It’s almost like any other day for Southern California radio personality Richard Blade, a host on SiriusXM’s 1st Wave channel, and a champion of new wave rock and roll on KROQ for years before that.
He’s playing songs from bands such as U2, Flock of Seagulls and Pet Shop Boys. He’s sharing insider lore like the time Tears for Fears made its Southern California live debut with a police helicopter spotlighting them as they walked on stage.
Only this time, in addition to the many thousands of listeners around the world, about 60 or 70 SiriusXM subscribers have joined Blade in person on a party patio at SiriusXM’s Los Angeles studios.
Welcome to the 1st Wave Hollywood Happy Hour, a monthly get-together hosted by Blade.
Each month, a small group of lucky listeners gets to hang out with Blade, eat free pizza, down cold beers, and eventually watch an exclusive live performance and interview with a star of the ’80s new wave scene, such as Billy Idol, Boy George, or on this recent Friday, Ali Campbell of the British reggae band UB40.
On the patio, Blade poses for photos with anyone who wants one, as the songs on his playlist go out on the 1st Wave channel. Between tracks, he interviews fans on the air – about the distance they drove to come to the Hollywood studios, about the concert performed by UB40 featuring Ali Campbell at Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa the night before, about the history behind their well-worn concert T-shirts.
Then he drops one of those anecdotes that only someone like Blade, who’s been on the air in Southern California for more than 45 years, has witnessed.
“That was the first place in Southern California that Tears for Fears played,” Blade says to both the satellite radio audience and the in-person one on the patio. “We got to introduce them, me and my [KROQ] morning show partner Raymond. It was Raymondo and the Blade at the time.
“The [Tears for Fears] guys had said, ‘We have a helicopter on the fairgrounds, and it’s going to come up and turn on the police light and hit the stage,’” he continues. “So Raymond and I went out. They waited for us to say, ‘And now!’
“The helicopter came up, the light came on. Tears for Fears and then Curt [Smith] and Roland [Orzabal] came out. It’s fantastic.”
A few minutes later, as fans finished their pizza and drinks, the whole thing moved inside for Ali Campbell and UB40.
Happiest hours
Blade and the SiriusXM team started kicking around the idea for a happy hour event about a year ago, initially thinking they would host it at a bar or a club, Blade says.
“Then we finally said, ‘Why don’t we do it at the Sirius building?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK,’” he says. “And it’s worked out great.”
In the eight months or so the 1st Wave Hollywood Happy Hour has been running, its guests have included many of the biggest stars and bands that rose to stardom in the early ’80s.
“We had Thomas Dolby and Billy Idol,” Blade says. “Boy George. We had Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins, and he thought he was coming in just for an interview with me in a radio studio, just sitting down like you and I are.
“Instead, I take him outside into this enclosed area with 60 rabid fans,” he says. “I said, ‘Hey! It’s Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins,’ and they all were like, ‘Whoa!’ But they all behaved themselves, you know, because it’s not 15-year-olds anymore.
“They asked him questions, and he was a little taken aback at first. But he loved it. Loved everything about it. Then we came inside for the second act [a live performance by Pete Byrnes of Naked Eyes].
Blade and several SiriusXM colleagues work together to book the guests for the happy hour.
“I had nothing to do with getting UB40 and Ali Campbell,” he says. “I’m thrilled about it. A big fan. I’ve got a gold album that they gave me back in the ’90s. I’m going to have them sign it.”
“Boy George, we had at the last happy hour,” Blade says. “And we had Howard Jones two happy hours ago and that was an easy get because I’m going on the road with him in July on the Things Could Only Get Better Tour.”
Oh, the humanity
During the happy hour, Blade talked with the live audience on the SiriusXM patio on the air.
Noelia Citilian and Jean Contreras had driven down from Bakersfield, and not for their first time, either, they said.
“I went to Ian Astbury [of the Cult], Boy George, Billy Idol and this one. And she’s come to all of those and Howard Jones, too,” Citilian says.
“Last time we were here, Richard had Billy Idol say hello to me,” Contreras says. “That was incredible. To see these icons like that. It’s an amazing opportunity that you’re never going to get at a concert.
“It’s like magic, watching magic happen,” she says. “Like when you’re a kid and you go on a field trip, except this is the best field trip you could possibly imagine.”
Citilian agreed, saying the intimacy of the event is without parallel.
“It’s very small and only so many people can come in to be so close and get to learn about the stars,” she says. “Sure, you can read about them in a book and all of that, but to get to hear it firsthand? And then when they interact with us in between.
“We love to worship our idols,” Citilian says. “But to get to see the humanity of them is really special.”
And Blade? Well, he’s just the best, say Citilian, who’d listened to him on KROQ and then SiriusXM since 1987, and Contreras, who only discovered him once he joined SiriusXM in 2003.
“He’s so kind to everyone. It’s like, ‘Oh, my friend is on the radio,’” Contreras says.
“And he really has maintained the same energy that he had back in KROQ days,” Citilian says. “He was so uplifting. Of course, the music is one thing, but his personality and demeanor, you could feel it through the radio.
“If you’re in your car, kind of feeling low, then you play 1st Wave when Richard’s on, your mood, no doubt, will be lifted,” she continued.
“He doesn’t pretend things aren’t happening in the world,” Contreras added. “But he gives you this feeling like we’re all in this together, you know? It’s great.”
Big love to all
Singer Ali Campbell’s current lineup of UB40 opened the in-studio portion of the happy hour with “Running Free,” an instrumental version of the title track from Campbell’s 2007 solo album.
Then Blade and Campbell, and sometimes the audience, were in conversation, with a scattering of UB40 songs – “Here I Am (Come and Take Me),” “One in Ten,” and “Kingston Town” interspersed.
Fans heard how Duran Duran used to rehearse next door to UB40 at a casino called the Rum Runner. How UB40 turned down an offer to be on Two Tone Records because they thought ska was old-fashioned. And how there’s a plaque on the wall outside the Hare & Hounds pub in Birmingham to commemorate the site of UB40’s first-ever performance.
“On the wall, it’s like ‘King Charles slept here,’” Blade joked.
“Yeah, I know,” Campbell said with a wry grin.
And they found out what Campbell’s father, the folk singer and promoter Ian Campbell, thought about his son’s career choice, too.
“Well, my dad was a folk singer, so he was horrified I started reggae band, you know?” Campbell replied. “He’d been going since the ’60s. He had a folk club, one of the biggest in Europe, as it happens, and we used to have Paul Simon staying at our house, and the Dubliners and the Chieftains and people like that.
“I hated folk music as I would,” he continued. ” And me dad, you know, didn’t like reggae. In fact, he was Scottish, and one time he said, ‘Why are you singing that gibberish out of here?’
“And I says, ‘Dad, “Hey, willy wallacky, hey, John Dougal / Alane, quo rushety, roo, roo, roo,”‘ Cambell said, singing a few lines of the traditional Scottish folk song “Wee Cooper O’ Fife.” “That’s gibberish, you know? Which is what he’s singing. So, yeah, my dad wasn’t most pleased.”
Blade wrapped it all up with a look-how-far-you’ve-come kind of question that noted one of the more exotic places UB40 has played recently.
“Would you say it’s better to be a rock star who can play in Tahiti than be an unemployed kid meeting in line to sign up for benefits?” Blade asked.
“Yeah,” Campbell replied with a laugh that was echoed by the fans in the small studio. “But I’m a reggae star. I’m not a rock star.”
“Well, for us you’re a star,” Blade said. “Ali Campbell and that unmistakable voice.”
Then, summing up what seemed to be the vibe of the patio.
“Big love to everybody,” Campbell replied.