Tom Jones International

In the spring the too-preciously named film called The Boat That Rocked was released in the UK. It was released here on Friday with the title Pirate Radio. It purports to tell the story of an offshore radio station, in reality called Radio Caroline, that played rock ‘n’ roll when the staid BBC wouldn’t in the 1960s. The film isn’t by any means a great one and the story is in large part fiction. In fact, many of the songs used weren’t released until after1966, when the film takes place. The truth in the film is found in the music played and in the very existence of off-shore radio because the Beeb wouldn’t play the music. The soundtrack of the movie is just wonderful. The performances, are fun, especially that of Phillip Seymour Hoffman who, like everyone else in the cast, is clearly having a blast. Not fun, but funny, is Kenneth Branagh’s government official who seems to have, um, sat on a stick. It plays right into the stereotype many people have about Brits. And, you gotta love a film with a character named “Twatt.”

I recommend it because of the soundtrack, because you’ll have a good time and, finally, if you’re a Tom Jones fan — or a fan of so many others first played on Radio Caroline — it deserves your patronage.

That said, why should a Tom Jones fansite even discuss the film? Well, read below for the answer to that question and, if you want to know more about Radio Caroline check out the multi-part history.

Meanwhile, a bit about Tom and Radio Caroline:
In an interview Radio Caroline North DJ Mike Ahern talked about Tom:

“We were responsible for making a lot of artists. I said to Tom Jones recently, during an interview: ‘Do you understand, Tom, that you may not have had a career if we’d had no Caroline North starting to play It’s Not Unusual?‘ The reason we picked this song was because of its duration: it was only 1 minute and 59 seconds. It was short and it was a good one, up to news. We were pretty good about getting the news on in time, even in those days. Another one that we broke was the Fortunes You’ve Got Your Troubles, the Rolling Stones certainly, The Who, and a lot of bands just would not be as big as they are now without Caroline. Tom Jones said to me that he hadn’t realized that, but I said to him ‘It’s true.’”

Radio London runs down the highlights of the year 1965 on Radio Caroline: APRIL 18: Easter Sunday: Radio Caroline celebrates first birthday. Ronan O’Rahilly introduced four “Bell” the Caroline insignia awards. He presents one personally to The Animals at London Airport just before they leave for New York. The award is for their “House of the Rising Sun” the best group record of the Year. Pet Clark flew in from France to receive her award for ”Down Town”, the best female vocal recording, from Simon Dee. Simon also travels to Twickenham Film Studios to present the Beatles with their award as the best and most consistent artists. The best male vocal record of the year was It’s Not Unusual and the award is presented by Burt Bacharach to Tom Jones. Recorded birthday greetings from individual artists and groups are included in the day’s broadcasting schedule. The messages were from Band of Angels, Cliff Richard, The Temptations, The Shadows, The Four Pennies, Roy Orbison, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, Donovan, The Honeycombs, The Supremes, Little Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, Martha and the Vandellas, The Miracles, The Drifters, Bobby Vee, Peter and Gordon, Frankie Vaughan, Tom Jones and Eden Kane.