Popdose - Latest Comments in Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

ThisIsChris — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:44:51 -0000

Growing up in the DC suburbs, I tuned into Rock Over London in the mid 1980s each Sunday night. I wish I could remember which radio station it was.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Skeeb Wilcox — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 07:43:35 -0000

I programmed "Rock Over London" on WTCS in Fairmont, WV almost from the beginning of the show until I left in 1987. It (along with "WaveBreaker") brought music that NO ONE else was playing on the radio via their weekly broadcasts, and then we would follow up by making a trip to Jim's Records in Pittsburgh about once a month and pick up import copies of the all the 45's that those shows played and begin playing them on the air in regular rotation. Thanks to Graham Dene, many great acts were heard on great radio stations in America before they become popular on all the stations that weren't hip enough to be there in the beginning!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

superspin — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:12:09 -0000

I'm only responding and digging up a seven year old blog post because I'm on a 90's nostalgia kick. I currently work in radio about three miles down from the other station where "ROL" was produced. During the summer of 1996, I discovered the show on an old Modern Rock station that has since flipped three times. It was the only place in the Boston area where I could hear the show. The station was out of Southern New Hampshire. It was awesome for a twelve year old at that time to tell all of his friends about Skunk Anansie, Ash, Boo Radleys, Manic Street Preachers and Kula Shaker (before the singer became a Nazi douche). Paul Sexton was the host and now he works for the BBC. It left the air in (give or take) early June of 1998 when the station flipped to Hot AC. Ironically, the boss who made those changes was MY first boss when I first worked in radio a decade later. He was vile, but that's another story for another time.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

La4132 — Sat, 21 May 2011 11:45:04 -0000

i just posted an almost identical scenario. Its easy to go to jr hi school on a monday morning -on little sleep- when you have new tunes in your head that your friends havent heard yet :):):):) I also remember King Biscuit Flour Hour. music NOT in heavy rotation was ear candy and bragging rights

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

La4132 — Sat, 21 May 2011 11:19:37 -0000

lying in bed late sunday nite/early monday morning waiting to hear something different. mike olfield and maggie reillys moonlight shadow? loved it. loved all of it. British music doesnt translate as easily to the US as US music does to the UK. The British accept a wider range of sound. They are more tolerant of the ususual and unique. Americans adhere to a strict top 40 musical formula. Deviation is rarely --if ever-- appreciated. Also- whats in the water over there? England has more pop stars per capita than any place on earth. No repeatability, but a lot of former pop stars. Its like they take turns

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

She_worships_the_sun — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 01:04:28 -0000

Extremely late reply: ROL was not just a show for my 14-year-old self. It was a lifestyle. Thanks so much for posting those clips of the show! I enjoyed them immensely.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

She_worships_the_sun — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:55:13 -0000

Oh, what a great find! I have a great love for ROL in my heart, as it propelled a 14-year-old me into a love of music from the UK. I apologize if this is completely inappropriate, and I have no idea if you will ever see this message, but if any of those CDs are from 1994 or so and would like to either sell them or make copies, maybe we could work out a deal. Please let me know if you are so inclined.

Thanks!

Jessica
she_worships_the_sun@yahoo.com

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Karen — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:46:50 -0000

I am just finding this blog. I really loved Rock Over London and listened to it all of the time! I lived in a small town that did not have MTV and this program was my lifeline to the great music from the UK in the 80s. Will the programs ever be played again maybe on a Facebook or Youtube link? Thanks!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Rjacar — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:11:22 -0000

Hi Don
I am trying to track down Sally Stratton. We were friends in Australia though lost contact. We are going to the UK this christmas and want to catch up if possible. If you could contact her and ask her to contact Richard in Australia it would be highly appreciated. Sally should still know my work phone
Regards Richard

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

dorisferzetti — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:55:52 -0000

I too am a Rock over London fan of the early 80's....I used to listen to them on my huge walkman on Sunday night in bed, because it was 11:00 pm and a school night! My friend and I would talk all day about the new music we heard the night before....bands that noone else knew about! King, Marillion, Strawberry Switchblade...etc! I am still an English band fan today.....and Rock over London kicked it off! Thanks for the memories!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

TheDamnDirtyApe — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:32:22 -0000

Thanks for the history lesson. I never had the pleasure of hearing the program on the radio. However, about 8 years ago I was searching e-bay for something and I ran across this guy selling a CD with an artist I actively collect, so I bought it. So happens this was an official release of UK Chart Attack program from 1991, complete with all the US Army and Dentine adverts. I was intrigued and asked if he had any more. After all was said and done I had taken 30 of these programs off his hands. Each came in a paper sleeve with a xerox copy of the program schedule. These 30 discs hold a special place in my 3,000+ CD collection. Quirky, fun and I love Sally Stratton with those Naughty Bits!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Josh — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:55:32 -0000

I listened to ROL in the early/mid 1990's... was introduced to the likes of the Boo Radleys, Lush, Ride, Salad, Superfurryanimals, Charlatans, Fluffy (I think), so many others than no one else in eastern PA knew of at the time. Probaly even heard Oasis there first. Still love some of those bands, and I actually think I may have some recorded cassette tapes of Paul Sexton on ROL! I am 34 now. Ah, those were the days.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Maggie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:42:41 -0000

I LOVED Rock Over London!! It introduced me to soooo many bands I still love today. I also used to tape it and also wrote down the Top 10 (or was it 5?) songs of the week. It made me feel so cool that I knew about bands before anyone else in my podunk little CA town.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Don W. — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:17:59 -0000

Sorry, gotta chime in here (I don't even know if anyone will read it, but here goes).

ROL, in the early 90s, actually split into two shows - Graham Dene went to a show called UK chart attack, which featured club and dance music, and ROL was taken over by venerable UK journalist Paul Sexton. The two shows ran weekly for about 4 years, until their demise in the mid-nineties.

While I worked for ROL, we got into a bit of trouble with US record companies, because we'd include songs in the show that were slated for release by American companies and they'd get upset that we were rolling out their new stuff before they got a chance to. The worst instance was when we played 'I've Been Thinking About You' by Londonbeat about a month before A&M released the album in the US. The Cease and Desist hammer fell hard on us that week.

And another reason why ROL went away was because we were always trying to get the show on stations whose syndication time was full up with Casey Casem and Shadow Stevens' syndicated shows. It was hard work getting ROL onto even a small station, but while I was there we hit our all-time high ove over 200 stations across the US.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Don W. — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:10:31 -0000

That was a pleasure to read. I actually worked stateside for ROL in the late 80s and early 90s, and went Googling for what was out there on the web about the show.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

JonCummings — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:37:31 -0000

I actually looked for such information but couldn't come up with it. A couple possibilities: Graham Dene switched jobs in 1993, from the UK pop station Capital FM to the then-brand new, and more adult-oriented, Virgin radio. Also in the early '90s, radio network/syndicator Westwood One seems to have shifted priorities a bit -- Dr. Demento's show also was dropped at about the same time as ROL. Finally, American radio really put up a wall during the '90s that kept British acts from breaking here, so it's possible that ROL just fell victim to programming trends.

I'm just talking out my ass, though. If anybody has other crackpot theories--or maybe even facts--I'm happy to stand corrected.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

eddie_w — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:33:45 -0000

I am also one of those old ROL fans out in the world. I loved that show, following it from high school in the mid 80s all the way past grad school in the mid 90s. Like you, it sparked a keen interest in British popular music that still continues today. Towards the end of the show's run, I used to tape the program so I could play it and enjoy it on the long drives I had to make at my first job. Was very sad to see it end back then, so thanks a bunch for the fun trip down memory lane! Never heard why the show ended...any good story there, or had it just worn out its welcome by then?

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

Trixie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:51:55 -0000

Rock Over London saved a young woman in rural NE Florida in the 80's! I especially love Cath, which I would never have heard without ROL. It also exponentially increased my street cred to even know about any of those bands and listening to it brought me smack back to 1983 this afternoon. Cheers, mate!

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

jabartlett — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:30:01 -0000

When I was program director and morning jock at a Top 40 station in an Illinois college town during the 80s, we ran "Rock Over London." In that place, at that time, it passed for cultural-affairs programming. I hoped it would make me hip by osmosis.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Over London!

MarlboroTestMonkey7 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:10:42 -0000

During the weekend I was reading Alan Moore's Watchmen and there's a bit about some types of faces you don't see any more. Bluebells is kind of that too. Inflection? Phrasing? Style? It's gone.

TFF rules, btw.