Kenny Everett


 * Kenny Everett (1944-1995) was the most original of the disc jockeys who made their debuts on the offshore pirate radio stations of the mid-1960s. Many of the leading DJs on the pirate ships had worked in North American or Australian commercial radio, or for Britsh Forces broadcasting, but Everett had no previous radio experience when he joined the new Radio London in late 1964. He soon won a following for his unique style, which mixed Liverpudlian verbal wit and surreal, Goon Show-style humour, especially in his collaboration with Dave Cash, "The Kenny and Cash Show". Unlike most DJs he had the tape skills to record and edit his own jingles as well. He was the first "star" to be produced by pirate radio (apart from Radio Caroline's Simon Dee, whose brief career as a BBC TV chat-show host ended in failure) and gained additional respect due to his association with The Beatles, whom he accompanied on behalf of Radio London on their 1966 US tour. A natural rebel, he did not always follow the guidelines set down by the station's management and was fired for six months after mocking the sponsored American religious shows which were a regular part of Radio London's schedule. This unwillingness to toe the line was to be a recurring pattern in his radio career at the BBC and Capital Radio, and then in his subsequent TV work. His taste for the outrageous was also shown in his speech at the 1983 Conservative Party conference, in which he suggested that Labour leader Michael Foot should be robbed of his walking stick and knocked over.

Links to Peel

 * Like Peel, Everett benefited from his Liverpool background, enabling him to become Radio London's "Beatle expert". He got to know the group and interviewed them for both Radio London and Radio One, his skill with tape recorders doubtless being an asset at a time when the Beatles were experimenting with new sounds in the recording studio. He was a strong supporter of the group during this period, featuring Beatles tracks of all kinds on his shows, but he was particularly taken with the Revolver and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LPs and the "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" single. The programming of his shows also reflected a more general interest in new and novel sounds - what in the mid-60s music press was called "progressive pop", although he also featured pure novelty records and plenty of chart pop.
 * John Peel joined Radio London in March 1967, just as Everett was leaving the station to work for Radio Luxembourg and the BBC. Peel rated him highly in 1967 and 1968, at one point telling his listeners on the Perfumed Garden that "Kenny knows" - as Rob Chapman remarked in his study of pirate radio, Selling the Sixties, "what Kenny knew was never made clear". Nevertheless Peel did credit Everett for alerting him to Love's "The Castle", scarcely a conventional pop single but a track which Everett played regularly on his daytime shows, before Peel began to feature it and other tracks from the LP Da Capo on London After Midnight and the Perfumed Garden.
 * Kenny Everett did make one appearance as a studio guest on Peel's Night Ride, but after 1968 their careers took different paths. While Peel became identified with the Underground, Everett, despite his liking for new music, remained within the pop mainstream. He never developed a taste for the earthier forms of music - blues, country, folk, hard rock and early rock'n'roll - which together made up a large percentage of Peel's playlists. In addition, Peel's self-effacing and shy nature was in sharp contrast with Everett's taste for provocation and publicity. Peel retained an admiration for Everett's radio work but had little time for his TV career; by the time Everett died in 1995, the connection between the two former Radio London DJs seemed to be minimal.