Time marches on and we find that we have now reached the weekend of Saturday 5th March 1966 – and for the first time for a while we see activity on Hastings Pier, and to be precise The Happy Ballroom and reactivated the Saturday Night Dances, this week the top of the bill are Hedge Hoppers Anonymous. They had a hit record in 1965 with “Its Good News Week” incidentally produced by one Jonathan King! But that is not all on the Pier, because Disc Jockey Promotion have started a Thursday Night event known as TEEN BEAT Coffee Club in the Pier Restaurant, this week the music is provided by Mud Mulligans Big Boss Band. 7.30pm – 10.30pm all for 2/6d. That has to be a move in the right direction of having the Dancing Sign flashing again after so many months across the front of the Ballroom.
Friday Evenings started with the one and only MOD show – Ready Steady Go from London, and on the show this week, David Bowies & The Buzz :”Can’t help thinking about me”, Manfred Mann, Small Faces : “Sha La La La Lee”, Spencer Davis: “Somebody Help Me”, Yardbirds: “Shape of Things to Come” with Keith and Cathy to pull it all together in their great way.
The Witch Doctor was gearing up to more entertainment in the coming week – On Saturday headlining were Essex band The Symbols who were regulars at the club and would later go onto have a couple of hit records on the President Label. On that night the support was from another well know group in the club – The Blue Stars and as ever Johnny Mann spinning the records. Sunday afternoon Dance sessions were as popular as ever 2.30pm – 5.00pm all for 1/6d. Tuesday night it was “Candlelight Spin” 7.30pm – 11.00pm for a whole 2/-. Thursday Night was as ever the night for The Muscles Maxted Show. Friday nights were back on the programme from next week 11th March with the Anteeks. Even so, they all keep respectable hours and the shows would have been over by 11.00pm. On the Radio The BBC Light Programme, followed its usual schedule, some of the hi-lights this week included – Saturday Club The Animals, Yardbirds,Dave Berry & The Cruisers, Jackie Lee, and Mister Murray – Brian Matthew was in control and adding some new records. Later in the evening 6.30pm on Jazz Club were the very popular Kenny Ball & His Jazz Men. Sunday it was Easy Beat, Two Way Family Favourites with London & Koln [it’s been a while now for a link up anywhere else in the world] Pick of the Pops and Movie Go Round.
Television on Saturday included –Juke Box Jury with David Jacobs this week’s panel included Eric Burdon, Maloo Pantera, Gene Pitney and Briony Newton. That evening it was time for the Eurovision Competition this year the broadcast came from Luxemburg, and we were represented by Kenneth McKeller “A Man without Love” – The final outcome was that we came 9th with 8 points (thanks to Austria and Ireland) the winning entry was from the Austrian entry “Merci Cherie” by Udo Jugens. The commentary was from David Jacobs in the studio. Sunday was a combination of the regular drama and entertainments plus films.
The pirates continued to supply much of the pop mix for us all, and even Radio Caroline was returning to fairly regular schedules after the beaching a few weeks earlier. So there we have the first weekend in March, from all accounts the weather was dry and grey. Until the next instalment, wrap up warm and lets all hope for some dry weather and less wind that at the moment. Until next weeks – the History of the Happy Ballroom – Hastings Pier et al………..
Andre Palfrey-Martin ©2016
memories
SMART 24 coffee meet – White Rock Hotel 27th November 2015
The next SMART coffee meet is:
Friday 27th November 2015 – 3.30pm till 6.00pm The Seafront Room, White Rock Hotel.
Please bring any photos, cuttings, records etc that would be interesting for others to see or just bring yourself and please mention it to other like minded people. This will be the last meet of 2015 and expecting a big turn out.
Martin Stringer… Hi Martyn Baker and I will be there.
Jim Breeds… We’ll be there this time. Finally! A bit of a long shot this! Does anyone coming to the SMART meet up tomorrow have a 78 rpm record player they can bring with them? Or know someone who would be OK with lending it to us for the afternoon? I have I have something to bring to the SMART meet tomorrow that might interest people in a kind of not quite 1970s more like 1930 kind of way. This is not the sort of music we normally discuss in SMART but has strong local interest. Would be nice to play them, to see if they are playable or not, but I don’t have a gramophone.
Janette Clare Morley… I have a gramaphone. Its a wind-up. But it plays quite well. I should be able to bring it for an hour or so.
Jim Breeds… That would be brilliant! We’re in the Seafront Room. Thank you so much.
Tony Davis… Hi Alan and everyone. Sorry not to make it today but unfortunately work has gotten in the way of everything at the moment.
SMART coffee meet 23 Report
What a GREAT afternoon and yes the ‘F’ word was mentioned and everyone agreed that the Factory gig was excellent and has kick started talk about various local bands to reform, watch this space! Among the newbies this time were Len Smith, Phil Thornton (and his hat!), Erol Edir and Graham and Karen How. Andre Martin was talking about the History Of The Pier Book by Steve Peak which is due out next year and features Andre’s pier memories. Len Smith who runs the Eastbourne Bands From 1960 On facebook site is working on a family tree of local bands from Hastings & Eastbourne and had with him a folder of the work he has produced so far. It’s a mammoth task and people present were able to fill in some of the gaps. Mick O’Dowd had with him The Veronica Story CD (the popular Dutch radio station from the 1960’s) and also had some interesting Ready Steady Go 60’s DVDs. Graham How brought along some great tour programmes from the 70’s including Melody Maker Poll Concert 72, The Who Tommy, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Wishbone Ash, Genesis 77 and more. Pete Millington has come up with another rare photo of Suspect and Andy Knight had with him a whole host of various photos and cuttings including Freeway, Five Bob Rocket, Delta Wing, Dicemen, Tarquin, Shaft, Jukes and a Head On with Missing Persons poster. John Petri pointed out that the photo on the front of our latest newletter is Paul Freeman and not Steve. Too many other people to mention and get round to talk to, so please feel free to add anything interesting that you were talking about and I missed.
Graham How… I remembered the date this time!
Natasha Kaschevsky… Sorry we didn’t get to say goodbye to you today Alan, had a great time x
Wendy Weaver… It was a very good meeting. Lots of interesting people.
Kevin Burchett… great meeting thanks alan
Mick O’Dowd… Great stuff and an appearance by Phil Thornton’s Hat! What more could you want.
Martin Stringer… Good morning. Martin Stringer here I am going to be in England from the 24th to the 29th of November is there a meeting around then?
Alan Esdaile… Excellent. Am trying to organise the next one for the 27th November Martin and would be great to see you. Hopefully confirm next week.
Congratulations to all who were born in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s & 70’s from 1029 KOFM
photo 1029 KOFM
Thanks to Paul Bridgett for finding this. Shared from 1029 KOFM
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s ! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags and we went round the streets on Go-carts made from old pram wheels & bits of wood. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC or Subway. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because…… WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on FOXTEL, no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents. Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time… We were given catapults for our 10th birthdays, We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! RUGBY, NETBALL and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully’s always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’ We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. https://www.facebook.com/1029KOFM
Alan Esdaile… Excellent.
Vic Whitelaw… Wonderful, and so true!
Keith Wildman… Don’t seem to remember being driven 500 yards to school in a Range Rover either. Had to walk the 3 miles in all weathers and still mucked about with mates on the way.
Mick O’Dowd… Wow ! I couldn’t have put it better myself. An excellent article.
Tony Davis… The story of my childhood. Days when we could play marbles in the gutter because there weren’t cars parked everywhere!
Caz Simpson… My knees were always scuffed, I’ve not seen a scuffed knee for donkeys years!
Alan Esdaile… Didn’t they get scuffed when you were weighed down and carrying speaker cabinets, Caz?
Caz Simpson… Ha! And driving crusty old vans with no brakes Alan.
Geoff Tidley… Many a happy time refixing gocarts good times.
More gigs I saw in the 70’s onwards, memories by Pete Prescott
Pete Prescott… The gigs I saw in the 70’s influenced me hugely. Still do. I was sorry to have missed Hendrix and Cream, gutted I wasn’t at the Isle of wight festival but I saw some amazing bands. Here in no particular order -: WISHBONE ASH. Central Hall Chatham (Graham and Karen how’s first date was there) PATTO at a football ground. Can’t remember where. Brilliant band. Ollie Hassell. What a player ! FOCUS maidstone collage. GENTLE GIANT/WILD TURKEY. Central hall Chatham. FREE (Kossoffs last tour with them. He was so bad but I was such a fan. DEEP PURPLE Edmonton sundown, just after they came back from Japan where they recorded made in Japan. The back cover shot is from the gig I was at. BAD COMPANY. 1st tour at the rainbow, 5 encores. They ran out of songs and did The Stealer. Girls were throwing themselves at the stage and fainting. Also saw them two years later. Rogers was amazing. He was very stroppy and he smashed a keyboard and threw a mic stand at some roadies. LED ZEP. Earls Court. I got bored to be honest but I was there. SILVERHEAD Dagenham Roundhouse. Stunning. ALEX HARVEY.same place. HUEY LEWIS st galle Switzerland. He and his band blew all the bands of the stage that day. THUNDER. Hammersmith. I love Danny Bowes! One of my favourite singers. ATOMIC ROOSTER. 73.i saw a lot of bands. But these came to mind.
Graham How… And we still see Wishbone Ash. The last time as Martin Turner’s at the White Rock a few months ago. Argus is still a great album!
Pete Prescott… Some gigs (for me)were not so good. BLACK SABBATH Albert Hall 71.and again on Ozzy’s last tour before he was sacked in 74. I know how good they could be but not in those nights. ERIC CLAPTON Zurich 85. he looked bored, I was. I saw him in a televised show a week later and he was brilliant. DEEP PURPLE Brighton. Joe Lynn Turner tour. Great singer. Crap front man. I’m sure many will want to take me to task about this at the next meeting !
Karen Sweatman was Blackman… Saw Deep Purple on same tour at Hammersmith. Love Joe Lynn Turner’s voice, but people seemed to not accept that Ian Gillan wasn’t going to be there. He was facing a battle he couldn’t win. Felt very sorry for him
Hastings past gigs – memories wanted for new magazine
A new magazine is being launch shortly by Andy Gunton and one of the features will be a series of articles about past gigs in Hastings, that have been memorable, eventful or interesting in some way.
The first gig covered will be the Sex Pistols on Hastings Pier, supporting Budgie, on 3rd July 1976. So if you were at that gig, have your own memories, good or bad, please let Andy know. Also if anyone out there has photo’s, flyers etc from that gig.
Other obvious future contenders include Jimi Hendrix & Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett’s last gig).
If anyone else has suggestions as to which other gigs to cover please contact : andygunton@hotmail.com
Memories of Hastings Bands in the 80’s by Tony May
I bet a lot of you remember ‘The Telham Tinkers’, The Architects’, ‘The Disc Jockey’ and ‘Stylus’. In fact, just thinking about the 80’s band scene in Hastings brings back to mind so many ‘local heroes’– after all who could ever forget…
Die Laughing Hastings very own hard rock band reached the later stages of the national Melody Maker (remember that music rag?) Rock Contest in 1978 but somehow never quite made it in the record business. Stalwarts to the town, Tel, Lol and Mick continued to keep Hastings rocking for many years however and were regular performers at ‘The Carslile’ on the seafront. One self-financed single was released but as far as I know the band were never fortunate enough to release an album.
Cracked Mirror I don’t know a lot about this rock band but I do recall having a good few copies of their only album in stock at Stylus Records. I wish I’d bought a copy (or three) now too as original copies of the album change hands for anything up to £500 these days! Only 200 copies of the album were pressed you see and the group are now regarded as one of the most original of the ‘New Wave Of British Heavy Metal’ bands of the early 80’s.
Turn Blue/ Face To Face (plus various other names) Ah yes, the loveable and always original Dave Arnold! Dave was (and probably still is knowing him) always one of the first to push the boundaries of music and art. In the early 80’s he was the front man and think tank behind a plethora of very unusual bands. ‘Turn Blue’ may not have been everyone’s scene but they were prolific and Dave built up a steady fan base for his music by releasing regular albums on cassette that he then sold through local record shops. My personal fav of Dave’s though was one of his more commercial tracks, ‘Body Heat’. Recorded when Dave was part of the duo, ‘Face To Face’, the song had a killer guitar riff and some sexually explicit female groaning on it but best of all was the fact that the lyrics of the song included the classic line ‘suckin’ on an ice cube tryin’ to keep cool’ – Immortal!
The Teenbeats Well, what more can anyone say about this lot? Hastings favourite Mods may have recorded only two singles (one of which the front cover pic was taken underneath Hastings Pier!) but they will long live on in the hearts and minds of music lovers in the town. Tragically, in June 2009, just before a scheduled reunion gig was planned, we lost Dave Blackman – the bands drummer. Lead singer, Huggy Leaver, went on to be a well-known actor of course and the band will always be remembered nationally because they were one of the first groups to be managed by, the now legendary, Simon Fuller.
Expandis Expandis was another band to build a good reputation upon innovation, live performance and self-produced cassette only albums for sale at gigs and in local record shops. For a while they looked booked for big things, Elton John’s label, Rocket Records, signed the band and in August 1983 released a single on 7 and 12” called ‘Mystic Man’. As is all too frequent a story in the music business however, the single failed to chart. Interestingly, a second single ‘My Love’ is rumoured to exist but I have never seen a copy (whereas ‘Mystic Man’ was everywhere at the time) and such a single is not listed in any of the Music Master (the music business bible) catalogues from the period? I think it very likely that the single only got as far as the promo stage.
I don’t know an awful lot about what happened to the band after this but I do know John Wilde went to America and worked for a time as an interior designer and that Phil Thornton is still an active recording artist to this day. Excitingly for fans, two Expandis albums, ‘I’m Not Waving I’m Drowning’ and ‘Living Like This’ (featuring ‘Mystic Man’) are now available to download from itunes. Both are priced at £7.99 if you’re interested.
Such good times and such good memories, eh?
Dave Arnold…. Cheers for the mention Tony, above’s a link to the track Body Heat & the label website
Memories 1970’s & 1980’s
Memories of being brought up in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Even if you are from the 90s you will love it!
Thanks Mr Andrew Barker for the music and Billy Joel for the original.
“…..Michal Fish You Lying Tw*t!” – Love IT!
Matt Thomas….”brilliant – feeling even more nostalgic now lol”
Andre Palfrey-martin….Oh Yes, memories of a past decade some good some ugh.