SMART

Andy Gunton is working on the next edition of The Stinger magazine and looking for information on The Who, especially the gig on Hastings Pier on the 20th July 1969. This was the day that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon and was a warm up gig for The Who’s performance at Woodstock. On the night they played a lot of Tommy, before playing some other hits. Or perhaps you went to the gig when they played The Witchdoctor Club? If anyone was at either of those gigs, or any others that The Who played in Hastings, or has any memorabilia, he would like to hear from you. Contact Andy at  andygunton@hotmail.com or happy to pass on any messages.

Alan Esdaile….. I saw The Who 3 times and every gig was excellent. One of the main things I remember is Roger Daltrey swinging his microphone virtually into the centre of the ballroom and then catching it. Later on I did try copying it and managed to ruin a few microphones!

Kurt Helge Andersen…..The Who played The Witch Doctor Club on 4 th of August 65 – BBC made a film from that concert and is can be seen on a DVD nowadays – I was there so see if you can spot me.

Andy Qunta….I  wish I had seen any, or preferably all, of those gigs!

Mick O’Dowd…..I was at The Pier concert where they played Tommy for the first half that didn’t go down too well as no-one knew it. Soon as they played their hits the place errupted!

Gary Kinch….Got to agree with that Andy Q and Alan. Saw them a few time myself in the 70’s. Also saw them at Brighton a few years ago. Loads of 60 something year old Mods there,  keen to recapture the spirit I suppose. Bet they didn’t sleep on the beach though.

Jim Breeds…..I last saw them at Glastonbury on 24th June 2007. It lashed down and blew hard. Know what I mean about very cold rain being driven horizontally into your face? Yeah, that. Apart from the rain and my Allyson getting lost in the crowd for ½ hour after going to the loo it was great. In fact, they were bloody awesome. And they did My Generation.

Kurt Helge Andersen…..in Denmark we say: “If you remember it, you weren’t there” – it was on my second or third day coming in from Denmark, where the only pop and beatmusic had the nickname”barbed wire music” and the local groups only played cover versions of UK and US hits.
I had heard almost nothing about The Who – only that “Can’t Explain” sounded like The Kinks. An older student said we should go for it – both for the music and hopefully to get to know somebody from Hastings, which we didn’t that night 🙂 it was so crowded – the band didn’t play as loud as later and the was no real dancing, just moving around and people jumping into each other. Everybody was friendly, but the whole thing was much to overwhelming for a 17 year old danish guy, who had never experienced neither UK or a real pop concert : I got the hang of it later that autumn, and I think I liked The Yardbirds-show better than The Who – but we played “My Generation” ten times a night on the Juke Box at The Nest Club that had been recommanded to me by someone. A very sweet married couple had that place as a small coffee bar upstairs and a very small and complete dark square room downstairs, where the only lights came from the Juke Box.
Luckily I got myself a girlfriend there and we spent almost every evening at The Nest dancing and holding hands. Only when we played soccer, I had to cancel the date, and I was always afraid to be alone the next day – but that never happened.
I had a great time in Hastings and St. Leonards-on-Sea attending The Continental College at Cumberland Gardens – a time, I shall never forget – and excuse me for my English – it was so long ago that most of you weren’t born yet 🙂 but maybe planned 😉