
[At the beginning of last year]
Friend Mel says to me “Do you fancy doing a Vinyl Night up at the Cove. Like they do at the Jenny Lind in Hastings? “
“Yeah. Sounds good to me” I reply.
“Let’s ask Henry, see what he says”.
Henry at the Cove liked the idea and said we could use the upstairs room in the pub on a Thursday night. We cobbled together some equipment and went for a dry run to check everything out.
Launched in May, we switched to every first Tuesday of the month - our one year birthday is this coming week.
We have about a dozen regulars, which was good, and everyone enjoys listening to records they've maybe not played in years. First half it's play what you want, with the second half being a selected theme. We've had ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (naturally); 'Desert Island Discs'; 'Tamla Motown/Soul'; 'Sixties Singles'; 'Film & TV Music' and 'Sounds of Summer' to name a few. And have Shake, Rattled and Rolled our way through quite a variety of tracks - Abba to Zappa - often discovering something new and memorable or simply a forgotten group or artist.
Picking just one such moment at random, which met with nods of approval and 'I'd forgotten how good this track was' comments: from the 1969 album 'Family Entertainment' this is 'The Weaver’s Answer' from Roger Chapman and Family.
This recording is from TopPop, the first regular dedicated pop music TV show by Dutch broadcaster AVRO which aired weekly from 1970 to 1988.
Great saxophone solo is shown as a flute playing... no idea why ? That's the 70s for you !