queens hotel

Seafront lights and Queens and Robertson Hotel Hastings

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photos © Hastings Public Library

Matt Thomas… How clean and tidy it was and not a pothole in sight

Alan Esdaile… I was thinking how posh it looked and the lights look great.

Matt Thomas… I miss those lights along the front

Terry Tollan… I was silver service 1974 at the queens hotel back in the day . Love it . Many year later in the ballroom we use to rehearse there before we won the best band all of england contest. 1978/79 ?

Marilyn Spence… Wonderful memories

Brianne Stolper… I live in what was Queens Hotel. I would love to see the lights restored

 

 

Stallion – introducing the band 1974 & Stallion poster 6th November 1973.

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supplied by Mick Mepham

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supplied by Phil Thornton

Alan Esdaile… Great find Phil.  Stringer Jones, was a duo with Martin Stringer and Malcolm Jones.

Martyn Baker… Malcolm Jones was the other half of Stringer-Jones with Martin Stringer in Hastings (1975-6). I kind of re-met Malcolm again when we both worked for Capital Radio in the 80’s. Martin now lives in the west of Ireland. Both top geezers.

Harry Randall… RIP Vic/Tony and Steve gone to young! Sadly missed I’m sure by all who new them!

Leigh Wieland-Boys… My that takes me back. Fond memories of Steve D, rest in peace dear friend.

Martin Stringer… Crikey.

Phil Thornton… wow ! Great pic. Don’t think I’ve seen the one above before. SSV&T !!!

Linda McDuffie… Cottage! Blast from the past!

 

Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart and Jerry Harris – The Queens Hotel Hastings 17th November 1978

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Matt Thomas… I see him playing a charity celebrity football match at the Pilot Field around the same time. David Hamilton was also playing

Kev Towner… Matt, I remember that game – I’d love to get my hands on the programme though.

Pete Houghton… Kev, I’ve got a signed program somewhere

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!