Nigel Ford… Reckon I must have been ill that night as I don’t remember “Late Night Love” band at all. No recollection of the name whatsoever.
hastings pier
The Temperance Seven performing on Hastings Pier on 14th April 1962
Photo by Anthony Morland. Supplied by Pete Millington.
Colin Fox… Saw them in a club in Sunderland when we were touring the north east in early 1970’s. Unfortunately not many people in the club, but they were brilliant and very funny.
Iain Cobby… Does that mean that the great Peter Grant who was their road manager later to be Led Zeppelin’s guru walked the boards of the Pier?
Mike O’Dowd… Skiddy-iddy-iddy……… For the uninformed who think i’ve finally lost it. the lyrics from the b-side of Pasadena single entitled Sugar.
Eddie & The Hot Rods and Kieran White – Saturday, 17th April 1976 Hastings Pier
poster and ads supplied by Pete Fairless – Bands On Hastings Pier Facebook page. Kieran White photo taken on the pier by Clive Richardson
Pete Fairless… Not sure if this was their first visit, certainly, the first time I saw them… a mere 50p, what a bargain!
Alan Esdaile… Did they play the pier 3 times Pete or more?
Pete Fairless… Yes, 17th April and 17th July 1976, 18th March 1978, on my list. They didn’t play in 1977 , the year they had a big hit with ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’ and toured the US. Also, it was the year when the pier hosted The Stranglers, The Clash, The Jam, The Damned, The Adverts… Perhaps, they might have been seen as too ‘popular’?
Nigel Ford… Was at both ’76 gigs to see Barry cart-wheeling across the stage in between singing and bought their TEENAGE DEPRESSION album after the first gig which I’ve played tracks from on Hastings Rock: “Get across to you” & “Double checkin’ woman” from memory? though I think the deck slipped and I had to cut one short…. Dammit! Great to see them again last September too at the BIG GREEN CARDIGAN event.
Pete Fairless… Ah, yes, and Judas Priest on the 23rd. That was a good gig, too!
Virginia Davis… Those were the days. 50p a ticket and no added booking fees!!
Wesley Magoogan… He came on pretending to have only one arm
Beat Rave with The Suspects, The Springbeats and Mud Mulligans Big Boss Band – Hastings Pier 15th April 1967
Dave Nattress… As well as these gigs at Hastings Pier, as remarked before, these events called Beat Raves, were often also presented (and billed as such), at the De La Warr, Bexhill. I started attending them in about 1968 when I was 15, but there wasn’t a lot of raving back then, and of course “Rave” much, much later, actually did become pretty much just that aided for some by funny little tablets. But the raving in Bexhill was assisted by gallons of weak beer and that was about it back in the 60’s in Bexhill. I didn’t get to Hastings Pier for gigs until about 1970 and certainly the beer on offer there was well watered down – a lot was needed before any raving went on!
Roogalator – Hastings Pier 16th April 1977.
ad supplied by Sarah Harvey
Sarah Harvey… The Pier April 16th, 1977. Roogalator was a pub rock band formed in London in 1972, by the US-born guitarist Danny Adler.
Neil Steadman… Roll on 23rd! You putting that up made me think of The Mobiles….. An Eastbourne combo who had a minor hit with Drowning in Berlin.
Roy Penfold… Didn’t that have a young kid from Hastings playing Tuba?
Neil Steadman… Quite possibly Roy. I will dig out my copy.
Alan Esdaile… The 23rd April was The Jam as Johnny Thunder cancelled and I see 7th May was a typo should be The Vibrators not Vibrations.
Clifford Rose… If I remember right, the Vibrators were supported by Sham 69.
Mark Randall… I recall seeing this poster when the Randall Tribe had a week’s holiday in a BnB in Pelham Crescent I’ve always thought it was Nick Plytas’s Roogalator. I bought Frampton Comes Alive cassette at the time. The cassette was faulty so I had to post it ALL the way back to Hastings. At the time Hastings seemed the other side of the world.
Alan Esdaile… Good memory Clifford, I do have listed Sham 69 supporting The Vibrators on the 7th May 1977.
Ruperts People with Santos Morados – Hastings Pier 14th April 1968
poster Andre Palfrey-Martin Collection. autographs supplied by Colin Bell
Mick O’Dowd….Best known for “Whiter Shade of Pale”-like tune Reflections of Charles Brown. Have their CD which is pretty good to.
Wendy Wells… I remember this gig as an almost 16 year old. Had a crush on Steve from Santos Morados. If I remember rightly we exchanged addresses and wrote a couple of times, but never saw each other again. I’m sure I have the bands autographs somewhere and those of Rupert’s People. Happy Days.
Alan Esdaile… Can’t find much about Santos Morados but they did have a single on Island Records.
The Stranglers – Hastings Pier 26th March 1977
supplied by Neil William Michael McGuigan
Jacquie Ballard… I was there great night. I got a badge.
Alan Esdaile… Was it Tom Robinson supporting Neil? as I think it was originally advertised as Eater?
Neil William Michael McGuigan… trouble is I honestly can’t remember
Peter Fairless… The support was Eater, not TRB
Paul Gray… I didn’t realise they played the Pier twice. I saw them supported by The Dictators.
Daddy Longlegs, Half Human Band & Essence – Hastings Pier 13th April 1974
poster supplied by Mick Mepham, ad supplied by Sarah Harvey
Martin Isaacs…..Blimey! Thanks for the memory! Love n stuff, Hairy Mart XXX
Kevin Flook… first band I saw on the pier if I remember was Daddylonglegs and think fav would have to be Hawkwind or Gong.
Supercharge and Damaris – Hastings Pier 10th April 1976
pages from Wishbone Ash programme supplied by Eric Cawthraw
Virginia Davis… I remember a time when Eddie and the Hot Rods were a no show and an unknown band called The Jam stepped in. Not sure if it was that date though.
Alan Esdaile… I think that was 23rd April 1977 and The Jam replaced Johnny Thunders as was ill.
Virginia Davis… Oh right. Well it was a long time ago. At least I remembered who actually performed. Should of realised later date as it was just before In The City was released.
Eric Cawthraw… Supercharge – what a great outfit they were. I didn’t get to see them in Hastings, but caught them supporting Wishbone Ash in Brighton. They always looked like they were having a fun time. Above pages from the Wishbone Ash – New England tour booklet showing the Supercharge entries.
Mick O’Dowd… Supercharge were one of those great bands that never quite made it. Superb album Local Lads Make Good.
Dave Nattress… I do recall the gig very well and the newspaper cutting. Damaris played exclusively self-penned progressive material with lots of long instrumental passages that I used to get lost in listening to sometimes and I’d just drift away. I wrote the lyrics and we all helped arrange the tracks. Tony Barraclough played a Gibson SG through a Vox AC30/50, Iain Cobby was on Fender Precision later a Rickenbacker Stereo with the obligatory Marshall Stack, Paul Durrant had a range of keyboards including an Elka Rhapsody and several other keyboards, and Mick Kemp played a Pearl Full-Dimension kit with about 13 drums. Back then my 3 chords weren’t up to playing on stage and as my life has gone by, it’s still no more than 3 chords. Damaris nicked a passage from The Planet suite by Gustav Holst for one track called “Alien Tomorrows” – Mars maybe Jupiter, can’t remember right now, and then we had another long ranging piece called “Star-Tiger” which was written about an aircraft that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle – which had the call-sign “Star Tiger”. Maybe you get the drift of what we were aiming for in our music!!! Supercharge were extremely good. From the moment they sound-checked we could see how polished they were.
Graham Belchamber… Supercharge ! I lived in Liverpool between 1985 and 95 and Supercharge were still doing the rounds up there. Some marvellous albeit hazy memories of them.
Iain Cobby… It was Jupiter, Dave.
Rolling Stones – Hastings Pier 11th April 1964
all supplied by Andre Palfrey-martin collection
Andre Martin….Happy Ballroom History Lesson – Saturday 11 April 1964 – and what an interesting weekend this was going to be, for a kick-off it was the second visit from the Rolling Stones, and for many it would be a start of the weeks wait for the release of the first album by the boys “ The Rolling Stones Album” – Alan would have had copies in The Disc Jockey this coming Thursday if not before. I have located an early publicity photo of the group from these early days.
We all know how the band had been attracting followers over the weeks, since their first appearance in the Happy Ballroom, the previous January 18th, when they had been backed by “The Four Aces”. The Hastings Observer added even more information about this second appearance, and I have attached for your perusal and appreciation.
The support act this time was “The Falcons” and this is where we are spoilt for choice, as there are listed several bands under that name. Firstly I need to establish these were NOT the American Soul act of the same name, from Detroit and included in their line up Wilson Puckett and Eddie Floyd !
The British offerings, included “ The Falcons” from Rosyth in Scotland, who were semi-professional and their line up mainly from apprentices in the Naval Dockyard, they did playing from some of the American Bases in the north and at one time went on a short tour of the USAF Clubs in France.
Birmingham features in the mix, with a group “ The Falcons” who included in their line up one Ulysses Adrian Wood – who would go onto become a interesting and entraining member of “Wizzard” who I remember booking on the Pier in the early 70s, with my partner Paul Casson.
The group that most probably would have been “The Falcons” appearing on Hastings Pier that Saturday night, would have come from Eastleigh nr Southampton and included in their line up an up and coming artiste who was to go and make his name with such as The Tornados and from the production stable of Joe Meek – Heinz. I have found a photo of the very young group taken in 1960 and have added to the story.
You will have from time to time come across the mentioning in the Happy Ballroom Advertisements’ of the Rock & Roll or Twisting Nights, that were run by John Hodgson, it is rare that we get many mentions of the groups of played at these regular mid-week functions, but please see this weeks press report as that fills in one of the gaps.
John Storer…..I see the following week, The Rattles were playing. They had a big hit 6 years later with “The Witch” and, like the Stones, are still touring and making the occasional album.
Andre Martin…Die Geschichte von der Happy Ballroom – Das wird Teil der nächsten Wochen.
Jeanette Steve Jones…..Ja, echt Super
Olli Laasanen … Hastings Pier was built in 1872. It flourished during late Victorian era. It was first time destroyed by fire in 1917. It’s prime time was in 1930’s. Rolling Stones had a gig there on 1964. There was severe storm damages during 1990’s. The fire destroyed in in 2010. I took this picture in 1978, during a calm July day.
© olli laasanen http://%20www.ollilaasanen.wordpress.com
Jill Caine… I was there!! Serving in the bar until the Stones came on, then I was in the ballroom with everyone else!!
John Duddridge… I was also there. What a brilliant night, when the Stones came on I got moved from the back of the ballroom to about halfway to the front caused by the surge of fans. My main concern was not to spill my beer which I had probably bought from Jill a bit earlier. Great times.
Christine Toms… I was there brought the Stones in by speedboat to avoid the fans
David Bargioni… I was there…..with Andre.
Jackie Hersee… I was there