Part Four: Kenny Everett tours with The Beatles

In August 1966 The Beatles embarked on their final concert tour of America. Following the furore over John Lennon's “more popular than Jesus” comment there was considerable concern and interest in how the group would be received. NEMS, the Beatles' management company, arranged for a number of British journalists to accompany the tour and, from the offshore stations, Caroline's Jerry Leighton, Swinging Radio England's Ron O'Quinn and Radio London's Kenny Everett were invited.

It was not possible for Kenny to send live reports direct to the ship because the Post Office had cut off ship-to-shore communication with all the pirate vessels so he had to phone a number on land. Radio London news chief Paul Kaye would come ashore to take the call, record the conversation with Kenny, then head back to the ship where the recording was edited and music added to compile a 30 minute programme. Sponsored by Bassett's Jelly Babies, supposedly The Beatles' favourite sweets, the shows went out each evening at 7.30pm for the duration of the tour.

Part of a Paul Kaye promo for the Bassett's Jelly Babies Show. Audio kindly provided by Thomas Pattberg (duration 24 seconds)

This is part of one of the programmes, a copy of the studio master. Radio London suffered from night-time interference so the telephone conversation would have been difficult to hear on air. But on this recording you can make out every word. Hosted by Senior DJ Tony Windsor the clip includes Kenny telling Paul Kaye about the trans-Atlantic flight and the first concert of the tour. Part of it was recorded at that first gig at the International Amphitheatre Chicago on 12th August 1966.

Kenny Everett reports on the Beatles tour of America from August 1966. Many thanks to Hans Stieper for providing this rare clip. It is a copy of a tape obtained by a couple of German fans who visited the Radio London ship in 1968. Their story, pictures of the ship and more studio recordings are here (duration 3 minutes 30 seconds)

There is an interview with Kenny in which he discusses this trip to America on the Radio London website. He describes receiving the phone call inviting him on the tour as being “the greatest day of my life”.
 
There is more about the offshore stations' coverage of the Beatles last tour here.

Mike Lennox on Radio London, 27th December 1966. Clip edited from a recording issued by the Radio Broadcasting Library. Tape from Martin Lynch's collection, kindly provided by Lynne Sims (duration 3 minutes 17 seconds)
Tony Blackburn on Radio London from 11th February 1967 (duration 3 minutes 32 seconds)
Ed Stewart, who took over as Radio London Senior DJ following the departure of Tony Windsor, from his show of 20th March 1967. Both this and the above clip are taken from recordings available on www.azanorak.com. Our thanks to Ray Robinson (duration 3 minutes 54 seconds)

Part five of ‘The Radio London Story’ over the page.
 
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