Month: December 2022

The Sweet – Hastings Pier 31st Dec 1971

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supplied by  Andre Palfrey-Martin Collection

Chris Giles….Saw Sweet at the Aquarius was surprised and quite pleased that they did a lot of rock numbers

Alan Esdaile….I also saw them at the Aquarius Chris and we were packed in like sardines. They always did some good rock ‘b’ sides, one of the best was ‘done me wrong alright’.

Mick Mepham….Sweet were always a rock band first and a pop band second.

Karen Sweatman was Blackman… Saw a band called the Wandering Crutchlees down the Crypt in the early nineties. Two ex members of Sweet. At the end of the gig, they called out to the audience for requests. Don’t think they were expecting me to shout out ‘Poppa Joe’ and they fell about laughing. They decided to do Ballroom Blitz instead!

Kev Towner… I was a big Sweet fan – but I was only 9 in 1971!! I’ve still got the vast majority of The Sweet’s singles on vinyl. The albums seem more difficult to track down.

Karen Sweatman was Blackman… Beat you. I was only 1! But I’m sure I was dribbling along with the best of them. I also saw The Sweet with Mud at the White Rock a few years ago. Half the audience were obviously reliving their teenage years and the other half were about my age (early twenties at the time) seeing what we had missed. Great party night.

Jane Hartley… I saw them at the Aquarius!

Nicola Dobson… I  was 17!

Matt Thomas… I was working behind the bar at The White Rock when they appeared around 1989/90 sadly they had all seen better days lol

Jeff Chuzz Balcombe… wasn’t a good turnout only a handful of peps & they wasn’t that good.

Tim Elms… I saw Sweet at the Aquarius the week they went to no 1 with Blockbuster, fantastic night. I worked there behind the bar but this was a night off. Much of their set was rock although I suspect many in the the audience where there for the pop. I seem to remember they finished on Blockbuster, the house went wild. The manager told me he enquired about re-booking Sweet but they were now way too expensive for a small venue. The group asked for a six foot safety area between the stage and the audience but were persuaded it was not necessary in sleepy Hastings. Instead, a large friendly doorman (can’t remember his name) stood centre front of the stage watching the crowd. A weird image that has stayed with me!

Andre Martin… OMG another good night on the Pier – playing to 2.00am !!!!!

Jan Warren… Loved The Sweet. I remember most of their “b-sides” of the singles were good rock music!! They “cleverly” put out the pop music to get in the charts, but us rock fans always listened to the b-sides ……… just listening to a SWEET cd now and I remember “Burning” was one of my fave b-sides, yeeee Haaa!!!

Janet Cruttenden… I went to see them recently at del la warr bexhil

Sue Goddard…me too, what a great night.

Climax Blues Band and Montserrat by Bill Third

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all photos © Bill Third

Colin Cooper on lead vocals & sax,  Pete Haycock on Fender Telecaster, and Derek Holt, who co-wrote the book, John Cuffley drummer, obscured by cymbal. Windswept Bill Third shows the front cover. Publisher Robert Forsyth, right, shows double page spread of my pictures of Climax Blues Band in ‘Shining On 1977-1982’ the second volume of his illustrated history of the band.

Bill Third… One thing leads to another … In 2016 Alan Esdaile kindly invited me to choose my top 12 tunes from the 60’s and 70’s for his Johnny Mason show on HCR Hastings Conquest Hospital and local radio station. To give him some background info, I sent copies of articles I’d written for trade publications like ‘‘Studio Sound’, including the first story to be filed on George Martin’s Air Studios in Montserrat in 1979. This included photos of Climax Blues Band, the first artists to record there, who were also the first to record at Air Studios in Oxford Street. Co-incidence? Serendipity? So many things happen by chance.

Alan Esdaile remembered these photos when he was contacted in 2020 by Robert Forsyth, a publisher who loves the Blues in general and is a devotee of Climax Blues Band in particular. He was preparing the first volume of an illustrated history of the band and was already looking for photographs of them performing for the second volume ‘Shining On’ covering the period 1977-1982. Being the obliging fellow he is, Alan kindly put me in touch with Robert and we met up in Hastings in November 2020. We got on well and I was happy for him to use my pictures for this publication, as was Richard the friend in Montserrat, who had also taken pictures at the studio and of the band.

In November this year I heard from Robert Forsyth that ‘Shining On’ was ready and we met on Monday 19th Dec.  at Warrior Square station for him to hand over my copy in the shelter of the Rye Bakery. I was very pleased with the results, particularly the three-page display he’d made of my photos of Climax’s charity gig in the Paragon Club in the capital Plymouth, to help raise money for a local girl who needed an operation.

Robert, who has links to Hastings via ‘Hastings Rock’’, where he has DJd, is a thoughtful man and on page IX of the book he devotes a section to my song ‘Dancing Blind’, the background and the fund-raising effort for the RNIB, via billthird.bandcamp.com as well as pledging a small percentage from the sale of each copy of the book equally to Dancing Blind and Music Against Cancer.

I was pleased to be able to help Robert out, and to recall the wonderful time and interesting people my wife and I had met on Montserrat. My story for ‘Studio Sound’ proved to be the first of many for their ‘Studio Diary’ pages.

 

Remember Christmas like this and watching The Queen’s speech?

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John Wilde… Yep, 1950s London.

Dennis Torrance… How much it’s changed now

Sheila Maile… Yes in the 60/70s

Dave Nattress… I guess so. Really nice picture actually, but am I right, are more of the eyes focussed on the fire than the TV?

Tracy Birrell… This looks like a snapshot of my childhood.

Marilyn Spence… Sure do!

Do you remember getting your feet measured with one of these?

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Leigh Wieland-Boys… Used one of those in the shoe department in Plummer Roddis in 1971!

Alan Esdaile… Remember Hall’s shoe shop in Robertson Street,(where my mum worked), used to always measure your feet as a kid.

Pete Prescott… Yes I remember these. Clarks used them.

Paul Morfey… Yes I remember Halls as a kid, and being measured with one of those, and they had a machine to Xray your feet!

Dave Nattress… Yes definitely recall Halls and Clarks measuring feet for shoes, something my mum never used to skimp on was good quality shoes. Used to come over from Bexhill. But, this reminds me of a large clothing shop called Dengates on the corner of Cambridge Gardens and Bohemia Road where a lot of my clobber came from until early teens all the kit including school clothes and casual and shoes and I recall they supplied Carhartts “Huskies” Blue jeans sort of like Levi 501’s but a poorer man’s version! Fine as they were bought for me and then I discovered “Dickies” and then 501’s from Peter Jackson in Bexhill with my own paper-round money. £3.2/6 and desert boots and some brown boots called fell boots. My first Black winkle-pickers came from Dengates and then the style was chisel toes was it? Looked up Carhartts “Huskies” recently they still appear to be available in the USA and the UK even! Dengates seemed like a huge store back then, 2/3 levels.

How old were you, when you brought your first drink in the pub?

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photo © Malcolm McDonald

Malcolm McDonald… Me and two mates in The Anchor pub after a Saturday job in The Neptune Cafe.I walked up to the bar and said 3 halves of larger and when I said,and 3 packets of Ox crisps,my voice went all” high” out of nervousness but got served aged…..14.

Carol Acott… 15

Pete Prescott… 16

Ian Johnson… 11

Sue Young… Wow, you must have looked mature for your age!

Alan Esdaile… Probably 14 but could have been 13. Otherwise it was cheap scrumpy cider from the off licence.

Billy Hammill… 14

Iris Feighan… Life was good then

Sue Young… 14. – ‘vodka and lime with lots of lime, please’ (hated the taste!) At weekly village hall disco – downstairs bar. Landlord knew a lot of us were underage but on the odd occasion police turned up, the upstairs bouncer would bellow out a warning and we would all scarper up the back stairs.

Graham White… 5

Stephen Milner… 16

Judy Atkinson… Probably 14, remember going to Bonitas (nightclub under Queens Hotel) aged 15. Babycham perhaps

Ann Hogg… 14 – cider!

Martin Waghorne… 16

Margaret Trowell… 15, my first boyfriend bought me a gin and orange…only because my mum drank it at Christmas and I didn’t know what else to ask for…it was horrible🤢. And, as a by the by, it was in The Princes pub (now Pisarros), Hastings where 7 years later I met my husband and last week we celebrated 43 years together!

Steve Thorpe… A pint of Watneys Red Barrel in the Silverhill Tavern when I was the ripe old age of 14.

Dennis Torrance… 16 old town pub a secret lol

Paul Crimin… 16

Janet Rennie… 15. Vodka and lime . Saw Kilburn and the Highroads at the Gransary. South Harrow

Donna Torrance… That picture is how I remember pubs in the 70’s, no fancy food menus. Instead the fish man would come in selling prawns, mussels etc, after a few drinks you would eat them lol, health and safety? Noooo

Liane Carroll… 13

Colin Bell… 14, before going to see an ‘X’ film rated for over 16’s then, no prizes for guessing the film was at The Orion!

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Stallion – Hastings Pier 27th Dec 1975

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supplied by Sarah Harvey

Phil Gill… Well I must’ve played that gig, but I’m blowed if I remember it. And “Disco”…crap name for the support band. Who were they?

Roger Carey… Was about to say I played this gig but now recall doing similar show at Pier 31 December 1974….

Phil Gill… I was at that one too. The bouncers threw everyone out early, presumably they wanted to go off to their own parties…

Chris Sambrook… Could have been some young carpet fitters from the Isle of Wight doing extra gigs to earn some money. They were named after a Douglas Adams creation what is the the meaning of life….42. Not really. Be nice to think Mark King was that disco/funk bass player. Who mentioned Bass Players. Get on up, get down. Just taking the p p p sss lads.

The Ryetoffs – Rye 1964

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photos supplied by Tony Lambert

main photo… L To R Pete Buchan,Mick Eldridge,Roger Huckstep,Tony Lambert,Mel Mcgann.

Tony Lambert… outside The Rye Model Laundry,1964 we used the canteen for practice because Pete Buchans dad was manager. Great times, mad parties at various venues.  Indoor photo at Rogers house Christmas 1964 Tony Lambert, Mel Mcgann, Roger Huckstep, sitting Pete Buchan. Perhaps Mick Eldrige was taking the photo. The Ryetoff guitars were all home made and the drum kit was from Brighton originally bought for £10.00 s/h which in todays money would £150.00 – £200.00? The Drumkit in this photo is the one Alan Wootton had from me, recovered in grey Fablon and was the Ryetoffs one, not the GTStrokers kit which belonged to Paul Freeman. Believe it or not, I managed to get The drumkit in the bubble car !!!!

Tony Lambert… I remember those days in the 60’s and everyone with great fondness….and a great time was had by all…..