By Ian Woolley
The former Radio Luxembourg and Caroline DJ talks about the pranks of fellow DJ Noel Edmunds, fishing Roller fans out of a lake, and dressing as a chicken…
Paul Burnett at Radio Luxembourg
Many disc jockeys harbour a secret ambition to also have a hit record. But Paul Burnett’s appearance on Top Of The Pops dressed as a chicken takes some beating. More of that later.
Paul’s radio career started in 1962 when he was out in Aden with the RAF, listening to the light programme. He was offered a job on their small radio station.
At his Dorset home (complete with his two dogs nestled by his side) I asked him why choose the principality of Luxembourg to work. ”What tempted me was that they had Double Diamond on tap at the club next door and the whole place had air conditioning. With that as an incentive, how could I turn them down?” said Paul.
(left to right) Paul, Kid Jensen and Tony Prince
“Lots of the big names would come over and visit the station, and very often, you would find us in the nightclubs until the early hours partying, with their agents picking up the bill. Meanwhile back in the studio, a certain Noel Edmunds would be playing pranks on all and sundry which, I’m guessing, gave him the idea of his show later on in his career, Happy days.”
When Paul replaced Johnnie Walker at Radio One in 1974 for refusing to play the Bay City Rollers, he remembers a pop concert at Mallory Park at the height of the band’s fame.
“We commandeered the little island in the centre of the park with the Rollers being brought in by helicopter. At the time, these racing cars were whizzing around the circuit while their fans were running across the track and wading into the water to get to our island. How anybody didn’t get killed is a miracle. The chief constable threatened to pull the plug if they landed, so we had to just get them to fly around and wave at the crowds.”
The dogs start barking loudly and after a few expletives from Paul, the dogs were ushered into the garden. So back to the interview, I decided now was the time to ask him about his 1976 chart success and that chicken costume.
Paul said: “It was DLT’s (Dave Lee Travis) idea. He said why don’t we cash in on the CB craze and make a parody of CW McColl’s novelty hit Convoy with a British slant. We wrote the lyrics and got it recorded and were amazed at how quickly the record stormed the charts. “When it got to No.6, we were asked to appear on Top of the Pops.
That said, we did top the Luxembourg charts with it. So there we were, on TOTP split-screen as Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks – I was dressed as a chicken with the CB handle ‘Plastic Chicken’ and Dave as ‘Super Scouse’. Tony Blackburn introduced us, as I recall.”
Incidentally, the chicken costume was previously worn by Tony Hancock for a TV ad!
With so many great funny stories in his head, I asked Paul when he was going to write his autobiography. “Never say never” replied Paul, “but I would think a lot of things would have to be left out – possibly.”
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.