Last night, I came across a recording of a broadcast of the BBC series 'Marching and Waltzing' done in 1980 and was very glad to hear the familiar voice of Paddy O'Byrne who was working for the BBC at that time. He will never be forgotten.
I miss so much the old English service of SABC. I have learnt so much English. We had Paddy, Michael de Morgan, Bea Reed, Elween Morris, Etc, Etc. those days were beautiful. Our licence fee was well spent.
Imagine growing up in a world where there was no internet, no smartphones. No TH-cam, no Facebook, literally NO mobile phones. Now imagine no TV as well! Not a single house in the whole country has a TV set, there were no TV stations either. We're not talking about the middle ages, this was my childhood. Growing up in South Africa. But we did have radio. We listened to Radio plays and quiz shows most evenings. We had vinyl records. But no CDs or cassette tapes, also not invented yet. Amazingly we still had a great time, met our friends face-to-face, spent a lot of time outdoors. Not everything was great though. At school we were beaten fairly regularly for quite small things, for example arriving at school by 8:35 instead of 8:30 in the morning. And I mean bent over and whacked more than once on the backside with a stinging piece of bamboo, or a plank if it was the woodwork teacher. Add to this Apartheid in full flow, massive repression of the black population in the background, although as a younger kid we were blissfully unaware, so not a rosy picture. Hearing Paddy O' Byrne now takes me back to the lounge of my childhood home, sitting around and listening to the radio. Happy times, as a young kid. Sad to hear he died way back already and I had no idea.
From what I've been able to make out, Paddy O'Byrne was to the BBC and to Johannesburg what Paul Harvey was to the U.S. I first knew of Paddy from his narration of "Animals Are Beautiful People."
Last night, I came across a recording of a broadcast of the BBC series 'Marching and Waltzing' done in 1980 and was very glad to hear the familiar voice of Paddy O'Byrne who was working for the BBC at that time. He will never be forgotten.
I miss so much the old English service of SABC. I have learnt so much English. We had Paddy, Michael de Morgan, Bea Reed, Elween Morris, Etc, Etc. those days were beautiful. Our licence fee was well spent.
Imagine growing up in a world where there was no internet, no smartphones. No TH-cam, no Facebook, literally NO mobile phones.
Now imagine no TV as well! Not a single house in the whole country has a TV set, there were no TV stations either.
We're not talking about the middle ages, this was my childhood. Growing up in South Africa.
But we did have radio. We listened to Radio plays and quiz shows most evenings. We had vinyl records. But no CDs or cassette tapes, also not invented yet.
Amazingly we still had a great time, met our friends face-to-face, spent a lot of time outdoors.
Not everything was great though. At school we were beaten fairly regularly for quite small things, for example arriving at school by 8:35 instead of 8:30 in the morning. And I mean bent over and whacked more than once on the backside with a stinging piece of bamboo, or a plank if it was the woodwork teacher.
Add to this Apartheid in full flow, massive repression of the black population in the background, although as a younger kid we were blissfully unaware, so not a rosy picture.
Hearing Paddy O' Byrne now takes me back to the lounge of my childhood home, sitting around and listening to the radio. Happy times, as a young kid. Sad to hear he died way back already and I had no idea.
Oh my the memories of my childhood...I miss Springbok radio......😘
Paddy O'Byrne was a wonderful person with a most beautiful voice, and a vast knowledge of music. He is sadly missed.
Paddy O'Byrne enhanced the whole radio experience, multi-talented man. So miss those days when radio was king!
The epic voice of Gods Must Be Crazy!!!
Haha YES! That's what brought me here. Such an original nostalgic voice from the old days.
Animals are Beautiful People is still no1 documentary movie for me and a big thanks to Paddy for great narratorship.
From what I've been able to make out, Paddy O'Byrne was to the BBC and to Johannesburg what Paul Harvey was to the U.S. I first knew of Paddy from his narration of "Animals Are Beautiful People."
Also worked on BBC Radio Two and Capital Radio in the UK and on RTE in Eire
the gods must be crazy
Where are the full clips? His radio crime dramas?!?!?!
Gods Must be Crazy