Saddest day of my young life when the Pirates were forced to shut down!

"Big L time is three o'clock & Radio London is now closing down". (Paul Kaye).

August 14th 2017 ... 50 years ago today, and it STILL hurts...

I'm 63 now. When I was 14, I lived in Wales, and used to hook up my transistor radio to the TV ariel to try and pick up 'Big L'. Radio London was a huge part of my growing up. In 1970, at 22yo, I emigrated to Australia, where 'pop' radio was legal, but will never forget the great memories of.....Wonderful.....Radio.....London......

Best Radio Ident/Jingle Ever !!!!

Cried when I heard this again after all those years. I never forgave Labour for closing down the best radio station in the world! They lost my vote that day forever. Wonderful Big L!!

Remember Radio London fondly. Still have my scrapbook with newspaper cuttings of the last day of "Big L". Also had the last hour on reel to reel but don't know what happened to that, sadly

Oh my goodness me, Goose bumps, tears in my eyes, just listening to this again after all of these years, Thank You Tony Benn [postmaster general] and labour government for taking us kids radio stations from us to protect the BBCs monopoly, nice one

Wonderful Big L. Wow! Memories. Just listened to John Peel's final Perfumed Garden - August 14th 1967!

Such fond memories from the 60's. I listened to Radio London all the time when stayed at my Godmothers in Barnehurst (Sout East London) I can't have been more than 10 yrs old - those jingles will be with me for the rest of my life........

Oooooh, shivers down the spine!Under the bedclothes loving this music, but annoyed that 266m was closing down for the night.Otherwise I was a Caroline crank, and sometimes Radio Invicta.Remarkable days; so exciting and no equivalent now.

The Best Radio Jingle Of All Time from The Best Radio Station Of All Time. So Sad That It Had To Close Down. All those years ago and it only seems like yesterday. I remember all the DJs including Tony Windsor Keith Skues, Mark Roman,Tony Blackburn,Dave Dennis,Norman St John,Earl Richmond,Paul Kay.Pete Drummond etc.

the great days of radio

The time now is 3 00 and Radio London is Closing Down...... That Must have been Horrible... for everyone.....I played That last night....it gave me chills...The Beatles was the last Band to be Heard with A Day In The Life.....BBC should of took that station under their wings?....it would be cool to have that station now in 2022.🎶🎵🎵🎶

I was a massive Radio Caroline fan........but London's Big L theme is so evocative of back then. As is RNIs Man of Action. Great days. Sadly missed.

along with Caroline the two best radio stations ever

PAMS was the jingle music leader for so many years! A hometown Top 40 station, WKLO, Louisville played their edit of this "Sonowaltz" from PAMS Series 18 every night at 11:58 PM. Another Louisville Top 40 station, the legendary WAKY, was one of the first stations to order and play the most famous jingle package of all time, PAMS Series 27, "The Jet Set."

Best Radio Jingle Ever!

That brings back memories, listening to to Radio London on my war surplus PCR set. My parents sneered rather at the populist tone of the pirates, but I didn't care, they were ours, not theirs. But in the end, they won.

@jravincent Yes indeed JV, wonderful stuff, those jingles and ' American ' presentation ,Tony Windsor's ' TW' - "Hu-Lo " and " Kenny & Cash - On London ",Ed ' Stewpot ' Stewart, " Hullo Myrtle - Hello Dear ", the double ' D ' at midday, Paul Kaye with his ' posh ' voice reading the news at ' the bottom of the hour -Paul Kaye reporting ".Those fantastic PAMS jingles every minute !Neally 3 years of joy giving us ' the soundtrack to our lives ' !.

I love this Song....it was a great Radio Station...I cannot believe that Thay just get A License to be on the air.... cannot believe that Thay closed down....wow Thay should of returned to the air..on the Legal Channel....I had the album in Grade School with The Who.....I bet thay were the most played outside of The Beatles?....I can believe that The BBC came after Radio London for playing Hit Songs...I would love to been in Britain doing this time in the 1960s.... British and American Rock is the best.....I was a kid in the 1960s....and Teen in the 1970s.....best music ever 🎵🎶...I grew Up in California.....that was Rock and Roll Heaven..... Britain was also...We Loved British Rock Bands....The Beatles...The Who ...The Stones... etc.... Radio was King.. for music

If you google Wonderfull Radio London 266 there is a radio station on the internet that is dedicated to Big L no DJs but clips of all the originals Kenny Everett Dave Cash Keith Skues Tony Windsor etc plus all the jingles and Station idents. I listen to it a lot brings back lots of nostalgic memories

I listened to this as it happened 50 years ago on Twickenham Green. A very sad day.

the sence of loss when it was shut down was like your house fell down,,thank god caroline went on.

still miss big L. went to Harwich on 40th anniversary. anything planned for50th next year. my kids cant understand my feelings about 60s and pirates. i just say if they had known the alternative we had before then they would know why i loved the pirates. only listened to big L, except when drowned out by 270. ....in nth lincolnshire a much stronger signal.Happy days

Wonderful Big L.......what a station tune !!!!

Arrived in London in early 1973 and I couldn't believe that there was only one radio station BBC 1? that played "pop music". Everything that you listened to was decided by some controller in the overarching BBC. Even in Melbourne, in the 1920's we had commercial radio before the ABC was even thought of. There were at least six 24 hour AM stations in metro Melbourne plus the ABC stations around then.

Pop radio relied on Pop Music - which is sadly no more. This was made official when Top Of The Pops was plugholed.

Great Jimmy Smith type tune. Loved Radio London.

Wonderful stuff....a huge bakelite radio in my Norfolk bedroom...an aerial going onto the roof...breakfast with Tony Windsor ("TW" ; bit of a possihead but great)...the Kenny and Cash Combine...the Double D (Dave Dennis, who also cut a Christmas song called Oh yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus, as Neil Spence...I could go on....JV, London, England

IT WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED -- Kenny Everett was right !

OMG such happy memories !!

I've been searching for this and another "nameless" organ radio jingle for the past 45 years!! Station WKLO-AM in Louisville used this when they needed to fill time before the hourly news updates. I am so PSYCHED to have actually found it!

56 years ago today.

Pure nostalgia......

Probably my favourite piece of music from the 60's the most evocative of themes,celebrating 3 years of great music from Pirate Radio ' Big-L'.I think when I come to meet my maker,this is the music that will be playing when the curtains are drawn !.Thanks for uploading this.

Angel Radio, broadcasting form Havant in Hampshire, still uses "Sonowaltz" regularly. They have their own version of it with the vocal rerecorded as "Wonderful Angel Radio" or "Wonderful Big A".

Love those theme tunes from big L

BIG L time is three o'clock and Radio London is now .... closing down.

Thank God for the pirate radio ships - the great pop revolution. Fantastic times.

WoW! Don't that bring it all back! I used to have this on a Big L 45, lent to me by Fred Hasler of the NCRM, (National Commercial Radio Movement) but it got lost. I feel guilty to this day that I never gave it him back!

Wow - what a great vlast from the past!!! Thanks!!!

For Years I have looked for this .It brings back memories as a young boy .made a tuned loop antenna from Practical Wireless and got better reception .sad to see Caroline still not back on MW despite a 1kw licence

Love that Jimmy Smith style hammond

dutch radio in 1980 rebroadcast the final hour from summer 67 - it's here and it's on cd

R.I.P. Dave Cash.

you can still hear it in staffordshire on 106.3 castle FM at the weekends , with other PAMs jingles from this powerfull FM station .

Tony Blackburn began on Big L on 266m radio london

It Was the Best.

Love it. Nice Hammond.

Big L is still 😎 in 2022.....

LAZER 558 AS WELL...HAPPY MEMORIES!!!!!

BRILLIANT MEMORIES. BIG L WAS GREAT AND STILL IS: ALTHOUGH ITS LAND BASED. IF YOU HAVE AN ANDROID DEVICE GET THE APP:OFFSHORE RADIO OR OLDIES RADIO STATIONS. YOU WILL SEE WONDERFUL RADIO LONDON COMPLETE WITH JINGLES. ALSO ALL THE OTHER 60,s PIRATES CAROLINE ETC ARE THERE AS WELL. GO FOR IT

Yeah!

Kenny & Cash!

norman barringtons radio pages are worth a listen to,plenty of pirate jingles and more...good listening

Free Enterprise gave us the Radio for a Generation, Labour closed it down forced Jimmy Young on us.....

@mick4178 - I was lucky - I lived in East Anglia - walking distance from the ship (had I had the ability to walk on water!)

If they ever did another Austin Powers movie, this would work well over the opening credits.

you are one lucky guy...radio is lousy now...

Just who gave this the thumbs down???

And, of course, the Sonowaltz is a WALTZ... meaning written 3/4 time... (count it out I,2,3, - 1,2,3, - etc)

Wonderful Big L good memories.

Armenia...City in the Sky!

@moonraker185 - TRUE!

There are CD versions of this.

PAAAAAAMS....

My pleasure - I LOVE it! Incidentally, I'm sorry for the delay in "approving" your comment and replying - but I was SHUT OUT of my channel for two weeks, courtesy of KZfaq's arbitrary and unfair "strikes" system (don't ASK!).

Where does everyone find these jingles?

Why Did BigL Fightbak like Caroline 😫

hurry up and put it on m.w government!!!!!!!