RNI CLASSICS

In this feature, I will list some of the classic RNI songs. If you can add any more details to the songs or especially some of the artists, I'd certainly appreciate you passing the info onto me. My e-mail address is: colin@quizquest.fsnet.co.uk

When we announced the initial R.N.I. revival, we received quite a few e-mails from people detailing on their memories of R.N.I. and listing certain records (in same cases long listings!) of records they hoped we would be playing. In all cases PEACE by Peter, very much an RNI anthem, was included.

But who was Peter? Was it Peter Gosling, who wrote it?. The record was originally recorded on a KPM Library disc, from which the backing music for TV/Radio ads are drawn. Also, at one time, Peter Gosling worked as a BBC announcer. However, that’s about all I can offer, so it’s over to you. Do you know anything more?

Update: At last - I received an email confirming: Peter Gosling wrote & produced the song, but the artist who sang the song was "Peter Hallett". I was also given his email address, so I sent him an email, asking several questions relating to the song & his career, and this was the reply that Peter Hallett so kindly forwarded:

"Well, it's taken me a while to get back to you so here goes. I was 18 years old when I recorded "Peace". Peter Gosling was the writer and the arrangement was by Keith Mansfield, who at the time had had hits with Love Affair "Everlasting Love" and Marmalade "Ob La Di Ob La Da".

The recording featured some top session players - Herbie Flowers, Alan Hawkshaw, Maynard Fergusson and the backing vocals of Sue & Sunny. "Peace" was a Top Ten hit in Holland and charted in several European countries.

It was voted record of the week by Radio One's Noel Edmonds & Anne Nightingale, but sadly did not chart in the UK.

In 1991, "Peace" was re-released in Holland to commemorate the ending of the Gulf War. It was top of the radio playlist, being played every hour. It charted, but only in the top fifty.

I can only say that it was a privilege to be part of such a great song - it deserved more!"

‘Never An Everyday Thing’, which never actually made the UK charts, was probably the second most suggested record that we should be playing in our RSLs, behind ‘Peace’.

Co-writer Pete Shelley, in addition to having 2 hits: ‘Gee Baby’ and ‘Love Me Love My Dog’ wrote/produced Alvin Stardust’s 1970s hits.

I have subsequently purchased another record by Eli Bonaparte: ‘We Have All Been Saved’, issued in 1971 on Philips, but my efforts to find out information on him have proved unsuccessful. I cannot believe Eli Bonaparte was the guy in question’s real name (Was it Pete Shelley?).

Update: I'm indebted to Gary, who have kindly emailed me in response to this page:

Eli Bonaparte is my uncle & his real name John Bradford. He then started a band called T.Ford and the Bone Shakers. He then went solo and came fourth in the Eurovision song contest under the name T.Ford, in 1987. The song was called What You Gonna Do?" on Splash Records. He now lives in Wolverhampton

Paul Rusling also emailed me about the song:

"Never An Everyday Thing" was originally recorded by ROEKS FAMILY as the flip to their 1969 hit "Get Yourself A Ticket - a hit in Holland, and although it WAS released in the UK (I have it on Olga records) it sold none at all I suppose. The Roeks Family has an offshore connection - the line up included Will Luikinga and Chiel Montagne from Radio Veronica. I think the Rokes Family's version of "Everyday" is superb - psyched organ, fuller sound and so on. The Eli Bonaparte version came in about May 1970 and was a plug record that the Geeter Larry Tremaine had signed up in London with some deal at Beacon Records, where Rosko's then girlfriend Brenda Pidduck was instrumental. Complex story!

This song was, of course, R.N.I.’s theme and had RNI not selected it, this fantastic tune may well have sunk totally into oblivion:

a & b) Chapter One CH126 (has pink and blue background to label) and Chapter One CH186 Mono (UK.1970) c/w Madrid,

c) Chapter One SCH 189 c/w Lest we forget (UK.November 1973) (Purple background to label)

There is some confusion over which versions were used by RNI, as far as can be determined the mono CH126 version was used first, then the BASF stereo version, but ironically only the right hand channel, which could be identified by the apparent distance of the opening brass muting the left hand channel. As soon as it was released the mono CH186 version was used, this is a different cut, identified by prominent drum beats. There were plans to recruit the Les Reed Orchestra to record different cuts of the theme for use by the station. In 1972 RNI was using news jingles which featured different segments of the tune for the start and end of bulletins, the station also edited together recordings of Man of Action to produce a ten minute long version. Man of Action became heavily used as backing music by BBC Radio One's Tony Blackburn for a short time when there were no official alternatives to the national networks. Despite this it never became a UK hit. It did however chart in Holland following its constant airing as RNI's final "Treiterschijf". When RNI was still in the planning stages, one of the people involved was Klaus Quirini, head of the Deutsche Disquejockey Organisation. The DDO theme tune was Man of Action.

Every RNI fan will instantly recall the name of Les Reed as the man who wrote & performed the station’s theme ‘Man of Action’, but is that then it? How much more is known of the man?

Pianist, conductor, arranger, musical director, and highly successful composer Les Reed was born on 24 July 1935, in Woking, Surrey, England.. Reed's father, a semi-professional mouth-organist with a local troupe, the Westfield Kids, was eager to formalize his son's interest in music. Keyboard lessons from the age of six, and a spell as the Kids' accordionist prefaced a Royal College of Music scholarship before … National Service in the Royal East Kent Regiment. On demobilization in 1956, Reed became a freelance session player, then joined the John Barry Seven who, as well as playing in concerts and on records in their own right, backed other artists - notably those appearing on Jack Good 's Oh Boy! television series. Among them was Adam Faith, for whom Reed wrote a b-side. From this small beginning as a pop composer, Reed's 60 or more major hits since have earned numerous gold discs, Ivor Novello awards and, in 1982, the British Academy Gold Badge Of Merit. In the mid-60s, it was unusual for a British singles chart not to list a Les Reed song (usually with collaborators like Gordon Mills, Geoff Stephens or Barry Mason). Among numerous Top 30 acts indebted to Reed as writer and arranger are the Applejacks ('Tell Me When'), Tom Jones ('It's Not Unusual', 'Delilah'), P.J. Proby, Mirielle Mathieu, Engelbert Humperdinck, ('The Last Waltz'), Des O'Connor ('I Pretend'), Paul & Barry Ryan (‘Don’t Bring Me Your Heartaches’), Herman’s Hermits/Carpenters (‘There’s A Kind of Hush’) and the Dave Clark Five (Everybody Knows', 1967). In 1969, towards the end of their regular partnership, Reed and Mason wrote 'Love Is All', a powerful ballad with which Malcolm Roberts triumphed at the San Remo Song Festival. Reed subsequently became one of the best-known faces at annual song festivals all over the world, and his contributions as a conductor, arranger and soloist were recognized in 1977 when he accepted an invitation to become President of The International Federation of Festivals (FIDOF) for one year, and then served as its Ambassador. Reed has also composed several film scores including Crossplot, Girl On A Motor Cycle, One More Time, My Mother's Lovers, Bush Baby, and Creepshow 2, and has written for stage musicals such as The Magic Show, American Heroes and And Then I Wrote. When Reed celebrated 30 years in the music business in 1989, he was estimated to have written more than 2,000 songs. He was made a Freeman of the City of London for his 'contribution to the music industry'. Still resident in Surrey, Reed has executive interests in a Guildford radio station (County Sound) and his daughter Donna's publishing company, Rebecca Music Ltd. In 1998 Reed was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

One of my favourite ‘offshore’ sounds is MAYBE TOMORROW, MAYBE TONIGHT by EARTH & FIRE. For me the opening rift of this song IS Radio Northsea International. Everytime I hear the song, I always think – R.N.I., even though it didn’t actually come out until 1973. However, rather than highlight the specific record, this time, I’ve featured the group. The history of Earth & Fire is as follows:

When in 1967 Chris Koerts and his twin brother Gerard set up a band in the Hague suburb Voorburg they hardly suspected that band would become one of the best Dutch pop acts of all time. The twins started out with bassist Hans Ziech, drummer Cees Kalis and singer Lisette. Their name was taken from the fact that the birth sign of the band members was either a fire or earth sign. In 1969 the singer Lisette had to leave the band due to an eye disease and was replaced by Jerney Kaagman. Drummer Kalis was also replaced by Ton van de Kleij and with this line up they toured as a warm up act for Golden Earring.

It is thanks to Earring guitarist George Kooymans that Earth and Fire had their first hit, he wrote the song "Seasons" which took the group to the number two spot in the Top 40. After this the Koerts twins wrote all their own songs in a progressive style with much use of the mellotron and later the Moog synthesiser and had hit after hit. "Ruby Is The One", "Wild And Exciting", "Invitation" and "Storm And Thunder" in 1971 alone. The first album "Earth and Fire" with the Roger Dean designed cover was an excellent debut and in it's Nepentha release can fetch up to £200. The complexly orchestrated tracks went down well in Europe, especially in Germany and the group was kept very busy with concerts and TV appearances. The second album "Song Of The Marching Children" was released in 1971 and featured on the first side, "Storm And Thunder", a live favourite and the instrumental "In The Mountains". Side Two was one long piece in the concept album tradition, a rather gloomy journey into the futility of life and death.

The next series of singles "Memories", "Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Tonight", "Love of Life", "Only Time Will Tell" and "Thanks For The Love" continued the run of hits. The next album "Atlantis " released in 1973 was another concept, this time based on the destroyed civilisation myth of Atlantis. Hans Ziech was replaced by bassist Theo Hurts in 1974. Their fourth album was their best, released in 1975, "To The World Of The Future" was a long time in production (Jaap Eggermont ex Golden Earring drummer-Producer) but it was worth it. This contained the instrumental "The Last Seagull" and the singles "Only Time Will Tell" and "Love Of Life". Another single success "What Difference Does It Make" followed in 1976. In 1977, the next album "Gate To Infinity", from which the single “78 Avenue” was released, had as its theme reincarnation and had its subject recalling her life as a princess in Egypt.
In 1978, first drummer van de Kleij and then Theo Hurts left the group. They were replaced respectively by Ab Tamboer and ex Focus bassist Bert Ruiter, singer Jerney's boyfriend. Around this time the group changed record companies from Polydor to Vertigo and worked on the next album, produced by Gerrit Jan Leenders, who had worked on Kayak's albums previously. In 1979, "Reality Fills Fantasy" was released and became the biggest success in the group's history. "Weekend" from the album became an enormous hit.

In 1980, creative leader, Chris Koerts left the group to concentrate on "serious" music. He was replaced by Ronnie Meyjes (formerly of Brainbox). With him the less successful "Andromeda Girl" was released in 1981. The music was now compact and melodic funk, but still contained influences of the old symphonic rock. The 1982 album "In A State Of Flux" produced the singles "Twenty Four Hours" and "Jack Is Back”. At the beginning of 1983, the group were reduced to a trio as First Ronnie Meyjes left to join the Millionaires and then Ab Tamboer went to Het Goede Doel. Finally Gerard Koerts left the group and it seemed all was over, Jerney Kaagman had two minor album successes in the mid 80's and the Koerts brothers became the "Earth and Fire Orchestra" releasing two albums of complex instrumental music. In 1989, Earth and Fire resurfaced with the aptly named "Phoenix". This time the line up was Jerney Kaagman, Bert Ruiter and the returning Ab Tamboer, along with ex Kayak keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel, guitarist Age Kat and Jons Pistoor, another keyboard player. The album was largely Scherpenzeel's music and his then wife's Irene Linder's lyrics. a single "French Word For Love" scraped into the chart, but it wasn't the same and the group eventually petered out. Jerney went into TV management with Radio Noordzee National and Scherpenzeel went back to composing for ballets and the like.

This record was RNI's first Smash Play when the station re-launched on February 20, 1971. It subsequently topped the RNI charts on March 31st, holding that spot for two weeks. The record entered the UK national charts on April 10th, remaining in the top 40 (as it was then) for 16 weeks, peaking at No.5. The album from which it was taken: 'Symphony For The Seventies' entered the UK album charts on May 1st, 1971, remaining there for 26 weeks, peaking at No.6.

As to Walde de los Rios himself, I haven't been able to find out much about him at all. Only that he was an Argentinian who lived in Spain and is no longer with us. The photograph is featured on the 'back side' of a 1973 album 'Christmas With Waldo de los Rios'.

Pacific Gas And Electric were formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in 1968, and were a quintet that merged blues, gospel, soul, jazz and rock. The members were Charlie Allen (vocals), Glenn Schwartz (lead guitar), Thomas Marshall (rhythm guitar), Brent Black (bass) and Frank Cook (drums). They followed the example of the ‘Chicago Transit Authority’ who had formed two years earlier, when selecting their name, adopting for their moniker the name of a local utilities company. The group's first album, Get It On, was initially issued on the small Bright Orange label and then reissued on the band's own Power Records, scraping into the charts at number 159. An appearance at the Miami Pop Festival in December 1968 was considered a highlight of that event and the group came to the attention of Columbia Records, who subsequently signed them. A self-titled album was released on Columbia in August 1969 and fared somewhat better, reaching number 91. On April 25 redneck racists in North Carolina booed the multi-racial band off stage and when the members were driving away they came under fire from the locals and despite four shots hitting their car, luckily no-one was hurt. The group's third album, Are You Ready, did not fare as well, reaching only number 101, but it did yield their only hit single in the title track, a gospel-influenced rocker that climbed to number 14 in the Billboard charts in June 1970. One other album and a couple of further singles were issued but by 1971 the group was in disarray. Various personnel changes, including the addition of a horn section, left Allen the only original member by 1973, when the group's final album was issued on Dunhill Records.

I fell in love with this record, the story of a man marrying a girl he met sailing in a big canoe, when Paul Graham & I were sorting out records for the 1999 RSL and immediately secured it as my ‘hitpick’, but for us in England, who are ‘The Dizzy Man’’s Band’?

Do you have any requests for this page? What is/are your favourite R.N.I. song(s)? E-mail at colin@quizquest.fsnet.co.uk and let me know.