Francis Rossi OBE

Francis Rossi, OBE is a legendary British musician and co-founder of the English rock band Status Quo, in which he is lead vocalist and plays lead guitar. Francis has long been regarded as one of the finest Rock performers that the UK has ever produced and his songwriting has been duly recognised by the Classic Songwriter Award and the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Radio Caroline and Status Quo have a long association going back decades, with the band being a regular Caroline artist. The Status Quo song "Rock ‘N’ Roll" includes the line ‘waiting all the time to find radio plays on Caroline,’ and Francis says Caroline allowed many bands like Status Quo to be heard. He is glad now to repay the favour by lending his own voice in support of this project.

Chris de Burgh

Chris de Burgh is a well-known British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Few artists can lay claim to international success spanning five decades but Chris de Burgh has achieved just that. He celebrates 50 years in music in 2025 with a new album 50 and a tour in February and March 2025. The foundations for a remarkable and durable career were laid back in 1975 with the release of Chris’ debut album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls. Subsequent records, almost in turn, continued to steadily draw in audiences around the world. His 1986 hit "Lady in Red" was played by Radio Caroline DJs from Ross Revenge as a way of communicating urgent and secret messages to the shore-based team.

Lawrie Hallet

Dr Lawrie Hallett worked on Radio Caroline during the 1980's, mostly behind the scenes, but also, briefly, on-air as Brian Marshall.

With a background in Journalism and broadcast engineering, he worked for Ofcom between 2004 and 2012 where he was mainly involved with Community Radio licensing and DAB roll-out.

However, he was also responsible for writing the 648 kHz Ofcom paper, which eventually allowed Caroline to broadcast on that frequency.

Currently working at the University of Bedfordshire, since 2010, Lawrie has been a Trustee of the Norwich based Charity 'Future Projects' which operates the Community Radio station in the city, 'Future Radio'.

Mike Finney

Mike Finney came to our notice as one of two adventurers who bought the ex BBC World Service facility at Orfordness, left redundant but essentially complete when the site was abandoned. This was kindly offered to Radio Caroline to use.

When Mike visited Ross Revenge he seemed very knowledgeable such that we discovered that he had once been Commander Mike Finney RN with a prestigious naval career culminating in him having command of HMS Sceptre a nuclear hunter killer submarine, a vessel which itself had a colourful and eventful service life prior to being decommissioned in 2010. We are glad that Mike has offered us his marine experience and knowledge.

Stewart Payne

Stewart Payne is a journalist and writer. He studied journalism in Sheffield and then joined a regional evening newspaper in Reading before moving on to Fleet Street where he spent 30 years as a news reporter, foreign correspondent, war correspondent and investigations editor.

His work took him to a great many parts of the world, reporting from Bosnia and Croatia during the conflict there, to the Middle East for both Gulf Wars, and on assignments to cover hijackings, hostage takings, famines and other major international incidents.

He was accredited to cover every overseas trip by Prince Charles and Princess Diana as they visited Commonwealth countries and others, in Africa, Asia, Australia and Canada.

He was also an investigative reporter, winning awards and helping to achieve changes in welfare law for uncovering child abuse in London children’s homes and elsewhere.

He is married to a project manager for an international company and together they have one son, now a young adult and working in London in policy and communications.

Stewart first listened to Radio Caroline in 1965 in his early teens, and became impassioned as the “pirate” stations faced retrospective Government legislation to outlaw their broadcasts. Offshore radio – its highs and lows - became a lasting interest and, over many years, he has written widely about Caroline and its struggle for survival.

Stewart’s interests include cricket, Woking FC, skiing, walking holidays, socialising and good pubs selling good beer. He lives with his wife in a small village in the Surrey Hills countryside where he is a member of its parish council and a trustee of several small charities.

Peter Moore

Peter started work in 1964 with a menial role in a large firm making specialised motor industry components. Later he took on a design role and became the technical advisor for the firm before starting his own motor business, while briefly assisting Radio Caroline under the guidance of Robb Eden who was administering the station in the late 70's.

From the mid 80's he again devoted time to Caroline becoming centrally involved and taking responsibility for Ross Revenge in her derelict condition after a 1991 shipwreck, overseeing such repair work as could be done.

From 2014 with assistance and legal advice, the mysterious background of Ross Revenge was unravelled and by 2017 he was declared the owner of the ship until the charity was established when the ship was awarded to the charity of which he is the Head Trustee.

His background was always Engineering and now self taught Marine Engineering. His interests are in classic cars and boats and property development.

Steve Taplin

Having retired from a 42 year career with a major UK banking group in 2010, I joined Radio Caroline, becoming part of the MV Ross Revenge, restoration crew. After a couple of years, I was able to fulfill a lifelong desire to become a presenter on the Station, using the on-air name of Steve Anthony.

Since then, in addition to programming duties my involvement has increased ‘behind the scenes’ by undertaking many administration tasks, including roles as Company Secretary and Director of Radio Caroline AM Broadcasting Ltd, the Company that holds the Station’s broadcast licence.

After many years of considering the future of the historic radio ship, M.V Ross Revenge, the charity was formed to protect the vessel, seek funding for its restoration and to manage this process. I was appointed a Trustee as part of the team to ensure the future of the MV Ross Revenge is secure and that it will be available for future generations to appreciate.

John Day

John Day joined Radio Caroline in 1994 as an engineer when Ross Revenge first moved to the Blackwater Estuary. The ship was in a bad way at that time and needed a lot of work. He brought his engineering skills to a hard-working team led by Peter Clayton, who were proficient in engineering, electrics and welding. The team worked long hours to get the vessel in a reasonable condition and even got the main engine running a few times.

When Ross Revenge left the Blackwater under tow for an RSL broadcast offshore from Clacton in 1995, John was the ship’s engineer where his efforts kept the station on air. In September the ship moved to Southend and anchored off the coast. The anchor was then raised and the Ross moored up at the end of Southend Pier. John and his team spent that time painting and getting Ross Revenge ready for the next big move later that month, to West India Docks in London where she acted as a base for another Radio Caroline RSL broadcast.

John worked tirelessly on ship maintenance In London. One job was to fit a silencer to the generator, it didn’t have one and as it was moored alongside office blocks there were complaints about the noise. After a 28-day RSL broadcast Ross Revenge went into dry dock at Chatham. When it came out there was a FM broadcast during which time John worked as transmitter, studio and diesel engineer. The next move was to Queensborough. During its time there, there were a couple of fundraising broadcasts, and John was in charge of these.

After taking a short break while the ship was in Tilbury Docks, John returned to Ross Revenge in 2014 when the ship returned to the Blackwater Estuary. His first job was to get toilets working, repair the fuel transfer pump, boarding steps and doors, replace the faulty fresh water pump, and also paint the ship, assisted by his colleague Jovita.

Monthly Radio Caroline North broadcasts started in 2015 and since that time John has been a vital part of the North team, responsible most things technical and structural.

With his years of experience working on board Ross Revenge, John knows more about the ship than anyone else.

Paula Shaw

Paula Shaw is a journalist who worked on a number of periodicals before moving into public relations.

She has worked for the Conservative Party and Crompton Parkinson, and has held corporate and press relations management positions in Marconi and BT.

She has also worked as a PR consultant.

Paula has been involved with Radio Caroline for eight years in a number of areas, including advertising and promotions. She has managed trips to tour Ross Revenge for the past seven years and during that time more than 6,000 people have visited the ship.