Julian Deeprose… Vic Pitt didn’t have far to travel. He lived in Bulverhythe Road
Andy Qunta… Great film!
Pete Fisher… Very atmospheric, especially the scenes in the park with just the wind in the trees, but the scene at the Marquee is special, featuring Jeff and Jimmy, but with a strangely passive audience.
Will Cornell… This one was Brilliant….but Antnioni’s followup Zabrieski Point was a mess. I’m still trying to figure out how all the bands that were supposed to be on that soundtrack actually were.
Bob Laurie… I particularly remember the Yardbirds!
Sid Saunders… this film was the inspiration of becoming a photographer. I bought myself a new Pentax camera as shown in the film.
Graham Sherington… Yep been trying to take decent photos ever since. Classic film.
Matt Thomas… Two people I remember from my time at the theatre getting a mention I see – Phil Cronk & Roger Dennett
Pete Brazier… I had just finished cleaning the Pier Ballroom when I saw him enter the Pub on the pier! Wearing a light grey suit and so Tall! Too embarrassed to say anything I just Smiled and Nodded! And he smiled back! Wish I’d said something but then I wasn’t as forward as I am now lol (that was before I had stood at the front of a band for the first time! Surprising how that makes you more confident each time you do it
Rosemary Hughes… Took my Son and Niece to the cinema in Eastbourne and who should we sit next to Tommy and his Family what a laugh that was. He laughed after everyone had stopped and then bought us all an ice cream in the interval
source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/38176513598/ supplied by Kevin Burchett Scalliwags & Sober Judge page.
photos Lynda Coleman Westlake via Kevin Burchett
Kevin Burchett… who remembers Willie G?
Roy Penfold… I remember Willie – great voice! Did a demo for him many years ago.
Jenny Tyler… He was good, saw him at the Bembo & the little angling club.
Kevin Burchett… im getting some video of willie g someone is sending it to me from wales the plan is to upload it to youtube the quality might not be good but i will try to improve it
Alan Esdaile… Excellent track.
Sandra Cunningham… I went to his funeral.
Rachael Rellis… Love Willie forever, such talent and a great guy, always my best friend whom I miss so much. His son Kane is looking for video of him, Facebook group of Willies is where you can reach Kane if you have any videos. Oh how I miss that voice ❤️
Andy Ives… Such a lovely guy was totally shocked when I heard of his passing. We had some great laughs.
Jonathan Mendenhall… I loved Willie G..great character..broke all the rules..
Eric Harmer… Great guy
Wendy Weaver… What a lovely guy Willie was
Monica Bane… A great guy! He use to come to Real Sports and sit on the counter chatting to us.
Early Nineties!
Keith Veness… His kids were very talented at Hastings Stage School
Ian Sands… I grew up with Willie he was a great guy, we used to race cars around town, I remember him leaving my house, screaming like a girl I must add lol, because I had many snakes as pets and he didn’t realize until he looked in one of the Vivariums. Loved my time with this gentle giant.
Ricky Adelaide… He was a a great act taken too soon
Eric Harmer… Good mate
Andrew Wagstaff… used to DJ and back him at gigs with Willie and rewrite most of his backing tracks.
3rd March 1977
Ian Cramp… My kids were born at The Buchanan
Steve Cooke… Oh yes, I was. Photo explains a lot about me I feel. Very Hammer House!
Steve Mann… Me
Paul Crimin… Why does a book by Charles Dickens leap to mind when I look at the picture of this building?
John David Martin… And me
Terry Corder… No me, I was born in St. Helen’s Hospital, but I used to pass Fern Bank twice a day going to and from school.
Samantha Blake… I was in 1967 x
Andrew Blake… I was in 1969 and so was my other half in 1973
Alan Esdaile… apparently the nurse dropped the scissors with me, when the chord was being cut.
Pauline Richards… Am not admitting to the year!
Ann Graves… My daughter was born there in 1969
Chris Meachen… My birthplace in 1955… Dad was a bus conductor, & would get his driver to stop in old london road, then run up to give mum flowers or chocs..
Stephanie Blackledge… My sister Nicky Dann
Nicola Dobson… I was born there in 1952
Tony Davis… I was
Margaret Trowell… Husband was born there in 1945.
David Edwards… Yep!
Sam Rosewell… My brother was born there in 1972 and I remember being taken there to see him and my mum! I think my dad may also have been born there in 1949
Copy of the handbill for Budgie/Sex Pistols gig that Barry handed out around the town to create interest.
PISTOLS AT DAWN – Malcom McLaren, Sex Pistols and Hastings Pier by Barry Taylor
Malcolm McLaren was the visionary who invented ‘Punk Rock’ to the shock and delight of 70’s Britain. He emerged from an art college background. During this time he became fascinated by the ‘Situationists’ , a group of French artists and intellectuals and went on to apply their ideas to his own career. At Goldsmith College he met up with Vivienne Westwood, they open a boutique in Kings Road, Chelsea which eventually became ‘Sex’ and a flagship for the punk moment.
At this point Mclaren began to ‘assemble’ the Sex Pistols. John Lydon, for example, auditioned in the boutique, by singing along to ‘Schools Out’ on the jukebox. Then, he was joined by messrs Jones, Cook and Matlock and this was the line up which graced Hastings Pier ballroom in July 1976.
I had booked the ballroom for a series of concerts, having kicked off with 50p admission, featuring up and coming groups supported by local talent but this was not a great success. One of the best performances was by ‘The Stranglers’ as a support act! Casting around for a support for heavy rockers ‘Budgie’, I noticed the winds of change heralding the arrival of punk rock from the direction of London.
I managed to somehow contact Malcom Mclaren at his HQ and duly booked the Pistols for a modest sum. Prior to the concert, I was asked to arrange a PA system for them, as they didn’t possess one! I will never forget the shock waves when Mclaren and his motley musicians arrived at the pier on July 3rd. Compared to us hippies, they were a bunch of aliens, with their spiky hair and clothes held together with saftey pins but they were nevertheless, quite friendly. I am not sure what the Budgie fans made of the Pistols shambolic, yet exciting set. It was an incongruous pairing of bands, to put it mildly.
I remember there was an unpleasant scene after the gig. John Lydon was not impressed with the P.A, provided by a local musician and expressed his displeasure. I appreciated Glen Matlock’s intervention as peacemaker, as a fracas loomed but there was an intimidating aura surrounding the Sex Pistols at the time.
I tried to rebook them but Mclaren did not return my calls! The famous Bill Grundy TV interview was December 1976 so fame and notoriety was beginning to whisk the Pistols away. McLarens maverick style of management owed something to Andrew Oldhams guidance of the Rolling Stones and he proceeded to sweep all before him. Malcom negotiated a lucrative recording deal with EMI, who didn’t realise what the Sex Pistols were about! After releasing ‘Anarchy In The UK’ he engineered the sacking of the band from EMI but kept the advance and promtly switched them to A&M. That didn’t last and they ended up with a more sympathetic label in Richard Bransons ‘Virgin Records’. All of this, 3 record contracts, in a very short space of time and plenty of money!
By 1977, cracks were appearing within the Pistols and Glen Matlock was replaced by Sid Vicious, generally acknowledged as a mistake by Mclaren. By early 1978 it was over but he left his mark on rock management and influenced others who came later with a similar disregard for civilised behavior at the time! Like Alan McGee who steered Oasis to success in the 90’s.
Malcolm reinvented himself as an artist and had a hit with ‘Buffalo Girls’ .. but will always be remembered for the Sex Pistols.
Barry Taylor
Morten Of Norway…I attended the Pistols/Budgie gig. I was 15 year old language school student, from Norway, visiting England for the first time. I knew Budgie, but had, of course, never heard about Sex Pistols. Been addicted to punk rock ever since!
all supplied by Leigh Kennedy
Leigh Kennedy… First ever Tesco Store opens in Hastings, at 11 Wellington Place. The store would remain there for just over a decade until moving round the corner to a purpose built store on the site of the much missed Regency era Castle Hotel. Photo Circa 1963. Tesco far right
Alan Esdaile… remember going in there with my dad and couldn’t understand how people were allowed to serve themselves, having only known the corner shop previously. My job was to get a strong empty cardboard box from the front of the shop but soon learnt not good to go for the middle one!
Monica Bane… Yes I remember that little store!
David Kent… All fats in open refrigerators.
Simon Fraser… Don’t forget the green shield stamps.
Jacquie Hinves… It was called Victor Values. Mum would shop there every Tuesday morning.
© Harold Dilworth Crewdson
Graham Sherrington… plain simple photos aint they great what is there now?
Keith Veness… Graham, I think it was a petrol station and then a car sales Now a block of flats opposite Morrisons
Graham Sherrington… wow that far down from the memorial we did not move to Queens Road till 63/4 from the High Street. thanks
Peter Ellingworth… I believe this is 158 Queens Rd., which along with Nelson, Milward Rds. and St. Mary’s Terrace were the victims of a Nazi three fighter-bombers raid on 26th Sept.1940 in which fourty high explosive bombs were dropped, the targets being the nearby gas holders and rail lines.
Three people were killed and a number injured. (Source- ‘Hastings at War’ and ‘Historical Hastings’.) I remember the site as a kid well- note how the overhead wiring for the former trolleybuses is still intact after they finished in May-June 1959. Didn’t it become a garage shortly afterwards lasting until well into the 1970’s?
Richard J Porter… Flats now, I think.
David Edwards… It was Little Joe’s car lot for years.
Nigel Sinden… David, It was when I first moved into Stonefield Road.
Peter Ellingworth… Further to my previous post: With further examination on Google, I believe 158 Queens Rd. is actually on the opposite side of the road to the photo, and during the raid of Thursday 26th Sept 1940 158 Queens Rd. and the property opposite ( the one in the photo), was destroyed along with others in the town as mentioned. I have just found my original copy that the Observer published of ‘Hastings at War’ which if anybody interested I will bring along when I get down, all being well to the next coffee meet. There are two photos of the damage on both sides of Queens Rd.
I believe this booklet was reproduced some years ago, can anybody enlighten me on that? It’s interesting to reflect on re -reading in this booklet how relatively defenceless Hastings was left until well into the war, as with the shortage of Ack-Ack guns these were mainly deployed in cities and industrial areas elsewhere. Also that Hastings’s post raids assistance programme set up by HBC was used as a yardstick for other towns.
John Butcher… l think the Germans got the best in their restoration as we were told there was a limit to repairs by Hastings council unlike many years after for princess anne.
Graham Sherrington… I have a copy of Hastings at War will see when it was printed. Thanks for the info on the photo.
Mick Knights… Formally the Astral. Remember on the application form for membership one question was make of car. Taxi was a popular answer!!
Alan Esdaile… Remember Molly well and remember Toff’s. Toff’s was always busy and run well. Molly was my neighbour at one stage.
Graham Bradley… Remember Molly very well , great club so was the Astral with Jackie