Well, where do I start with my story about my friend David Lord Sutch, the gun towers on Shivering Sands and Radio Sutch?
Both David and I grew up in Charteris Rd, Kilburn, London, NW6. I was born in 1939 and he was born in 1940. We where both war babies,and most of the time we did not know where our next meal was coming from. This made us sharp people. We were street wise before the phrase was ever heard of. At the age of eight and nine we collected orange boxes from Sainsburys and Fred Myers greengrocers in the Kilburn High Road, chopped them them up into small bundles and sold them for three pence or six pence a bundle. We both worked milk rounds and newspaper rounds and I worked on the coal lorry on Saturday mornings. We also collected old scrap metal and newspapers to make a buck. At the age of eleven and twelve we ran a money lending scheme. If we lent you half a crown, you paid back five shillings. This worked very well . No one would tell their parents because they would have been in deep do do!

At the age of fifteen we both discovered Rock and Roll – Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Fats Domino. I took my mum to see The Girl Cant Help It, she lovede it. At the age of sixteen I moved to Pinner Road in Harrow. David moved to South Harrow about nine months later. By this time we are both great fans of Rock and Roll, and we spent a lot of time at the Ace Cafe on the North Circular Road. Another place we spent a lot of time was at the Two I’s coffee bar in Soho. When Jerry Lee Lewis came to the UK, David and I spent our last few bob going to see him at the State Cinema Kilburn on the Saturday. On the Sunday we went to the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, we walked in, bought two ice creams and saw him again for nothing – he was brilliant. Some years later I met Jerry Lee Lewis and his thirteen year old wife (well she was thirteen when he married her, but a lot older when I met her –but that’s another story).

 As time went on during my days working for David, I met many of the stars of Rock and Roll that I had admired and danced to as a teenager. For example, I remember meeting Chuck Berry, a brilliant showman on stage, but when I met him he just sat there as high as a kite saying nothing, while I did all the talking – but then what would you expect from a London boy who worked a fruit and veg barrow in Kilburn High Road (I can chat for England ). But I had better get back to my story – back to Radio Sutch.

It was when I was about eighteen or so that David met Carlo Little. Carlo was a great drummer and they decided to form a band. David asked me to join them as a singer. I had a reasonable voice as a young man, but I was too busy working and could not get to the gigs. David kept on at me for years, asking me to come on board and eventually, at the ripe old age of twenty-two, I did. I ended up being the general dogsbody – a bit of singing, compering, road manager – and eventually disc jockey on Radio Sutch.

No one will admit it but Radio Sutch only started as a publicity stunt. David Sutch had been using by-elections as publicity stunts. The Profumo Affair and resulting by-election gave David massive publicity. John Profumo was a Tory Grandee, a Conservative MP who got caught having nooky with a young lady called Christine Keeler who was also reputedly the mistress of a Russian spy (another young lady was also involved called Mandy Rice Davis). This business finished John Profumo’s career in politics. He spent the rest of his life working for charity in the East End of London and, in my opinion, paid his dues. Anyway, David Sutch stood in the by-election for Profumo’s seat and got massive publicity.

His face and name where all over the front pages of the newspapers! He was always looking for a vehicle to hit the newspapers with, and thats how Radio Sutch was born.