Day: 14 August 2021

Havelock Road Hastings – Mods 1964

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supplied by Dai Jones photo source: unknown

Dai Jones asks… : “Could you tell me where this is in Hastings? I somehow recognise it – but where is it?”

Phil Gill… Havelock Road. There was also an entrance to the Bodega Bars on Cambridge Road.

Lloyd Johnson… Frank Brooks third from the right in the light coloured trousers next to the car

Mick Knights… I thought that as well but wasn’t sure

Roger Simmonds… Havelock road happy times!

Helena Kingshott… Am thinking it’s top of Robertson Street?

Lloyd Johnson… Hi! Helena…xx..The bar sign is the ‘Bodega Bar’ and the first floor pillars you can see in the photo are those of ‘The Orion’ Cinema which were above W.H.Smiths Newsagent. My Mum worked a few doors down from there in ‘The Golden Fleece’ wool shop before she moved to

Mark Rodrigues… I think it’s Havelock Road by the shape of the buildings. Though that no entry sign is obviously not there now.

Lloyd Johnson… Frank Brooks on the run from the Police! 1964 ..Frank 3 from right next to the car…I was in The Pamdor around the corner

Marcus J Lamb-Bentley…. Why are they running?

Lloyd Johnson… 1964 bank holiday weekend/ Mods&Rockers!..the town was rammed with kids having fun!…they flew Police in to Lydd Airport because they thought things were going to get out of hand. All a total over reaction by the authorities. I got fed up with being herded around the town so slipped away and spent the day in The Pamdor Coffee Bar above Hepworth’s the Tailors in Queens road.

Sheila Maile… Bodega, bars. Cambridge Road

Darren Holmes… Is that photo not taken from Robertson Street looking towards Cambridge Road?

Helena Kingshott… Or Havelock Road ? It’s been a long time

Mike Cramp…Ha ha. Some great wrong answers. Are we now all agreed. The photographer is standing on the memorial. We’re looking at the bottom of Havelock Road which was ‘no entry’ from the southern end even back then. The word BARS in the original photo is on the blank wall where the metal fire escape is now in the modern photo above. The Crypt was known as the Bodega Bars for many years and had/has entrances on Havelock and Cambridge Road. And as for all you grown up Mods on here, i hope you’re all extremely ashamed of yourselves !

 

Radio London Is Now Closing Down – 14th August 1967

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Andre Martin…  This happened  today 14th August 1967 at precisely 3.00pm, the airwaves on 266 Radio London ceased forever. What were you doing when this happened ?

Nick Prince… The bill responsible for the demise of pirate radio was called the Marine Offences Act (1967) as well as several similar names such as the Marine, Broadcasting (offences) Act (1967). Tony Benn was the Postmaster General at the time and it was he that oversaw the banning of pirate radio in the UK. His act replaced the British Wireless Telegraphy Act (1949). This earlier act was put in place to prevent European broadcasters from broadcasting English services to the UK from other countries. Radio Luxembourg and Radio Eireann owned by RTL and RTE respective were quite legally licenced from their own countries and got their signals to the UK by using high power transmitters. Try as they did, the British government could not stop these two. Also in 1965, plans for a pirate broadcaster by the name of Radio Channel were announced in the national press. This was to start test transmissions from the MV Laissez Faire between Bexhill and Beachy Head.To my knowledge these test transmissions never took place but the MV Laissez Faire became home to the twin stations Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio soon after. Maybe someone can shed more light on Radio Channel.

Jim Breeds… What I was doing was listening to the closedown. I was a member of a number of organisations opposed to the MO Act (I still have a copy of it somewhere) including the Free Radio Association and others. I so wish I still had all the newsletters they sent me! And button badges. And my “Make Wilson Walk The Plank” poster that Dad wouldn’t let me put in the front window because, he said, the police would arrest him! So it went in my bedroom window instead where only the neighbours could see it when they were in their back gardens, lol.

Geoff Peckham…  I was too young to understand the politics behind their demise. I just loved Radio London and was staying with a French family when it closed down. I listened to Big L’s final broadcast in the cellar playing pinball among strings of garlic and onions. I got really upset when they played the closing music.

Dave Nattress… I remember so many of the “Pirates” well. In the mid-sixties I went on a caravan holiday to Herne Bay,right on the Thames estuary of course and close therefore to several stations. Herne Bay; we knew how to live!! Anyway, I had a tiny, tinny, transistor that picked up the local pirates including of course Radio London, Radio Caroline and Radio City? One I think broadcast from a “Sea-fort” in the estuary. I think there was also another Pirate way up in the Irish Sea somewhere – beyond the 12 mile limit – would it be Radio 275 or something like? I’m going from memory – I haven’t researched any of this but I dare say, all things are on the web now. If it wasn’t the Pirates it was just Radio Luxembourg from about 7.00 pm until early the next morning, or…the BBC Light Programme! All on the Medium Wave of course and pretty poor reception generally. Lots of French interference – so nothing’s changed there then!

Joe Knight… Remember

Jeff Belton… Thought Radio London was still going in the 1980’s ?