Tony Allan tells his story

Everybody can be a jock ... "Everybody can be a jock, so I thought I want to be a jock." Only 15 years old, Tony Allan went to the Caroline House in Chesterfields Gardens to help the girls of the Caroline Club there, sending out material to the members. After a few visits, he became totally pissed off after asking Ronan O'Rahilly if he could work as a deejay for Caroline. Of course, O'Rahilly thought he was far too young to go out to one of the radio ships of the station. However, only a few years later Allan's dream became true, when he went down from London to Glasgow by train. Reason: Scotland was a country with his own rights and it had a radio station airing its programmes from international waters, Radio Scotland.

Allan tells his story. Now, there's a double cd, produced by no one else than Bob Lawrence, on which Allan tells his fascinating story. Very emotionally, for instance, he reports his friendship with Stuart Henry, which even gave me tears in the eyes. After his Scotland period, Allan worked on a couple of television stations as continuity announcer. And one day, when working for Grenada Television, he watched the ITV news and saw an item about Radio North Sea International. It was summer 1970 and, from that moment on, Tony knew that he wouldn't be any longer in television, which he disliked anyway. He phoned his friend Graham Gill and for a while he could sleep on the floor of Gill's apartment in Amsterdam. From there on, he tried to get a job on Radio Northsea International.

An excellent product. During his VOP-yeares, Allan went back a couple of times to Radio Caroline. I do remember his first return in October 1973. It was Dennis King who drove him from Schiphol Airport to the Van Hoogendorpstraat. I was there on that very same day and it was emotional to see how the Caroline people were happy that their lost son had returned. That was also the very first time I met Allan personally and it would not be the last time. It would take us too far to tell everything in advance about all the subjects producer Bob Lawrence was talking to with Allan. Of course there is the subject of "Loving Awareness," the love philosophy of O'Rahilly. For many people "LA" was part and parcel of Radio Caroline, but for me hearing Allan talk about it for 12 minutes is a bit too long. However, it was good to hear Allan relating the fact that he is gay and how he was the very first deejay on the world talked openly about it. In this respect, he also gives some comments about how the famous jingles, telling "Tony Allan is gay," were produced. One part of Allan's career was producing jingles and commercials, as well as doing radio programs on several Irish stations; and this part of his life is not forgotten.