Johnnie Walker - The Autobiography

[Biffo]

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Johnnie Walker The Autobiography

 

I had finished my previous book, yes I’d finally coloured in all the pages, and was being asked that annual question, What do you want for Christmas then ?

As we were standing in a book shop at the time and I had resisted the urge to buy the Lewis Hamilton autobiography. How can his book be that big at his age, pah .

I’ll wait until he’s past 40 and maybe it will read as well as the Nigel Mansell autobiography. Then spotted the Johnnie Walker book.

A quick look inside to see if there are any relevant photos, yes, and it’s on a half price offer, that’ll do nicely.

 

Those of you under the age of 30 probably only know of Johnnie Walker as some old geezer who worked for ages on Radio 2 and what the hell am I writing a book review about him on uk dirt anyway ? A good question so hopefully this is my quick explanation.

Real name Peter Dingly , he was brought up in Solihull, the posh end of Brum.

Having a keen interest in cars and just failed all his O levels at school he left and became an apprentice car mechanic. Just after this his interest in music lead him to become a D.J. in his spare time. Then got his first big break working for the short lived pirate radio ship Radio England who Christened him Johnnie Walker.

Then after some months he literally jumped ship and got a job on Radio Caroline.

Just as things were looking good the Labour Government of Harold Wilson passed the Marine Act, which made the North Sea radio stations illegal.

While all the other stations such as Radio London stopped broadcasting and their D.J.s lined up for jobs at the newly formed BBC Radio 1, Radio Caroline kept going along with our Johnnie Walker, who now really was a pirate and faced a 2 year jail sentence if he set foot in the U.K. again.

Unfortunately you cant keep a Radio station running for long with little or no advertising and so one morning the ship owners came alongside, cut the anchor chain and towed the ship back to Amsterdam and it was time for Johnnie to go home.

No one was interested in locking him up now that Caroline was off the air and to cut a small chunk off the book, he joined Radio 1 like most of the others.

 

Now for those of you still reading, I’ve almost got to my point.

In 1969 Spedeworth organised a charity event at Wimbledon which was to include a Team of Radio 1 D.J.s driving the new Saloon Stock Cars. This of course got loads of publicity for Spedeworth and Wimbledon Stadium on Radio 1 at the time.

Johnnie Walker enjoyed it so much he wanted more and did a deal with Graham North and Spedeworth to race on a regular basis.

Graham prepared his M.G.Magnette Stock Car, Spedeworth let him race when ever he could and Johnnie Walker got them more PR.

Johnnie also raced a Superstock which Spedeworth allowed him to race under the magic number One.

Now I do remember seeing Mr. Walker racing the Orange Superstock at Aldershot and Wimbledon on several occasions during this short lived racing career. Don’t think he got above a white roof and I never saw him win anything but usually ended up in the middle of the pack and obviously having fun for most of the time. He thought the M.G.Magnette saloon was safer to race so it was a bit ironic that it was when he was racing that one night at an Aldershot meeting he got into a pile up and broke his leg.

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The BBC kept Johnnie Walker’s job open at Radio 1 and he returned, leg in plaster after 2 months and gave up the stock car racing.

Fascinating reading throughout the 406 pages.

A colourful journey with of, sex, drugs and rock n roll on the way, and why if you can at least try and be careful with the first and avoid the second you wont have to worry about the third.

Plenty of highs and lows during the rest of the book including moving to the U.S.A., a divorce, kicking a Cocaine addiction, depression, losing his Brother and Father to Cancer only to find just after his second marriage he too has to do battle against the big C .

Johnnie Walker now lives in Somerset with his second wife Tiggy and plans to build his own radio studio at home.

In 2006 the one time pirate, who was once told by Radio Luxembourg he’d never become a D.J., was awarded the M.B.E. for his services to broadcasting.

 

I ‘d like to think the moral to the story is, you cant keep a good lad down if he has enough ambition and a healthy interest in small oval racing.

 

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Marie Curie Hospice and Salisbury Hospital Appeal Fund.

 

Biffo