Harky Van Gelder

It was 1967 and Tony 'hello' Windsor had just hired me. He said I reminded him of Kenny Everett, but I had much nicer boots. Luckily he couldn't understand much of the Dutch language and so I got away with a whole lot of what the cleaning woman wouldn't dare to utter in the BBC resting room. We did OK at the radio-vessel that once carried dead bodies from North Korea back to the States and within three months we had some 3 million listeners in both Holland and the UK. Why, I might even have slept in the same bed that Ron O'Quinn once had.

The Laissez Faire, at first carrying the d.j.'s of Swinging Radio England, American radio at its best, that Europe had never heard, now with Dutch as well as English d.j.'s on board, wasn't doing bad at all but it was all too soon ended. I'm still darn lucky, working for Dutch national radio and a couple of smaller stations in Holland. And boy am I honored working alongside my hero Rosko and Ron (the mighty) O'Quinn now. Playing guitar and spinning records, what more does an old hippy want? And yes, I still do play lots of New Orleans stuff along with Americana and (doowoppy) oldies...'Ha' mercy'..... (sorry for my foolish American accent (My father was from Alabama but I was brought up Dutch) and my zany 'radiocartoons'

You can listen to Harky Van Gelder on the Big L Satutuday and Sunday morning's at 6am. Why not send him an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.