When Radio 1 started broadcasting on the 30.9.1967 – everyone involved with it – both in front and behind the scenes, were very young and were full of the spirit of times! This was the era of the ‘hippy’ and of peace and love. All this voluntary withdrawal from the direct participation of the youth within the process of predatory capitalism – was ironically premised upon the success of that system to generate so much surplus profit that young people were able to earn their own money (with very little effort – as well-paid jobs were plenty) and/or receive it free of charge from their parent’s income. Although Marx had speculated that it was in theory ‘possible’ for the working-class to oneday ‘wake-up’ and collectively refuse to function within the capitalist system that enslaved it, it was ‘unlikely’ that any such collective movement would materialise due to the seductive and divisive agencies of Bourgeois individualism and self-interest. This divide and conquer process was challenged by the hippy movement, but the Establishment ultimately managed to meet this challenge, contract around it and smash it to pieces (in many cases ‘literally’ as the US Police and Army fired bullets through the bodies of unarmed students carrying flowers)!
What has this got to be with Radio 1? Well, as the young people who filled the airwaves with their fresh attitudes in 1967 carried-on their ‘jobs for life’ roles – by the 1990s they were all middle-aged and still broadcasting to people of their own generation with now ‘tired’ and ‘fatigued’ cliches! This meant that their viewpoints, approaches and tastes in music all had very little in common with the younger generations – who were searching-out their listening pleasure elsewhere – particularly as satellite TV and digital radio started to make their presence felt! Matthew Bannister (who was brought in from his great success at Greater London Radio) quite literally ‘culled’ the ageing DJs as they ran for cover – as the soon to be revealed sex-offenders, rapists and paedophiles scattered to the winds – all heading for the hills whilst trying to save their own necks! Not even the arch paedophile (and ‘necrophiliac’) himself – the ‘king’ of Catholicism (and oddly) ‘Freemasonry’ – Sir Jimmy Savile himself could prevent the well-sharpened axe from falling!
Whilst expecting ‘jobs for life’ (like the average worker in a factory) – many of the DJs made their Conservative political viewpoints quite clear – supporting Thatcher all the way, until her particular brand of ‘fascism’ came calling at their door! By that time, however, everyone knew it was too late and the game was up! Victor Lewis Smith was still broadcasting to around 1992 on Radio 1 with what is considered today to be outrageous humour. Although left of centre, he kept up the usual Bourgeois, Trotskyite attack upon the USSR – which were recurring themes throughout his radio and later TV shows. Just as Chas & Dave were mock Cockneys, it is difficult to ascertain just where Victor Lewis Smith politically stood. He worked for the Tory Evening Standard and often wrote glowing statements about his Editor ‘Max Hastings’ – a man whose Bourgeois military histories are as hideously inaccurate as they are racist! On the other hand, in this post-911 world of sterile conformity and internet ‘containment’ ordered by the US government, the incisive and dare I say – ‘leftist’ – deconstructionist (Marxist) humour of Victor Lewis Smith comes across as just as outdated as DLT, Simon Bates and yes – Jimmy Savile!
Although I find what he was doing a demonstration of the Britain I love – the natural left-wing ‘freedom of thought’ and ‘expression’ I was brought up with – I recently watched a a video of a young man in his twenties in the UK describe the ‘Gay Daleks’ sketch as being ‘fascist’! This reminds me of those deluded young people who think US hegemony (and EU bigotry) equal ‘Internationalism’ – and that totalitarian conformity (as decreed by the US system) represents the highest form of individual freedom! These lost souls carry flags featuring Che Guevara next to flags of the EU – and stupidly believe that they are being ‘Revolutionary’! Such people are unable to think for themselves and understand that Neo-Nazi Ukraine is the enemy, and that Russia is fighting these Hitleresque forces once again – sacrificing its people for the containment of fascism! Victor Lewis Smith may not have been a ‘Communist’ (who knows?) but at least he exercised his ‘freedom of thought’ and did not compromise!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 