Our 73rd meet and it was a wet and windy day but didn’t stop a great turn out. Among the newbies this time were Rose Pearsall and Jude Montague. Rose was chatting about her favourite sixties singles and Jude was talking about her duo Montague Armstrong and her fine art printmaking studio shop in Kings Road St Leonards, as well as working on her research into ‘Grey Owl’. Peter Ellingworth had with him books of The British Trolley Bus Scene 1950 to 1969 and British Trolleybus Centenary 1911 to 2011. Both featuring a few Hastings and St Leonards photos and a couple of wonderful photos of ‘Happy Harold’. Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland had a great photo of the ABC cinema from 1971 and a bizarre heavy piece of merchandise from The Beatles! It was a boxed brick from the Salvation Army children’s home at Strawberry Field Liverpool with certificate of authenticity. Mick Thwaites has been delving into his massive collection of Rolling Stones memorabilia and had with his a range of small kaleidoscopes from the Voodoo Lounge tour, Sticky Fingers cd in a wooden shaped box, Rock and Roll Circus dvd and cd box set, as well as some fishing floats made by Mick Erends. Paul Mulry had a couple of interesting vinyl album releases with him. The 60th anniversary edition of Booker T & The M.G.s Green Onions, in green vinyl and Mirwood Records Northern Soul compilation. Linda Boiling had a photo of the Dick Whittington pantomime from 1963, which took place at St John the Evangelist Church Upper Church Road St Leonards and featured a very young Nicholas Ball, who we sadly lost recently. Merv Kennard came up with some more rare pirate radio cassettes, cd’s, videos, records, from Radio Caroline, RNLI, Hauraki and more, as well as a recording from the Radio One Roadshow in Bude in 1978 and the single ‘What shall we do with the drunken DJ’! Chris Stovold had some interesting cd’s with him ‘The Psychedelic Years compilation set, Family, The Idle Race, Nuggets and Wishbone Ash. Ian Marketis had a number of Meat Loaf releases, including tour programmes and cd’s with one autographed. Alan Harding had albums of his wonderful photos and Pete Prescott was chatting about his new group ‘Stealer’ who have a number of gigs coming up and you will be able to see them live at the Bexhill 70s Explosion on Saturday 20th July. This is just a small bit of what I remember. If you had anything interesting you were talking about or anything I missed out or got wrong! then please feel free to add or correct.
Claire Lonsdale… Thank you Alan. Was lovely to see everyone despite the foul weather. X
Monica Bane… Very enjoyable afternoon. Meeting more new interesting people. I know how much hard work you do, so thanks again Alan x
Merv and Cris Kennard… Thanks Alan for organising another meeting, great to see everyone and swap yarns.
Mick O’Dowd… Another good Meet Alan. Thanks!
Jim Breeds… Sorry didn’t make it. Had been up all night watching election.
Claire Lonsdale… Jim, me too! But that didn’t stop me! You’ve got no stamina Jim!
Jude Montague… loved meeting you all thank you Alan
Stephen Moran… Thank you for the report Alan, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to join you on this occasion.
Mick O’Dowd… Good vibes and talk as usual. Chris Gentry and myself were talking about some of the strange venues that we had been booked into over the years. Great memories. Well done Alan for yet another interesting MEET!
Carrie Downing-Waite Sawatzky… Had forgotten Kings, went there a few times