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Aaah, Mike Allen. Was he more important than people give him credit for? His hip hop show, broadcast on Capital Radio every weekend in the mid-80s, was a real treat for budding b-boys. It took hip hop deep into the home counties and to small towns like mine that were otherwise-disconnected from the scene in London.
My own memory is of home taping sessions on my own late-night on a Friday, and earlier for the Saturday show with my first girlfriend, Sarah. My old tape deck was by the bed and I used to keep play and record pressed down but locked on pause, waiting for Allen to stop speaking and play a track I liked. If I ever did just leave the tape to run and catch his interviews or longer links, I'd usually re-record over them later. This strategy seems sadly flawed now. Yes, I did cram in some cool tracks, but it's Allen who seems the more interesting today, not the music. When I dusted off the tapes to digitise them, I was expecting to uncover a treasure trove of old skool gems from hip-hop's glory days, clumsily broken up by Allen's over-dulcet tones. But then something strange happened - I quickly found myself fast-fowarding through a dull procession of average, 808-based recordings and West Coast electro for glimpses of his voice, like a favourite uncle that I really missed. Suddenly, I regretted all that over-dubbing. I also remembered how much I'd annoyed my girlfriend back then, by not-so-surreptitiously reaching for the pause button when I was meant to be concentrating on something else: "If you touch that stereo AGAIN I'm bloody going home. That Italian bloke from the Wimpy really fancies me, you know."
So thanks to Mike Allen for helping to introduce me to hip hop and so badly-chaperoning me on all those weekend nights, and to my first girlfriend for sharing me with the likes of Duke Bootie, Mantronix and Doug E Fresh.
My own memory is of home taping sessions on my own late-night on a Friday, and earlier for the Saturday show with my first girlfriend, Sarah. My old tape deck was by the bed and I used to keep play and record pressed down but locked on pause, waiting for Allen to stop speaking and play a track I liked. If I ever did just leave the tape to run and catch his interviews or longer links, I'd usually re-record over them later. This strategy seems sadly flawed now. Yes, I did cram in some cool tracks, but it's Allen who seems the more interesting today, not the music. When I dusted off the tapes to digitise them, I was expecting to uncover a treasure trove of old skool gems from hip-hop's glory days, clumsily broken up by Allen's over-dulcet tones. But then something strange happened - I quickly found myself fast-fowarding through a dull procession of average, 808-based recordings and West Coast electro for glimpses of his voice, like a favourite uncle that I really missed. Suddenly, I regretted all that over-dubbing. I also remembered how much I'd annoyed my girlfriend back then, by not-so-surreptitiously reaching for the pause button when I was meant to be concentrating on something else: "If you touch that stereo AGAIN I'm bloody going home. That Italian bloke from the Wimpy really fancies me, you know."
So thanks to Mike Allen for helping to introduce me to hip hop and so badly-chaperoning me on all those weekend nights, and to my first girlfriend for sharing me with the likes of Duke Bootie, Mantronix and Doug E Fresh.
Download one of my Mike Allen shows now (originally broadcast June 8, 1986).
Epilogue:
Mike Allen is now with Smooth FM. Sarah Taylor is married to that Italian bloke from the Wimpy. I've still got the tapes. Who's really the richer man?
Some movies featuring Mike Allen:
"Check the one in red - it's a girl"
Electro Rock intro from 1985 - look out for Mike Allen at the end
