What would you ban from the 70s asks Colin Bell. Colin says...At the last SMART meet, dear Alan was reminiscing with me about a band called Chaquito I used to play a lot, they did a nifty version of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, id largely forgotten, but Als brain cells clearly work better than mine...however this led me to thinking about another artist around at the same time Walter (later to become Wendy) Carlos, who scored the film Clockwork Orange. As we all enjoy trivia associated with our Hastings history I thought id share a story for your amusement....or not! Bear with me while I digress slightly for a moment to put things in context. In 1971 my dad, a builder like Andres dad was working for the then editor of the Hastings Observer whose name was John Cornelius, a lovely guy. He remarked to dad that the Observer had nothing in it for the youth of today and was fuddy duddy. John asked me to start a column writing Record and Band Reviews being a then youthful DJ. Thus Top Sounds was born and the first column appeared on Saturday April 3rd 1971 and continued for a couple of years until busy with other projects, gigs etc I handed it on to our Alan. Clockwork Orange was released to huge controversy in 1971 and when some 18 months or so later it was due to be screened in Hastings, the fun started....Hands up who remembers when the cinema in Queens Road was called The Gaeity, anyway the Council in their wisdom decided before any Hastonian could be allowed to see it they demanded a private screening, thus it was that a committee of about 5 geriatrics and me by invitation representing the youth of today attended said screening all by ourselves in a vast empty cinema! Twenty minutes in they all left! Leaving me and one other. They immediately banned it as far to unsuitable for genteel Hastonians! They of course missed the point of the entire film, and its anti violence message because they hadnt seen the film! Dont you just love the irony! Arguably one of the most liberal towns in the country full of wonderful musicians, artists, poets etc and you werent allowed to see a film, I voted for it, so dont blame me! If I was going to ban anything from that time I think Clive Dunns Grandad! might be right up there...what would you ban from the 70s?...Happy Christmas to all, have a good one.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:43:55 +0000
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