Welcome
back to the Knot Report and thanks for all the mail.Remember the question in last issue about Caroline in 1968 and the letters which I found in the Carl Mitchell Archive about renting flats in Spain? Well I mentioned that probably the guy called Jim could be Jimmy Houlihan. And I was right as Andy Archer came with the next: "I think you are right about Jim being Houlihan, although he was known as "Jimmy" so it could be someone else but most likely to be Houlihan. I can't think of any other Jims in the Caroline organisation at the time. I know Jimmy was involved in the property business. For a while he was the minder for a guy called Peter Rachman who was a notorious London landowner. Rachman had hundreds of flats which he used to let out mostly to immigrants: Jimmy had connections in Spain, in fact he retired there a few years ago where he still lives. You must remember back in 1968, Caroline was desperate for money and they were prepared to try anything to get more money coming in. The revenue from the "plug" records didn't amount to very much money and none of the advertising on the station was being paid for. I didn't know about the Spanish flats, or possibly can't remember such a project. Nan Richardson was a very nice person. I should imagine that both she and Don (The Chief engineer on the Mi Amigo) are both dead. I saw Don very briefly in 1969 on the island of Guernsey, he was working in an amusement arcade looking after the gambling machines. I've been searching death records, but no luck as yet. Hope I have been of some help, Best as ever, Andy."
After
reading Andy’s answer I asked him if it was true that Jimmy was working
for Rachman, as this person died already in 1962 and if Jimmy was also
working on the Mi Amigo in 1973? Here’s what Andy wrote: ‘Jimmy was in
London from the late 1950s. He worked for Rachman for a year or two. He
was on the Mi Amigo really keeping an eye on things for Ronan. Ronan
didn’t trust Gerard van Dam so he wanted to know what was going on.
Jimmy enjoyed being on the ship. He did a lot of work out there
including helping to fit the new mast. Jimmy was also David McWilliam's
manager, hence all of the advertisements for the film Gold which
included some of McWilliams's music.Jimmy Houlihan (Archive Hans Knot)
Another answer to the question came in from Berlin and Dennis King: ‘Hi Hans, how are you? I read your report and saw your question regarding Jim Houlihan. Jim was some kind of business-associate of Ronan, he was managing the Irish singer-songwriter David McWilliams (‘Gold’) and also is said to be connected to the ‘Who’ in some way. A very nice guy, even though he was very big and impressive. He came to the ship to help after the mutiny-business. Jim was a very helpful person with incredible connections, when I was involved with a
Danish
teeny-band in the late seventies he set up photo-shoots with magazines
in London, helped us with promo-concerts etc. etc. So most definitely
not the ‘heavy’ or bodyguard many people suspect. I hope you and the
wife are OK, I am fine! Dennis.’ Scanning the photograph with Jimmy
Houlihan on it, I found another one which gave some questions. Who were
next to Alan Clark, Paul Dubois, Andy Archer, Graham Gill and Captain
van der Kamp the others featured on this photo taken February 1973?I sent Andy the photo by e mail and within 5 minutes the question was answered: ‘Alan Clark, AA, Mike Storm, Leon Keezer, Graham Gill, Paul Dubois, I can't remember the girls name, she worked in the office, Henk (an engineer), Henk's wife and van der Kamp. The two people at the back are a strange couple called Koller and Otten.’
Thanks
Andy, yes Koller and Otten were known for several businesses in that
period. For a period they ran the Europop Magazine as well as the
Europop discotheque and RNI Mobiele Discotheek, But they had not asked
permission to use the name and made some money out of it.Sticker RNI Discotheque which was organised by Koller and Otten for a small period (Archive Hans Knot)
They tried to interfere with Caroline too and had an illegal landbased pirate station on 270 metres, I think on April 30th 1973. Also the ran a small hotel in Amsterdam. The photo was also sent to Leendert Vingerling, the tender king in Offshore Radio World in the eighties and working for Radio Delmare in the seventies. He is one of the less people still in contact with Gerard van Dam and sent him the photo too. Gerard came back to the persons Koller and Otten: ‘I know Koller had the plans to buy the rights to organise the Caroline Road show early 1973. I thought that when he was willing to do this he first had to go out and getting an idea what Radio Caroline was and also how the atmosphere was on the radio ship. The girl on the right doesn’t ring a bell. I’m not too good in names. Of course I recall Andy Archer and that mainly as he worked on the
MEBO
II. Also I recognise captain Van der Kamp. He’s the one who went out to
the Mi Amigo late 1972 with a couple of other guys to do the mutiny. He
had a riffle with him and did tow the Mi Amigo into harbour of IJmuiden.
He was, following his words, promised 50.000 guilders by Meister and
Bollier (RNI) if he succeeded. As the ship had not entered official the
harbour and no papers were signed, it was also easy to leave again and
go for anchor off Noordwijk a few days later. Leen himself met Koller (who once told he had been a deejay and another time a technician aboard the MV Mi Amigo) on the MV Mi Amigo when they both went out with a trip organised in 1973 by Rob Olthof (Foundation for Media Communication).
Chicago and Koller (Photo: Leen Vingerling)
It was the same day I shared some e mails with Hans Hoogendoorn (Hans ten Hoge on RNI) and asked what he remembered mentioning the names ‘Koller and Otten’. Hans came back with ‘I wasn’t on land so much and so the names doesn’t ring a bell but I will forward your question to Pieter Damave, who was a technician at the Naarden studio’s of Radio Noordzee (The Dutch RNI). Pieter is reading the Knot International Radio Report too and answered the next day: ‘Those two, Koller and Otten, tried to show if they were part of the RNI team using the name ‘RNI’ falsely. By the way I heard you were looking for Dick de Graaf. Well he’s living in Spain and trading from there.’
Dick de Graaf was newsreader as well part of the live deejay team on the MEBO II in the seventies. Later he lived in Delft and I had a regular contact with him in the eighties and early nineties. At one stage he told me to leave Holland for a job at one of the Dutch Caribbean isles. We lost contact then.
Also I took a dive into my archive to find back the old issues of the Pirate Radio News, which I published together with Jacob Kokje in the seventies and in an edition of 1973 we wrote: ‘Again there are rumours that 3 new radio stations will come on the air from a ship. First of all there is Radio Europop. We think this is again a story of Mr. Otten and Koller, which consists only of lies. They told that they will start with a new station around May the first 1973. Also they say they have chartered twenty different industries to finance the whole thing. They needed an amount of 5 million Dutch guilders to start the station. The costs of advertising, they say, will be very low. They had already contacts with Radio Caroline. Otten told us that they offered the Caroline organisation 2,5 million guilders to take the whole organisation from the current running team. But, what must we believe from those two guys.’
That was from 1973 and it was already in those days we didn’t believe a thing what Koller and Otten told to us or any other journalist in Holland. For instant in 1973 Otten told a journalist in Holland he worked for Caroline in the sixties and that his cover name was ‘Tommy Vance’. Well we all know now they were lunatics.
The last part, the story in the Pirate Radio News in 1973, I also e mailed to Andy who wrote back: ‘They were certainly a very strange couple. I do remember that they came along and offered money to take over the Caroline organisation. Ronan was of course interested in anyone who had money! What happened next I don't know. I assume that they were all talking with no money otherwise Ronan would have certainly got his hands on it - there was no one better at extracting money out of people than Ronan! Andy’.
I also recalled an edition of their Magazine is on internet and you can find it at: www.mediapages.nl/index.php?module=photoshare&func=showimages&fid=50
So, if anyone else do remember more on that infamous couple Koller and Otten, please let us know at Hknot@home.nl
In last issue I showed a letter written by a certain Peter to Carl Mitchell, mainly about his trip back from Holland to England as well as some information about equipment to repair. I thought it must have been Peter Chicago, who went out to the MEBO II for the first time in summer 1970. And it’s Andy Archer again telling me: ‘Hans, Peter Chicago lived in Thornton Heath. It must have been him. Even remember his handwriting.’ Robb Eden wrote in and told: ‘No doubt you've had a million e-mails about this. Your mystery person has got to be Chicago - coming from Thornton Heath & talking about Ampex. Sincere thanks, as usual, for the Report.’
From a long time reader this answer: ‘I am almost certain that the writer would have been Peter ‘Chicago’ Murtha as he lived in Thornton Heath at the time. Lindsay Reid (aka Michael Lindsay)’ Well good to see you in the mailbox too Michael and feel free to share your own memories too. Michael worked on RNI in 1970 too.
Paul Rusling, known from Caroline in 1973, Laser and many other projects
wrote in too: ‘I recognise the address (TORRIDGE ROAD in Thornton Heath)
as being Chicago's (or his parents I think). That would fit the text of
course. Many thanks for mentioning the programme on Offshore Music
Radio. There is a lot of Dutch music on the programme. Also a confession
that I wrote to Mariska Veres many times in 1969 and visited her parents
home - her father was very kind to that crazy young English boy!’ Thanks Paul and I also remember you met her at a later stage again? Well she was it worth looking and dreaming of in those days!
Peter Chicago is reading the International Report too, but a pity he never reflects on the report. Maybe Peter you can come in this time with an email telling us about your first time going aboard a radio ship and your experiences. As always all information, memories and news can be sent to: Hknot@home.nl
Peter Chicago on the MEBO II 1970 (Archive Freewave Media Magazine)
August 23rd this e mail came in: ‘After 12 years of successful broadcasting to Europe, we have reluctantly been forced to shutdown our shortwave transmissions. This is due to action from the radio authorities. In the meantime, we shall keep the Destiny stream and shows on our website available so listeners can continue to hear our programmes. Please keep checking this website for more updates over the coming weeks. Thanks to all the shortwave listeners who have supported us over the years. http://www.laserhothits.co.uk
The very unique SRE 2006 t-shirt, which was early August shown on a photo featuring yours truly and in last issue Jack Curtiss from Australia. has another person in that part of the world wearing it: ‘Hello Hans - yes, I did receive that T-shirt from Rick Randall / Crandall and very happy to get it, too. My family is a bit bemused by it all, they don't quite understand what it means to me! Many thanks again to Rick. Colin Nichol.’
Next Jon from the Pirate Hall of Fame: ‘Hi Hans, Thanks for the latest radio report. Very interesting, as ever, and thanks too for the very nice plug for The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame. The next site update should interest you. There will be a report (with photos) of the conversion of the Comet from being a retired lightship to Radio Scotland in St.Peter Port harbour, Guernsey, in 1965. It should all be up on the web-site by this time next week. (end of August). I was surprised to see Alan Milewczyk comment about Kilroy ‘leaving the Mi Amigo’ on 14th August 1967. I don't think Kilroy was ever on the ship. My research (see http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/djsk.htm#kilroy) shows that his programmes were recorded on land.’
I have another question: what followed Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale's famous show in the early hours of 15th August? A correspondent to my web-site wrote: ’I’ve a tape of RWB opening Caroline on 15/8/67 during which he thanks a Chris Anthony for playing the previous pre-recorded music’. Would that be Spangles Muldoon by another name? all the best, Jon www.offshoreradio.co.uk
Thanks Jon and indeed I recalls the thank you to Chris Anthony too. Who knows more to fill in into the schedule?
On the same subject it’s Ian who wrote: ‘Regarding the schedule on Caroline South into August 15th, from what I have been told and listening to recordings, Walker and Dale continued until around 0200 when there was non stop music. Ross Brown took over at 0600 and thanked Chris Anthony for the last hours. Assume this was Chris Cary spinning his first programmes? As far as I know the day then went: 0900 Robbie Dale 1200 Johnnie Walker 1500 Ross Brown 1800 Robbie Dale 2100 Johnnie Walker 0000 Chris Anthony or was he now Spangles Muldoon?’
Thanks Ian and maybe Spangles, or Chris Cary which is his name, can answer himself if he was the same as Chris Anthony and why he changed names so quickly. Spangles is a regular reader of this report too.
Back to Ian: ‘If anybody is interested in the Caroline North schedules around this time then Paul Graham has quite a comprehensive log of these. I know he is a reader so he might like to fill in the gaps.’ Well Ian hope Graham find the time to fill the gaps’.
Ian has more: ‘I was happy to help Robert at Guernsey with his
recordings. I am a great believer that recordings should be shared and
enjoyed and not hoarded by some elitists who like to tell people " oh
yes I have a recording of that but I don't do copies". The Offshore
Download Club is great in this respect and Chris Visser and Harm
Koenders are doing a brilliant job. Just to clarify Robert's note that I
did indeed work with the great Daffy Don in Ireland, but not so together
with Tony Allan. When I worked on Radio ERI in Cork Tony was on the
rival South Coast Radio, but we all used to meet up for a few jars. So I
did know Tony socially. Finally I am interested to know which were the
planned stations for the radioship Nannell or Mia Amigo in 1989. Walter
Zwart in his excellent memoirs stated that Radio 819 planned to jump
ship, however Germain Boi in an OEM interview suggests that Radio Mi
Amigo was to return. Can anybody clarify?
Cheers,` Ian.’Thanks Ian for your contribution, hope any one can help with the answer on your Nannell question. Here a photograph from the ill fated project.
Photo: Tom de Munck
Regular writer to the Hans Knot International Radio Report is Colin Wilkins from Leeds who wrote this time: ‘Hi Hans, Many thanks for another very interesting report for August. Well the 14th August 2006 has been and gone, I did record Keith Skues programme for the 14th August. Regarding the BBC Radio York programme of Radio 270, I recorded most of the day, but was rather disappointed in the music that they played. I would have thought if they were remembering Radio 270, they should have played the music that was played on the station, but they failed to do this. They were playing today’s music, they even played a track by Wil Young. Very disappointed. On Sunday the 13th August I listened to the Internet radio station Radio Poplar Int, from 10 till 12 noon. They played all the rare 60's songs that were played on Radio London/Caroline North and Radio 270. They also put together a special show including the close downs of Radio London. Also the air-check where Robbie Dale said he had just listened to the close down of Radio London and to have one minutes silence. The programme continued to hear the close down of Radio 270, and at midnight on Radio Caroline South and Johnnie Walkers Fight For Freedom Speech including the music played. It was most enjoyable to hear it all once again. And at 12 Noon they did a Country Show dedicated to Don Allen, playing the songs that Daffy Don played on Caroline North. I have in my collection the full day of Radio Caroline North on the 14thAugust 1967 but only up till 6.40pm with Dee Harrison, I would be interested to know if any one has recordings after this time also Caroline North at midnight with Don Allen. Colin.’
So who has the recordings from Caroline North after 6.40 pm on August 14th 1967 and can help Colin. You can sent in the answer to my regular e mail address
In last issue we mentioned the special programs from the North Sea on Mi Amigo, the internet radio station. They have a second, non stop music station, which can be heard at http://www.miamigo-radio.nl
On our on line journal for media and music culture www.soundscapes.info also a lot of interesting stories on the media history can be read. This including a lot on the history of RNI. I’m proud to announce that Anita Pospiechil, publisher of the German Radio Journal has decided to open the serie on RNI in German on her internet version of the Radio Journal, which can be found at www.radiojournal.de
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Advertisement
Really nice to know those little aspects. The most famous animal of
course is the bird in Rosco’s show on Caroline but who does remember
other animals on radio ships. Here’s a photo from the early sixties
which was given to me by someone about 15 years ago showing the studio
aboard the first radio ship from Veronica, the MV Borkum Riff. Indeed
showing a little cat!
Hope any one can help Sheridan. Being in collecting and sharing
recordings since early seventies I doubt it will appear but let’s hope
someone has something on tape for you. If so, please answer Keith
question to: