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Mike Raven (1924 - 1997) Date of Birth: 15 November 1924 One has to admire the tenacity and single-mindedness of radio DJ turned Christopher Lee wannabe Mike Raven, whose passion for the occult and horror films led him to give up his radio career to try to make it in the heady world of 70s British horror. He only made four films, however, before the work dried up and he was forced to change careers again. Career changes were nothing new for Raven though - after graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford and serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles during World War II, he enjoyed stints as a ballet dancer with the Ballet Rambert, a photographer and an author - in 1952 he published his account of travels through the Spanish countryside, Another Spain. While traveling in Spain with his wife Aurelia, Raven had met the director Peter Brook, a meeting which led him into his first career as an actor, working extensively in ITV dramas as well as presenting the religious programmes The Ten Commandments and Songs That matter. In the early 60s, Raven landed a job on BBC radio, presenting among other things Woman's Hour. Changing his name to Mike Raven - he felt that Austin Fairman wasn't a suitable name for a DJ - he enjoyed a brief stint with Radio Atlanta, one of Britain's first pirate radio stations, co-founded by Raven's cousin and Liberal MP Oliver Smedley. Atlanta broadcast from the Panamanian registered vessel the Mi Amigo from its moorings off the coast of Frinton-on-Sea. When Atlanta merged with its more famous contemporary, the legendary Radio Caroline, Raven moved on to another pirate station, Radio Invicta which broadcast from a makeshift studio in a wartime defence tower on the treacherous Red Sands sandbank in the mouth of the River Thames. During Raven's tenure, the station changed its identity twice, becoming Radio King and finally Radio 390. Throughout, Raven presented a popular daily r&b show, Raven Around and also hosted a breakfast show with his second wife Mandy. Raven had a lifelong love for Blues and boasted a huge and impressive collection of rare recordings of the genre's finest performers. Throughout this period in the early 60s, Raven was an ardent campaigner for the legalisation of the pirate radios, lobbying Parliament through his cousin Smedley. But his work was largely undone when Smedley found an intruder in his house one night and killed him with a shotgun - the intruder turned out to be radio entrepreneur Reg Calvert, one of the many rivals that Smedley had made in the pirate radio business, and although Smedley was acquitted at trial on the grounds of self-defence, Raven decided that he should move on from Radio 390. A brief stint on Radio Luxembourg was cut short in late 1967 when Raven joined fellow DJ John Peel to help the BBC's Controller of the Light Programme, Robin Scott found the Beeb's new youth-oriented radio station Radio 1. The Mike Raven Blues Show debuted on the first day of Radio 1 and was a regular and popular fixture on the station from October 1967 until November 1971. At the turn of the 70s, Raven decided to return to acting, combining his former career with his passion for the occult to forge a new career in horror movies. He landed a small but pivotal role in Hammer's Lust For a Vampire (1971) but had his voice re-dubbed and inserts of Christopher Lee's Dracula stare edited in to replace his own eyes in close-up. By all accounts, Raven found the Hammer management too pretentious for his liking and he moved to rivals Amicus for another small role in Stephen Week's I, Monster (1971), an assignment he found much more enjoyable. Later that year, Raven met producer Tom Parkinson who was looking for someone who could play a "nutty sculptor" in his low budget horror Crucible of Terror and the two men struck up a good relationship. The shoot also introduced Raven to Cornwall, were he and his family found their new home. Raven hit it off so well with Parkinson that they decided to collaborate again, this time on Disciple of Death (1972), a film that had once been on Hammer's production slate, with Jimmy Sangster attached as director. Partly financed by Raven, the film was clearly a labour of love for the actor, though its subsequent poor showing - it ran for just one week in London - pretty well ended his career as a horror actor. Now happily settled in Cornwall, Raven again switched careers, this
time becoming an accomplished sculptor, creating religious works under
his given name. In 1980, the Fairman family moved to Bodmin Moor,
where - despite having no experience at all - Raven became a successful
sheep farmer. He continued to sculpt, particularly after being diagnosed
with a heart condition that meant an end to his farming. His first
exhibition was a success andone of his pieces, The Deposition
from the Cross, was later exhibited in the prestigious Images
of Christ exhibition, a collection of 20th century religious art staged
at Northampton and St Paul's Cathedral, London. A series of commissions
from around Europe followed and Raven continued to work on his sculpting
until his death in 1997. all as performer except where noted 1971 I,
Monster (Enfield) Lust
for a Vampire (Count Karnstein) 1972 WEB LINKS Austin
Churton Fairman (Mike Raven) - Life, Work & Sculptures
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