From Australia to the Mediterranean

The story of Phil Brice. During the sixties we saw already that some people from Australia, with a background in the radio industry, thought to search for more in Europe. A few of them, like Alan Freeman, got a job on Auntie BBC while others tried to get one in commercial radio. As commercial radio could be heard only from international waters from radio ships it had to be stations like Radio Caroline, Radio London or one of the many others. Tony Withers, a.k.a. Tony Windsor, is maybe the best known Australian and Graham Gill (who worked on several offshore radio stations in two decades) is another one. In the mid-seventies of last century also Australian guys found their way to the Mediterranean to work on the Voice of Peace. One of them is Phil Brice, who wants also to share a few of his memories with us.

Starring Charlie, Bill and Ken. Phil also wrote down some memories from the time he was on board the radio ship and the people who worked there:

"First I want to start with my memories about Charlie. He was the French chef on the ship and it was rumoured that he was a French Foreign Legion deserter. Charlie spoke no English at all, except the line. "Me kitchen, you studio!" to any deejay who tried to raid the fridge late at night for a few fried eggs. Although from French his kitchen work was not what you expected, Charlie's cooking was terrible, everything was always covered in oil. Indeed not to our liking so we were always hungry. As he didn't allow us to come into the kitchen we got to get our food from somewhere else. The only other alternative was to open one of the thousands of cans held below deck. These cans had been donated by an American food company. The only problem with the cans was that they had no labels, so you had to hope what you were opening wasn't pickled gherkins.

A captain and his ship. "And, then — last but not least — there was Don Christie, the English captain. He really liked a drink. This mainly because of his frustration of being the captain of a ship anchored most of the time. He listed his address as care of the Hotel Bellevue, Antibes in France. None of us knew where he got his alcohol from either, but we thought he had a deal going with one of the tender boatmen. He was always in a very bad mood and swearing most of the time. Luckily enough he spent most of his time in his cabin.

"We had the so called "Mercury" switches on the turntable. They would turn off when the ship swayed too much. Then they would slowly take off again when the ship was more level. And there was the too tiny production studio with a four track tape machine, tiny desk and mike. Voicing close-mike all the time due to the roar of the generator on deck. I voiced the "We are the Voice Of Peace, on 1540 kilohertz" identification used with Junior Campbell music on the hour. This spot was also used for some time after I left the station.