Very saddened to hear of the death of Mike Allen yesterday after years of suffering Alzheimer’s disease. Mike was a legend in Hip Hop radio in the UK who schooled many people during the mid 80s via his weekend shows on Capital Radio in London. Without him many of us who lived outside London and couldn’t pick up the pirate stations would have had no weekly access to new releases, never known about Groove Records, the famous import shop in Soho, and never gone to events like UK Fresh ’86 or Freestyle ’85. His Capital Rap Show (aka Allen’s Army on Maneuvers) ran from late 1984 to July 1987. During 1985 it ran on Friday, Saturday & Sunday but changed to Friday & Saturday during ’86 and ’87
I first heard pretty much every now classic Hip Hop artist, group or track on his shows between 1985-87 alongside interviews with Mantronix and the legendary Word of Mouth & DJ Cheese session. After ’87 he moved to LBC and continued his show on a Sunday under the banner of ‘Street Talk’ as well as hosting a late night talk radio format and later still joined Smooth Radio. There’s a great interview with him over on the DiscoScratch site. I can’t speak for anywhere else but the South East of England but before Westwood or Dave Pearce on Radio London there was Mike Allen, flying the flag for Hip Hop in the UK. I owe a large part of my Hip Hop education to this man. RIP “The Boss In London”
Our crew of BBoys up in the north of Scotland were lucky enough to get hold of tape recordings of Mike Allen’s radio show.
Kept us right up to date with what was coming out of the US & the UK.
Hip-hop radio legend.
I’ve only just heard that Mike’s No2 during the Hut Hotel days, Garry Wilkes aka Gary Durran passed away some time ago. Garry was a real friend and former school mate in Guildford. He went on to working in some of the clubs in Guildford ( Harvest Moon, Dronfields etc ) and ran his own mobile (Libra) doing regular village hall nights in Surrey alongside my outfit (Destination) as part of the notorious Inquisition Roadshow agency.To promote the agency, we even had the four mobiles and a band set up together in the same hall and performing in rotation ! Great memories.
Recently discovered him on YouTube. Fresh! Rip
Tonight I am listening to an old mate of mine do a show that is all old school Hip Hop. In my world, Mike Allen is still a strong force and to me, is the grandfather of my love and passion for Hip Hop. I’ll never forget staying up late, with my mattress on the floor trying to stay awake to flip the tape and even asking my mum to turn the tape over, making sure she understood how important it was. I first heard Mike in 1985 when I was listening to him in Petersfield in Hampshire. When I tell you I never missed a show, I mean it was basically a religion to me. He will always be with me and tonight he is in my thoughts. I salute you and thank you for spoon feeding me Hip Hop to make me what I am today! Peace, Love & Unity to Mike & All True Old School Heads.
Being a great LBC fan all my life I have only just found out of the passing of the Mike Allen, miss his smooth dry wit..I’ve no idea yet how he died and how old etc, I am sure he wasn’t that old… RIP
RIP to the greatest radio perso that ever lived. What a guy…smooth as silk, always immaculately turned out.
A gent and a genius!
Fond memories of a lovely comforting voice when I was very unwell in 1988 and had LBC on at night. Great loss.
Nigel, your comments brought back memories as I used to put some of my gear into the Hut for Mike. Also gigged with him in the 70’s. Mike was so smooth, especially on the Nightflight show. Working with Mike didn’t seem like work. RIP Mike
Loved the Boss Mike Allen. Got me into Hip Hop and electro .
I later became a DJ and have been for 25 years all thanks to him
Come on!! Where’s da rest of true old school hip-hop heads at???? Mike deserves more tributes on here..he literally brought hip-hop FIRST to uk radio..he made so many tape his shows wid da freshest new tunes! Westwood joined capital in early ’88 i believe, and paved da way wid da hottest joints during hip-hops golden era!! R.I.P Mike ‘the boss’ Allen!!
Just read the sad news.
I worked as a DJ with a mate Garry Durran doing warm up for Mike at the Hut Hotel, Wisley, Surrey (long since gone). This was prior to Mike working on Capital- I think he started there on the Nightflight show , before taking over Gerald Harpers’daytime slot, and really making a name for himself.
My overriding memory of Mike is how laid back he was, often greeting revellers at ‘The Hut’ with ‘Hi Gang’ !!
Legend or wat! Mike i also owe alot of my hip-hop education to you ‘the boss’..he phoned me once before he went on air, cos i wrote a letter to him and asked how to become a hip-hop radio dj??? I was shocked! I must of been 12/13 at the time…i taped your capital radio shows every friday/saturday nite,rest in peace!! Great man great musicd??
Hi Kathy, I don’t know because I never met him but that’s Mike in the pic above (admittedly, from the 80s) his hands seem to look OK from what I can see.
My cousin Mike Allen DJ passed away , can I ask people that knew him, did this Mike Allen have a badly deformed hand from a fire when he was young.
Mike Allen on capital wow what a legend, it only seems like only yesterday when I was listening to the latest hip hop and electro on 95.8. It’s hard to believe how fast time goes, the memories are still there though, I always use to go to groove records to get the latest import. There is one track which gives me a lump in the throat when I hear it and Mike Allen always pops up in my mind when I play it. (TERMINATOR by KID FROST) the start is awesome as Mike would say. The boss in London you will sure be missed.
Devastated really. I think a special place on my board would be nice to store videos and links to shows would be a nice tribute. I was in Aldershot in those early days. You could pick up Capital and I would tape all those Friday and Saturday night shows. I liked Midnight Encounters too and I feel that Mike did for Electro and hop hop was like what Peel did for alternative rock; he gave it a face, an identity.
And that voice! It was like no other. Mike, rest in peace my friend and thank you for so much entertainment and special times.
The Boss – you will always be in our hearts.
Wow, that’s lovely Mandy, I remember hearing some of his talk shows, glad to know he went on to connect people like that despite it being a whole different Mike from the one I grew up on.
In 1993 Mike Allen ran a part of his talk show as ‘midnight encounters’. I was at home and washing the kitchen floor one Friday when I heard it and I called. The rest is history as I met a man who heard me on there and totally changed my life. Almost 23 heats later we always, when eating out, drink a toast ‘To Mike Allen, he has a lot to answer for! ‘ we were unsuccessful in tracing him to invite him to our wedding. Only now we’ve heard of his passing.
We will continue to drink that toast.