Conceived in the high-rise Oliver Close Estate in the heart of Leyton, Friends FM (100.7FM) was born out of frustration when founder Roy Balfourth (aka Mad B) tried to pull a few family members together to create a station and found no one to match his enthusiasm.
Having gained notoriety DJing a pre-rave-era mix of soul and rare groove with his Crystal Incorporated Soundsystem and doing time as a runner for the Catford pirate station London Weekend Radio,
Roy developed an almost utopian vision of a station that would bring the sounds of the underground to a far wider audience. Roy explains, “There was acid house, there was the hip-hop that people weren’t really taking hold of yet, there was hardcore, the breakbeat that was coming through – I didn’t care what people was playing, as long as it was dance music. I shunned the charts because I just thought the national charts, as it was, was a big con. I didn’t like what it was doing and I wanted to do something different.” pirate of Waltham Forest
