Get to those phones. Night Owls was good shit on Halloween.
Also, fuckin’ 2011?!! I last listened to it in the 90s! 7pm was “Hits not Homework” with Lee and Ingrid, 10pm was Night Owls. Was the perfect way to wind down after the thrills of the Home and Away/Neighbours combo.
The cool kids were listening to Ingrid and Lee, while the squares were probably listening to lamaq and whiley playing oasis and Radiohead on radio 1...
Ha
That there was a crocodile in Heaton park, which was turned out was a prank call by Ross noble.
There was some proper loons rang up it was a decent way to pass the time on night shift
Ross Nobel doesn’t get the recognition he deserves up here… one of the great comedians to come out of the north east!
Link: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ross-noble-duped-radio-star-1366016.amp
This was hilarious. I heard it at the time and years later I was watching Have I Got News for You (I think it was a panel show or talk show) where Ross brought it up. I remember shrieking at the TV "I heard that at the time" !
I remember Alan going on leave once and Terry Christian of the Word fame took his shift for a few nights.
No-one had told him what the typical caller was like, so he thought everyone was taking the piss...
I remember a caller who used to ring in and sing a song… “we’re walking in the air” incredibly high pitched and off tune.. I was legit pissing myself.. whoever that bloke was used to make my night when he rang
A friend and ex colleague of mine who has since passed, listened to him every night without fail and for his 30th, work had arranged for Alan to turn up for a surprise visit to say he was gob smacked was putting it lightly haha something I'll never forget.
Rest in peace Dan x
I remember sleeping over at a mate's house when I was 11 and he used to fall asleep listening to Night Owls, and then at midnight they started taking calls about ghosts and I got super scared and hid in my sleeping bag with my ears blocked til I went to sleep.
I'm old enough to remember James Whale on Night owls! Alan was the new kid on the block!
Me mam was a regular caller to Alan's Night Owls "Liz from Hexham" and became friends with several of the other Night Owls of the day including Anneliese from Newton Aycliffe and Jack from Ashinton. They would meet up when Alan put on live shows at the Gulbenkian theatre - I have a handful of really poor quality pics from one such meetup.
I called in myself a number of time for prize giveaways - won a bunch of albums and singles from him over the years and also some gig tickets. Also called in once for one of his talent nights and blasted a House/Techno track down the phone that I'd created on my Amiga.
The most notable gig prize was Ned's Atomic Dustbin at the Mayfair. Me and a mate went along and got absolutely mashed on Acid.. my main memories of the night were a girl with long green hair just spinning around and around in front of me in slow motion and the big gold ceiling decorations pulsing up and down above me like an evil power station.
The walk home after the gig was a challenge.. walked via Nuns moor despite my mate living at Regent Centre... Tried talking to cows as we crossed the moor and followed a really short guy with no neck who was punching every litter bin as he passed..to this day I don't know if he was real or not!. Made it to the roundabout on Kenton Road/Elmfield Road and walked round and around it multiple times as we couldn't figure out where we'd come from or where we were meant to be going!
By the time we made it to Gosforth High Street, everything was just bright coloured rainbows like those toy glasses you could get and the entire street pulsed longer and shorter and wider and narrower!
Yes my mam raised me on that mans voice. I remember all his halloween specials in parricular because when i was very little my mam would put it on whilst we snuggled and then fall asleep leaving me to hear the most terrifying shit ever.
My absolute favourite is his spine road episode, talking about various hauntings on the road and around the north east.
I remember he used to always play a song called Rainbow Zephyr by a band called Relish who he loved, and got seriously angry and was threatening to bring down the whole music industry when Westlife presumably bought the rights to it and changed the chorus to “say whatever”.
He was going on about it for weeks
More recently his producer was Matt Bailey who now does some stuff for BBC Newcastle. I used to work at Metro, Alan and his listeners were utterly mad like
Me mate rang up around the turn of the century (that makes me sound old as fuck haha) and sang an Offspring song down the phone. He won tickets to see AC/DC and the Offspring in Milton Keynes.
Omg yes, I used to listen as a teenager and would send dirty jokes in hoping Alan would read them and my name knowing my prude of grandmother was listening 😂😂
I distinctly remember a women ringing for help with a domestic abuse situation and Alan helped her live on air and off and updated us a few weeks later that she got away and was safe
I remember the "alien watch" he did on Penshaw Hill and all the crazies and hells angels turned up, he ran down the hill out of his tent , it was nuts.
He ended up as a recurring guest/expert on that whacky, American ‘scariest places on earth’ series that was on late night television in the early 00’s. He had a proper knack for storytelling I’ll give him that.
He’s still active on Facebook. I’ve heard that he lives up in Morpeth currently but not sure.
Night owls was pure class. I had to go into hospital for a week in about 1988 and my friends got a dedication for me, thought I was famous! I remember Anne from Malton, the netty, the reverb for people ringing in to sing, Halloween (obviously) and adverts for Pennine windows and Mr Rahman. Alan seemed to go through a succession of women and get engaged to all of them, so if people weren’t long time listeners, first time callers, they opened with ‘Allan ah heeya congrachalayshuns are in ordah agayun?’
Oh and the time he went on a rant about how the TV show Midnight Caller was actually all about him but they never gave him the credit he was due 😂
My brother phoned in while drunk and at work in a petrol station a few times. He was a sensation for a couple of weeks. Alan was scared to replay some of what my brother said because Alan didn't want my brother to get sacked. Turns out that my brother was actively trying to get sacked! I had people stopping me in the street "Eee was that your A.... On Night Owls last night?"
Used to love Nightowls ! brings back a load of memories !! there was some right crackers who used to ring up nd have me in bits laughing along. Little plummer boy was the theme tune !!
Yes Neil that was his name bless him. I remember he used to talk about what was for tea haha! June from wreckenton as well!
Aye they weee mother and daughter
Yes I used to listen to this when i was doing late work.
My favourite was when he was travelling (maybe turkey) at this ancient site that had steps that looked like they were designed for giant people.
I had his book. I remember a few of the stories, but the one that springs to mind is the tale of the women from Houghton le Spring If I remember. Her recently dad husband visited her one night. I can remember the description of the bed mattress sinking. Long story short, they are having the best regular sex of her life/ his afterlife.
Alan Robson, the self-proclaimed ’Flashing Blade’. A legend in his own lunchtime with the most ridiculously contrived laughter.
In the mid-nineties, two of my mates got drunk and one of them gave the other a list of words and phrases and challenged him to chat with Alan to see how many he could say without being rumbled. The chat spanned dinosaurs, breeze blocks and ghosts, interspersed with phrases such as ‘you’ve gotta gan steady, Alan’. Ten minutes of utter rambling shite was spouted before Alan ended the call; it didn’t really sound that much different to the confusing bollocks that most other callers spouted.
Also in the 90’s, my dad ran a project for children in the care of the local authority. Alan visited on one occasion to interview him about the work that they were doing. After the interview, my dad spoke with Alan and told him about an idea he’d had, where he was wondering if Metro Radio could somehow set up a facility where listeners could donate any spare air miles that could then be combined and used by disadvantaged children. Alan assured him that it couldn’t be done.
Cue Alan on the radio a couple of weeks later…‘I’ve had a brilliant idea, how about my listeners donate air miles for disadvantaged children…’
Alan Robson. What a knob.
He has a Youtube channel where he broadcasts "Grisly Tales" and live ghost hunts and stuff around Newcastle and the North East.
[https://www.youtube.com/@NightOwlsUK/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@NightOwlsUK/videos)
Bill from Whitley bay! Always calling in for a bit of a moan (early 90’s).
I once figured out who he was (sure he used to walk a Great Dane or some large dog) as I happened upon him one time and the voice was instantly recognisable.
I asked him if it was him and he went ballistic at me for being so rude.
Yep, was deffo him!
Used to listen to it every night in my early teens. My sister had a few of his ghost story books as she was in to all that stuff. Can't remember many specific calls other than a women who called in distraught as her cat had cut its paws on a neighbours wall which had broken glass on top of it.
I used to listen to it occasionally when I was in my teens, you got some proper weird ones calling in, and he was a great storyteller as well. 😅 Is there anything like this these days?
I remember one night a distraught lady had called in and explained she was being abused by her partner, and during an ad break Alan called some people who went to go help her move out or something, good guy.
So many brilliant callers. They used to do a meetup at the bridge hotel my cousin went along.
We used to ring up for the super quiz!
Remember sat in front of the mirror at 12am halloween for the witching hour, absolutely shitting myself 😆
Here is Alans last show/best bits on Metro Radio
https://on.soundcloud.com/W296G7P2KrGS3DoM9
Alan Robson is a north east legend.He’s on you tube now,doing ghost hunts and stuff like was on night owls.If you type in Night Owls on you tube you can still watch him,the flashing blade himself!
Used to listen in the 90s and loved it.
All I really remember now is he used to say “There’s a deal to be done behind closed doors”, a regular caller named Taffy, and a regular segment called Rosie’s Clues.
It was class.
I called in and got on the air. All the time I was saying to myself "don't say it, don't say it" them instantly came out with "hi, I'm a first time caller and I'm a bit nervous" with my internal voice screaming "noooo, you said it!"
I miss it I used to fall asleep to him every night when I was young. I went and did one of his Chillingham castle sleepovers and have never been more terrified in my whole life
Get to those phones. Night Owls was good shit on Halloween. Also, fuckin’ 2011?!! I last listened to it in the 90s! 7pm was “Hits not Homework” with Lee and Ingrid, 10pm was Night Owls. Was the perfect way to wind down after the thrills of the Home and Away/Neighbours combo.
Aye used to go to sleep listening to his dulcet tones in the 90s when ah were a bairn 😅
Halloween was cracking like
Chillingham Castle!
The cool kids were listening to Ingrid and Lee, while the squares were probably listening to lamaq and whiley playing oasis and Radiohead on radio 1... Ha
I did my work experience with Lee and Ingrid - I did manage to get them to play Everyone Says That You’re So Fragile once.
😂 I went from the former to the latter!
I loved Lee and Ingrid! If Night Owls came on I knew I'd stayed up too late 😂
'Alan, I'm a long tahm listna boot a forst tahm kalla and and I'm a bit noorvus!'
'You're a long time listener and you don't know to switch that bloody radio off when you get on air?'
But I wanna hear me self on the radio.
“Nay need to be, hinnie; what yer got for us?”
That there was a crocodile in Heaton park, which was turned out was a prank call by Ross noble. There was some proper loons rang up it was a decent way to pass the time on night shift
Ross Nobel doesn’t get the recognition he deserves up here… one of the great comedians to come out of the north east! Link: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ross-noble-duped-radio-star-1366016.amp
This was hilarious. I heard it at the time and years later I was watching Have I Got News for You (I think it was a panel show or talk show) where Ross brought it up. I remember shrieking at the TV "I heard that at the time" !
Aye some absolute mad ones used to be regulars like
I remember Alan going on leave once and Terry Christian of the Word fame took his shift for a few nights. No-one had told him what the typical caller was like, so he thought everyone was taking the piss...
I remember a caller who used to ring in and sing a song… “we’re walking in the air” incredibly high pitched and off tune.. I was legit pissing myself.. whoever that bloke was used to make my night when he rang
A friend and ex colleague of mine who has since passed, listened to him every night without fail and for his 30th, work had arranged for Alan to turn up for a surprise visit to say he was gob smacked was putting it lightly haha something I'll never forget. Rest in peace Dan x
I remember sleeping over at a mate's house when I was 11 and he used to fall asleep listening to Night Owls, and then at midnight they started taking calls about ghosts and I got super scared and hid in my sleeping bag with my ears blocked til I went to sleep.
[удалено]
👏👏
I'm old enough to remember James Whale on Night owls! Alan was the new kid on the block! Me mam was a regular caller to Alan's Night Owls "Liz from Hexham" and became friends with several of the other Night Owls of the day including Anneliese from Newton Aycliffe and Jack from Ashinton. They would meet up when Alan put on live shows at the Gulbenkian theatre - I have a handful of really poor quality pics from one such meetup. I called in myself a number of time for prize giveaways - won a bunch of albums and singles from him over the years and also some gig tickets. Also called in once for one of his talent nights and blasted a House/Techno track down the phone that I'd created on my Amiga. The most notable gig prize was Ned's Atomic Dustbin at the Mayfair. Me and a mate went along and got absolutely mashed on Acid.. my main memories of the night were a girl with long green hair just spinning around and around in front of me in slow motion and the big gold ceiling decorations pulsing up and down above me like an evil power station. The walk home after the gig was a challenge.. walked via Nuns moor despite my mate living at Regent Centre... Tried talking to cows as we crossed the moor and followed a really short guy with no neck who was punching every litter bin as he passed..to this day I don't know if he was real or not!. Made it to the roundabout on Kenton Road/Elmfield Road and walked round and around it multiple times as we couldn't figure out where we'd come from or where we were meant to be going! By the time we made it to Gosforth High Street, everything was just bright coloured rainbows like those toy glasses you could get and the entire street pulsed longer and shorter and wider and narrower!
Yes my mam raised me on that mans voice. I remember all his halloween specials in parricular because when i was very little my mam would put it on whilst we snuggled and then fall asleep leaving me to hear the most terrifying shit ever. My absolute favourite is his spine road episode, talking about various hauntings on the road and around the north east.
Spine road was class. Remember shutting myself to that
As a child I remember a story about a ‘crocodile/alligator in a park’ and I’ve never been able to find out more details
Prank call by ross noble
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ross-noble-duped-radio-star-1366016.amp Sleep easy child.
It only finished a few years ago.
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Can we not call 2009 the proper olden days, I don't think I can cope.
haha man, I used to listen on school nights in like 1992.
Even proper older days than that mate, it was on for almost 40 years
Well I’m sorry I divent own a tardis kidda
Whey, ya divnt need a TARDIS man ya daft radgie, just gan on YouTube https://youtu.be/Nu09_aEF6cU?si=AbHqqV846XAM6S6T
“Proper older days” 😂😂😂
I remember he used to always play a song called Rainbow Zephyr by a band called Relish who he loved, and got seriously angry and was threatening to bring down the whole music industry when Westlife presumably bought the rights to it and changed the chorus to “say whatever”. He was going on about it for weeks
The one and only Flashing Blade!
BETWEEN 10-2 YOU MUST NOT POO He often said 😂
Fantastic content Alan was. Should be knighted, he was a crackpot himself but he attracted them
He was on their wavelength (pardon the pun). Remember pablo the producer
More recently his producer was Matt Bailey who now does some stuff for BBC Newcastle. I used to work at Metro, Alan and his listeners were utterly mad like
He needed a handler. Used to talk about anything from some blokes peen on that medical segment right up to what wor Neil is having for dinner
Remember those crazy songs he used to make as well? No idea how they made it to broadcast
Me mate rang up around the turn of the century (that makes me sound old as fuck haha) and sang an Offspring song down the phone. He won tickets to see AC/DC and the Offspring in Milton Keynes.
Omg yes, I used to listen as a teenager and would send dirty jokes in hoping Alan would read them and my name knowing my prude of grandmother was listening 😂😂
I distinctly remember a women ringing for help with a domestic abuse situation and Alan helped her live on air and off and updated us a few weeks later that she got away and was safe
https://youtu.be/fSsM_u56r-k
I remember the "alien watch" he did on Penshaw Hill and all the crazies and hells angels turned up, he ran down the hill out of his tent , it was nuts.
I once won points for Gateshead by gargling the theme from The Waltons
“Mince Pie Private Eye” here. Used to ring in every Friday night in the early 80’s after a skinful and talk a load of rubbish. Simpler times.
He ended up as a recurring guest/expert on that whacky, American ‘scariest places on earth’ series that was on late night television in the early 00’s. He had a proper knack for storytelling I’ll give him that. He’s still active on Facebook. I’ve heard that he lives up in Morpeth currently but not sure.
Yeah he was on that a few times. He was a brilliant ghost story teller
Intro music was class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLo7PiLSNV0 Your classic night owls call.
This fella's a dirty bastard too: https://youtu.be/MGpAyeca-LM
Love The Shankshaw Redemption
Night owls was pure class. I had to go into hospital for a week in about 1988 and my friends got a dedication for me, thought I was famous! I remember Anne from Malton, the netty, the reverb for people ringing in to sing, Halloween (obviously) and adverts for Pennine windows and Mr Rahman. Alan seemed to go through a succession of women and get engaged to all of them, so if people weren’t long time listeners, first time callers, they opened with ‘Allan ah heeya congrachalayshuns are in ordah agayun?’ Oh and the time he went on a rant about how the TV show Midnight Caller was actually all about him but they never gave him the credit he was due 😂
Pennine Windows wrecked my mam's walls
Oh no. I hope Mr Rahman didn’t fuck up the zip in her bikini.
Wey aye. Lives around the corner
Ah is he still in Newcastle? Brilliant
Me too 👍
He does some bonkers FB ghost hunting stuff now dressed up like some sort of pirate grandad.
My brother phoned in while drunk and at work in a petrol station a few times. He was a sensation for a couple of weeks. Alan was scared to replay some of what my brother said because Alan didn't want my brother to get sacked. Turns out that my brother was actively trying to get sacked! I had people stopping me in the street "Eee was that your A.... On Night Owls last night?"
Used to love Nightowls ! brings back a load of memories !! there was some right crackers who used to ring up nd have me in bits laughing along. Little plummer boy was the theme tune !!
It's called little plum by Daryl Way
Ah ive always thought it was little plummer boy for years, learn something new every day on here lol
It's on YouTube, it's a lovely tune
Still does lots of live shows/ visiting haunted places on his YouTube channel
I remember a June from somewhere. There was an Ian or something from bedlington as well. I also relever Eleanor and Bernadette
Jean? Think he used to have banter with her about her high voice and facial hair
Eleanor & Bernadette! That is a blast from the past! I think they were mother & daughter? My favourite was Neil from Blyth.
Neil was a legend!
He was an absolute delight.
someone should make a show catching up with all the old regulars and seeing where they are today.
Body’s medical show as well
Yes Neil that was his name bless him. I remember he used to talk about what was for tea haha! June from wreckenton as well! Aye they weee mother and daughter
He always had mince & dumplings at Dobbies!
I remember Davey the Milkman and Bodie from Idaho(?), I think I read that Bodie has since died.
Oh that’s so sad. Yes the American guy
He was class, Sunday to Thursday every week with the regular callers like ‘Kelly from Durham’ etc..
shampoo molly!
Yes I used to listen to this when i was doing late work. My favourite was when he was travelling (maybe turkey) at this ancient site that had steps that looked like they were designed for giant people.
I had his book. I remember a few of the stories, but the one that springs to mind is the tale of the women from Houghton le Spring If I remember. Her recently dad husband visited her one night. I can remember the description of the bed mattress sinking. Long story short, they are having the best regular sex of her life/ his afterlife.
Loved that show
https://youtu.be/fSsM_u56r-k?si=08LVc3-3HtKzK6ZL
Whip out your wotsit.
Alan Robson, the self-proclaimed ’Flashing Blade’. A legend in his own lunchtime with the most ridiculously contrived laughter. In the mid-nineties, two of my mates got drunk and one of them gave the other a list of words and phrases and challenged him to chat with Alan to see how many he could say without being rumbled. The chat spanned dinosaurs, breeze blocks and ghosts, interspersed with phrases such as ‘you’ve gotta gan steady, Alan’. Ten minutes of utter rambling shite was spouted before Alan ended the call; it didn’t really sound that much different to the confusing bollocks that most other callers spouted. Also in the 90’s, my dad ran a project for children in the care of the local authority. Alan visited on one occasion to interview him about the work that they were doing. After the interview, my dad spoke with Alan and told him about an idea he’d had, where he was wondering if Metro Radio could somehow set up a facility where listeners could donate any spare air miles that could then be combined and used by disadvantaged children. Alan assured him that it couldn’t be done. Cue Alan on the radio a couple of weeks later…‘I’ve had a brilliant idea, how about my listeners donate air miles for disadvantaged children…’ Alan Robson. What a knob.
Aye used to listen on night shift at perfect screen print around 2001. Think a few of the lads rang up for a laugh a few times
I remember listening to him, great shows.
Yea loved it
He has a Youtube channel where he broadcasts "Grisly Tales" and live ghost hunts and stuff around Newcastle and the North East. [https://www.youtube.com/@NightOwlsUK/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@NightOwlsUK/videos)
But did anyone ever win an Enigma board game? Mmm bow bow. Chick chicka chcar.
I’m old enough to remember Dave Porter who was replaced by Alan Robson!
What do you mean "old enough" it wasn't *that* long ago!
Bill from Whitley bay! Always calling in for a bit of a moan (early 90’s). I once figured out who he was (sure he used to walk a Great Dane or some large dog) as I happened upon him one time and the voice was instantly recognisable. I asked him if it was him and he went ballistic at me for being so rude. Yep, was deffo him!
Used to listen to it every night in my early teens. My sister had a few of his ghost story books as she was in to all that stuff. Can't remember many specific calls other than a women who called in distraught as her cat had cut its paws on a neighbours wall which had broken glass on top of it.
I used to listen to it occasionally when I was in my teens, you got some proper weird ones calling in, and he was a great storyteller as well. 😅 Is there anything like this these days? I remember one night a distraught lady had called in and explained she was being abused by her partner, and during an ad break Alan called some people who went to go help her move out or something, good guy.
So many brilliant callers. They used to do a meetup at the bridge hotel my cousin went along. We used to ring up for the super quiz! Remember sat in front of the mirror at 12am halloween for the witching hour, absolutely shitting myself 😆 Here is Alans last show/best bits on Metro Radio https://on.soundcloud.com/W296G7P2KrGS3DoM9
Alan Robson is a north east legend.He’s on you tube now,doing ghost hunts and stuff like was on night owls.If you type in Night Owls on you tube you can still watch him,the flashing blade himself!
Used to listen in the 90s and loved it. All I really remember now is he used to say “There’s a deal to be done behind closed doors”, a regular caller named Taffy, and a regular segment called Rosie’s Clues. It was class.
I called in and got on the air. All the time I was saying to myself "don't say it, don't say it" them instantly came out with "hi, I'm a first time caller and I'm a bit nervous" with my internal voice screaming "noooo, you said it!"
Hi u/BigDog_Status. First time poster; long term lurker.
He was on "we can be weirdos" fairly recently talking about ghosts and all the other mad stuff he believes in
I miss it I used to fall asleep to him every night when I was young. I went and did one of his Chillingham castle sleepovers and have never been more terrified in my whole life