Peter Millington….Eric behind the counter at the Pam Dor Early 1960’s.
Mick Knights….That’s the ever popular Eric, the owner, serving. I, along with just about every teenage lad, was banned by him at one time or another!! The Pam Dor had the first Discotec in Hastings, which was on the second floor, a place I never entered, nor did very many, as it soon closed. its second incarnation was the Astral club, which morfed into Toff’s.
Peter Pursglove….i did the door up there for a few years until it closed Alan ,Mollly Russell ran it ,busy little club
Tom Boyer….Great times, we loved it, a fabulous place to meet. Tom & Lin Boyer (nee White)
Sue Bartholomew (Nee Finch)… I remember the Pam Dor, it was the best place to go, we paid a shilling entrance and that also got you a coffee or a frothy hot chocolate, and sit in there for as long as you wanted, it was always busy and behind in Middle Street was a long line of Lambrettas or Vespas belonging to some young lad who was in the Pam Dor.
Colin Bell… Love this photo Pete, met my first ‘proper’ girlfriend there…happy days…
Mick Mepham… Who were your ‘improper’ ones Colin and are you still in touch with them?
Nicola Dobson… Spent a lot of time in there…I remember that seating area..they should have coffee bars again Im sure they would be popular!
Dave Nattress… Yes indeed used to go there. Weird thing even little old Bexhill had one in Devonshire Road would be early – mid 70’s. Now we have these much larger stores like at Ravenside. Some have bays for carrying out services/repairs I think.
Nigel Ford… Doesn’t seem long ago? Next to GAMLEYS toy shop.
Tracy Birrell… I remember it well.
Steve Thorpe… ….and Gamleys!
Pete Houghton… Good times! Remember Halfords in Bexhill
Surprised they put opposite the cinema, when it was opposite The Disc Jockey record shop.
Dizz Corinne Ryder… Was it above Chelsea Girl?
Barry Upton… I think it was once Toffs night club ?
Dizz Corinne Ryder… that rings a bell, was just a bit too young to go though!
Maureen Fuller… The Astrel Club was where the Pamdor Club originally was above Chelsea girl entrance at the back. My ex husband Les Martin used to work their
Yvonne Cleland… I used to love the Astral Club! Late late nights and a free meal hahaha
Maureen Fuller… Can you remember the name of the lovely lady who cooked the late night suppers loved her curries?
Yvonne Cleland… I can’t, I’m sorry, but her spag bols and chicken in a basket were to die for! xx
Leigh Wieland-Boys… Yep – there regularly, always had the whitebait
Sam Rosewell… Was this Flamingo’s in the 80’s? (Not that I went in there, slightly too young!) Was a better scene back in the day….
Alan Esdaile… Yes, Sam.
Neal Hunter…It was great being a DJ there. Broke my leg falling down the stairs between the bar and disco at 1am on 22 Oct 1974 which was the day my son was born. Great days.
Tony Davis… was great Djing there with Merlins Music Box. Was it Betty that did the food?
Maureen Fuller… don’t think that was her name she was a Greek lady l think
Tony Court-holmes… used work behind the bar there
Ian Quinnell… AAHHHH good (but slightly vague) memories of those days
Alan Esdaile… Graham Bradley was asking about the Astral Club. Anyone else have any cuttings or photos?
Graham Bradley… You are right Alan definitely opposite Alan Jensen . I remember Jacky, Veronica and Betty working there and there were queues down Queens Road trying to get in . Great Days
F M Reardon… I remember the Astral and Jo.I used to work at the Pump House pub and my mate used to work at the Aquarius. When they closed we used to head down to the Astral and enjoy the rest of the nite.That was back in 73. Great days.
Tony Court-holmes… worked the bar there a couple of times
Colin Bell… A happy/sad memory, the last film my nan took me to see there before she passed away not long afterwards.
Alan King… i remember seeing that at the cinema, wasn’t much choice back then, cliff richard filums, zulu, the man in the iron mask, the jokers, how the west was won, they’re about the only ones i remember from that age
Nigel Ford… Definitely saw that, not sure it was this date but unlikely it came back? With mum for sure and brother I expect.
supplied by Valerie Churms, Hastings & St Leonards Pictures & Videos
Valerie Churms… The old Hastings Gas offices in Queens road. destroyed in 1970. Don’t know what happened.
Tim Moose Bruce… Gas leak
Jeremy Peter Harrison… This photo is later- we went decimal in 1971. The Ford Granada was launched in 1972. I thought the gas site was demolished to build Safeway’s?
Jim Breeds… it was
Jon McCallion… Bought one of my early cars from that garage in the picture. It was a Volkswagen Beetle 1600. A guy called Malcolm owned The garage at the time. 1976
Alan Vale… I moved to where I am now late 1986 and I whatched over time they demolished the old gas works, built Safeways which is now Morrissons. I think that Gulf garage was a Shell garage when I arrived. Now a block of flats
Dave Nattress… A Granada, Mk 3 Cortina and petrol prices a gallon I’m guessing!
Alan Esdaile…..I can remember buying my first album from Jack. It was the ‘Bee Gees First’ and I paid 6d a week and he wrote the amount on the back of the sleeve until it was paid in full. I’ve still got it. As a kid ,I used to love looking in the window at all the record sleeves.
Jim Breeds….Lovely memories of the man. And I think the video I saw before didn’t have the memorial tribute tagged onto the end, though I had heard that elsewhere. Nice to see it again.
Graham Burfield….first album I got there was Cockney Rebel
Pete Fairless….I used to love the story of how he tracked down the album and went to collect it for you!
Chris Meachen…..Dear old Jack, He would occasionally come out with peculiar questions, like ‘Were you breast-fed?’ he was such a character
Jim Breeds….I mostly used record vouchers and birthday/christmas money when I was a kid and then when I was working from age 17 onwards I used to save up in my post office book 🙂 I particularly remember on one occasion I pre-ordered (as we now call it – I don’t remember that term being used in the ’70s?) a copy of the upcoming limited edition release of The Free Story LP, a best of compilation. I went to the shop on release day and you would have thought his Mum had just died. He was emotionally upset that he had been unable to source a copy due to overwhelming demand. He said he had tried everything, including phoning around to other record shops. He was still apologising for that some weeks late. What a character.
Mick O’Dowd….Jack &Sonia were one of life’s best. He actually sold me my first Dansette record player and knocked 2/6 off the price for my Mum ( God bless Her) as he suddenley found that a bit of the leather cloth was loose! it was precisely 1/8th inches wide. Great couple. He would always call me “Chiefy”. Did he call anyone else this?
Andrew Clifton…..Hello Jim, I’m Andrew’s brother, Steve. We knew Jack and Sonia for many years. We’d go to the Record Shop searching for nostalgic recordings. Unfortunately we missed his retirement in December 2006 and then of course his sad demise in June 2007. I took the video camera to the funeral to chronicle the event as he, Sonia, and The Record Shop became a significant part of Hastings social history. Fortunately the proceedings were light-hearted and sprinkled with anecdotes, so it became a ‘watchable’ record…so much that Sonia asked for several copies for friends and family.
Chris Russel…..Great to see this film of Jack and Son, but so sad to hear that they are both gone. When I worked at Swift in Bexhill in the 80’s and 90’s Jack would come in every Wednesday and buy stock. At first he used to arrive in an orange Morris Marina that was 90% rust but later would get the train over. As far as I know they never had any children but had several cats that Jack would refer to as ‘the kids’, the most famous of which was Monty. Occasionally I would pop into the shop on a Saturday and knew I would be in there at least an hour as Son would insist that I had at least one cup of tea and usually at least one cheese sandwich.
Lauren Gower….The best kind of record shop,along with Alans of course!just before they close they got me a copy of ‘songs for drella’-Lou reed,John cale…when i tried to order it in Hmv(of maybe it was virgin at the time),they asked me who Lou reed was!!! There are no words for that!
Andrew Clifton… Unfortunately Jack and Sonia. Didn’t have any children as for the railway films Jack took. I think a family friend has got them. We got a lot of records through Jack. Also from The Disc Jockey. Both Jack and Al were great people to know.
Sid Saunders… I got all my music from Jack, a true gentleman sadly missed.
1st photo supplied by Janine Anne Hemsley, 2nd photo with Graham Bradley supplied by Len Benton.
Janine Anne Hemsley…..The girls are Carol Guyatt and Linda Upton.
Mick O’Dowd….Looks like early Whisky Mac. Think that is Pete Horton poking in right hand, Len Benton, Ian “Mac” McGilvary, Tich Turner,Tony “Tweet Tweet” Bird & Pete Horton.+ Girls.
John Wilde…..Wow this is a great photo……but where?
Robert Searle…Another great photo. I see Mac there with Tony Bird
Joe Knight….omg!!! tony LOL
Ian McGilvray….Yeah that’s me (Mac ) with Lenny Benton on My right hand side. I’m the one with the magazine and Tich is the one with the Birds as usual.
Andre Martin…..The reflection in this is the Fine Food Supermarket at the end of Queens Pde, you can tell that by the backward spelling of the name Minimarket and the design of the brickwork. Interesting the ” I’m Backing Britain ” posters can be clearly seen on the windows of the shop in Queens Road roughly where Gamleys or Helfords used to be located. Looks as if the group were on the east side of Queens Road, and the photographer on the West side..
Mick O’Dowd….Confirmation from Pete Horton that this is in fact Deep Purple. He reckons it was taken in Canterbury where they used to play at The Beehive Club.
Tich Turner….Hi All, this photo was taken in Queen’s Rd. We had a bunch of photos taken that day, but I’m only aware of three that have surfaced. One is a great pic of us all in a line, hunched up against the cold, in front of some glass doors somewhere. The other one, is of us standing on the steps of the public toilets that used to be in the town centre, near the Carlisle and we’re poking our heads over the wall. This is definitely Deep Purple. we didn’t actually become Whisky Mac after Pete Horton left and Graham joined, as I wrote. It was later than that. It was directly after Len Benton, our Bass player left and we recruited Tim Duke on Bass. Happy Days, Tich.
Ian McGilvray….I agree Tich
Pete Horton…..Hi from Pete Horton. Sorry about thinking that the pic was taken in Canterbury. I seem to be the odd one out. I cannot remember this being taken in Queens Road, but we were all in the nearby cricket ground with a Hastings Observer photographer on Sunday 4th February, 1968.
