A student radio programme at the University of Sheffield led to a backstage interview with George Harrison and Eric Clapton in December 1969. The programme, Radio Five, was produced by students for broadcast on Radio Sheffield.
Frank Parker
I was born in Luton, but my father was from Chesterfield, so I was familiar with Sheffield through family visits to my grandmother and wider family. My choice of going to university in Sheffield was made in full knowledge that Radio Sheffield was starting.
Radio Leicester was the first BBC local radio station, beginning broadcasting on 8 November 1967. Radio Sheffield followed one week later. At the time, most people only had medium and long wave radios, but local radio broadcast on VHF, so the potential audience was relatively small.
Radio Sheffield aimed to serve different local communities, including the university. In the Students’ Union, a group was formed to produce a programme for this audience. It was called Radio Five — a name chosen because the BBC national stations had only recently been renamed Radios 1–4.
Radio Five was a half-hour programme broadcast every fortnight during term time. I joined in 1967, and in 1969 and 1970 I was chairman of the group and produced most of the programmes. They were made using a professional portable tape recorder, which the Students’ Union bought, along with Radio Sheffield’s studios.
The programme had a magazine format and covered a range of topics, from Rag Week and student digs to the bands booked to play at the Union. When we learned that an ex-Beatle would be in town, playing at the City Hall, we requested and were granted backstage access.
By 1970 there were half a dozen or so student groups producing programmes on BBC local radio stations or their own campus stations. To the best of my memory, we in Sheffield hosted the first student radio conference, with contributions from students at Durham, York and Leicester, among others.
When you listen to Radio Five clips now, the programmes feel quite young — but we were.
The portable tape recorder we used for interviews was a professional machine, and being able to say we were making a programme for BBC Radio Sheffield gave us the kudos to go where most students couldn’t. I was reading maths but had always hoped to work in broadcasting, so I spent most of my time on Radio Five rather than my studies. It paid off — I spent my entire working life with the BBC and enjoyed just about every minute.
David Antcliffe
I was born and raised in Lincoln and the villages around Lincoln. I had a choice between Nottingham and Sheffield, and I chose Sheffield as my uncle lived there, so I knew it a little.
A friend on my Maths course was the driver behind the Radio 5 programme organisation. He asked me to interview groups coming through Sheffield, and I covered quite a few — notably George Harrison and Eric Clapton, as well as John Paul Jones and others. I have the article printed in Darts, the University newspaper at the time, and I also have George’s autograph and a recording of the interview on reel-to-reel tape.
The interview with Harrison and Clapton took place in the dressing room after the concert in Sheffield. They were backing Delaney and Bonnie, who were friends of theirs. I was left with them after the official interviews were done, and they were relaxed — not “let’s get this over with.” However, they wouldn’t talk to me until I had interviewed Delaney and Bonnie, which I thought was very professional.
The preparation was limited — it was on the fly. I was preparing a Radio 5 programme on religion, so I asked questions I could use in that programme. Funnily enough, I wasn’t nervous or excited. I just went for it each time.
I worked on the Entertainments Committee as well, so I saw a lot of well-known musicians. Mostly normal blokes. Thanks to Frank, the programme went out as planned.
It was lucky, really, and it’s always been a good talking point. My wife met John Lennon and I met George Harrison, which is quite a coincidence.
Most of us going to university in the late 1960s were from working-class backgrounds and had full grants (£380), so we were all learning life together. Many of us lived in digs — ten to a house, with a lady doing meals. The sexual revolution was starting, and as we were all coming from relatively strict homes with little freedom, we discovered life together. Friendships were strong.
Rag Week was exceptional, and the Students’ Union was our second home, with lots of activities available. Freshers’ Week was when all the societies — sports, arts and others — tried to get you to join. I joined tenpin bowling, and we had a big club. We were successful and won the inter-university league three times in a row. There were twenty universities, each with four teams of five, including a ladies’ team. We were socially very strong — so strong that we still meet up every three years. People come from all over the world; the next is in May 2027, with forty already coming and twenty-seven still bowling.
I loved Sheffield so much that I stayed, as did many others, to do a Master’s or a PhD. I even came back in 1974 as a research assistant. When I retired, I returned again and completed a Master of Philosophy in Engineering.
Find more imcredible Beatles memories in the archive here https://fanarchivebeatlessheffield.uk
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