Tony Blackburn hijacks BBC Radio 2 show to mark 60 years of pirate radio

Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn hijacked The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 in a stunt celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UK’s first pirate radio station.

Radio Caroline was a British radio station that began regular broadcasting on March 28 1964 from a ship anchored off the coast of Felixstowe in Suffolk.

In the 1960s, Blackburn, 81, who presents Sounds Of The 60s and Tony Blackburn’s Golden Hour on Radio 2, worked on the pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London.

Zoe Ball and Tony Blackburn on Thursday’s show (BBC/PA)

On Thursday morning, Blackburn took over Ball’s Radio 2 show and played Caroline by The Fortunes, which he used to play as a DJ on Radio Caroline.

He said: “The pirates are back. Zoe Ball has been locked out of the studio. I’m here. Anarchy once again.

“We are pirates. We’re pirate Radio 2 and here we go.

“For the next hour, I’m gonna play you proper music.”

I understand that Radio 5 Live is celebrating 30 years. We laugh at them. We actually laugh at Radio 5 celebrating 30 years for goodness sake. Unbelievable

Tony Blackburn

Later on Blackburn said that he and fellow radio presenter Johnnie Walker had been “thinking about” hijacking the radio station for a while.

“Unfortunately, Johnnie Walker has overslept and he’s having a lie-in, but it’s one of those things”, he said.

On Friday, Blackburn will co-host Clash Of The Pirates with Walker and the two veteran pirate broadcasters will “musically battle and banter to become ‘captain of the pirates'” in a programme celebrating the 60th anniversary.

Later on in his takeover, Blackburn laughed at Radio 5 Live’s 30-year celebrations.

“We are here. At last, after 60 years”, he said.

Radio Caroline was a British radio station that began regular broadcasting in 1964 from a ship anchored off the coast of Suffolk (PA)PA Archive/PA Images - PA

“I understand that Radio 5 Live is celebrating 30 years.

“We laugh at them. We actually laugh at Radio 5 celebrating 30 years for goodness sake. Unbelievable.”

After Blackburn played a variety of songs from the 1960s, he was joined by Ball who joked she had freed herself from the tape and got out from the cupboard she was locked in.

“I’m loving this pirate takeover”, she said.

“Congratulations, it’s 60 years.”

Blackburn said: “I started on Radio Caroline in July actually, 1964.”

Blackburn was later joined by Ball who joked she had freed herself from the cupboard she was locked in (Yui Mok/PA)PA Archive/PA Images - Yui Mok

“I remember seeing the pirate ship, the Mi Amigo, for the very first time”, he said.

“We went out from Harwich (Essex), we sailed over from Harwich and it was quite a choppy day and I saw this little pirate ship giving the government so much trouble and I thought ‘wow, that’s great’.”

He continued: “Everybody remembers Radio Caroline, I particularly loved ‘Big L’ Radio London and that was a bigger ship and we had our own cabins and everything.

“But we all got on well out there. It was three years … I just thought it was wonderful.”

Pirate stations beamed music from ships outside British territorial waters and became popular as they reflected changing attitudes towards music at a time when the BBC ruled the waves.

They were unlicensed and did not observe copyright law and in August 1967, a new Act of Parliament called the Marine, & Broadcasting (Offences) Act came in to effect in a bid to silence these offshore radio stations.

In the aftermath of the Act, Blackburn became the first DJ on BBC Radio 1 when it launched in September 1967.