My generation: When radio ruled the waves …
John Waters’ new show Radio Luxembourg recalls the pop revolution and the maverick radio stations that helped fuel it.
A generation of young people in post-war Britain grew up listening to Radio Luxembourg. As the BBC failed to play enough modern music, teenagers in droves tuned their radio dial to this station broadcasting from Western Europe. Later, they also tuned into the “pirate ships” broadcasting from international waters to catch the latest hits from Britain, Europe and the US.
Metaphorically, this was a period when the post-World War II world was shifting from black-and-white to colour. And it all coincided with the rise of the transistor radio. Freedom beckoned.
The temper of those times had a significant impact on UK-born actor John Waters. Waters has appeared on our small and big screens in everything from the ABC television sensation Rush in the early 1970s to the upcoming Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, which is set to become a major cinema hit over Christmas and into 2025.
Music has always been a massive part of Waters’ life. Now he has crafted a new show, built around a six-piece band, to celebrate the songs that made London and the rest of the world swing. It’s aptly called, Radio Luxembourg.
“We all listened to Radio Luxembourg for our pop music because the BBC had a monopoly on the airwaves and didn’t play it,” Waters says. “It had to be broadcast from the continental mainland so the record companies could promote their music properly.”
Commercial radio licenses were not allowed in the UK, so the British record industry wholeheartedly supported these stations, plying them with new music and allowing them to circumvent the seemingly archaic laws of the time.
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Waters’ show, which features Stewart D’Arrietta and The Chartbusters, will tour nationally in early 2025, including a show at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane on January 11 and shows in Adelaide on March 7 and 8.
The show will zone in on the highlights of the British pop songbook covering everything from the pop lilt of The Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset to the raucous My Generation by The Who – and a whole lot in-between.
Between the songs, Waters will recount anecdotes about the music and his personal experiences.
Well known for his tribute show to John Lennon, Looking Through A Glass Onion, which is part-theatre and part-musical, Waters began his career in show business playing in bands around London in the 1960s.
“I was 15 or 16 when I was first approached by some slightly older guys from my school who said, ‘We’re looking for a backup singer, and we heard you playing and singing. Would you join the band?’,” he recalls.
“I thought it sounded exciting. But then they said, ‘We want you to be the bass player’. I replied, ‘I don’t play bass’. The band leader, Tony, said, ‘It’s easy! It’s just the same bottom four strings as a guitar – one note at a time, simple!’
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“So, I learned rudimentary bass playing and joined the band. I played for a couple of years but packed it in at 18 because the band didn’t really achieve any success. American blues artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King were touring, and I thought, ‘Who wants to see a bunch of white guys from southwest London when the real thing is right there’?
“The Beatles arrived in 1962, 1963, but prior to that it was British pop – Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde. That was a bit of a shallow copy of American pop, a harmless version of rock and roll, like Pat Boone.
A little bit pop, a little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll
“Radio Luxembourg also played more hardcore American music, particularly country, which I loved. Country music had its own vibe and sensuality, which resonated with me. But American bands started to get a groove going, like Dion and the Belmonts with their pre-Beatles stuff, particularly Ruby Baby. They had a fabulous groove.
“Then we were listening to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and music transformed. The Beatles changed everything because they were a group. We never called them bands – they were always referred to as groups. I had been listening to some American vocal groups, but they were all playing guitars, drums – groups became a thing that really started in England.”
It’s hard not to think of the Richard Curtis film The Boat That Rocked as Waters discusses the influence of radio on teens in mid-1960s Britain.
“Radio Caroline and others could broadcast an FM signal from boats, while Radio Luxembourg was on an old-fashioned medium wave,” he continues. “I think it was a throwback to military radio or something. Many people might not have listened to medium wave, but it bounced off the clouds, resulting in a signal that would fade in and out. If you had a good night with clear reception on Radio Luxembourg 208, you could hear solid pop music from 6pm to 2am or 3am.
“Some shows were taped and sent to Luxembourg, while some DJs travelled there to do their shows. This is how we got the best of American music. I was supposed to go to bed at a certain time to get up for school, but I listened under the covers on my transistor radio.
Radio Luxembourg plays Twin Towns Services Club, Tweed Heads, on January 10; the Princess Theatre, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, on January 11; and the GC – Grand Central at the Arts, Adelaide, March 7-8.