S
URRENDER TO LA'
A Pirate Station's way'The first 1974 Radio Seagull / Caroline broadcasts from the radio ship Mi Amigo
began with a tribute to the music and message of George Harrison. This marked
the start of a Piece and Loving Awareness promotion campaign which still continues.
During the years this package is combined with various (pop/rock) album formats.
Caroline was declared a pirate station by the authorities for as long as it operated
offshore till 1991. The nowadays landbased Radio Caroline keeps on towing the
line for a Loving kind of Awareness.
George Harrison's famous mantra song changed by him into a pirate Caroline
ode (He backed and supported the "positive vibe" station (UK-TV 1976):
"Oh, I like to be a pirate. A pirate's life for me. All my friends are pirates and
they sail the BB Sea (BBC). I got a Jolly Roger. It's black and white and vast.
So, get out your skull and crossbones and I'll run it up your mast"
Click here for sound
An explanation of the background of this special relationship:
The 60's saw young, optimistic and idealistic generations. They soon succeeded in making
the world a better place. After tasting freedom, fun and pleasure within their own youth
culture they demanded changes in society to get rid of all kinds of 'rust and dust' defended
by the establishment. So they put democratisation, no more wars, the ending of racial
segregation, woman rights, sexual liberation, the freedom of lifestyle etc.on the agenda.
And they went on till they succeeded.
The spiritual visits by the Beatles to India and the rapid spread -as a consequence -of
Hindu philosophies and spiritual thoughts in progressive circles was useful in finding new
ways for personal development, defining contrasting lifestyles, morals and ethics, spiritual
seeking, stimulating ideas of reincarnation, and experiencing highest state of "purity" through
the senses by meditative forms. It became one of the idealistic hypes of those days and quite
influential in the early 70's. Later it even stimulated vegetarian food styles and non-political
actions such as environmental protection (Greenpeace founded in 1973).
So Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations were guided by the principles of Ghandi's passive
resistance mixed with modern marketing of "Make love not war" posters. John Lennon &
Yoko Ono were heroic campaigners after being inspired by Hindu teaching on personal
choices concerning love, piece, truth and liberation. Their 1969 Amsterdam "bed-in"
campaign and the publicity it raised helped creating a worldwide mental force for piece at
that time. They released the protest song "Give peace a chance" straight from the heart.
Especially for George Harrison Krishna consciousness became the most important
stimulus. He started backing Hare Krishna in theWest and also supported organisations
asYogi Mahareshi Mahesh Transcendental Meditation and the ofcourse non-religious
Radio Caroline.
Like many others, Radio Caroline founder Ronan O'Rahilly became deeply involved
(around 1968-1969) when he crossed the introspective paths of John Lennon and
George Harrison. Just a glimpse of them knowing each other:
JOHN LENNON HIDEAWAY ``````````````````````
John Lennon left a long-forgotten legacy - an island he bought as a hideaway for himself and
Yoko Ono. The idyllic island - called Dornish and now worth a fortune - sits in a quiet cove off
the coast of southern Ireland at Clew Bay, County Mayo and is uninhabited but for seabirds and
sheep. Lennon bought the island in 1968 for $2,500 after being enchanted by the area on a visit
with Ronan O'Rahilly, the owner of Radio Caroline. His one and only stay lasted just two weeks.
( I0 153 760 MTVText Wed 3 May.02:55:39 )
It is known that Ronan O'Rahilly has quite a talent for combining ideals and reality into
inspiring projects. So, he developed a Western version echoing Hindu philosophy stating
that humans had overdeveloped Defensive Awareness (DA) which are materialistic,
self-interested, negative, love-destroying attitudes (the easy way out) and by this had
underdeveloped the immaterialistic, other-oriented, positive, love-building attitudes -
defined as Loving awareness (LA).
Now, by developing good communication between each other a massive potential of
formerly unused positive energy is awaiting to be released to the benefit of all of us. A loving
attitude enhances the chance of sharing a life of love with others, while at the same time
reducing agression to more tolerable levels. So a "be nice to each other" in combination with
doing away with "rust and dust" on the mind by meditation to enhance the loving habit. This
could be communicated and popularised without forcing people to change their way of life
or leaving their religion. It's up to them to develop loving awareness and integrate it into their
lifestyle. By 1972 O'Rahilly was busy with the group MC-5 to start up several projects and
one of them was related to the new Radio Caroline. They played on the movie soundtrack
"Gold" - appearing these days at London's Piccadilly Circus and one that was heavily
promoted on Radio Caroline - O'Rahilly (with several others) being the backer behind the
movie and the station. David McWilliams made a comeback with the title track "Gold" and
ad's were refering to a much more famous movie with the same title by using the slogan "The
goldrush has started". However the station itself didn't find any gold - it nearly collapsed under
severe financial, technical, legal and internal problems -1973 being a year of great returns to the
air but repeatedly followed by the worst misfortunes one can imagine.
Finally, when the often chaotic and amateurish Dutch Caroline service ( with a few exceptions)
was replaced by Flemish leasers (Radio Atlantis followed by Radio Mi Amigo) enough money
was coming in to sustain the talented English Service (with a few exceptions). In the meantime
this English service was experimenting -under the name Radio Seagull - with an album format -
seconded by former Radio Geronimo staff - who joined in on the radioship Mi Amigo.
It proved to be a succesful niche market and gave Radio Caroline a new existence - moving
away from mainstream radio. "From a point at sea to the circles in your mind…..This is the
new Radio Caroline….The Voice of Loving Awareness. A very daring step indeed.
(Ronan O'Rahilly - 2000 - photo: Steve Szmidt)
"I got really into the idea that people could actually live together with a new kind of energy -
a new kind of relationship - and so it seemed to me that if we could propagate that - if that
would be something one could trigger people's memory banks - just trigger the idea in
people - 'hold on for a second -maybe there's something else - there's some alternative to
this completely robot like way of life that we are all heading towards or seem to be heading
towards' .. I mean it has virtually taken hold of everybody. It's a global thing that happened."
(quote: Ronan O'Rahilly in a Dutch TV documentary)
Back to Hindu influences. Such things as hippy movements, "Flower Power", youth slogans
as "love, piece and understanding", the blessing of the Woodstock festival by a Hindu
swami: all derived from it. The 70's motto of Radio Caroline originally was "love, peace
and good music". Although storms blasted away various large antenna-masts of the Mi
Amigo three times in succession during the years 1972/1973. Still several periods on air
showed great programs. The progressive hippy service under the name Radio Seagull
paved the way for an album oriented Radio Caroline - once the technical & Antenna
problems were solved.
From 1974 on it was a definite listeners success. And Europe's Voice of Loving
Awareness began to take shape. The combination of the best in album (rock) music and
Loving Awareness had started. A never ending story as it still continues. Radio Caroline
gave the records of George Harrison maximum exposure. George Harrison helped Radio
Caroline in surviving that difficult 70's period. They were sharing similar thoughts. The magic
album sound coming from the Mi Amigo in those years - and the continuous plugging of the
Loving Awareness habit - was a unique phenomenon in Europe: to climb aboard the love
ship and sail away with Caroline on an ocean of love.." made me forget televison was on.
I'm grateful to have experienced it. Also in this respect Radio Caroline was the one and only
in Europe. And I'm happy to be able to share it with you (webmaster - to be continued).
Short interview with Caroline dj Nigel Harris on Loving Awareness. GetIntoLA asked him
some questions in October 2002:
What comes first into your mind thinking about the LA promo's?
"You know I worked on the Mi Amigo in the second half of the 70's and I made programs
under the name Stuart Russell. I'm talking about 1975 or 1976 right now. I found it difficult
to make LA promo's and was not very good at it. I was a bit too young at that time I think.
But e.g. Tony Allan was very involved and much better in making them"
What was the procedure?
"Well, we had instructions from the Radio Caroline management to produce a new LA
promo every two weeks. This really meant hard working for us."
What did you personally think about the LA messages at that time?
"For a listener it's probably different than for a person being on a radioship at sea. I've been
on that ship in those times for many, many program hours. Thinking back: perhaps too long.
And life in a small group on the Mi Amigo under sometimes severe and straining conditions
can be very difficult. So, personally I found the messages a bit far away from the practical
duties and daily life we had to live on the ship.The mind is often functioning on a more
practical level"
So Loving Awareness is a habit to get into.