Hamilton speaks on Mallory Park

The Radio 1 Roadshow, launched in 1973, was a phenomenon. Seventies music stars were not always essential to draw the crowds; the disc jockeys alone were often sufficient, escaping from the medium wave into the open air in their coloured nylon shirts or branded jackets. Maybe the seventies were such a dull decade, that mere radio presenters were enough to cause a stir.

Radio 1 also created a range of Fun Days, with one particularly memorable one being held in May 1975 in Leicestershire. After the Beatles, the first group to be crowned with the suffix ‘mania’ were the Rollers. The Bay City Rollers: a handful of smiley Scottish lads dressed in white and tartan and singing old songs.

So, when the Rollers joined David Hamilton and fellow presenters at Mallory Park race track, things got a little heated. One imagines the Health and Safety documentation would not have been quite so rigorous as it would be today. Girls waded through the lake to get to their idols, as Tony Blackburn sped around in a boat accompanied by a Womble. These were, indeed, the seventies.

40 years on here, David Hamilton (whose regular show was then simulcast on Radio 1 and 2 in the afternoons) recalls that eventful day.