FAREWELL RADIO LONDON

M O N D A Y,  1 4  A U G U S T

Didn’t sleep as well as usual because the cats woke me up with their wailing, and a mosquito was whistling in my ear.

Virginia came to say goodbye. She saw Dutronc on TV - “I must say, he is rather super,” she said. Also said goodbye to Josephine - her handshake! She's so utterly dainty about everything. 

Daddy took a picture of me by the Morning Glories.

We left at 9.30. Very easy drive all the way, not too hot, and Chump and me talked a lot about the concert. We now remember the tune the band played whenever Dutronc just talked - it was the beginning of 'La Fille du Pere Noel"! Stopped for lunch at Pourrières, it's the most lovely little village, and parked in the square crowded out with everybody having a before-lunch drink. They all looked utterly contented with life; eat, drink and be merry is what they do. Felt a bit out of place among them but it didn't really matter, they were so friendly. Sat down and had drinks too. We had lunch just round the corner where there was a super stone seat which we used as a table, and the most marvellous view - yellow and brown fields stretching to the mountains beyond.

Got to Avignon about quarter to 3, with lots of time before the train. Went to the modern pool - it’s fab. There are four pools in all, including one for championship dives (17 ft deep), but I didn’t swim much because of my hair. Got to the train in good time, so lay down in grass by the track and watched the English walkers pass by - in their long, baggy, khaki coloured shorts you can tell them a mile off.

Read Nice-Matin before the train left and I’m SO FED UP: Radio London finishes at midnight, so I’ll miss the pirates saying goodbye. 

Walked through to the restaurant car at eight. Passed this flirty French boy who said “appetit” to me – why??  Good meal (as always) and we got very giggly. Daddy kept trying to pinch my ice-cream biscuits!

Wrote Diary in bed – in rough because too joggy.

“The pirates’ farewell”

Broadcasting from ships in international waters, the pirate stations brought pop music to Britain, and eventually propelled the BBC, on 30th September, into launching Radio One. ("Big thrill," wrote Ingrid.)

It was on this day in 1967 that the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act put an end to the fun. Fans mobbed the DJs at Liverpool Street Station, protesting ‘Freedom Died with Radio London.’ Radio Caroline re-moored off the Dutch coast; the rest of the pirates fell.