Sarah Harvey……Nutz first appearance on 30th April 1977 plus Stephen Turner’s preview of the gig. Also a quick return 3 months later on July 16th. Note the forthcoming gig with Head On and Steppin’ Out on the following Thursday.
Alan Esdaile… The lead singer Dave Lloyd was the voice of .. only the crumbliest flakiest chocolate ad.
Pete Prescott… Although I still lived in north Kent I visited Hastings that weekend and went to this gig.
Dave Weeks… Nutz. Yes I was one of the very few there. Good night though and good fun band.
John Storer..I can’t seem to find any mention on the site of The Jam playing The Pier. True, there were only about 20 of us there but Q Magazine did print an article about the gig several years back.
Peter Fairless….There were no posters or flyers because The Jam were a last minute replacement booking. As I recall, refunds were offered and not many people stayed. There were badges given out, anyone still got theirs? Anyone got the ‘Q’ article? It was the week before ‘In The City’ was released, yes, Alan. That’s right, Peter, he took a turn for the worse, LOL. I read somewhere that it was only twenty who stayed, John. I thought it was a few more but hey, it was one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen!
Peter Bridger…..They were standing in for Johnny Thunder who had “tonsillitis”. Dead from an o/d a few weeks later so I think the diagnosis was a bit off.
John Storer…They were supposed to have been supporting Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, who never turned up. The gig was cancelled and everyone was told they could get their money back. When I got to the kiosk at the front of the pier, one of the bouncers told me that The Jam were going to play anyway. Very few of us decided to stay on … I remember counting 23 in the audience. The band joined everyone in the bar afterwards and I saw both Bruce Foxton and Paul Weller on separate occasions as punters at later gigs on the pier.
John Storer….Four months later, the night before we were off to Reading Festival in fact, I wore the badge to the Pump House. There was a girl in there I’d not seen before, wearing a “Genesis” badge. We argued at length on the merits of our respective musical allegiances and denigrated each other’s taste in music. We’ve been married 35 years!
Chris Pelling…..I recall Paul Weller’s dad, I think, prowling to and fro in front of the front of the stage wielding a baseball bat should the massed throng (!) decide to invade the stage. In the event I don’t think the baseball bat was used in anger. Johnny Thunders? He actually lived on for several years – he died in strange circumstances in New Orleans in 1991. The badge? Pretty sure I have one at the bottom of a deep box in the loft – one wet Sunday afternoon a box that I must have a rummage through!
supplied by Sarah Harvey
Sarah Harvey….Here is the advert that appeared in the Observer on April 23rd, 1977 that advertises The Violation as support for Johnny Thunder.
Jon Stiles… We supported the Jam that night, we were the Zoobies then (I think, not Mosaic as we’d cut off our hair and gone punk or not…) we had our own following, our set went quite well in contrast to the Jam’s. I remember letting Bruce Foxton try my Rickenbacker 4001, the guitar Min had made the copper scratch plate for. The Jam were quite despondent after their set as most of the crowd had gone. I also thought it was really good to see Paul Weller’s dad helping out pushing those big old trollies up and down the pier. I don’t remember him wielding baseball bat. Of course we didn’t have a clue the Jam would go on to bigger and better things. We left them sitting on the stage looking very sorry for themselves.
Martyn Baker….Wonderful gig, that night. Mixed live in Quadrophonic sound too, as I recall, probably for the first and last time on Hastings Pier. What a fantastic Rn’B band they were
Terry Huggins….They were originally called the Tornadoes, but had to change their name as there was already a band by that name (The other band had an instrumental hit with Telstar). They became the Golden Earrings, but later dropped the ‘the’ and the ‘s’.
Jim Hobbs….I was there that night. Great gig in the very week they got to number one with Radar Love. I recall that the numbers were very low, which was a shame as they were amazing with great sound from their Quadrophonic sound system. Vanilla Queen (from Moontan) is still a favourite track. I wonder if their drummer still jumps over his kit on the last chords of Radar Love? Also saw them play Brighton Dome with Lynyrd Skynyrd in support (they stole the evening), some gig!
Mick Mepham….Hey Jim, I roadied most of that tour and that gig for sure. Silly sods in the Dome management wouldn’t allow the quad p.a. to be set up at the back of the theatre so there were 2 stacks on each side of the stage. LS were really good too and made GE play even better.
Kevin Carlyon….Bloody hell. I printed these at Berfort Reproductions and used to go out fly posting with promoter Joe Morowski!
Jim Hobbs…A Classic track
Karen Sweatman Was Blackman…..Radar Love was the first song I ever sang at karaoke – trouble was I forgot there was about half an hour in the song where there is no singing and I was standing in the pub looking like a twonk for the duration. On a lighter note, I did win a bottle of wine. Think it was for the karaoke, not looking like a twonk!
Lauren Gower… My Uncle Simon roadied for them.
Chris Giles… I think this was the loudest band I ever saw on the pier….I was deaf for days after….brilliant though.
Phil Thornton… An excellent gig !!!!
Eric Cawthraw… Yep at this one – stood by the mixing desk to enjoy the quad sound. I remember the guitar sounds circling in one direction and flute going the other way. It made you go boss-eyed! Mick, I seem to remember our mate Simon Pont helping to get all their gear on the Pier – he got given a very glittery Golden Earing t-shirt. When wearing it – it looked like he’d got shiny dandruff. Didn’t a wheel of their loader go through the pier – or an I mixing this up with someone else?
Dave Nattress… Yes, went to this one. Golden Earring had a great couple of years on the back of Radar Love. They are STILL going – have a look on their website, got several of their vinyls including of course Moontan and 2 versions of Moontan on CD – slightly different track listing. I saw them at Brighton Dome but unsure if they were headlining or support. I half think they were supporting Free at the Dome but the other half of my thinking says this was unlikely. It was a long, long time ago and all that. I also, bought the vinyl of the Nutz first album – still have it – interesting cover!! Think they came from Liverpool.
Ian Mantel… Now a certain Mr Graham How tells me they had a spot of difficulty with their transport when they backed it onto the pier….
Chris Coleman… I was lucky enough to be there working with Jon Royle and the Music Machine Disco
Stuart Moir… Wow just look at the entrance fee
David Norman… It was a great performance by the band,they performed a long version of Radar Love, brilliant
Simon Elder… I rather guiltily highly remember the poster for Nutz, can’t recall what the music was like though, I’ll have to search for a video.