The Transistor Radio of my Youth

                                                                                         Wiki

This transistor radio is similar in style to the one that you and I had a great many years ago.  And what a world was opened up for us by this small wonder.  

I first came across one hen I found my elder brother had bought one in a kit form, and was struggling to put this device together.  It worked.  Later I had one of my own, with an earpiece, which I would take with me to the football.  How wonderful to hear the results from all other grounds when the game was heading to its finale!  The lies told by those carrying a radio were common.  At Tynecastle Park, a call would be heard, "Hibs got beat," and the cheers would resound.  Usually of course it was a lie, they had no radio, and had no scores.     

The most common use for such a device, if you had got a battery for it, was to listen for music, and that meant Radio Luxembourg.  In the early 60s the UK had no private radio stations, the toffs in London did not allow this.  The BBC 'Home' Service provided the news and weighty material, the BBC 'Light Programme,' offered comedy and less serious stuff including music.  The 'Third programme' covered classical music.  However, the music desired by those under 25 was not found on such stations.  At best 'pop' music meant ballads, often smarmy, sweet, and sentimental dross to the young.  While occasionally a decent song would be heard the Rock & Roll we all wanted was not tolerated.  So we listened to 'Luck, Lucky Luxembourg.'  Here in the evenings we heard the music we wished to hear.  John Jackson was one of my favourite disc jockeys, his music choice and the clips from many comedy shows were well advanced in comparison with the BBC.  The whole world was listening to the rise and fall of the Luxembourg sounds as the medium wave signal rose and fell over the vast distance.  Yet we did not complain, it was great music for the young.

Soon, pirate radio stations arrived, again playing proper music.  The radios were getting bigger, the batteries lasting longer and getting more expensive, and the music also was well worthwhile.  The BBC was forced in 1967 to amend everything and introduce a channel that covered only pop music.  Here the top 40 was played over and over again, annoying to those of us who wished to hear the better music only John Peel would play.  But this silenced the pirate stations and reduced the desire for Radio Luxembourg.  Soon the pirates were off-air or sunk by storm, Luxembourg ended, but the radios continued.

The radios grew and developed so by the eighties a choice of wavebands was available.  I spent much time listening to the BBC World Service on shortwave, and then to the many Eastern Europe radio stations informing me of their nations successes.  All disappeared after 1989 when Communism ended in the Soviet Union.  This was a shame as I enjoyed the many often humorous programmes and their take on the world.  The World Service continues but at a much reduced and compromised outlay.  The short wave has of course disappeared altogether with the internet.

Those small transistor radios brought a new life to us in the 60s.  Of course, they developed and grew in size.  Of course, there was always someone with a large radio booming out bad music whenever the sun shone, of course there were always others to indicate their contempt.  Today this same attitude is covered by the ignorant refusing to wear an earpiece while on the mobile phone. 

 

Music!

 

The first really enjoyable music I can remember is Little Richard!  My sister, being 11 year older than me, and my brother, being 10 years older, developed the habit of buying 'Rock 'n Roll' records, almost all '78s.'  So we had all the good ones, Elvis, Tommy Steel and the like, and on one occasion, before 1958 when we obtain a 'Ferranti TV' we saw 'Wee Willy Harris' at the Edinburgh Empire Theatre.  Willy was famous for his carrot coloured 'DA' style hair, quite something in the dull mid 1950s.  I mind him on the stage, red hair, emerald green Edwardian 'Teddy Boy' jacket, and guitar.   I loved it!

There was, and I think I may still have, a Little Richard EP.  A fabulous device that played not one but four tracks!  Wow, that was progress.  The arrival of the TV set meant we no longer went to an occasional variety show, though these were killed off by tv anyway, so instead of red haired stars we had 'Wagon Train' and 'Popeye' instead.  The noise of rock and roll was good however, whether primary school kids get the same feeling from Tasmin Swift I doubt.

The Beatles were the next major step in my musical education.

When you get to that age, between leaving primary school and beginning secondary, that is when music becomes important.  Now some always have music, but for most of us at that time music speaks to 'our generation' in a way it will never do again.  

I was lucky.  My generation had the 'BBC Home Service,' from and for England, and also the 'BBC Light Programme' which played music.  Luck regarding music was considerably less than the luck for the many genuinely funny comedy programmes of that time.  Music was of a ballad type, Scots music appeared to be Kenneth McKellar and Moira Anderson alone, which was not good for adolescents discovering the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and seemingly masses of Blues music of one sort or another.

I mind standing at our stair door with a neighbour when one of his mates arrived.  He asked if we had heard 'She Loves You,' by the Beatles, which of course we had, usually via Radio Luxemburg rather than the unwilling BBC.  This record was really the one in my mind that made the Beatles.  Two minor hits had come before this, but here they touched a nerve, something new, exciting and speaking to a generation sick of banal musical offerings on TV and Radio.  This was the beginning of the musical revolution we hungered for. 

 

   

One of the leading lights in the revolution was of course Bob Dylan. 

The Beatles released something that was lying in the ether, and Bob, and much of the US music scene brought it out, whatever it was.  In Vietnam war raged, a war few comprehended, a war that the US appeared to be losing.  Worse, even the middle classes were being asked to send their son there, so opposition grew.  Poor whites, Blacks and Indians could go, but not the middle class Americans who did not volunteer surely!  The US mental outlook, hardened against the 'Commie threat' since 1947 was not appreciated by all the young during the late 60s.  This generation had like us, grown up on winning the war against the Nazis, now the young sought a peaceful life, Vietnam, far away and unknown, especially to Americans, made no sense.   'Stop the War,' 'Get out of Vietnam,' 'Make Love not War,' became the cry in the US, UK and elsewhere.  Protests abounded, but the war continued.  Politicians and the people never do appear to be on the same side.

The music however, was good.  US West Coast music abounded, 'Canned Heat' became a favourite of mine, 'Moody Blues,' 'Chicken Shack,' so many good groups available, though who could afford 6/8d for a single or 36/8d (£1 16 shilling and 8 pence) for an LP?  So much music, so little money!

    

Then one day, when I was 20 or so years of age, a long time ago now, I chanced upon my brothers boxed set of classic records.  You know the type of thing, 'Readers Digest Favourites' or some such.  I played one of these boring old things and discovered 'Peer Gynt 'Morning Mood,'' and I was won over!

This is not the same recording, I do not know who that was, but it gives an idea of what I heard for the first time.  From then on classical music was not the fuddy-duddy boring stuff forced upon us so often, instead it became something to enjoy.  Like so many who thought classic music was for snobs I found it enjoyable, at least the nice bits, just as many were to do later with 'Classic FM.  Now, I am more inclined to Radio 3 than to anything else.  

Especially if cheap...