Best known as one of Britain’s sharpest comedy minds, Richard Curtis is the man behind the brilliant Blackadder and the painfully romantic Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral and many more. We have to admit, he has this natural understanding of how music affects emotion, memory, and connection.

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In 2009, he turns his attention to pirate radio of the 1960s, not for nostalgia, but for the sound itself.

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The Movie: Great Cast, but Not a Hit

The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio in North America) is a 2009 comedy-drama written and directed by Richard Curtis, set in 1966. We follow the “Radio Rock” crew, a band of DJs broadcasting hits from a rusty ship in the North Sea, constantly defying a government obsessed with silencing their groove. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Katherine Parkinson, and a young Tom Sturridge are all in the cast, and they all seem to be having a great time. 

It misses the mark commercially, but it’s still a fun, light-hearted experience.

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​The Soundtrack: Not Quite Funk but Getting There!

The film is inspired by real pirate radio stations that operated outside the law, creating a free-flowing playlist. The Boat That Rocked soundtrack has the same energy—released on Mercury Records in 2009 as a double album packed with classics from the 1960s (and a few newer ones). 

This isn’t a funk soundtrack—but there are moments, textures, grooves, some funk-adjacent gems, and soul rhythms hidden inside rock structures.

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iPods and the 60s Sound

The real story here is in how the music was prepared: Richard Curtis loads hundreds of songs onto iPods (this is 2009, so we’re deep in the iPod and iTunes era), and gives them to the actors, carefully matching each playlist to the specific DJ character. Roughly thirty songs per character. 

The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) plays American pop hits like The Mamas and the Papas, The Four Tops, and The Box Tops. Dave (Nick Frost) has British rock and blues like The Spencer Davis Group, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks. Gavin (Rhys Ifans) is The Rolling Stones guy. 

Many of these tracks are cleared for the film’s soundtrack for the first time. 

To give a glimpse of the film’s spirit, I am sharing the stag scene set to 'Lazy Sunday' by Small Faces. 👆

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Jimi Hendrix and 1966!

And then comes the key moment: right in the middle of all this carefully curated 60s radio, Jimi Hendrix’s presence is felt! 

The film pays a somewhat weird homage to Hendrix’s 1968 masterpiece Electric Ladyland. The scene featuring Midnight Mark surrounded by his groupies is a recreation of the controversial European album cover (not a preference of Hendrix—he is said to have strongly detested that cover. His original & preferred vision is realized decades later, in the 50th Anniversary version, with the use of a photo taken by Linda McCartney). 

But on the positive side, the film’s 1966 setting is also the year when Hendrix arrives in London, backed by Chas Chandler of The Animals, and forms The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. In just a few months, they take the UK by storm with hits like ‘Hey Joe,’ ‘Purple Haze,’ and ‘The Wind Cries Mary.’ 

Hendrix’s influence, of course, goes beyond rock, feeding directly into funk, funk‑rock, and funk‑soul, inspiring artists like Prince, George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, and many others! 💥

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Gülben - 4/2026

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