Show Details
Information about the show
Mike Allen Capital Rap Show
AKA Allen's Army on Maneuvers
Station: Capital Radio, London. 95.8fm
Mike Allen's Capital Rap Show ran from late 1984 to July 1987. In the early 1980's Mike already had a show on Capital Radio that played Jazz, Funk and Soul and it was this show that evolved into the rap show, using Mike's own words "The Capital programme began evolving around September 1984 into a more urbanised music policy, as in; tougher and more relevant. The transition to pure Hip Hop took around three months".
Show Formats:
1985
Friday nights: 10pm-1am
Saturday nights 11pm-1am
Sunday nights 11pm-1am
1986
Friday nights:10pm-1am
Saturday nights: 11pm-1am (January-March 15th) 8pm-10pm (March 22nd-December)
1987
Friday nights: 10pm-1am
Saturday nights: 8pm-10pm
This is a brief video that gives a glimpse inside the Capital Radio studios, it shows Mike interviewing the Beastie Boys in 1987.
Regular features:
Groove Hip Hop Sales Chart (Friday Nights) - A rundown of the top 20 selling Hip Hop cuts from Groove Records (Soho, London) that week
Allen's Army Frontline Chart (Saturday Nights) - A chart voted for by the listeners
Chuck Chill's New York Juice Report (Saturday Nights) - All the Hip Hop news and gossip from NYC
This is a Allen's Army pin badge which must have been given away to promote the show
Mike Allen attends the New Music Seminar in New York
Background music used for the show:
The Party Scene (Instrumental) - The Russell Brothers (1983 Portrait Records)
Used for the weekly Groove Hip Hop Sales Chart run down on a Friday night.
Street Music (Instrumental) - The Bang Gang (1981 Sugarscoop)
Used for the weekly Allen's Army Frontline Chart run down on a Saturday night.
Dedication (Instrumental) - The Fearless Four (1985 Tuff City Records)
Used for the shout outs and dedications.
Love Stimulation (Dub) - David St. George (1985 Malaco Records)
Used to talk general chat and news over.
Bass & Trouble - Sly & Robbie featuring Doug E Fresh (1985 Fourth & Broadway)
Used to talk general chat and news over.
Tangerine Dream - Gaudi Park (1985 Zomba)
Used to talk general chat over the intro to this record.
Rap-A-Holic (Instrumental) - MC-3 (1986 Westrock Records)
Snippets of this track were used in jingles.
A group named Sonic Graffiti also made music especially for the show around February 1986, this would usually be used to open the show. They also made the music for Chuck Chill's New York Juice Report and various jingles which were used throughout the show. They were also responsible for making some special music for the UK Fresh 86 shows, which was used between each live recording. Below is a little piece put together by Mex who made contact with Ed Stratton, an engineer on Mike's Capital show and a member of sonic Graffiti:
National Fresh
National Fresh was a weekly show which broadcast right across the UK on a number of local radio stations, TDK approached Mike to host the show and were the sponsers of the show. The show was recorded on a Monday at Radio Luxemburg studios in Hertford Street, London, with the format being very similar to the Capital show. National Fresh ran in tandem with the Capital show up until the summer of 1987 when the Capital show ended, after this National Fresh continued until early 1988 when the financial crash meant that TDK no longer had the funds to sponsor the show so that too came to an end.
Below is an advert TDK ran during 1986 on the Capital show to promote their cassettes: