How the first song ever played on BBC Radio 1 was almost thrown in the bin forever
Since the very first broadcast on September 30th, 1967, BBC Radio 1 has been a major institution in the UK as a place to go to discover the new music that was shaking up the charts.
Designed to replace the BBC Light Programme with something more contemporary, it made sense that the first show was hosted by the former pirate radio broadcaster Tony Blackburn, whose experience in the mid-1960s with Radio Caroline and Radio London had already proved that he was in touch with the contemporary music that would bring in a younger audience to the new station.
Now very famously, the very first song to be played on the station was The Move’s ‘Flowers in the Rain’, which sat at number three in the charts at the time, having peaked at number two a month before. A significant track from the British psychedelic pop movement written by future Electric Light Orchestra member Roy Wood, it’s now a cult classic, largely thanks to its part in the history of BBC Radio 1.
The song was evidently adored at the time, given how it had managed to remain in the higher positions on the chart for five weeks, and the way in which it was used to denote the ushering in of a new era in radio broadcasting shouldn’t go uncredited.
However, it almost wasn’t to be, as the song’s co-producer, Tony Visconti, later revealed that the song almost got scrapped, and that he had to fight with the other producer on the track, Denny Cordell, to even get it released. Visconti, who is now best known for his long-term work as a producer for David Bowie, revealed during a 2007 interview with Classic Rock that the song may never have seen the light of day had it not been for his intervention.
“‘Flowers In The Rain’ was my ticket to ride,” Visconti stated. “Denny wanted to throw it away as he thought it was flawed – the middle section not rocking enough. So I said I could rework the middle section. He asked how much it would cost, and I said: ‘It’s something like nine quid a man times four. I’ll write the part for free, but what the hell, I really rate this song. You shouldn’t throw it away.’”
Evidently, his protestations worked in both his favour and in the band’s best interests, with it reaching its peak in the charts at the start of September 1967. On top of this, the fact that it can claim to have been the first song played on such an illustrious radio station that still exists today is an even greater claim, which Visconti credits as being one of the best moments in his early career. “Tony Blackburn comes on and says – Welcome to Radio 1. And here’s ‘Flowers In The Rain’ by The Move,” he recalled. “I couldn’t believe it. A great feeling.”
Despite it being a hugely successful song for the band at the time, it strangely never made them any money whatsoever, and this was down to the fact that the band almost sabotaged their entire career through an ill-informed publicity stunt to promote the track. In some of the promotional material for the song, they printed a doctored image that showed the then-prime minister Harold Wilson in bed with his secretary, which the government didn’t exactly take kindly to.
As a result, all of the royalties for the song were donated to charities of Wilson’s choice, with a figure in excess of £200,000 believed to have gone towards these institutions by the 1990s. It may have been a beloved song, but perhaps scrapping it like Cordell had wanted to would have prevented any of this debacle from unfolding.
