Set in London in 1977, the plot takes place against the background of the Silver Jubilee. This is a buddy movie between two friends Chris and Caz who run a pirate radio station from a tower block in Dalston, East London. The film starts with a murder of their friend TJ while cruising for sex in the local park at night and, while Caz is cut up by the death of his friend, Chris seems to want to push forward towards a professional career in commercial radio. They both want to promote soul music while the prevailing popular music is punk.
Chris meets Tracy at the recording studio and persuades her to get his audition tape heard but he is not ready to sell out his identity to get a job in the mainstream. Caz meets a punk Billibud who talks about communism and the Socialist Workers Party, while wearing (admittedly nicked) Vivienne Westwood designer T-shirts. The murder and the different paths they seem to be taking causes tension between the buddies Chris and Caz.
Chris discovers that he has a tape recorded of the murder but fails to hand it in as evidence. He is then pulled in by the police as a suspect because he was in possession of TJ"s cassette radio. He tries to call Caz but Caz is busy with his new boyfriend and trying to get a bigger aerial for their pirate radio station. He calls Tracy and she helps him to get a solicitor. He tells her about the tape and she advises him to hand it in as evidence, but again, he puts this off.
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