Embedded Files
R.I.P. Mike Allen
It's with a sad heart that I have to pass on the news that Mike Allen passed away last night (04/12/2015). He had been suffering with poor health in recent years, I am told that he passed whilst surrounded by family and friends.
Mike will always be fondly remembered by a whole generation of 1980's teenagers who would eagerly tune into his Capital Radio shows every weekend. He introduced many of us to the culture and sounds of Hip Hop and kept us hooked with his fun charismatic attitude and selection of fresh beats and rhymes.
For many, me included, he shaped the soundscape to our lives.
R.I.P. The Boss in London
Every Friday night between 8pm and 10pm tune into the new weekly radio show 'The Boss In The 80s', a nod back to the days of Mike Allen on Capital Radio. Playing all those fresh 80s beats and with a weekly chart voted for by the listeners.
You can also get involved and vote for your favourite tracks and talk Mike Allen on Facebook at the Mike Allen Appreciation Society
Pause buttons at the ready...
In the 1980's Mike Allen hosted a Hip Hop show on London's Capital Radio 95.8FM, the show along with the legendary London record shop Groove Records were responsible for introducing many of us in the UK to the world of Hip Hop.
The show ran from late 1984 to the summer of 1987, in retrospect this short period of 2-3 years seems like a drop in the ocean but the reality was that Mike's show was massively influential in the growth of this new music form in London and across the UK.
On a weekly basis Mike would give us the latest sounds from the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Whodini, Fat Boys, Marley Marl, DJ Cheese & Word Of Mouth, Run DMC, Doug E Fresh, UTFO, Ice T, 2 Live Crew, World Class Wreckin Cru, Egyptian Lover, the list goes on. What was so great about Mike's show was that he introduced us to so many obscure gems as well, records by the the likes of the Majestic Crew, Fresh Force, Bronx Style Bob, Byron Davis & the Fresh Krew, Cutmaster DC, CSL & Boys Next Door, Lady Fire & The Army Of Scratch, Rapomatic Ltd, DR J.R. Kool, Lil Jazzy Jay & Cool Supreme, Big Apple Productions and countless others, sounds that we never would have got to hear without his shows. Mike would play every type of Hip Hop no matter where it came from so you got to hear east coast, west coast, Miami and even the odd UK release, so complete coverage of what was happening at the time.
Every Friday night Mike would countdown the Groove Hip Hop Sales Chart. The 20 best selling cuts from the previous seven days in Groove Records which was a small independant record store in Soho, London that specialised in Hip Hop.
On a Saturday night Mike would countdown the Allen's Army Frontline Chart which was a chart voted for by the listeners. The listeners would ring in and leave a message on an answering machine quoting their favourite cut of the week, the votes would be counted and the top 10 rundown on the Saturday.
Mike also played a big part in organising the UK Fresh 86 concerts at Wembley Arena. The two concerts (an afternoon and evening show) took place on Saturday 19th July 1986 and were part of the Capital Radio Music Festival.
This site is dedicated to the Mike Allen Capital Radio Show, it will give details about the show and list the shows broadcast, I am hoping that this can become a definitive archive of any recordings that still exist and a place where fans of the show can share their recordings.
You're locked in to the Boss...
Listen to a show below, recorded on 10th May 1986 this is the first hour of a Saturday night show and includes an Allen's Army Frontline Chart, you can also download the show if you go to the SoundCloud page.
I have recently been contacted by DJ Cross Flow who has started putting together a podcast show in tribute to Mike Allen's original Capital Rap shows from the mid 1980's.
There are currently two shows available, they are structured in the same way as Mike's original shows and he plays many of the classics from that era, check the shows out at...
Site news and updates...
23/06/2019 - A new tape has been contributed by Dave 'Huggy' Williams from February 1987, the track list has been added to the archive pages.
03/02/2018 - Added a link to a new podcast put together by DJ Cross Flow which is dedicated to the original Mike Allen Capital Rap shows from the mid 1980's, you can see a link to the shows above.
07/03/2015 - Added a new page covering the 'Hip Hop at the Hippodrome' event held in London in March 1985, better know by the name 'Electro Rock' which was used for the VHS video release.
08/02/2015 - A new page has been added to cover the Freestyle 85 event held at the Jubilee Hall, Covent Garden in December 1985. See the link in the navigation sidebar.
16/07/2014 - Thanks to Mex who uploaded this fantastic photo of Mike with DJ Cash Money & Marvelous, this photo was from Cash Moneys own personal collection...
16/07/2014 - Thanks to Mex for an excellent piece from Sonic Graffiti, the guys behind the music used for Mike's Capital show and the UK Fresh 86 jingles. Take a look on the Show Details page.
01/03/2014 - This is a video I put together of all the flyers and adverts I have collected over the years of UK Hip Hop events from the 1980's, they appear in chronological order, month and year, starting from 1984 through to 1989...
22/02/2014 - This video from a UK TV show called Splash was recently uploaded to youtube, it features Mike Allen being interviewed on camera (the only footage of Mike being interviewed as far as I know), he talks about the emerging Hip Hop scene in London, great stuff...
12/02/2014 - Below is a video of Mike reading out the latest news about UK Fresh 86 on his Capital show on Friday 9th May 1986, this was the first announcement of a confirmed line up...
23/11/2013 - This week I made a video which features a selection of jingles Mike would use on his Capital show, check it out below, it is also available to see on my youtube channel, search for BeatOfTheStreet...
09/10/2013 - Have just been sent some National Fresh recordings, so thanks to Jason Smith for these, I will be going through them soon and will add details to the site.
28/09/2013 - Am still going through a batch of Strictly Kev tapes, up to 1987 now, will be listing the shows on the site as I go.
21/04/2013 - FatCat Records have posted a Mike Allen show as one of their podcasts, thanks to Dave Cawley (FatCat founder) for sorting this out. The idea is to give the listeners a glimpse of some of the roots of the label, Dave has written a brief summary of his own memories of those great days back in the mid 1980's, to read this and hear the podcast follow the links below...
http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/site/news/fatcat-records-podcast-82-mike-allen-on-capital-radio
31/03/2013 - Added a fantastic article about the London Pirate stations written by Lindsay Kerr exclusively for this website. The article features in depth detail about the 1980's pirate radio scene in London with a focus on the Hip Hop played on those stations, it's a great insight into what was happening within London radio at that time. The article can be found under 'The Competition' tab on the left.
29/03/2013 - I have kindly been sent some fantastic recordings of 1985 shows, big thank you to Strictly Kev for these. There are plenty of charts recorded on these shows so I will be updating the details to the website soon.
13/01/2013 - At last we have some 1984 recordings of Mike Allen!! Turns out I had these recordings on a tape in the loft that I have had since the mid 1990's, so thanks to Ivor Griffiths for reminding me and also for sending me the recordings all those years ago.
24/11/2012 - Added an soundcloud audio of show from May 1986.
22/09/2012 - I have received some new recordings from David Amor and the 1985 Tape Master, I am currently going through these and will update the shows to the site soon.
12/03/2012 - Many thanks to John Clark who has sent me a box of his Mike Allen tapes, I am happy to say that they are great quality and all on nice decent quality TDK tapes!! I am in the process of converting them and will update all the details to the Recorded Shows Archive.
17/03/2012 - I have added a new "Message From the Boss" page which features scans of few letters sent by Mike to some of his listeners.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse