Member-only story
HOW PEOPLE USED TO MEET EACH OTHER
When Radio Was Social Media
A community of teenagers and Radio Forth at the end of the 1970s
Radio Forth (east-central Scotland) began in 1975. The first record they played (because that’s what they were back then) was January, by Pilot. Pilot was a local band, who had a hit single Magic which apparently reached #1 in Canada and #5 in the United States. It sold over 1 million copies. If you are of a certain age, you will remember the chorus:
Oh ho ho it’s magic, you know…
Never believe it’s not so.
When I first met my soon-to-be bestie Clare, in 1975, I was scandalized to learn that she lived in a house that had previously belonged to Pilot’s frontman David Patton and when her parents bought the place, all the walls were draped in blue satin and full of BB pellet holes. David had obviously been living the rock-star lifestyle.
Clare and I became Queen fanatics, but with Queen as a jumping off point, I soon got into hard rock, prog rock, and metal. I was listening to Deep Purple, Nazareth, Black Sabbath, Bad Company, Saxon, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Marillion, Yes, and Genesis.
Clare and I, wearing our matching used combat jackets picked up from an army surplus shop, would trawl through Edinburgh’s second-hand record shops on a Saturday…
