All Aboard The Ross Revenge.........

Home of the legendary Pirate Radio Station, Radio Caroline.

Since its launch in March 1964 I have been an avid listener of Radio Caroline and it would be fair to say that over the years it has been a major influence on my musical tastes.

From those early days of playing pop singles by the likes of The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks through to the 70's when I discovered bands such as Barclay James Harvest, Focus and Pink Floyd and even to the present day where I am now listening online whilst typing this blog (currently playing 'Take It To The Limit' by The Eagles) the station has been a constant musical companion.

So imagine my delight when in 2019 and more recently again in July '24 when I was invited out to the Ross Revenge to take photographs to be used in various publications.

The legendary logo which greets you as you board the Ross Revenge.......

The first visit was to capture life on board 'The Ross' during one of their monthly Caroline North Live Broadcast weekends. I was given a free rein as to what I took and the results can be found in a book that I produced with Paula Shaw who compiled all of the facts and details. It was quite an eye opener to see the quarters and conditions in which the presenters lived during their time on the high seas.

All of the original equipment is still on board, ranging from the vinyl and turntables to the 8 track cartridges for the adverts and jingles, but these days everything is in a digital format and available to play at the touch of a button.

It was great to see presenter Dave Foster in action as well as meeting the other presenters who were our hosts and guides as they showed us around their former work place. It would be fair to say that they were all extremely proud of the vessel. The tour also went into great detail about the 'Ross's' former life as a record breaking Icelandic trawler, which was very interesting.

The second visit was to take photographs to raise awareness as to how much work is needed to restore the Ross and make it both safe and seaworthy and keep the legacy of this pioneering station alive and kicking. The station are currently running various fund raising events to generate the necessary cash, but are still someway off reaching their target before they can apply for a grant for the work to be carried out.

Hopefully they will be successful in their bid as Radio Caroline and The Ross Revenge are part of the worlds musical heritage and without the foresight of Ronan O'Rahilly who founded the station I dread to think what drivel the Government would have fed us.

My next project on the website will be to create a page and gallery of all of the images I took, but for the time being, here are a few to keep you going.