The Artists on the Frequency — the station's own singers, bands and sound systems. One act at a time; pick a name to hear who they are.
Woolwich Ferry Hi-Fi
The news from the river, three voices and a wall of boxes — Woolwich, SE18.
Hector Munroe started the sound in 1974 with one speaker box and a record box he carried on the 96. Ten years later it was a wall of bass bins built in Gus Pennant's mum's garage in Plumstead, and it had a new name: Woolwich Ferry Hi-Fi, after the free boat that goes back and forth across the Thames all day whether anybody's on it or not. That was Hector's joke about his own sound — always running, always free, always full of somebody else's business.
The business came from three young voices. Lester Gooding, Sparks, chats faster than anyone south of the river and tells you everything that happened in Beresford Square on Saturday: who sold what, who argued, whose nan was on the 161. Angela Morrison, Lady Anj, takes the second mic and takes nobody's nonsense, least of all Sparks's. And Nathan Oxley, Sweetie Nate, sings the hooks so sweet that the girls at the front of the dance laugh at him and then sing along. Free Ferry Chat is the record everybody knows; Two Mics, One Ferry is the combination the sound's regulars wait for; Wait For Me At The Pier is Nate's, and it made the ferry romantic, which nobody thought possible.
Key tracksFree Ferry Chat · Two Mics, One Ferry · Wait For Me At The Pier
- Roots
- Woolwich, Plumstead and Charlton, South-East London
- Lineup
- Hector Munroe, owner and selector · Augustus Pennant, operator, box builder and dubplate cutter · Lester Gooding, lead deejay · Angela Morrison, deejay, second mic · Nathan Oxley, singjay
- In the lineage of
- The London fast-chat sound systems, 1980s combination records