The Radio 1 Club comes to Sunderland Top Rank 4th May 1971
The Radio 1 Club was launched in October 1968. The aim of the club was “to provide a link between the listeners at home, the DJs and stars”. It consisted of 2 hours with a top D.J. and a guest D.J., “leading groups” performing live, current hits, and requests/interviews with members. The show was broadcast live on Radio 1 at lunchtime. The first club date was on October 21st at London’s’ Lower Regent Street (a former cinema). It was hosted by Keith Skues, with guest D.J. Tony Blackburn and the Tremeloes played live. So that was the format; a couple of hours over a lunchtime, with a Radio DJ, a local DJ and a pop group playing live. Membership to the club was free of charge, by sending your details to the BBC. I’m sure I did so, and had a membership card somewhere, but I can’t find it (which is strange as I have kept most things to do with rock and pop music). Radio 1 boasted ‘a different DJ in a different Town each day’. The Radio 1 Club would tour the country and came to Sunderland Top Rank in 1971. I remember because I went along with loads of mates from school, proudly holding my Radio 1 Club membership card. The Radio 1 schedules archive have a record of it as “Radio 1 Club Dave Lee Travis 4 May 1971 from the Top Rank Suite, Sunderland 12.00 to 14.00.” I also remember that the “leading group” was none other than Paper Lace, who were unknown at the time, but hit the UK singles charts a couple of years later with “Billy Don’t be a Hero”.
It was an exciting day; we all got the bus to the town on our lunch break from School. The Rink was packed and we saw lots of people we knew from the town and from other schools. DLT was playing all of the chart hits of the time. “Double Barrel” by Dave and Ansel Collins was No. 1 and the Top Ten also featured T Rex (Hot Love), Dawn (Knock Three Times), Ringo (It Don’t Come Easy) and the Rolling Stones (Brown Sugar). Cool or what?! I remember being very upset at having to leave to go back to school. Missed most of Paper Lace. Some of my more fearless school mates decided not to return for the afternoon. Not sure if they received any comeback as a result. Great days.
Found this, which happened one month earlier: “April 1971 – students at St.Mungo’s High School in Falkirk threatened strike action as their headmaster would not grant permission to attend the lunchtime ‘Radio 1 club’ at the Town Hall!” Now they were cool guys. Classic!
19 Mar
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by anita on October 10, 2016 at 4:11 pm
i remember it well I skived off school that day and remember dlt and paper lace