February 5, 2021

A Tuesday Night in Hastings in February 1980 and always a packed house for Jim Jim & The Jims.

Pete Prescott… Amazing band.Only played for a year. Ray Fenwick Pete Shaw Dermot Murphy Andy Caine Andy Qunta and me. Then later we were joined by Terry Pack and when they were around Wes Magoogan Steve Kinch Tony Qunta and Tich Turner.one or two gig had ALL of the above. Someone said it sounded like a fire in a pet shop! I did get a bit bored by the very long solos (at the beginning the songs were shorter And snappier).one blues jam lasted 27 mins! but such a great band. Amazing players. A lot of fun !

Andy Qunta… Fire in a pet shop, Pete? Ha ha! Great!

Ernest Ballard… Remember all the Jims well.

Andy Qunta… Funnily enough I was just listening to a recording of the Jims that someone (Pete Shaw I think!) kindly sent me. What a great band, and so much fun! When’s the reunion gig, fellow Jims?

Martyn Baker… They were a great band to see and hear live, but I still curl up with laughter, remembering various members of The Teenbeats worshipping Ray’s guitar solos! Loved it all.

Mark Gilham… Comedy Gold. Wish I’d have been there.

Phil Gill… Mark, it was comedy gold. Ray called them babies. They did the “We’re not worthy!” routine 20 years before Wayne’s World.

Pete Prescott… The teenbeats were bit unhappy with Ray one night and the piss taking got out of hand. Ray was playing the intro to Smoke On The Water ha ha ! The local paper mentioned it. I have the clipping somewhere. Ray played some amazing guitar in that band. In the studio he could be a nightmare but he was responsible for some great music and recordings at that time. I would love to sing with him again.

Martyn Baker… As a disinterested member of the audience that night in the Chatsworth – I found it hilarious Pete! The music was fab though!

Pete Prescott… I have the same tape Pete gave to Andy. Good memories. Smoke from a distant fire by the Sandford Townshend band. What a song !

Andy Qunta… Yes, that was a really fun song!

Martin Richter… 8 bar solo followed by 8 bars glass collecting ? <sorry> nicked that from Spike Milligan

Geoff Peckham… Confession: During this season and ’68, I, and a couple of other lads in mid-teens, hung out at Combe Haven caravan park offering ‘holiday romances’ to girls of a similar age and persuasion. Can’t remember if we had any takers…..

Dave Weeks… I think it was the done thing at the time. I remember sneaking into the swimming pool at night too. No real security then

Terry Pack… I did that trio gig in about 1983/4. The trio was called Tuxedo Function. We used to back the turns and the talent shows. The organist was a really nice guy who knew no tunes and didn’t busk, so he sight read everything from a huge pile of songbooks, often mispronouncing the words. We once did Get Back with a very uncomfortable ‘swing’ feel because neither he nor the drummer had ever heard The Beatles’ version, and he sang that Jojo had left his home in Tuck Son, Arizona. It was a strange gig. We usually had no more than a handful of bored punters and a few screaming kids. Most of the turns were fans of Jim Davison and Bernard Manning, and sang in ‘the club style ‘ as exemplified by Vic Reeves and Billy Connolly. They usually had charts that were unnecessarily complex, written by ‘arrangers’ with no notion of the gigs that these turns were doing or how dodgy their singing was. The results were a hilarious series of missed key changes, tempo changes and codas, and unsuccessful rallentandos.

Patricia Burgess… Met my husband there in 63, love the Talismen , think they have all past now

Andy Knight… I was a bottle boy at Combe Haven in 67, I can’t remember the trio, Temperance 7 played there (there was 8 I remember), Cedric Utley was the Bar Manager who did a Bed of Nails act when the cabaret didn’t turn up, Mr Edwards the other Manager, had my first Whiskey Mac at the staff party because David Kenny the owner drank that, never again, Dad had to pick me up, asleep in the laundry room

Roland Clarke… Was the 8th one an alcoholic?

Andy Knight… Roland, the trombone player wet himself on stage once, so maybe, or just a weak bladder!!

Jim Jim & The Jims – The Chatsworth Hotel Hastings 5th Feb 1980

Trio wanted for Combe Haven – advert from February 1967