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Jumbo Blimp
Works was formed in October 1969 by Hugh Nolan, Geoffrey
Bass and Terry Yason with financial backing from Tony
Secunda and Jimmy Miller of Ringmaker Music with the aim
of producing alternative radio programmes and to charter
air-time on Radio Andorra.
Hugh Nolan became the one constant,
from August 1969 until October 1970, in the Radio Andorra
and Radio Monte Carlo programmes under the names of Jumbo
Blimp Works, Radio 428, Radio Rupert, Radio 205 and Radio
Geronimo. Various people dropped by the wayside in those
15 months.
At this time Hugh and his wife Jackie
lived in Manchester Street in west London. A son named
Benjamin was born in November 1969, joining a son named
Marcus who was born in 1963, and the family eventually
moved to Denning Road in Hampstead. But by 1971 Hugh Nolan
and his wife Jackie had broken up. Jackie, Marcus and
Benjamin eventually moved to Devon.
Hugh went off to Afghanistan for a
time. He was not to reappear on the airwaves until the
summer of 1973, when Ronan O’Rahilly, the owner of Radio
Caroline, and Andy Archer, the programme director, decided
to launch the Radio Seagull as a progressive music radio
experiment. Hugh and former Radio Geronimo colleague Barry
Everitt were approached to take part and they went out to
the radioship Mi Amigo off Scheveningen, in the
Netherlands, with the record collection from Radio
Geronimo.
Hugh Nolan stayed on board the Mi
Amigo for one stint, from 11 August 1973 until 24 August
1973. An article in the Observer newspaper named Hugh the
best DJ on radio, but he refused to go back on board,
despite the persuasive attempts of Ronan O’Rahilly. He
said that he was never paid for his two week stint on
board.
In late October 1973 the Geronimo
record collection was piled up separately in the
downstairs record library Mi Amigo. But the records were
never returned, despite attempts to do so, around about
1977. Some were believed to have been stolen and others
went down with the sinking of the Mi Amigo in 1980.
Between August 1973 and 1975, Hugh
Nolan moved north to Scotland, settling in the Black Isle
for about five years, leaving behind journalism and radio,
and taking a job with the Forestry Commission. Debbie,
who had been the girlfriend of Barry Everitt, joined Hugh
and Debbie and Barry’s son Blue took the surname Nolan.
Hugh and Debbie had a daughter called Mauve in 1976.
At the end of 1976 Hugh visited
Shetland briefly, looking for work in the emerging oil and
gas industry, and he stayed in the Royal National Mission
to Deep Sea Fishermen. However at that time work was
being processed outside Shetland. Hugh, Debbie, Blue and
Mauve Nolan eventually moved to Shetland in 1980, where
Hugh worked for the oilfield services company
Schlumberger. They stayed in a converted church at Strom
and then in new oil worker housing in Hillswick and they
made many friends. Barry Everitt even paid a visit to
Shetland and saw his son.
The Nolan family left Shetland in
1985. In recent years Hugh Nolan had been a journalist in
Vietnam. When he became ill on returning to Australia,
his daughter Mauve went to Australia to look after him.
Hugh Nolan died in Australia on 3
November 2009 after a long illness at the age of 65.
Ian Anderson, 4 November
2009
Ian is a director of
SIBC, the
radio station of the Shetland
Islands Broadcasting Company
About this obituary: On 25 September 1980, when Hugh Nolan
was working for the oilfield services company Schlumberger
in Shetland, he and Ian Anderson had a long conversation
about the past. The conversation was recorded and written
up into articles. The article on Hugh was published soon
afterwards in Air magazine, with Hugh's full approval. The
part of this obituary up until 1980 is taken directly from
that article. |
