Film Reference
The 1975 rock music film Slade in Flame, starring the band Slade, includes a scene in which the fictional rock band Flame visit Radio City for an interview, only to be airlifted to safety when shots are fired at the fort from a nearby ship. It is later implied that the attack was staged by the band's unscrupulous manager in order to drum up publicity. The fictional attack was inspired by the actual 1966 boarding party; some of the actual news footage of the boarding is later seen on a fictional television news report.
Exterior shots of the visit were actually filmed on and around Shivering Sands, with the actor/musicians having to climb the actual ladders used by the Radio City DJs and suffering vertigo in the process. For the airlift scene a helicopter actually landed on the roof of one of the towers, but was not big enough to carry all of the actors, so they all had to enter on one side of the aircraft and then exit out of shot on the other.
The film crew hung a large Radio City banner on one of the towers, which was bigger and more professionally-made than the actual crudely-painted sign used by the station.
In one respect the film was not able to be authentic: the fort has no antenna. The original Radio City antenna mast had been dismantled in 1967. It was not possible to build a replica because of its huge size, and contemporary special effects techniques were not up to the task of replicating it.
Interior scenes were filmed on a soundstage. The interior dimensions of the tower are authentic, but the studio appears more professionally-equipped than the real one. In particular, the fictional studio contains cartridge machines which were never used by the real Radio City. The Radio City DJ was played by real-life DJ Tommy Vance, who was actually working on Radio Caroline in the 1960s.
In real life any interviews on the pirate stations would have been taped on land rather than exposing musicians to potentially hazardous (and expensive) sea crossings.
Read more about this topic: Radio City (pirate Radio Station)
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