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Chris McGranaghan owned a record shop and label for many years (Those Old Records in Lichfield).Today, he's semi-retired and living near the sea in Northumberland, where he now hosts a radio show for Lionheart Radio.
In 'The Outer Limits', Chris shares a few stories from his 'back-catalogue', and looks at some artists who are on or beyond the fringes of FdM's coverage...

Dance, Dance, Dance to the Radio.

I grew up listening to my father’s big Rediffusion radio set on the west coast of Donegal. A piece of furniture that always took about five minutes to warm the valves and get doing. I was fascinated by the dials and the far-off station names, Budapest, Athlone, Madrid, Hilversum, and others. Unlike today, the radio made a lot of noise whilst tuning, voices and music drifted in and out, snatches of songs in foreign languages were heard as we scanned the airwaves usually settling on American Forces Overseas (AFN).



On AFN my father would listen to Doris Day, she was deemed a tad risqué for the puritanical RTE which was primarily the voice of the Catholic Church in Ireland. He was also a big fight fan, and we would listen to Rocky Marcino, Primo Canera, Sonny Liston and then Cassius Clay – magical radio in the early hours of the morning with men from our village smoking and drinking strong tea. I first heard Pete Seeger, Elvis, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker on AFN long before I heard The Beatles and I was still only ten. We had just the one radio station up on the northwest coast of Ireland, the same one as everyone else – RTE Radio 1. Boring wasn’t in it to an aspiring music fan.



We moved to Drogheda just outside Dublin in 1967 and I acquired my first transistor radio. A small Alba that ran on batteries and listened to late at night where I could pick up Radio Caroline and occasionally Radio London (Big L). This was a very different listening experience with lots of recent music, zany presenters, and huge enthusiasm for music. I was hooked but the big Rediffusion has been sold, and my only outlet was the Alba which was limited. I was introduced to my first record shop in Drogheda, a stuffy affair and nothing like shops today, records were behind the counter, and you had to ask for what you wanted. It didn’t matter as we didn’t have a record player anyway and wouldn’t have until we moved to Manchester in 1969.

My late brother Martin was a serious music fan and was into the Stones, Creedence and anything that made a lot of noise. We hit the record shops on Manchester with some zeal and quickly amassed a decent record collection between us. There were also more radio stations and of course John Peel, Kid Jenson on Caroline and the newly opened BBC Radio Manchester, which was a real joy as they played lots of diverse music.



I realised that I was missing the very radio station that I avoided in Ireland and started listening to RTE Radio 1 especially on Saturday night when they had a show called Celiidh House featuring local traditional musician with the shows normally coming from someone’s home. I have always had a love of traditional Folk music in many countries, and it was and still is a taste of home. Coverage was minimal but you could get it on Medium Wave (567) on a good day.

More radio stations appeared in the 1970s, and I made sure I always had a radio with me—even in the car once I finally got one: a basic set with one large speaker between the rear seats. By the mid- to late 1970s, I had become seriously interested in Reggae, thanks to a pirate station that broadcasts from Moss Side most weekends. I began visiting Reggae record shops in and around Moss Side and bought stacks of cheap records by artists I had never heard of. I especially loved the “Version” B-sides, which led me to dub and eventually to Dub Vendor in Camden Market. Camden and Brixton were joyful at night, with pirate stations playing reggae into the early hours—or until they were shut down. It was worth staying over just listening to the radio, it was that good.



So, in 2005 I left working for a living and did the next obvious thing and started to run record fairs in the Midlands. That led to me opening a record shop (Those Old Records) in Lichfield, Staffordshire, an enterprise that I thought would last 3 months at the most but we lasted 11 years before Covid made the whole thing untenable. We also started a record label (TOR Records) and had success with releases by Peter Parker’s Rock n Roll Club especially in Germany and Austria where we were championed by one Wolfgang Doebeling who was a presenter on Radioeins, Berlin. His “Roots” show came out every Sunday night and was an essential listen for several years until he retired. The John Peel of Germany and a great guy whose shows introduced me to so much great music. I miss him immensely.



I travelled a lot in business, all over the UK and a lot of Europe, so the radio was always on, and I was forever looking for something new and interesting to listen to. It was and still is the same on holiday, no matter where I am I want to hear the local radio channel and hear what’s on. Fast forward to 2025, we have moved to Alnwick, Northumberland, and I’m still the same, several radio’s including Shortwave and now the internet. I also volunteered to present st the local Community station – Lionheart Radio here in Alnwick. I present two differing fortnightly shows playing a wide range of music from Folk, Psych, Jazz, Dub and much more. It is always different, not genre specific and that’s the way it should be.

Turn it up.



Listen to Chris' latest radio show HERE

Read Chris' previous piece for Fruits de Mer HERE