queens hotel

Head On plus Missing Persons – Queens Hotel 1st December 1979

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supplied by Mick Mepham and Pete Prescott

featuring Pete Prescott, Andy Qunta, Tony Qunta, Steve Kinch and Mark Thirsk.

Pete Prescott… I remember this gig. I was very nervous. They were amazing players. Nice guys as well.

Andy Qunta… I vaguely remember it too! Pete did a great job! Unfortunately I think it was the last gig we did. Couldn’t fight punk rock with prog rock! Fun while it lasted though!

Tony Qunta… I remember it too. A line up with great potential!

Ernest Ballard… Great band saw them a few times before I started playing drums (wink wink ). Long time ago now

Pete Prescott… We played a gig at a boutique in London. After the gig I got really drunk on punch (dangerous stuff). We got back to Hastings in time for me to go to work. The green cross code man was there. Huge guy. That was (I think) the last gig. Mark was an amazing drummer. Brilliant players. I felt out of my depth. I remember loving Tony’ s voice on “only you”. I’ve still got a tape of songs like “the burning of Atlanta” it was great being in the band with guys like that. And they were so funny.

Steve Kinch… Yes Pete, absolutely agree, Mark was a fabulous drummer with a great sense of humour.

Tony Qunta… Great memory Pete! Yes the green cross code man – was he in Star Wars or something? Thank you for your lovely comments about the band. Your vocals were fantastic with the band – it’s a shame the band didn’t keep going!  ‘Dinosaur Promotions’!

Steve Kinch… David Prowse – He was only Darth Vader!!!!  Great times! Hastings in the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s was the pefect environment for young musicians learning their craft. With hindsight, the late 70’s wasn’t exactly a good time to be attempting to get a “prog” band off the ground

Andy Qunta… True, Steve, but it was fun trying! Listening to the old tapes makes me feel it was well worth it! Pretty darn good stuff!

Below the Queens Hotel Hastings – Queens Cocktail Bar. Year?

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photographer: unknown

Had many titles over the years, The Flying Machine, Bonitas, Lazy Bones, Emmas, JR’s etc. Any idea of the year of this photo?

Paul Huggett… Going by the cars most likely mid 1930s

Michele Crew… That’s a great photo and probably the best it ever looked

Alan Esdaile… The cover over the entrance, has always stayed the same.

Mick Knights… There was a Christian coffee bar called the sign of the fish.

Nick Bloomfield… worked there when it was Emmas Disco (1978) and the management in a fit of desperation asked me to come up with some names for different nights. I duly obliged with ‘Funky Friday’ and ‘Saturday Special’. Thus ended my career as a fledgeling promoter…

Ernest Ballard… I used to drink in there a lot as my then wife was the receptionist working shifts. Met many top musicians including Elvis Costello when he was recording with SIr Paul McCartney. We were told by his management unknown to him to ignore him as he didn’t want conversation at the bar or people constantly asking for autographs. After a few days of this and a few drinks he shouted “. Does no one know who I am ? “. We all said. “ no”. He got more angry as we ignored him. Looking back it was so funny.

Peter Thomson… Free chicken and chips late night in Bonita’s. Never asked my age from 15 on. Can’t think of any other reason to go there….

Roy Penfold… I’d put it as mid to late 1940s.

Leigh Kennedy… The ‘Queens Hotel American Cocktail Bar’ to give it it’s full name, opened in july 1937. It was renamed the ‘Elizabeth Bar’ in 1957.

Mick O’Dowd… I took over from Colin Bell at Bonitas as resident DJ.

Alan Pepper… Remember it well Mick ! Hey DJ can you play Sex Machine by J B ? Hit it  !!!

Mick O’Dowd… Sorry Alan Pepper!

Lance Collins… Worked there for a few months but hated it. Missed being on the road. It had a really strange management team !!!!!!

Alan Esdaile.. Did I read somewhere, that someone had applied to reopen it as a night club?

Chris Baker… When I worked in Debenhams, where the basement adjoined the Queens Hotel’s basement, both would flood when there was a very high tide!

Jackie Willett… I went to Bonitas when I was 14, with my big platform shoes on! 1972!

Terry Tollan… By the cars i would say before WW11.

 

The Flying Machine and The Sign Of The Fish coffee bar – Queens Hotel Hastings 1960s

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Supplied by John Busbridge

John Busbridge… I think both of these clubs were under the Queens Hotel which later became Bonitas. It appears the Flying Machine was frequented by lots of Swedish girls as I have one address on the front and three more on the back!

Alan Esdaile… I don’t remember the Sign of The Fish coffee bar.

John Busbridge… It was a religious coffee bar /disco hence the name.

Dave Nattress… Ah, Swedish girls….I fell in love with one in the summer of 1971 and we were together for 2 weeks then she went back, was I heartbroken!  We wrote long airmail letters to each other every other day for a year or so.  I used to phone her occasionally from home – the old man moaning about the phone bill and also I’d go into the office where I worked, (in the evening when it was quiet), and use the office phone. I guess the international calls showed up on the bill but I never got checked on it!  There were a few of us it could have been.  Next summer was not the same, did see her briefly but it had fizzled out.  I think I met a Danish girl that summer.

Annie Stenberg… Ah, the Flying Machine! I was in Hastings when it opened in the summer of 1965. Some of us Swedish girls who were there on summer language courses spent most of our time there and had loads of fun!

Liz Bourn… I remember the Flying Machine well but it certainly wasn’t a Christian place – just a coffee bar where we all used to gather. Great days

Lesley Sutton… I used to go there with my 1st serious boyfriend Tony Veness. Happy days and summers.

Loyd Johnson… 1965…Sara and I…Me 19 years old, Sara from Sweden 16 years old. I met Sara in The PamDor. We got her a job in The Flying Machine because I helped decorate the club which was in the basement of The Queens Hotel. We built a stage from milk crates, sound proofed the stage area with egg cartons, cover the walls with foreign newspapers and wrote slogans in various forgiven languages on the walls in red paper…all this 10 years before Punk Rock…weird when I think of it now!…

Pete Millington… I was in SPYKE a local group with Chris Sayer, Ian Williams and Terry Chedzoy between 1969 and 1972. I remember playing in the Flying Machine and it seemed to me that it would be the model for venues of the future. Bonitas, The Witchdoctor, The Cobweb and Saturday’s followed!

 

Images The Pub Hastings (below the Queens Hotel)

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Supplied by Leigh Kennedy

Leigh Kennedy… Images P.H under the Queens Hotel.

Linda Gowans… I remember the time in Hastings’ transport history when the familiar, regular Maidstone & District buses and routes we’d grown up with were replaced by those little buses. It almost got to the stage where if you saw a bus you got on and found out where it was going later…

Matthew Thomas… Images was 1980s.

Michael Wilson… Late 1980s. I remember watching some of the 1990 World Cup matches in there.

 

 

Queens Hotel Hastings old sign

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shared from James Eccleston https://www.facebook.com/groups/337603693753128/user/100003053335333/

James Eccleston… Hello everyone I was putting a new fence up in the garden and while digging I discovered this old enamelled sign in the ground! It’s for the queens hotel Hastings and I believe it was made in the 1800s so I was just wondering if anyone could help me out and find a picture of the sign on the building before it was removed and ending up buried in my garden I’ve try to find pics but I’ve been unsuccessful. I hope this is a interesting discovery for everyone

Lloyd Johnson… This should be in Hastings Museum…

Mike Mitchell… Not sure it’s going to be 1800s – no cars or phones that early

Leigh Mitchell… Oh wow! What a great find!

Doc Racer… Found this on the Historic Hastings website. Wonder if this is it, the dates seem right

Chris Meachen… It was most likely originally mounted on the walls of the railway station, where many such advertisements were displayed. I dug up a huge one for ‘Nestles milk’ in my own garden. It was common practice for people to take such signs home when they became redundant & use them in gardens and allotments for raised beds or compost heaps, as the enamel coating resisted rust.

Andy Qunta… Fabulous!

Mike Vawdrey… I do not have local knowledge but based on the general style and three digit phone number I would make an educated guessstimate at the period soon after the Great War – early 1920 s maybe ? ?

Peter Ellingworth… A clue is the ‘phone number – 201- on the bottom right hand of the sign. There is a section on the ‘Historical Hastings’ site which I can’t seem to access at the moment, of the development of ‘phone numbers in Hastings.
I did, however, read that Hastings became fully automated in 1974, with the now familiar 42 prefixed to numbers. I have a copy of the Hastings Tramways t/bus timetable of 1954-5, and the Silverhill office enquiry number then still used two figures (HASTINGS 90 ) while the White Rock office is listed as HASTINGS 2310. I think it depended on the locality, and even within the locality, when the change over from two to three and then four figures was made prior to STD. I would guess the sign dates from pre, or immediate post WW2. Hastings Museum should be able to narrow it down more.

Mike Mitchell…we still had a three digit phone number in Ore in the mid-60s: Hastings 404 which was changed to 1221 later in the 60s. Why do I still remember all this stuff?

 

Queens Hotel taken over by Emma Hotels 1978

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Peter Houghton… My dad’s friend used to own the Queen’s and the Cooden Beach he sold the Queen’s and kept the Cooden Beach

Lance Collins… I was the DJ for a while at Emma’s Nightclub. Shared the duties with a guy call John DELANEY. Was ok but still preferred to be out with my mobile.

Paul Morfey… I remember before that, when it was owned by Hickmott hotels. We did a lot of work in there, as electricians ie. Installing a fire alarm system through out the whole building. I was just a lad at the time but there is many a story to be told. Happy days!

Merv Kennard… was owned by the Krays from late seventies to mid eighties. I met Charlie Kray in the bar, the Uncle that ran the Queens used to spend time in the Havelock. I often had drink with him .

Harry Randall… Wasn’t Emma the Krays Auntie or related?

Alan Pepper… What year was it Bonita’s / Queen of Clubs ?

Spyke – Queens Hotel Hastings – 10th April 1971

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SPYKE

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supplied by Peter Millington. https://pet842.wixsite.com/confeds-to-jinks

Chris Sayer, Ian Williams, Terry Chedzoy,  Peter Millington.

Pete Millington… The fourth line-up of SPYKE playing at the Queens Hotel 10th April 1971 – Looks like we’ve just been told “Trust me lads – the cheque’s in the post”

Chris Baker… I thought I was the only one with a daft haircut in those days! 😁

Pete Millington… We all had ’em along with everyone else!

Yvonne Cleland… Ah still miss Chris. x

Tony Court-holmes… who remembers the band called the Town Council?

John Busbridge… I always remember Chris singing “Lady came from Baltimore”!