I got some pretty strange expressions when I went to a shop called Taphouses, pretty much Oxford’s only specialist record shop in the mid-late sixties, and requested records by bands like The Electric Prunes and Peanut Butter Conspiracy. When I liked a band I often tried to buy their singles. Yes I did buy some of the US underground records I heard on pirate radio. But Radio London also had its own Top 40 which was very different from the BBC Top 40 and songs by bands like The Electric Prunes and Peanut Butter Conspiracy got into their charts and consequently got quite a lot of airplay. I mostly listened to Radio London and from March 1967 DJ John Peel who’d been in LA until then had a late night show from 12 midnight – 2am called ‘The Perfumed Garden’ which introduced me to many of the most exciting US psych/garage acts of this era. The best were Radio London and Radio Caroline. Yes in the mid-sixties there were quite a few offshore pirate radio stations that broadcast from ships, mostly in the North Sea (off the East Coast of England). It must been pretty difficult to get some of that music on vinyl. There were a lot of pirate radio stations playing underground rock music from USA. So understandably the politicised lyrics of some of the later sixties (particularly US bands) appealed to me a lot. Even at 58 going on 59 I’m only the third oldest player in the team! I was also (from a young age) a very politically aware person, as is my son, so it must be in the genes! My degree was in Politics and I work as a Local Government Manager, which is a pretty political environment. I also still play veterans football for a pub team on Sunday mornings. I was watching them just last Saturday and they won, which certainly isn’t always the case. I’ve supported my home town football team (Oxford United) since they first entered the football league when I was 10. My other interests as a child were football (I know you call it soccer) and cricket.
I particularly like guitar and organ-led underground rock. We all wanted to get the latest underground album and we listened to one another’s records a lot. There was also Radio Luxembourg, but it mostly promoted major label artists and was only available in the evenings when the signal would often fade or become distorted.įriends were also a big influence on my musical likes and dislikes. There was real synergy between these times of great musical innovation and the UK’s first taste of commercial radio (albeit offshore, which gave it a delightful amateurism at times) as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had a monopoly of the airwaves prior to this and played very little rock and pop at all. 1966-69 were the golden years of rock and pop music in my view. In 1966 when I was 14 pirate radio was at its zenith. I was heavily into music from a young age and always listened to the radio whenever I could. I was born in 1952 and grew up mostly in Oxford, England. Where did you grow up and what can you tell me about some of your early influences? An interview with Vernon Joynson, author of Fuzz Acid and Flowers, The Tapestry of Delights… Vernon Joynson, author of Fuzz Acid and Flowers, The Tapestry of Delights…
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