Well sort of, and indeed, September’s episode is coming to you live from the city I grew up in throughout my teens and twenties, having emigrated with my family from Bristol at the age of 13:
Perth, Western Australia, where I’m currently visiting family and friends just for a few weeks. When we arrived fresh off the good ship SS Canberra, it was 42º in the shade. When we left Southampton 4 weeks earlier, it was snowing!
Succinctly, I’ve had one foot in two countries on opposite sides of the planet for over 55 years, with quite a lot of back-and-forth in between.
All 17 blood-relatives and many old friends live in the Antipodes, so I try to get back to see them as often as possible, given it’s unlikely they’ll be travelling to the northern hemisphere to see me because they have jobs, families, young kids and, as you can imagine, what with airfares, accommodation and travel expenses…
I digress, (something readers of these postings know I do, frequently).
For the first dozen years of my existence, I grew up in the UK, and was one of those under-the blankets late-night-listeners to the likes of Radio Luxembourg and some of the ‘pirate stations’, although I was a little too young to fully comprehend the musical revolution that was going on up until the BBC launched Radio One and finally started playing pop/rock music in September, 1967.
My childhood radio upbringing was initially shaped by such programmes as ‘The Goons’, ‘Round the Horne’, ‘Listen with Mother’ and, over on the telly, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Danger Man’ and ‘The Avengers’ (along with all the kids programmes such as anything from the Gerry Anderson stable, Irwin Allen productions, ‘The Magic Roundabout’ etc.).
Hitting the West Australian shores in 1970, I encountered a very different world, especially the radio and TV culture.
In fact, not long after arrival, this happened.
Essentially, only months after berthing in Perth (Fremantle to be precise), there wasn’t a lot of UK or US music being played on the local radio stations.
For example, in this extract from the Wiki article:
During the ban, many UK hits like The Beatles’ ‘The Long and Winding Road’ and Mary Hopkin’s ‘Knock, Knock Who’s There?’ gained only limited exposure in Australia.
Do scan the piece if inclined – it’s a three to five minute read and quite interesting.
The result of this for me personally was that I quickly adapted to the sounds of Australian artists, whilst having a back catalogue in my brain-library of everything I’d consumed in England.
Once the radio ban was lifted, I slowly came to realise that the Antipodean music scene seemed to be quite a bit more ‘rocky’ than the UK, was heavily influenced by the US bands and artists of the day and, in this medium in particular, commercial radio was strongly shaped by the sound of American advertising.
Some of the best slogans, jingles and commercial writing of the day poured out of the speakers day and night, and I was hooked on the way it all came together with the music of the times.
Thus, some five decades later, I find myself with a unique and eclectic taste in music plus the influences of three countries all scrambled in my bonce and venturing forth from the voice-box!
As they say downunder, goodonya for reading this lot, see ya later and fair dinkum – I’m off to sink a few tinnies with me mates (but there’ll be no prawns on the barby)…
Greg Marston started out as a radio presenter behind the first of many microphones in 1979. For the past 30 years, he’s remained there as a professional voiceover artist.
Find out more about him and his nearly half-century career by visiting gregmarston.com or connect with Greg on LinkedIn.
