Mike Raven

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Mike Raven
Born
Austin Churton Fairman

(1924-11-15)15 November 1924
sheep farmer, ballet dancer, flamenco
guitarist, photographer
Spouse(s)Aurelia Pascual y Pérez (1949–?)
Mandy Kilbey (1971–1997)
Children6
Parent(s)Austin Fairman
Hilda Moore

Austin Churton Fairman (15 November 1924 – 4 April 1997), who used the name Churton Fairman but was more widely known under the pseudonym Mike Raven in the 1960s and early 1970s, was a British radio disc jockey, actor, sculptor,

sheep farmer, writer, TV presenter and producer, ballet dancer, flamenco
guitarist and photographer.

Early life and career

Churton Fairman was born in London, the son of actors Austin Fairman (1892–1964) and Hilda Moore (c.1886–1929).

Ballet Rambert as a dancer, but then turned to photography, specialising in ballet shots.[3][4] He also worked as a conjuror and interior decorator.[5]

In 1949, he married Aurelia Pascual y Pérez, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War, and returned with her to her home. They had one son and three daughters together; they later divorced. He wrote a well-regarded travel book, Another Spain, published in 1952, about Spain's undiscovered countryside and in particular Aurelia's home village of Quintanarraya.[3][6]

While in Seville for the Holy Week celebrations there, he met the director Peter Brook. This led to him returning to London and becoming an actor, director and production manager on dramas on ITV. When ITV's Stars on Sunday religious series ended, he presented both the Ten Commandments programme and its successor, Songs That Matter, as well as contributing to ATV's weekday Epilogue. He also acted on stage in Moscow in the 1950s with John Gielgud, and occasionally played flamenco guitar music in a Spanish restaurant in London.[3][7]

Radio career

In the early 1960s, still using his real name, he began working for

BBC radio, presenting talks and, occasionally, Woman's Hour.[7] However, when his cousin, Liberal Party politician Oliver Smedley, founded the pirate radio station Radio Atlanta, he joined the station as a disc jockey, broadcasting from the ship Mi Amigo moored off the Essex coast near Frinton-on-Sea. At that point, he began using the name Mike Raven, and presented shows which focused on his love of American blues, rhythm and blues and soul music, of which he owned a large record collection.[7] In 1964 he married Mandy Kilbey, sometimes presenting radio programmes jointly with her; they later had two sons.[3]

With Smedley, he became an active campaigner lobbying Parliament for the legalisation of the pirate radio stations, until Smedley was accused of causing the death of rival radio entrepreneur

R&B show until November 1966.[8]

A compilation album, The Mike Raven Blues Show, billed as "twice voted top pirate radio show", was issued on the Xtra label, a subsidiary of

Texas Alexander, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Gus Cannon, Robert Johnson, Speckled Red, Victoria Spivey, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson, Brownie McGhee, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Elmore James.[9]

After working for a short time for

African American culture within the UK, being described as "essential listening for every self-respecting blues fan".[4][5][10]

Later life

In 1971 he decided to leave radio and to return to acting, combining his former career with his passion for the

pigsty at Penpol, Lesnewth.[3] Raven and Parkinson collaborated again on Disciple of Death (1972), which Raven partly financed.[7] However, its poor commercial performance effectively ended his acting career – one critic described the film as "so incoherent that it comes across as a Dada nightmare".[10] He also appeared on the television music show 2 G's and the Pop People (1972), performing a version of "Monster Mash
".

He reverted to using his real name in 1974, and began to produce carvings in wood and granite, combining religious and erotic imagery. In 1977 he moved with his family to South Penquite, near

St George's Church, Bloomsbury, in 1990, and later at the Penzance Gallery.[3] One of his pieces, The Deposition from the Cross, was later exhibited in the Images of Christ exhibition of 20th-century religious art staged at Northampton and St Paul's Cathedral, London. A series of commissions followed, from around Europe.[7]

On the 25th anniversary of the start of Radio 1, in 1992, it was at first rumoured that he was dead, and someone making personal appearances as Mike Raven was exposed as a fraud. Eventually an appeal for information about him was heard by a butcher in Cornwall, who revealed Fairman's change of name and whereabouts.[3]

He wrote of himself:

Now, looking back from the comparative serenity of old age, I can see that my whole life has been conditioned by two main elements; my consistently unsuccessful struggle to come to terms with my own sexuality, and my, consequently, equally unsuccessful attempts to live up to my Christian beliefs...[13]

Death

Fairman died in 1997, and was buried in a grave he had dug for himself on Bodmin Moor.[3]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Austin Fairman at IMDb. Accessed 26 July 2010
  2. ^ Hilda Moore at IMDb. Accessed 26 July 2010
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Obituary by Leigh Hatts, The Independent, 29 April 1997. Accessed 26 July 2010
  4. ^ a b c d Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 3 May 1997. Accessed 26 July 2010
  5. ^ a b Mike Raven at OffshoreRadio.co.uk. Accessed 26 July 2010
  6. ^ Article (in Spanish) about Another Spain. Accessed 26 July 2010
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Mike Raven at EOFFTV. Accessed 26 July 2010
  8. ^ a b Mike Raven at RadioRewind. Accessed 26 July 2010
  9. ^ Sleeve of The Mike Raven Blues Show LP. Accessed 27 July 2010
  10. ^ a b Mike Raven at IMDb. Accessed 26 July 2010
  11. ^ Review of Crucible of Terror. Accessed 29 July 2010
  12. ^ South Penquite Farm. Accessed 29 July 2010
  13. ^ Online sculpture gallery at BodminMoor.co.uk. Accessed 26 July 2010

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mike_Raven&oldid=1219549176"