy Voisey, Peter Bailey, Christopher Bailey, Austins the newsagent in Molsey,

This is the first half of a 3 hour broadcast. If you have any Thameside recordings please get in touch, you can email, comment or  @fmthen

al

How any white blood corpuscles are there in the average human body? That is the question for this week’s superquiz. Next week Dave asks for their names and addresses.

Mark takes over at midnight – but sadly I don’t have this recorded. If you have any Thameside recordings please get in touch. Email or twitter @fmthen

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Pete Cooper, Bikers Mike, Ian, Nigel and Andy, Malcolm Fryer

Bob Edwards continues his show. Bob continues to arrange Dave’s bike trip to the south coast. Amongst other records he plays The Message by Grandmaster Flash.  Goodness – it’s 1982 and rap is already mainstream.

There is a 20 minute gap in this recording towards the end of the Bob Edwards show.

Bob is followed Dave who tells us more about the bike trip.

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Anita in Highbury, Andrew Simpson, Ruth from Harrow, Dominic from Wimbledon, Everyone at the Green Belt Festival. Paul Wedell in Coulsdon,

Dave Birdman starts this Thameside Radio broadcast with apologies for problems in the previous two weeks. The DTI were raiding Thameside quite regularly at this time. There are studio problems so he doesn’t have any prefade when means some awkward segues between records, the show goes well though. He tells us about rat infestations in Hillingdon and edible snails in Heathrow.

Bob Edwards takes over at 8pm

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Karen Scott from Epsom Downs, David Scott (who has passed 10 O-levels),

More mayhem with the Thameside Radio crew broadcasting live from Notting Hill in the middle of the 1982 carnival.

This extended show came from the Notting Hill Carnival - which was smaller and a little more edgy in 1982 than it is now. The main Thameside Transmitter was on top of Trellick Tower in the middle of Notting Hill while the lower roof (still 35 stories up) was used by the police to watch what was going on in the carnival.

Of course there was no interference between the police walkie-talkies and the Thameside Radio setup but still - it must have been "interesting" for the engineers.

After a summer break we're back with more broadcasts from Thameside Radio 90.2 VHF.

A brief reminder to those of you who said you had some more recordings: please get in touch (you can use the comments field or email al @ fmthen.com) - otherwise I might have run out by Christmas or early in the New Year.

There is a TV interview with Bob Edwards coming up though so stay tuned!

Al

 News includes the death of a second Pope, Johnny Rotten promoting his Christmas show for kids and a film to be called Quadrophenia - all in 60 minutes with Bob Edwards!

There are two tracks from the new Meatloaf album called Bat out of Hell. The warm up music includes an Intrepid Birdman jingle whcih says Thameside is on 90.4 VHF if I hear it correctly. Of course Themside radio did move to 90.4 (or was is 90.45) to avoid interference with a cable station on the Rediffusion network in Grenwich (who were Thameside listeners too) but the advertised frequency always remained 90.2 - in the days before digital radios it really didn't matter.

Mentions for Ian of Dulwich and Andrew Feely.

Tony Lloyd hosts a one hour broadcast from Thameside Radio's first year. I’ve included the run up music because it has a Birdman jingle just before the 7pm start of the show. There are lots of Birdman jingles during the show too and Tony provides a more rocky slant to the music.

The competition has the traditional prize of a packet of Spangles. The news includes an item about luminous records and how much the Musicians Union are asking the Marquee Club to pay support acts (£9.50 per band member per show)

This recording finishes just before 8pm while the phantom phonebox in Harrow is ringing.

Mentions include Nigel, Mark and Vince Barnes from Kennington; Karen Chin; Stephanie from Lowlands Junior College; Radio Invicta; Barry Benson; Martin Crew; Trevor Llewellyn; Philip Sharp; Jeanette Harris of Mill Hill;

Tony Lloyd looks for cars with Thameside stickers, he also reads the news on this early one hour show broadcast during Thameside Radio's first year. There are already a lot of listener letters, Adrian Leaper wins the competiton.

Thameside Radio listeners who get a mention  include  Patrick Sullivan in Streatham.  Listeners at John Lyon School.  Steve Marshall (from Radio Invicta). Gavin Robson.  Kevin Hargreaves of Welwyn. Trevor Ball from Harlesden.

This broadcast coincided with a Thameside Radio party at the Shepherds Bush Village Hall.

Because of transmitter changes the recording stops after 45 minutes - but later on during the show there were recordings from the party - almost live, but not enough for the DTI to  visit!

Part 2 of Bob interviewing the Mystsics followed by The Intrepid Birdman Show on Thameside Radio 90.2

Part 2 of 2

Dave opens up another extended broadcast. He has some surprises for Bob who interviews the Mystics and learns  more about electronic music.

Part 1 of 2

The Mark Ashdown show closes this extended Thameside Radio broadcast.

Mark asks for suggestions for new listener events.

Part 3 of 3

Someone has posted a  whole pile of Thameside Radio jingles on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMKgFoLecGs&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to Daniel Elias for the link which he posted on the Thameside Radio Facebook page.

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.

I only have another three months or so of tapes remaining that haven't been uploaded - so I'm looking for more. If you have any Thameside Radio recordings buried in your attic somewhere please do get in touch, or if you've already been in contact then this is a gentle reminder.

Just leave a comment or email me.

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!

While you're waiting for the next podcast  - here's a YouTube clip  of Sarah Kennedy presenting a  1982 BBC feature about pirates. Not altogether accurate -  the Beeb really didn't 'get' radio pirates - but good fun. http://youtu.be/ZVwR9ztvZcE 

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,

If you'd like more chat and information about the Thameside Radio: just follow @fmthen ... 

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 Love

This 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 listeners to Mcarthurs in Barnes – who are rude and serve disappointing food. They’re closed now. Next week the Thameside Radio fast food survey comes from Huckleberries in Oxford Street.

The Curlyman appears after his stint as a DJ with dedications from listeners who called his phone line.

The week following this show Thameside broadcast live from a picnic in Hyde Park.

Mentions for: Francesca, Giles Farrow, Putney Park, Shan Hilling,  Saxon Militia at Kendall Rise Studios in Nottingham, Steve Scribbler, Andy Cooper, John Brennan, Mazzy’s friends at her party, Dave Booth, Paul Reynolds, John and Brian Gording (Goulding?), Mrs Atkinson, Richard Jeffries, Mrs R Williams, John Aird School.

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.

I've tweaked the site  so that you now see all the podcasts on the main page, but that's quite a list.

The shows aren't uploaded in any particular order so if you are looking for a particular Thameside Radio show or a particular era you maight get there more quickly by clicking on a year in the categories section. 

Thanks for all the support and tapes so far!

Al

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)

7-9pm with Paul James and The Intrepid Birdman show. Dave Birdaman (photo) has passed his motorbike test. Paul assures us that Radio Caroline will be coming back. He also tells us about a new film called Polyester  (produced by John Waters). The exciting thing  about the film is that it was released in in in Odorama so Paul got a scractch’n’sniff card to use at key points in the film. Sounds better than 3D. I wonder why it never caught on?

We also hear from Ian the engineer.

The news includes an item about 2 members of Thameside Radio staff who appeared at Marylebone court last Tuesday charged with stealing ¼p of electricity. The magistrate was more concerned at the waste of police time than the negligible theft of electricity.



Thameside Radio listenerers mantioned include: Cindy of Ealing. Gary in Hillingdon. Martin Gould of Greenford and Janice.  Jamie Witcombe in Colin Gardens NW9.  Alan of Kingsbury for Francine. Nigel Collins from Muswell Hill.

There is a 1984 "File on Four" documentary on YouTube about the London pirate radio scene. It was made just after Thameside closed so features more of the next generation of  pirates who were more commercial. Still  it does capture the scene quite well although in a Radio 4 kind of way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XCRgPVJmgI

Bob talks a lot about his upcoming birthday. He also discusses a new book called Alternative London which has a section on pirate radio and mentions Thameside

It is a sunny day and the show starts late because the Thameside Radio team were distracted by a girl walking past the studio. (It’s 1982 and sexism hasn’t yet been discovered yet).

Paul has passed his driving test thanks to Tony Gregory his driving instructor. Dave is about to take his test too. 

The Paul James competition asks for “Thameside” in the phonetic alphabet: (Tango, Hotel, Alpha etc) At the time Eric Gotts from the Home Office used to refer to Thameside Radio as “Tango Hotel”.

The team are collecting sponsorship for a walk which they are doing for Oxfam

The second hour comes from the Intrepid Birdman.  The superquiz needs you to be in the bath!

Bob starts the third hour and tells us that he is going to be 24 years old next week.


The show was broadcast from the Arndale Centre in Wandsworth which has good coverage over south and east London but is not so good to the west and north so reception is a bit poor on this recording.