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Various ?– The Mike Raven Blues Sampler

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Credits

• Compiled By – Mike Raven

Austin Churton Fairman (15 November 1924 – 4 April 1997), who used the name Churton Fairman but was more widely known under the pseudonym Mike Raven in the 1960s and early 1970s, was a British radio disc jockey, actor, sculptor, sheep farmer, writer, TV presenter and producer, ballet dancer, flamenco guitarist and photographer.

Early life and career]

Churton Fairman was born in London, the son of actors Austin Fairman (1892–1964) and Hilda Moore (c.1886–1929).[1][2] His mother died in the United States when he was a child, after catching an infection from him, and he was brought up by three aunts, who sent him to Aldenham School.[3] He went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, but was called up for wartime service in the Royal Ulster Rifles, where he served as a lieutenant. After the war he joined the Ballet Rambert as a dancer, but then turned to photography, specialising in ballet shots.[3][4] He also worked as a conjuror and interior decorator.[5]

In 1949, he married Aurelia Pascual y Perez, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War, and returned with her to her home. They had one son and three daughters together; they later divorced. He wrote a well-regarded travel book, Another Spain, published in 1952, about Spain's undiscovered countryside and in particular Aurelia's home village of Quintanarraya.[3][6]

While in Seville for the Holy Week celebrations there, he met the director Peter Brook. This led to him returning to London and becoming an actor, director and production manager on dramas on ITV. When ITV's Stars on Sunday religious series ended, he presented both the Ten Commandments programme and its successor, Songs That Matter, as well as contributing to ATV's weekday Epilogue. He also acted on stage in Moscow in the 1950s with John Gielgud, and occasionally played flamenco guitar music in a Spanish restaurant in London.[3][7]

Radio career

In the early 1960s, still using his real name, he began working for BBC radio, presenting talks and, occasionally, Woman's Hour.[7] However, when his cousin, the Liberal Party politician Oliver Smedley, founded the pirate radio station Radio Atlanta, he joined the station as a disc jockey, broadcasting from the ship Mi Amigo moored off the coast of Frinton-on-Sea. At that point, he began using the name Mike Raven, and presented shows which focused on his love of American blues, rhythm and blues and soul music, of which he owned a large record collection.[7] In 1964 he married Mandy Kilbey, sometimes presenting radio programmes jointly with her; they later had two sons.[3]

With Smedley, he became an active campaigner lobbying Parliament for the legalisation of the pirate radio stations, until Smedley was accused of causing the death of rival radio entrepreneur Reg Calvert by shooting him with a shotgun; he was later acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. Raven then moved to another pirate station, Radio Invicta, which broadcast from a wartime defence tower on a sandbank in the mouth of the River Thames. The station was later known as Radio King and Radio 390.[7] There, he was programme controller and presented a daily R&B show until November 1966.[8]

A compilation album, The Mike Raven Blues Show, billed as "twice voted top pirate radio show", was issued on the Xtra label, a subsidiary of Transatlantic Records, in 1966. It featured recordings by Texas Alexander, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Gus Cannon, Robert Johnson, Speckled Red, Victoria Spivey, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson, Brownie McGhee, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Elmore James.[9]

After working for a short time for Radio Luxembourg, presenting an EMI-sponsored soul show, he joined BBC Radio 1 – the first national radio channel in the UK playing predominantly popular music – for its launch day in September 1967. The Mike Raven Blues Show debuted on the first day of Radio 1, and was a regular feature, usually on Sunday evenings, until November 1971, eventually expanding to a two-hour slot.[3][7][8] Raven was regarded as a leading authority on the subject, and the show was highly influential in promoting the music of African American culture within the UK, being described as "essential listening for every self-respecting blues fan".[4][5][10]