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!
