Why has no proper music scene ever emerged from Brighton?

[Cheeky Monkey]

Especially when that band (the kooks) are actually from SEAFORD.

Seaford IS the eipcentre of the music scene - the drummer from The Specials used to live in Upper Belgrave Road and Jimmi Hendrix's 'widow' Monica Dannman has lived in Belgrave Road for donkeys years.

 

[burrish gull]

Not Brighton, but Roger Daltrey of The Who has lived in Burwash since the seventies, nice bloke once you get to know him.

 

[33057 Seagull]

come on... what about Peter and the Test Tube Babies - brilliant... & then there are The Fish Brothers

 

[wigman]

come on... what about Peter and the Test Tube Babies - brilliant... & then there are The Fish Brothers

saw peter and the test tube babies at the richmond(now pressure point) many years ago!

 

[Norman Potting]

You've missed the legends that were Cutting Crew !!!, and unless I am seriously deluded wasn't Wendy James from Cuckfield ?

"Cutting Crew" (or at least their main man Nick Van Eede) is from Nutley. They had a no. 1 in the USA with "I just died in your arms" and played the Komedia a couple of months ago. I was there and they were v. good.

Many, many years ago (Brighton were in the first division) Nick led a legendary local band - "The Drivers" - who were big in Sussex, Kent and briefly in Canada. Saw them many times at places like the Shelley Arms, Nutley, and also the Cartoon in C*oydon. Enjoyed many a happy sweaty evening listening to their energetic brand of punky pop rock. Anyone else remember them??

Louise Nurdin (now Redknapp) was originally from East Grinstead as were Right Said Fred.

 

[smudge]

Brighton definitely had it's own scene during & towards the end of the punk era as Brovian mentioned earlier.
If you can track down a couple of Brighton compilation albums called "Vaultage" you will see that there were many good bands around at that time. Sunday nights at the Bucaneer were f***ing great; normally headlined by the Piranhas. Other favourites of mine were Nicky & the Dots, (they were terrific) The Molesters, The Members, The Molestors, The Lil-Lets. There used to be a really good reggae band called The Ajax All-Stars as well. They were at least a 20 piece band
I was a teenager at the time & would go down the Bucaneer every week for a good old pogo. I grew up in Lewes & the same bands would play either at the town hall; or if they were really daring, the old Landport Community Centre, where there was a gaurunteed ruck every Friday night.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Have you lot never heard of Pookiesnackenburger, Double Duece or The Carl Simmonds Duo.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Brighton definitely had it's own scene during & towards the end of the punk era as Brovian mentioned earlier.
If you can track down a couple of Brighton compilation albums called "Vaultage" you will see that there were many good bands around at that time. Sunday nights at the Bucaneer were f***ing great; normally headlined by the Piranhas. Other favourites of mine were Nicky & the Dots, (they were terrific) The Molesters, The Members, The Molestors, The Lil-Lets. There used to be a really good reggae band called The Ajax All-Stars as well. They were at least a 20 piece band
I was a teenager at the time & would go down the Bucaneer every week for a good old pogo. I grew up in Lewes & the same bands would play either at the town hall; or if they were really daring, the old Landport Community Centre, where there was a gaurunteed ruck every Friday night.

Used to have all the Attrix-produced Vaultage albums - three of them weren't there? Seem to recall lending them all the the curators of a Punk Retrospective at the Art College once - not sure I ever got them back. Although the first one was definitely representative of some kind of local music scene (stretching it a bit to call it a punk scene) you got the definite feeling that the follow-up Vaultage albums were chock full of filler and bands specially assembled to be on the album. There was a bit of a fashion for individual towns like Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield to bring out albums of their local scenes at the time, encouraged by NME who would do major features like 'Glasgow: This Week's Sheffield' and the like.

 

[Sign of the Times]

I'm pretty sure that the Sunday night gigs during the punk era were at The Alhambra on the sea front, but I agree that the Piranhas and Nicky & The Dots were great. I also hugely enjoyed the Golinski Brothers, The Chefs and the Lillettes.

 

[hitony]

What about LEO SAYER ? what a rock musician, he was from brighton ........ oh and dont forget Adam Faith.....and Milllicent Martin (ok i accept she might have just lived there)..........jeeze theres loads of stuff come out of Brighton...........

 

[coventrygull]

The music scene in brighton during the punk era was dire fact. The likes of the Pirhanas and Nicky and the dots were pathetic art student crap. Peter and the test tube babies were average. No wonder I got drunk so much in those days

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The music scene in brighton during the punk era was dire fact. The likes of the Pirhanas and Nicky and the dots were pathetic art student crap. Peter and the test tube babies were average. No wonder I got drunk so much in those days

Totally agree. They were all art school students or pathetic 2 dimensional cliches (not mentioning any particular Withdean announcers here). Still, at least they had the balls to get up on stage - for which fair dues. Neverever found the Brighton punk scene in anyway convincing tho. Just like XTC, all the bands were too 'cleverclever' by half. Just playing at being punks IMHO. The quality of life in BN1 was just too damn COSY. Nothing to rebel against innit.

Just before moving to BN1 in 1978 I lived in the Medway Towns. Naval Dockyard at one end of Chatham, Royal Engineers barracks on the Chatham/Gillingam border at the other end, the usual array of chavs in the middle. Just got into the habit of only venturing into town Monday thru Wednesday and let the vermin all punch themselves out over the weekend

 

[Hercules Rockerfeller]

Supergrass

The Kooks

Errrrrrrrr, Supergrass are from Oxford. hence the fact they are about to do a homerown gig in Oxford.

The Kooks? Some posh tw@t going to uni in Brighton doesn't make it a Brighton band, you can say the same for the Maccabees too.

 

[Yorkie]

What about LEO SAYER ? what a rock musician, he was from brighton ........ oh and dont forget Adam Faith.....and Milllicent Martin (ok i accept she might have just lived there)..........jeeze theres loads of stuff come out of Brighton...........

He was from Shoreham and Adam Faith was living in Henfield at the time.

 

[hitony]

He was from Shoreham and Adam Faith was living in Henfield at the time.

I think i was slightly taking the mickey with Leo, Adam & Millicent

 

[Stinky Kat]

The music scene in brighton during the punk era was dire fact. The likes of the Pirhanas and Nicky and the dots were pathetic art student crap. Peter and the test tube babies were average. No wonder I got drunk so much in those days

Cov Nicky and the Dots were great live, Pirahnas were boring but Smeggy was the best

 

[redoubtable seagull]

brett anderson was from cuckfield
drummer out of the kooks is from seaford
elvis costello's drummer lives or lived in seaford too (apparently, if that's interesting?!)
wasn't wendy james from ringmer
and keane are shite

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I think we have clearly established there has never really been an influencial Brighton scene a such.

But why? We have tons of musicians, allegedly loads of creativity but no really influencial bands.

We do have a great scene for music lovers though. Concorde2 and Rounder rock.

 

[coventrygull]

Cov Nicky and the Dots were great live, Pirahnas were boring but Smeggy was the best

I know its down to musical taste but they were all shit . I saw the dots live many times along with the other crap that passed themselves off as trendy right on punky arty types.

Thought the teenbeats and No Exit were ok. May be I was a closet mod. Whatever happened to punktuation. Now there was a band

 

[Bluejuice]

1. This city is so diverse that there is an abundance of musical styles we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep and as such we have not been pigeonholed into one bracket.

2. I would argue that the Nu-Skool Breaks scene has stronger roots here than anywhere else in Britain so we could be credited for that.

3. Didn't FatBoy Slim pretty much invent Big Beat? A style which has since been embraced by numerous other Brighton artists. This is another we can claim as our own I would say.