Great story, Phil. In this “All Media, Everywhere, All The Time” landscape where you can access anything just on your phone, it’s perhaps hard to explain just what an impact Piccadilly Radio had when it launched. Before then, if you were young and into music and wanted to hear it on the radio, your only option was Radio One or listening to the crackly Radio Luxembourg at night, fading in and out on your transistor radio. I was only 12 when 261 launched but me and my friends were quickly obsessed. We went into the Plaza for stickers, went to the roadshows, wrote or called in for requests, mithered our parents for money to buy a 261 T-shirt.
You rarely if ever heard a Radio One DJ mention anything to do with Manchester and Northern accents were a rarity.
Piccadilly Radio talked about where we lived, places we knew, people we knew. And musically, it was different from Radio One, too. Personally, I was in love with Radio anyway. I bought Goon Show scripts, and listened to my Grabdad’s Tony Hancock and Round The Horne records, wondering just how you got to do that stuff. At school before my O levels, I asked my careers teacher about how you got a job in radio. “Why would you want to do that, for heaven’s sake” was the reply.
In 1987, post- university, signing on, living back at home and fed up I wrote to Piccadilly Radio asking if I could do ANYTHING at all there ,but I never got a reply ( because of course, they got hundreds of such hopeful and hopeless letters a week). Then, a chance meeting with Paul Lockett led to him introducing me to the programme controller Mike Briscoe who had a three month job he needed filling to work on a charity appeal for Wythenshawe Hospital. I can’t describe the thrill I had even walking in there for the interview, getting to go past Pat on reception and going through the doors into the rabbit warren of corridors and offices behind the bright reception facade.
I ended up working in radio for just about 30 years and worked at Picc for three and a half years. I did pretty well overall, but I don’t think anything I did was as exciting or life-changing as that first job at Piccadilly Radio. ( I have MANY stories, some unprintable).
I still love radio and still produce and present a syndicated radio show. Can’t quite shake the habit.
What a little time capsule of a story, fabulous. Before my time (either of living in Manchester or in fact, being alive) so I love this kind of story even more. Living in Stretford I was trying to think where Longford Hall was (re: the Queen’s silver jubilee bit), then realised it’s long demolished.
What did Piccadilly Radio turn into? Was it Key 103? Or did it just stop?
Even when I first moved here in 2005 there was still lots of local radio, and I liked that - XFM Manchester, Key 103. My friend was a journalist with Real Radio and then Capital Manchester here for a while, and it was nice to hear him reading the news, some of which he’d gone out and found himself.
Thanks Helen. Longford Hall was home for a while to John Rylands, he of the memorial library on Deansgate. When the family left it deteriorated and was wastefully demolished in the nineties. Piccadilly and Key 103 have been through all sorts of interactions, and are now part of the Bauer Media Group, I believe. I think your wonderfully recounted engagement with radio is absolutely of its time, and I think we both know how important this small era of broadcasting was to the building of identity, especially in cities. Pg
Sadly Phil, although the frequencies are still owned by Bauer, all connections with the old station names are gone now and only this week they announced the rebranding of other “heritage “ ILR stations they bought in other parts of the country - Radio City, Signal and others- are all to be rebranded as “Hits Radio”, too. But, having been through a few station takeovers and rebranding in my time, most listeners don’t care what the station is called.
Thank you David. I’m sure you apppreciate this is not a story about Piccadilly Radio, but about a time in the city as I experienced it. Lots of folk will write about Picc over the next few months, and that’s to the good. I’ll write a couple more pieces myself. And perhaps the Mill will publish them.
Hope so, Phil. For what it’s worth, I’m just as interested in the rest of the story as I was too young to go to The Electric Ciecus, but I was a huge fan of the bands that came out of that time- Buzzcocks, especially. That late 70s time period was remarkable in some ways.
Loved this story. Especially the photo of all the presenters on Portland Street! I had totally forgotten about that, but as soon as I saw it I was transported back to my school days.
My whole family listened to Piccadilly Radio obsessively from when it launched to when I left home (and Manchester, for a few years). I'm only now realising that that was the last time I had the radio on nonstop as a matter of course. All the radio stations these days just irritate me - if I'm somewhere where there's a radio on, I am always keen to leave as soon as possible!
But there are two particular memories of Piccadilly Radio that are often mentioned by my sister and I. The main one is Lullaby of Broadway, played every week by Ray Teret, with exhortations to various groups to join in and dance ("now the grannies!") but there was also Dave Ward "under the diamond-studded duvet" late at night, and someone (I think Phil Wood?) who had a family who kept sending him hilarious recordings of their attempts to sing various Frankie Valli songs (he awarded them increasingly OTT marks for these renditions, such as 45 out of 10).
My sister has just reminded me that the Lullaby of Broadway memory, which is probably the strongest one, is very much tarnished by subsequent revelations about Ray Teret (he was a close associate of Jimmy Savile, and was convicted for rape and indecent assault and died in prison). But sadly the older I get the more memories get tarnished! Oh well!
It’s a disgrace what’s happened and is still happening with local radio. Community spirit, local presenters and shows are being ripped out and replaced by national centralised and syndicated drivel. Sadly due to shrinking budgets similar is happening with BBC local radio too.
I used to park on Oldham rd and walk the last half mile to EC. Collyhurst had a bit of a reputation. Coincidentally, I was also working on setting up the finance systems of Piccadilly radio
I just missed the existence of Piccadilly Radio as I left the city in 1971. That's not to say I wasn't frequently back on and off. I do remember the stickers though being everywhere and it's very presence being so near Piccadilly Gardens .
As for Collyhurst , love these reminiscences of the area. I lived the other side of Rochdale Road from the flats. The area Collyhurst flats were built on of course were terraced streets ,carbon copies of the one I lived in that had been cleared years before my street went. When I see photos now of jet black buildings that covered the whole of the city it's hard to believe we just thought they were made from black stone. For many many years all you saw were buildings covered in scaffolding and awnings where the sandblasters were at work. It's no surprise really that when shiny new buildings were thrown up we thought they were amazing, so modern and light and futuristic. It's only when the scaffolding came down that the newly cleaned buildings were there in all their Victorian glory, their carved details so clear. I'm afraid I'm not with Lowry in mourning the loss of Manchester's soot black architecture.
An excellent piece Phil. I had similar experiences as you in the summer of 77 at the electric circus, a trip there on a Sunday night was fraught with danger particularly from kids bricking you from the derelict flats opposite. Interestingly I also saw the copulating couple ( the Dammed were headlining ) and then 6 months later in Pips the girl distracted me and her boyfriend nicked my leather jacket!
A splendid article, took me back to my early days in Manchester when I had a job in a city centre office.
As a newcomer to the city Piccadilly Radio helped me to feel at home.
I loved the music , my wife wasn’t a fan, but we listened to The Bradshaws together and we bought the cassettes which are still somewhere in my loft.
As an aside I was a regular customer of Brentford Nylons where I bought brightly coloured shirts in an attempt to bring a little style to my dark suited office worker uniform.
Brilliant from Phil again - and thanks for reminding me of the name of the shop in Fallowfield - Malcolm Bishop's- which I used to save my pocket money for 35 years ago.
I don't have any time for pomposity either, and I could sometimes turn vicious when I'd had too much booze. Maybe I sensed that he was a kindred spirit. He was certainly one on his own.
I'm surprised to read about Piccadilly Radio without seeing James Stannage mentioned. I used to listen to his show to unwind after getting home from my waitress job. He had a nice line in insults which were famous - or should I say infamous - throughout Manchester. He had a very caustic tongue and didn't hesitate to use it to berate hapless people who were brave enough to phone in. I'm sure some people phoned in just so they could boast to their mates that they'd been insulted by Stannage. I think he got sacked at one point after going too far - though I don't recall him being racist, sexist or bigoted in any other way, as I wouldn't have listened in if that was the case. He was definitely a one-off - once heard never forgotten.
I shared a house for a few months in 1990 with James who had returned to Picc for a while at that time. He needed somewhere to stay and we had a spare room. His sense of humour and natural way of expression was fairly loud and caustic, though he was actually very soft hearted and kind. I was faintly amazed at the time to be sharing a house with somebody I’d listened to hundreds of times as a teenager, and also bemused to see him wandering round the kitchen when he’d just got up, only wearing a small pair of budgie smugglers.
He was also the first person to take me to the old Press Club before it moved to Deansgate as it was one of his post- show haunts.
I'm glad someone else remembers James, not just me, because he was a real talking point back in the day. More so than Electric Circus which only appealed to a relatively small group of people. It must have been a real experience sharing a house with him. I gain the impression he didn't suffer fools gladly.
I had forgotten about him! But I definitely remember him now you've reminded me! He was brilliant.
I didn't know anything about the Electric Circus, so that bit of the story didn't mean much to me. But I'm surprised Mike Sweeney didn't get a mention - he was always on, and I think that's how he ended up being a DJ!
Stannage had no time for pomposity, that’s for sure. He could turn though if he’d had too much to drink, unfortunately but most of the time he was fabulous company.
I absolutely LOVED Piccadilly Radio 261 from the start. Fascinated by it and in touch with many of the presenters (well we called them DJs in those days!). My then best friend and I actually did the jingles for Pete Baker's Tripe and Onions programme. Phil probably won't remember but one day we spotted him in reception and asked him to play a request for our friends in Form 5L - he reworded it to 'Hello to all the 5L mob'. That sparked my burgeoning interest in communications, journalism and copywriting - a field in which I have worked for more than 40 years! My bedroom window was covered with 261 stickers. I think it's a bit sad that most radio stations run on marketing principles now rather than DJs' choices. Great days!
What a great read. Piccadilly 261 was the radio station of my youth - I'm of the Mike Sweeney, Mike Shaft, Mark Radcliffe, Timmy Mallett generation, listening through the 80s. It was miles better than Radio 1. I remember record shopping at Piccadilly Records in the Plaza basement with my school friends, hoping for a glimpse of a DJ or famous face from upstairs.
I thought I'd patronised every dive in Manchester during my young days, but somehow I missed Electric Circus. But I was probably too old for it, although still in my 20s.
I often listen to Mike on Radio Manchester when I want to listen to a Manchester accent. His show is amongst the few that have survived the BBC cull in local radio.
Great story, Phil. In this “All Media, Everywhere, All The Time” landscape where you can access anything just on your phone, it’s perhaps hard to explain just what an impact Piccadilly Radio had when it launched. Before then, if you were young and into music and wanted to hear it on the radio, your only option was Radio One or listening to the crackly Radio Luxembourg at night, fading in and out on your transistor radio. I was only 12 when 261 launched but me and my friends were quickly obsessed. We went into the Plaza for stickers, went to the roadshows, wrote or called in for requests, mithered our parents for money to buy a 261 T-shirt.
You rarely if ever heard a Radio One DJ mention anything to do with Manchester and Northern accents were a rarity.
Piccadilly Radio talked about where we lived, places we knew, people we knew. And musically, it was different from Radio One, too. Personally, I was in love with Radio anyway. I bought Goon Show scripts, and listened to my Grabdad’s Tony Hancock and Round The Horne records, wondering just how you got to do that stuff. At school before my O levels, I asked my careers teacher about how you got a job in radio. “Why would you want to do that, for heaven’s sake” was the reply.
In 1987, post- university, signing on, living back at home and fed up I wrote to Piccadilly Radio asking if I could do ANYTHING at all there ,but I never got a reply ( because of course, they got hundreds of such hopeful and hopeless letters a week). Then, a chance meeting with Paul Lockett led to him introducing me to the programme controller Mike Briscoe who had a three month job he needed filling to work on a charity appeal for Wythenshawe Hospital. I can’t describe the thrill I had even walking in there for the interview, getting to go past Pat on reception and going through the doors into the rabbit warren of corridors and offices behind the bright reception facade.
I ended up working in radio for just about 30 years and worked at Picc for three and a half years. I did pretty well overall, but I don’t think anything I did was as exciting or life-changing as that first job at Piccadilly Radio. ( I have MANY stories, some unprintable).
I still love radio and still produce and present a syndicated radio show. Can’t quite shake the habit.
You could hear Piccadilly Radio on your phone too (but on a landline in those days) by dialling 261.
If you ever publish an anthology ('The Bedside Mill', perhaps?) this should be included. A wonderful piece of social history.
Good idea...
What a little time capsule of a story, fabulous. Before my time (either of living in Manchester or in fact, being alive) so I love this kind of story even more. Living in Stretford I was trying to think where Longford Hall was (re: the Queen’s silver jubilee bit), then realised it’s long demolished.
What did Piccadilly Radio turn into? Was it Key 103? Or did it just stop?
Even when I first moved here in 2005 there was still lots of local radio, and I liked that - XFM Manchester, Key 103. My friend was a journalist with Real Radio and then Capital Manchester here for a while, and it was nice to hear him reading the news, some of which he’d gone out and found himself.
Thanks Helen. Longford Hall was home for a while to John Rylands, he of the memorial library on Deansgate. When the family left it deteriorated and was wastefully demolished in the nineties. Piccadilly and Key 103 have been through all sorts of interactions, and are now part of the Bauer Media Group, I believe. I think your wonderfully recounted engagement with radio is absolutely of its time, and I think we both know how important this small era of broadcasting was to the building of identity, especially in cities. Pg
Sadly Phil, although the frequencies are still owned by Bauer, all connections with the old station names are gone now and only this week they announced the rebranding of other “heritage “ ILR stations they bought in other parts of the country - Radio City, Signal and others- are all to be rebranded as “Hits Radio”, too. But, having been through a few station takeovers and rebranding in my time, most listeners don’t care what the station is called.
Thank you David. I’m sure you apppreciate this is not a story about Piccadilly Radio, but about a time in the city as I experienced it. Lots of folk will write about Picc over the next few months, and that’s to the good. I’ll write a couple more pieces myself. And perhaps the Mill will publish them.
Hope so, Phil. For what it’s worth, I’m just as interested in the rest of the story as I was too young to go to The Electric Ciecus, but I was a huge fan of the bands that came out of that time- Buzzcocks, especially. That late 70s time period was remarkable in some ways.
Loved this story. Especially the photo of all the presenters on Portland Street! I had totally forgotten about that, but as soon as I saw it I was transported back to my school days.
My whole family listened to Piccadilly Radio obsessively from when it launched to when I left home (and Manchester, for a few years). I'm only now realising that that was the last time I had the radio on nonstop as a matter of course. All the radio stations these days just irritate me - if I'm somewhere where there's a radio on, I am always keen to leave as soon as possible!
But there are two particular memories of Piccadilly Radio that are often mentioned by my sister and I. The main one is Lullaby of Broadway, played every week by Ray Teret, with exhortations to various groups to join in and dance ("now the grannies!") but there was also Dave Ward "under the diamond-studded duvet" late at night, and someone (I think Phil Wood?) who had a family who kept sending him hilarious recordings of their attempts to sing various Frankie Valli songs (he awarded them increasingly OTT marks for these renditions, such as 45 out of 10).
My sister has just reminded me that the Lullaby of Broadway memory, which is probably the strongest one, is very much tarnished by subsequent revelations about Ray Teret (he was a close associate of Jimmy Savile, and was convicted for rape and indecent assault and died in prison). But sadly the older I get the more memories get tarnished! Oh well!
It’s a disgrace what’s happened and is still happening with local radio. Community spirit, local presenters and shows are being ripped out and replaced by national centralised and syndicated drivel. Sadly due to shrinking budgets similar is happening with BBC local radio too.
I used to park on Oldham rd and walk the last half mile to EC. Collyhurst had a bit of a reputation. Coincidentally, I was also working on setting up the finance systems of Piccadilly radio
I just missed the existence of Piccadilly Radio as I left the city in 1971. That's not to say I wasn't frequently back on and off. I do remember the stickers though being everywhere and it's very presence being so near Piccadilly Gardens .
As for Collyhurst , love these reminiscences of the area. I lived the other side of Rochdale Road from the flats. The area Collyhurst flats were built on of course were terraced streets ,carbon copies of the one I lived in that had been cleared years before my street went. When I see photos now of jet black buildings that covered the whole of the city it's hard to believe we just thought they were made from black stone. For many many years all you saw were buildings covered in scaffolding and awnings where the sandblasters were at work. It's no surprise really that when shiny new buildings were thrown up we thought they were amazing, so modern and light and futuristic. It's only when the scaffolding came down that the newly cleaned buildings were there in all their Victorian glory, their carved details so clear. I'm afraid I'm not with Lowry in mourning the loss of Manchester's soot black architecture.
Thanks Phil.
An excellent piece Phil. I had similar experiences as you in the summer of 77 at the electric circus, a trip there on a Sunday night was fraught with danger particularly from kids bricking you from the derelict flats opposite. Interestingly I also saw the copulating couple ( the Dammed were headlining ) and then 6 months later in Pips the girl distracted me and her boyfriend nicked my leather jacket!
A splendid article, took me back to my early days in Manchester when I had a job in a city centre office.
As a newcomer to the city Piccadilly Radio helped me to feel at home.
I loved the music , my wife wasn’t a fan, but we listened to The Bradshaws together and we bought the cassettes which are still somewhere in my loft.
As an aside I was a regular customer of Brentford Nylons where I bought brightly coloured shirts in an attempt to bring a little style to my dark suited office worker uniform.
Brilliant from Phil again - and thanks for reminding me of the name of the shop in Fallowfield - Malcolm Bishop's- which I used to save my pocket money for 35 years ago.
Wonderful recollections!
I don't have any time for pomposity either, and I could sometimes turn vicious when I'd had too much booze. Maybe I sensed that he was a kindred spirit. He was certainly one on his own.
I'm surprised to read about Piccadilly Radio without seeing James Stannage mentioned. I used to listen to his show to unwind after getting home from my waitress job. He had a nice line in insults which were famous - or should I say infamous - throughout Manchester. He had a very caustic tongue and didn't hesitate to use it to berate hapless people who were brave enough to phone in. I'm sure some people phoned in just so they could boast to their mates that they'd been insulted by Stannage. I think he got sacked at one point after going too far - though I don't recall him being racist, sexist or bigoted in any other way, as I wouldn't have listened in if that was the case. He was definitely a one-off - once heard never forgotten.
I shared a house for a few months in 1990 with James who had returned to Picc for a while at that time. He needed somewhere to stay and we had a spare room. His sense of humour and natural way of expression was fairly loud and caustic, though he was actually very soft hearted and kind. I was faintly amazed at the time to be sharing a house with somebody I’d listened to hundreds of times as a teenager, and also bemused to see him wandering round the kitchen when he’d just got up, only wearing a small pair of budgie smugglers.
He was also the first person to take me to the old Press Club before it moved to Deansgate as it was one of his post- show haunts.
I'm glad someone else remembers James, not just me, because he was a real talking point back in the day. More so than Electric Circus which only appealed to a relatively small group of people. It must have been a real experience sharing a house with him. I gain the impression he didn't suffer fools gladly.
I had forgotten about him! But I definitely remember him now you've reminded me! He was brilliant.
I didn't know anything about the Electric Circus, so that bit of the story didn't mean much to me. But I'm surprised Mike Sweeney didn't get a mention - he was always on, and I think that's how he ended up being a DJ!
Stannage had no time for pomposity, that’s for sure. He could turn though if he’d had too much to drink, unfortunately but most of the time he was fabulous company.
I absolutely LOVED Piccadilly Radio 261 from the start. Fascinated by it and in touch with many of the presenters (well we called them DJs in those days!). My then best friend and I actually did the jingles for Pete Baker's Tripe and Onions programme. Phil probably won't remember but one day we spotted him in reception and asked him to play a request for our friends in Form 5L - he reworded it to 'Hello to all the 5L mob'. That sparked my burgeoning interest in communications, journalism and copywriting - a field in which I have worked for more than 40 years! My bedroom window was covered with 261 stickers. I think it's a bit sad that most radio stations run on marketing principles now rather than DJs' choices. Great days!
What a great read. Piccadilly 261 was the radio station of my youth - I'm of the Mike Sweeney, Mike Shaft, Mark Radcliffe, Timmy Mallett generation, listening through the 80s. It was miles better than Radio 1. I remember record shopping at Piccadilly Records in the Plaza basement with my school friends, hoping for a glimpse of a DJ or famous face from upstairs.
And I'd forgotten about Mike Sweeney, lol!
I thought I'd patronised every dive in Manchester during my young days, but somehow I missed Electric Circus. But I was probably too old for it, although still in my 20s.
I often listen to Mike on Radio Manchester when I want to listen to a Manchester accent. His show is amongst the few that have survived the BBC cull in local radio.