Radio Seagull's newest recruit is Norman
Barrington who in 1973 was a presenter on the original station. His
interest in radio, was originally fired by the arrival of the Pirates in
the mid sixties. The same decade that saw the start of an explosion in
arguably the best music of the 20th century.
His first taste of DJing was in 1969
running a mobile disco around the London area, named Hullabaloo with
school friend John Ker. He also did a few stints on Hospital Radio, as
far a field as Manchester.
He left his job with a City Merchant Bank
to secure his first true radio job aboard Radio Caroline during it’s
second incarnation anchored off the Dutch Coast from the very end of
1972 through till 1974. He was most at home playing
alternative/progressive rock music, but did much of the station
production too.
Whilst aboard the Mi Amigo, he was also
employed by Radio Atlantis and later Radio Mi Amigo along with Brian
Anderson, and even once found himself acting as engineer for Radio
Veronica transmitted from the Mi Amigo during the time that their own
ship was beached. Norman was on Radio Seagull from it’s inception, with
the guys from Radio Geronimo, Barry Everitt and the Late Hugh Nolan.
Later that music mix was translated back into Caroline.
His own love of music, has grown through
the years, so after taking a break from broadcasting, it was no
surprise, his interest was re-kindled by a new local station Waves-FM in
the North East of Scotland, the area where he had settled with his Dutch
wife after leaving Holland. Soon he was also working for his ex-Caroline
colleague, Brian Anderson, this time producing bi-lingual programs for
broadcast throughout China, Vietnam and Mongolia. This arrangement
continued until changes in Chinese legislation made the project no
longer viable. Meanwhile he has done shows on the Tribute to RNI RSL
based in Harwich, from the lightship LV18. And an Xmas special for the
current ‘Caroline’
He says “I never dreamed back in ’73 that
37 years later I would once again be saying hello to Radio Seagull’s
listeners. My aim will be to play every single outstanding piece of
music, no matter what genre, from every decade through to today, that
has ever meant something special to me, and I hope – special for you
too. It is after all, the music of our lives. Maybe it’s just excellent
music or it has thought-provoking lyrics or somehow touches your soul,
in fact anything that makes it real art in sound, it will be a truly
eclectic mix, Of course I shall also play any requests our listeners
would care to send in, and I promise there will be some surprises along
the way too. So I hope you can join me 0100-0300 CET (Midnight – 0200
GMT) early on Tuesday mornings.
My delight at being back on Seagull is
even greater since Brian Anderson is joining the station with me and
will present his own program in the same time slot on Thursdays. We will
drop in on each others’ program from time to time, and chat about the
music we are playing. And it’s good to be working on the same station as
Barry again!
In an era when radio seems to have
divorced itself from it’s listeners, it is wonderful to be able to
present a personal and friendly program, whilst the emphasis will always
be on the music.”
