Leisure Music – Silverhill St Leonards-on-Sea 1973

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supplied by Nick Prince

Flyer supplied by Barry French

Robert Searle… Bought a Fender Mustang bass there ,you know the one with the white stripe on it.

Colin Fox… Am I correct in saying that Bonners owned it. I remember Eddie Sargent, (Eastbourne guitarist), worked there for a while and I bought a Yamaha SG in there.

Paul Dengate… Bonners at Silverhill was a different building/business, opposite side of the road to Leisure Music.

Mick O’Dowd… They had a practice room downstairs.

Robert Searle… Did Rev have,or had use of a studio there somewhere ?

Paul Dengate… Leisure Music had three adjacent shops. At the back of one was a small workshop accessed by a path from the road at the side. I understand Rev did have a studio there but I never saw it. I went to work at Leisure Music after leaving Mullett Smith Music in Robertson Street. While I worked at Leisure Music, I rented the building at the back which could be used by bands for rehearsing or I’d use it for recording (The Box). I believe that when I left Leisure Music, it was still used for rehearsals but not looked after.

Andy Qunta… Spent many happy hours, & quite a few pounds, at Leisure Music! Rehearsed with Factory at the studio in the back a few times too!

Andy Caine… Loved leisure music! Spent so much time there! Bought my first serious guitar from Paul Dengate, “wish I’d kept it!” Gibson S G with bigsby for £220. Where is John English these days? Stepping out, roaring 80’s…. Great days! I rehearsed in Denmark Street a couple of weeks ago, out the back. Reminded me of the box! Sadly looks as though those studios will be history soon too!

Andy Qunta… I think the first gig with Jim Jim & The Jims was at Leisure Music, & Mick Abrahams, ex-Jethro Tull was a guest player. Pete Prescott, Pete Shaw, Ray Fenwick, Dermot Murphy & maybe Andy Caine & others were the Jims that day!

Martyn Baker… I always loved the Jims sets. Proper music played properly! I also loved The Teenbeats taking the piss too!

Pete Fisher… have to dig out the receipt for my Vox AC15 – I think that came from Leisure Music in 73?

Pete Millington… Spent quite a bit of money there

Ken Copsey… Leisure Music was the centre of my musical world from the age of 16-18. Played for the first time with the Teenbeats in The Box. Huggy jumping through a plasterboard partition, resting a certain part of his anatomy on Dave Blackman’s floor tom mid song! John English was always such a lovely bloke. I still have my Musicman RD 1×12 combo I bought from there. Wish I’d bought the late 60’s paisley Telecaster I saw hanging there once. Think this had belonged to Paul Dengate?

Pete Fisher… Pretty sure that’s where my very first (Vox AC15) amp came from…still have the receipt somewhere…

Alan Esdaile… Remember John English, yes he was a nice guy.

Roy Penfold… Pete,  I wish I still had the AC15 I inherited from an uncle….beautiful sound!

Pete Fisher… also sold mine about four years after I’d bought it in 1972, which I regretted later, just like all the other amps I sold over the years…this is what mine sounded like back in the day in Hastings with Pueblo…very lo-fi recording, but gives you an idea! This and all the other tracks here on my live page are downloadable as high quality wav files, just click on the More icon below the track…

https://soundcloud.com/pete-fisher-live-and-direct/pueblo

Roy Penfold… That sounds good Pete- mind you with such a line up could it fail to sound good?  It never ceased to amaze me how a ‘small’ (if you can describe it as such with the weight of it) nominally 15W amplifier could get so loud!

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