Fab 40

The "Fab 40" ("i.e." "Fabulous Forty") was a weekly playlist of popular records used by the British "pirate" radio station "Wonderful" Radio London (also known as "Big L") which broadcast off the Essex coast from 1964-7.

Basis of the chart

"Fab" (short for "fabulous") was a very fashionable adjective in the mid 1960s, associated with the Beatles, who were known as the "Fab Four", and much used by such trend-setters as Cathy McGowan, who presented the weekly rock music show "Ready Steady Go!" on independent television.

Unlike the charts published in the "Melody Maker", "New Musical Express" and other music papers (or, for that matter, used by the BBC or the rival pirate station Radio Caroline [Caroline's sales based top 50 was generally known as the "Caroline Countdown" [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/caroline/stonewashed/index.html] .] ), the Fab 40 was not based on sales of records. Thus, although it mostly contained what was current and popular, it was often ahead of movements in the authentic charts and was subject to more dramatic fluctuations. Whereas, in the sales charts of the 1960s, many records would climb in stages and then drop gradually, a record might suddenly emerge near the top of the Fab 40 one week and disappear from it the next. Equally, there was often room for records to scale the higher echelons of the Fab 40 without entering the sales charts at all (for example, the Settlers' "Nowhere Man" in March 1966 [ [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/65fabs/march66/fab200366/fab200366.html Radio London - Big L Fab Forty 20th March 1966 ] ] ). As a result, a number of records that are well remembered from the mid 1960s were not, in fact, particularly successful in commercial terms.

Fab 40 show

The Fab 40 was unveiled each week during a three hour programme at lunchtime on Sunday (11am to 2pm), which, through such programmes as "Family Favourites" and "Beyond Our Ken", the BBC had established as a prime time for radio listening. The show, which followed the "Colgate-Palmolive Request Hour", was presented by the station's disc jockeys on a rotational basis. This format largely mirrored that of the BBC's "Pick of the Pops", which Alan Freeman had presented each Sunday on the Light Programme since 1961 ["Pick of the Pops" was first broadcast in 1955.] .

The final Fab 40 show was introduced by Tommy Vance on 6 August 1967, the number one record that week being the Beach Boys' "Heroes and Villains", which entered the chart in the top position [ [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/aug67/fab060867.html] The final show overran by 22 minutes.] (whereas, in terms of sales, it entered the British top 20 a month later and reached no higher than number eight [Charlie Gillett & Simon Frith (1976) "Rock File 4"] ). Radio London closed on 14 August 1967 following enactment of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act that, in effect, outlawed such stations. In August 2007 the final "Fab 40" was re-presented by former Radio London disc jockey Dave Cash as part of a celebration on BBC Radio Essex to mark the fortieth anniversary of the pirates' demise.

When the BBC opened its own "pop" station Radio One in September 1967, its sales-based top 30 chart was known informally for a time as the "Fun 30" [For example, the "Tony Blackburn Show" (known formally as "Daily Disc Delivery"), Radio 1, 30 September 1967] , no doubt in imitation of London's "Fab 40".

Reconstructing the Fab 40

Some 30-40 years after they were in use, meticulous attempts were made to reconstruct the Fab 40 charts. These drew on surviving lists prepared at Radio London's offices at 17, Curzon Street in London and informal ones compiled at the time by listeners, although there were sometimes discrepancies between the "official" list and the records that were actually delivered to the ship, the "MV Galaxy" [ [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/completeindexintro.html Radio London - complete Fab Forty Index intro ] ] . Complete charts are available from 24 January 1965, five weeks after the station opened, when, anticipating the sales chart a week later [Gillett & Frith (1976) "Rock File 4"] , the Moody Blues were at number one with "Go Now" [ [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/65fabs/jan65/fab240165/fab240165.html Radio London - Big L Fab Forty 65 - 24th Jan 1965 ] ] .

External links

* [http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/fabforty/index.html Index of Fab 40 from January 1965 to August 1967]

Notes