Brian Cullen interviews Don Allen

Brian Cullen, right, with Don Allen at one of Don's fan club gatherings in Liverpool (circa 1971).

Brian Cullen, the host of a weekly show on Caroline Flashback, was a big fan of Caroline North when he was younger. He has very kindly shared some station memorabilia with us and an interview with DJ Mick Luvzit. Now he has sent an interview he did with Don Allen.
 
Don was one of the most popular DJs on the North ship, especially after he chose to stay with the station despite the passing of the Marine Offences Act, when his colleagues all quit.
 
The interview was carried out in July 1993 when Don was working in the Republic of Ireland, for Radio 3 Tullamore. It took place at his home. Sadly he died a couple of years later following a heart attack.

BRIAN CULLEN: You first began with Radio Caroline back in the 60s but weren't you on the southern ship before you came north?
 
DON ALLEN: I was, I was actually. The funniest thing that ever happened and you know the old saying, if you're in the right place at the right time, talking to the right person .... or whatever it is. I just happened to walk into Radio Caroline, the headquarters in London. Mainly the curiosity got me when I was in Canada about this. Why should they broadcast on a ship? Well, eventually when my wife, who was English, we came over to England on holiday and we were planning on going back within the month and then we changed it to three months. That's a story yet to come. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I went up to London and as I say curiosity got the best of me. Walked into Caroline House and I was just there at the right time. I said I was a broadcaster, presenter, having worked on radio in America and Canada and lo and behold wasn't I offered a job right there on the spot. So again, to keep it as short as possible, I found myself on the Mi Amigo the following day. Never seen the sea in my life, never been to sea in my life. It was quite an experience that in itself, never mind the radio station. I was on the South ship from March till about June (1965) and unfortunately the sea got to me. So I was all set to pack it in and they offered me a job in Caroline House. So I commuted back and forth from London to Reigate, where I was living, and then came November. They were very short of disc jockeys on the North ship and having remembered me, they asked me if I'd go up there for a week, or two weeks at the very most. So I went up there. As I was coming on the North ship, Jerry Leighton was coming off. He'd been on for about three weeks, desperately wanting a break. So I found myself on board the North ship and, to talk about understaffed, they were definitely desperate for disc jockeys at that particular time. The only person that was on the ship was a gentleman who I briefly met on Radio Caroline South, Graham Stewart, who became Bob Stewart. Between him and I, we split the programmes between us for the following week. He did a three-hour show, then I'd do a three-hour show, then he'd do a three-hour show and I'd do a three-hour show and we were the only two disc-jockeys on board. So we kept this up for a week. I think it was about the time that Tom Lodge was deciding whether or not to stay with Radio Caroline or go to Radio Luxembourg and as he was supposed to have come back in, he didn't and this kind of, you know, upset the apple cart and that's why Jerry Leighton had to stay on for the amount of time that he did and he eagerly got off the ship and Bob and I kept the thing going. After that everything just seemed to come back to normal and Christmas came up by this time and I was still on the North ship. It was rather awkward at one particular stage because I was living in Surrey, in Reigate in Surrey, and working on the North ship. They asked me if I wanted to move to Liverpool but we were living with the in-laws at the time and didn't really want to go so I just continued for the remainder of my three-year career just flying back and forth from the Isle of Man to Reigate. That was how I got tangled up with Radio Caroline, started on the South ship and ended up on the North ship, lived in the south and broadcast to the north.

Don Allen in the Caroline North studio. Photo kindly provided by Kenny Tosh. More of his photos here.

BC: The North ship seems more luxurious, from what we've seen in photographs. Is that right?
 
DA: Oh it was, it was indeed, the Fredericia, Radio Caroline North was a converted Danish passenger ship so you can imagine comparing that to the Mi Amigo ... the Mi Amigo was a cargo ship and I'd say if you put them both side by side - and anybody who saw them at their at the end of their days in Amsterdam would agree - there was no comparison. I'd say the Mi Amigo was about half the size of the Fredericia. The Fredericia had loads and loads of room. It was a converted passenger ship. All the DJs had their own private cabins whereas on the South ship you had to double up or treble up or quadruple up with certain people. One bedroom had four bunks in it ... and if a fella had smelly socks you were in trouble you know.
 
BC: (laughs) Well you had a good team on the North Ship. I mean there was Jerry Leighton as you mentioned and Bob Stewart, Tony Prince etc.. Did you get on pretty well as as a team?
 
DA: Oh we did, we did, we were, I can say it now as I look back because there's nobody can sort of rap my knuckles for it, on the North ship we did our own thing, we had our own teamwork, we didn't have any boss as such, you know. We knew ourselves when we were doing right or doing wrong, so we were our own bosses as Ronan O'Rahilly pointed out. We did what we thought was right and we did the best that we could. The teamwork was there. Once in a while fellas would fall out but, generally speaking, the whole overall atmosphere was one of great fun.
 
BC: Did you realise in the sixties that you were literally pioneering commercial radio in Britain? You were at the forefront. Nothing had gone before you really, other than the good old BBC.
 
DA: No we didn't actually. From day to day, from week to week we thought we're going to be thrown off the air. On various occasions MPs threatened, well, you know, all the radio stations were threatened with closure and we lived on a week to week, a month to month basis. We knew something better had to come out of it but at the same time it was a case of sometimes you tend to look over your shoulders. I know I had one or two problems coming through customs, especially after they drew up the Marine Offences Act. I was quite cocky about it but, when I look back now, I am lucky I wasn't deported out of Britain for voicing my views about being able to broadcast freely because the Marine Offences Bill is full of flaws. I don't think anybody ever really sort of sat down and tore it to pieces to show that you know freedom was ..... there was an issue concerning freedom of speech because it wasn't actually Radio Caroline that was outlawed. If you look carefully at the Marine Offences Bill, it was you the listener that was liable for prosecution if you listened to, supported or gave any help whatsoever to Radio Caroline. So in actual fact what the government were saying was we were legal but you the taxpayer, you people that elected us will be prosecuted if you're found listening to or helping Radio Caroline in any way and that's you know very very ... When you look back on it now it's just a load of nonsense.
 
BC: Yeah crazy. And amazing that there was something that was so good... I mean Caroline was well received throughout the whole country and the fact that they were wanting to close it down, I mean it's just ridiculous.
 
DA: Well tell me something, has the government ever let anything good carry on?
 
BC: (laughing) Going back to your actual programmes, you used good old Hank with a “fun-ee” and Alice with “luvly”.
 
DA: We're still using that.
 
BC: Where are they from?
 
DA: I wouldn't really know. Oh - I'll tell you - the “luvly” bit came off a commercial, a mattress commercial or something, something about a Myer's bed or something and the woman came in and says “oh lovely” and I thought oh I'll take that. The other fella laughing there, I honestly don't know, I think I found that on a tape somewhere. It wasn't being used so I thought well you know finders keepers and I've used that on every radio station I've been on from Caroline to Manx Radio to RNI, I've even brought it over here to Ireland. I use it the odd time but just occasionally now because Hank's getting pretty old himself.
 
BC: (laughs) You're not looking too bad yourself. Right, so August 1967 came and the end of August was actually when the Marine Offences Bill applied to the Isle of Man, so was it a difficult decision for you to stay with Caroline at that time?
 
DA: No. Funnily enough I was very disappointed. I'm not going to mention any names here but there were a few disc-jockeys that said they were going to, you know, see this through. I look back. It's funny now but it wasn't funny at the time because there was me in the Isle of Man with a couple of ex-bingo callers and disco DJs. I was told by Ronan O'Rahilly, you've got to smarten these boys up, they're our new crew and I said well what about Mr X and Mr Z, are they going to stay on? No, said Ronan. Ronan said you're the only one that's coming back so on the way out in the tender... We had to wait for the tender to come in first and of course there were the lads there with the black sleeves or the black bands on their arms - and, ah, as history calls it, it's no use holding back the names: Dave Lee Travis was in tears and Tony Prince was in tears. I was very disappointed when I saw most of them come off. I thought to myself “boy you've really got your work cut out for you here”. So anyway we went on board on the last day of the Marine Offences Bill or the last day of freedom so to speak. We went on board that night - in fact even the the customs fellow came out. We had a big ball on board, there was wine and all that flowing. I didn't drink that night because I knew I had a lot of work cut out for me but I was left with people like Mark Sloane. The rest of them ... there was Jimmy Gordon, there was Freddie Bear I think - or did Freddie come up shortly afterwards?^[1] There was Martin Kayne. We knew we had to get it together and we did, somehow we did. We slowly crept up there but I must say this now, the popularity of Radio Caroline was never really as high as it was before the Bill. So I think a lot of people sort of, deep down inside, thought that this is now outlawed broadcasting and we must not listen to it, much as we used to like listening to it. I think a few of them felt that way. They felt guilty listening to Radio Caroline. So it was an experience to keep the ship going. I stayed on board for about 14 weeks before I came off. In fact the only thing that really got me off was the fact that my wife was having a baby at the time and I specifically asked if I'd come off about a week and a half before he was born to be at the birth. I looked at the calendar and realised only then that I'd been on board for 14 weeks, a hell of a long time. When I got off in Dundalk, I think it was, in Southern Ireland, that was our nearest port of entry, having been at sea for 14 weeks you can imagine how I felt when I got on land. Nothing moved except my insides! I found that I was doing this, you know, going back and forth on the dock and people looked at me wondering if I came from a day release or something! It took a good couple of hours to get used to it, as I say, because you're used to sort of going with the flow. And the trip itself was about 12 to 14 hours from the Isle of Man. The (tender trip to the) Isle of Man used to be half an hour.

Don Allen on the tender, sailing away from Caroline North. Photo kindly provided by Norah Barnes. More of her photos here.

BC: What a difference eh?
 
DA: Oh what a difference indeed.
 
BC: Unfortunately Caroline closed in March 1968 and we know the ship was towed to Europe to Amsterdam I think. Did you know that it would be the end or did you know that something was up?
 
DA: Yes and no. Yes and no. I'd be a liar if I said I knew it was the end but you know you get these premonitions inside you. I thought to myself they're not cutting that anchor for nothing. It was a huge anchor and as I was telling you a bit earlier on before we went on air, it took them a good day to sever that anchor. I mean the chains were really, really heavy duty stuff because of the fact that we're anchored in the Irish Sea. It took them a good day to cut that anchor and I knew they weren't cutting it for nothing. Even though they left a marker buoy there and the marker buoy stayed there for a couple of years I think.
 
BC: Really?
 
DA: Yeah before somebody actually I think shot it or something so you know to let the chain go down because it was considered to be a hazard for shipping. But it took us a week to get from where we were to Amsterdam. We had no idea we were going to Amsterdam. We had no idea where we were going. The sad thing, at the same time we're going down the coast of Britain to destination unknown... and we were closing down and TWW^[2], the Welsh TV station, (was closing too). I think it had reached the end of its franchise and there they were on the box, and we're watching to see, and there's the boys on Telly Welly Wales, as they called it, Telly Welly Wales saying, you know, “it's been so nice being with you (sniff) and we have to leave you” and I remember Jim Gordon saying “you're all right mate, you at least bloody know what's happening - we don't”. Well anyway we left on Sunday morning and (the following) Saturday, late Saturday afternoon, we arrived in Amsterdam. The South ship had arrived the day after (their closedown). We both got taken off air at the same time and the South ship was in Amsterdam the following day. It took us a week because we were being towed by this heavy tug. We weren't travelling under our own power. Everybody was optimistic. Ronan O'Rahilly said “we'll be back, we'll be back”, you know, and so I was put on standby and waited and waited and waited. One or two efforts were made to bring Caroline back like from the old Radio 270 ship^[3]. That was a fatal exercise and it was a sort of mistake from the start. But eventually I suppose you could say that Radio Caroline did come back in the form of the Mi Amigo and what a coincidence at that particular time myself and Chris Cary, Spangles Muldoon, had joined Radio Northsea. I was to be Programme Controller of it. I was due to come on board Radio Northsea a week after Spangles had started. When I did finally work my notice at Manx Radio and came aboard RNI, lo and behold what did I find? Spangles Muldoon had jumped ship and gone to Radio Caroline!^[4] There was no electricity (there). There was no nothing on it. They were living by candlelight. Water was being taken out to them. The conditions were really, you know you... you would have to see it to believe it. There were no good hygienic conditions on board the Caroline. They just narrowly got it out of harbour in time and from there on and ... fair play to Spangles, he took what must have been a vandalised ship and put it together and actually got a signal off it, but then Caroline went from bad to worse. The mast was rotten and it fell apart and every other thing happened to it^[5].
 
BC: It's sad in a way that the Fredericia didn't last.
 
DA: Yeah the Frederica was scrapped. But good memories, good memories.
 
BC: Well Don, let's sort of round things up a little bit. You've worked at various radio stations ranging from well we've mentioned Canadian Radio and Caroline and RNI, BBC with Radio Merseyside, Radio 3 so, without jeopardising your position too much here in Tullamore (laughs), which do you reckon was your happiest time or which radio station?
 
DA: Undoubtedly Caroline for heaven's sake.
 
BC: I didn't really lead you into that did I?
 
DA: Not at all. No when I look back now there was never a station that was ever so good to me as Caroline. In fact Ronan O'Rahilly - I look upon him and respect him as a prophet in many respects because he said to me a long long time ago... things that he said to me, and he only said them once, and yet they've always remained in my head. And I can remember him saying to me back in 1967 “you look after Radio Caroline and Radio Caroline will look after you” and, sure enough, no matter where I went after that I was always referred to as Don Allen of Radio Caroline. I could have worked for quite a few other pirates. Radio England at one stage, I was considering going to them, but I don't know I suppose I was a faithful pirate. Started on Caroline and just stayed with Caroline for what three, three years yeah, three years. The most ironical bit I started on Radio Caroline on the 8th of March 1965 and I stepped off the ship after it arrived in Amsterdam on March the 8th 1968. Ironical isn't it?
 
BC: Incredible yeah.
 
DA: Right down to the day but it's all in all it's been a good life. It's been a great life. The best memories really of my broadcasting career are over here (in Ireland) and Radio Caroline. I'm sure you'll agree with me. It is a thing that a lot of people won't forget for a long, long time and of course the advent of commercial radio only came about as a result of Radio Caroline.

NOTES

Back to Brian's interview with Mick Luvzit here.