Johnnie Walker MBE made his name in the 1960s as a DJ on the pirate ship Radio Caroline.
In 1969 Johnnie joined Radio 1.
His Radio 1 lunchtime show pioneered new names like Steve Harley, Lou Reed, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, and Steely Dan.
Pop The Question and the Tuesday Chart Rundown were other well-remembered features of the show.
Following a move to San Francisco in 1976 to record a weekly show for Radio Luxembourg, Johnnie returned to the UK in the early ’80s with stints on Radio West and Wiltshire Radio.
He later returned to Radio 1 to present The Stereo Sequence.
Over 30 years of music fandom was then channelled into Radio 2’s Drivetime show, which he hosted until March 2006.
Johnnie Walker now presents Sounds Of The ’70s, Radio 2 In Concert and Johnnie Walker’s Long Players – all on BBC Radio 2.
His ‘Johnnie Walker Meets…’ shows are a series of occasional in-depth interviews with some of music’s biggest names.
Johnnie Walker – 1967 The Boat That Rocked:
It was the Swinging Sixties and there was a cultural revolution happening!
We led the world in iconic fashion, art and groundbreaking music – there was the contraceptive pill and a man on the moon.
Twiggy became one of the world’s first supermodels and there was the meteoric rise of ‘Beatlemania’ and the emergence of groups such as The Rolling Stones, The Who & Pink Floyd.
Pirate Radio was launched at a time when there was no outlet to listen to popular music other than the BBC Light Programme or Radio Luxembourg – and this was all to change with Pirate Radio.
Johnnie’s talk is a fascinating look at the ‘Swinging Sixties’, in particular, 1967 – one of the cultural turning-points in Britain’s history.
