Brian Cullen interviews Mick Luvzit

Brian Cullen hosts a weekly show on Caroline Flashback. He contacted The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame: “I've recently come across an interview I did with Mick Luvzit whilst I was P.C. at (radio station) KCR in Liverpool. It must have been early 2000s when Mick was in this country (from his home in Canada).”
 
We think it was probably when Mick was in the UK for the 35th Anniversary Offshore Reunion which took place in London on 10th August 2002.
 
Brian very kindly offered us a copy of the recording which we were delighted to accept. The transcript is below.
 
Mick was a DJ on Radio Caroline (both ships, but mainly the North) in 1966-67. He famously got married live on air in September 1966. The marriage ended in divorce, which is why Brian enquires if Mick is happy for him to play a clip from the broadcast ceremony.
 
Sadly Mick died in 2012. Our tribute to him is here.

BRIAN CULLEN: Welcome, Mick. Nice to see you.
 
MICK LUVZIT: Good to be here.
 
BC: How did you actually get the job on Caroline?
 
ML: What had happened, I'd worked radio in Canada and had been writing music. I was actually at CKY in Winnipeg, my hometown, where I grew up, and also where “Daffy” Don Allen grew up as well. And I had been singing. We're in Toronto. I was at CHUM and these two guys, one was a producer, the other was a writer / arranger, and they had this song. They said, “Mick, would you come? We'd like to hear some of the songs you wrote. I said, sure, okay.” We went and recorded a very simple one called Though I Still Love You, which is the B-side of Long Time Between Lovers. Very simple. And they said, “hey, we like that”. So they came here (England) and talked to some guy at Decca Records. They said to the Decca president “hey, we got this guy, we want him to come over and record” and they said, “well, bring him over”. So I came over (to London) and went in the studio - we went to the studio where Tom Jones cuts at Decca Records. I was so scared. I was walking through that door just shaking.
 
BC: Listen to this. (Plays a clip of Mick singing Though I Still Love You.) You actually wrote that as well. I like that.
 
ML: Yeah. It was just a very simple tune about lost love. But anyway, we ended up cutting this thing and then they had a party for me after. Decca Records, the president, said, “we cannot use Mickey Brown (Mick's existing name). Give me a break. So you've got to think up a new name.” So they had a party for me in London after we cut the record to meet the media. I was single. There was this gorgeous redhead from Ireland there and she was talking to them about where you're sitting and I am about, what, five feet away, and she said to these two guys, my boss and that, she said, “what do you think of soul music?” and I couldn't resist. I leaned over and I said, “Mick loves it”. And she turned around, smiled at me. And oh, she was gorgeous... My boss started laughing. I said, “what's wrong?” “Nothing.” he said, “I'll tell you tomorrow”. So we took that name. The guy said, “what a great PR name. How are we going to spell it?” And I said, “well, how do you spell love?” You know, I always sign love L-U-V, so L-U-V-Z-I-T.
 
And I happened to hear these guys on Caroline. Well, I'd worked radio in Canada. So I thought, hmm, that's a snap but getting in, I thought, maybe that's the real tough thing. So I went down to Caroline House. I went down there and was doing my bit. I read.... I think I read a news thing, I read something on sports, I did a commercial, and then I remember the song was Pretty Flamingo, Manfred Mann, and I was introducing that. And I was just getting to hit the fade. That means where you stop talking and the music comes in, just getting it perfect, when all of a sudden, just as I get ready to hit, a guy's voice comes over and says “hey, I like that”. And I said, “who the hell are you?” (Brian laughs.) He says, “that's OK, I'm Ronan. I own the joint. When can you start working?” And I said, “oh, well, give me at least a week, a couple of days, whatever.” I forget what it was now. So I went out to North ship^[1].
 
BC: Did you think at the time it was weird that these guys were broadcasting from a ship?
 
ML: Well, what had happened is, I listened to the people. And the people were saying, this is fantastic. They were loving it because all of a sudden, there was guys out there doing something the government didn't like. And the government could do nothing about it. So they loved it, right?
 
BC: And playing pop music, which hardly ever happened. (Brian plays a Caroline jingle and this clip of Mick on the air.) Oh, we'll stop it there then.
 
ML: Please do, please do. I'm dying over here!
 
BC: That was Mick Luvzit, live on Caroline North.
 
ML: You know, it's funny. I got a tape someone sent me, heard it years later, and I couldn't believe how long we talked on the air. And I'm sorry to be honest, but my boss would have said verbal diarrhoea.
 
BC: (laughs) Well, yeah, but the good thing about it was, from my point of view, I mean, I was a listener to Caroline and that was the great thing, that it was more one to one. Certainly more so from Caroline North than Caroline South, I think. And I've spoken to Daffy Don in the past and he thought the same. It was just more, not community radio, but it was in touch with the community.
 
ML: You were communicating is what you're really doing. I mean, what actually happened is that you were out there on this ship for two weeks, but what made it so great after being tossed around and all that was the fact that the listener sent you mail. They let you know that, hey, you were part of their family. If you had a cough on the air, hey, they sent a letter. Are you okay, love? They sent you a little hot towel or they'd knit you a sweater. I mean, it was unreal.
 
BC: Let's just go back, Mick, to the fact that you were married on board Caroline North, quite important, this and an original happening because it hadn't happened before. You obviously had great fun the night before. Just take a listen to a little tape that we've got here. Have a listen to this. (Brian plays clip of Don Allen and Mick on the air.) That sounded pretty good. “Daffy” Don Allen there.
 
ML: (laughs) Hysterical.
 
BC: What have you got to say for yourself, Mick Luvzit?
 
ML: I must have been into the sauce. I don't know. Fabulous. I had a night-before saying: ‘tomorrow, kid, it's over’!
 
BC: But you're obviously having good fun. You mentioned before to me about radio being theatre of the mind and so on. It really is because, to us as listeners hearing that so many years later, you were obviously having a ball.
 
ML: And what the great thing is too is that, you know, you had all of us, like myself and the gang, on the ship together. You had to work together. You became very close. These were like your brothers. And you encouraged each other. You helped each other. Yeah, there's a camaraderie there that it's hard to explain that you will not get in radio today like we had then because we lived together.

BC: Do you want to actually go back to that wedding? Is it too sad for you, Mick? Or do you want to hear just a little bit of the original broadcast?
 
ML: We're good friends. She's a wonderful lady.
 
BC: We have a copy of it here. (Brian plays clip from the wedding broadcast.) There we go. That was Graham Webb, wasn't it? I think ‘Spider’ Webb.
 
ML: Spider-Man. Did you notice a little thing Spider did there?
 
BC: Go on, tell us.
 
ML: Well, he said, “and Mick, William Brown, puts the ring on Janet's finger and Janet puts the finger on Mick”. (laughs) A lot of people missed that.
 
BC: It's incredible, yeah. I haven't heard that before. Well, listen, thank you very much indeed for popping by with your memories. We look forward to keeping in touch with you, Mick.

There is a break in the recording here but it is followed by Mick talking about the offshore radio reunion^[2] he had just attended in London:

ML: It was so good to see Ronan. And the key thing I said with Ronan was that, I said, Ronan O'Rahilly has not been given the accolades that he so rightly deserves for bringing commercial radio to the UK. You know, he was just a genius. And it was so good to see him. We all want to give him a big hug. You know, it's like he was misty-eyed. It was seeing all his boys together again. But more important than even Ronan, again, I go back and say to the listeners, God bless you, listeners. Thanks for being there and sending us those letters and keeping us encouraged. It was marvellous.

As well as doing the interview, Mick also recorded a drop-in for Brian's weekend Wing Ding show - a name Brian had “borrowed” from Mick:

Mick Luvzit's drop-in, featuring Granny - a voice he often used in his Radio Caroline shows. Brian is still hosting his Weekend Wing Ding on Cheshire's Mix 56.

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