What was Brighton like in 1984?

[Brighton Breezy]

What was the live music and clubbing scene like?

What was it like at the Albion back then?

Best shops?

Have the changes come about naturally or was there a regeneration effort by the council etc at any time?

 

[Ernest]

What was the live music and clubbing scene like?

What was it like at the Albion back then?

Best shops?

Have the changes come about naturally or was there a regeneration effort by the council etc at any time?

Coasters and Hi NRG music was the best club/music in town

 

[tinycowboy]

London Road was more thriving with Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, Timothy Whites, Woolworth's Co-Op and Fine Fare all very busy. MacDonalds was a painting & decorating shop (Corbyn's).

Hannington's was the main department store in Brighton, Hill's of Hove its western counterpart.

Re London Road: Uncle Sams. Yum. Re Hove department stores: Cheesemans?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Brighton 1984
Eastbourne 2014

Brighton 1984
Grimsby 2034

 

[Peter Grummit]

Albion had a decent side that would go on and finish 9th in the 2nd tier. We sold our number 9 to a Lancashire club. Earlier that season, we sold the rock of our team to a top tier Club. We took 6,500 fans to Watford. We beat Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Which of these might be repeated 30 years on?

PG

 

[Badger]

Brighton 1984
Eastbourne 2014

I drove through Hastings a couple of years ago and I thought I had actually gone back in time.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Coasters and Hi NRG music was the best club/music in town

I've heard a few people mention Coasters over the years. Where was it out of interest? What is there now?

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Bexhill is even worse than Hastings for that

 

[Badger]

Bexhill is even worse than Hastings for that

I haven't experienced Bexhill, I'm going to have to do some kind of "towns stuck in the past" tour of the south coast.

 

[The Spanish]

I drove through Hastings a couple of years ago and I thought I had actually gone back in time.

if you did that today, then yes you did.

 

[glasfryn]

Eastbourne was not and is not now as scruffy as Brighton was.

been down Terminus road lately or any of the roads leading into the town centre .....bins everywhere with rubbish littered around them reminded me a little of the Western road area in the Brighton 80's

 

[glasfryn]

Brighton 1984
Grimsby 2034

 

[The Spanish]

in fairness a lot of Britain full stop was scruffy in 1984.

 

[daveinprague]

I've heard a few people mention Coasters over the years. Where was it out of interest? What is there now?

It was at the front of the TopWank center facing the sea.
We did some support for reggae bands there, but think it was mostly a disco venue ...

We were doing a reggae 'blues party' the night of the bomb, in either 1st or 2nd avenue..
People started drifting iin, talking about a bomb at the Grand...party bubbled.
News filtered in later that Thatcher was still amongst us, and the vibes died a bit, and people headed off home.

 

[Superphil]

What was the live music and clubbing scene like?

What was it like at the Albion back then?

Best shops?

Have the changes come about naturally or was there a regeneration effort by the council etc at any time?

From my recollection many of the music clubs had been closed over the preceeding few years, by 1984 only a few were left, and live music had taken a bit of a hit. The shops I recall were Snot and Nasty were they still about in 1984? I think it was just Snot, and the T-Shirt shop in Cranbourne Street, which closed only a couple of years ago. What was the record store in Queens Road, was that Virgin, was it in what used to be the old Albion store? I remember queueing there for Bowies Scary Monsters the morning of the day it came out, but that was in 1980, it was also there where I got my copy of So What!

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Yup, Virgin up Queens Road would let you try them out first, but also for the collector 'Vinyl Demand' was superb.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

been down Terminus road lately or any of the roads leading into the town centre .....bins everywhere with rubbish littered around them reminded me a little of the Western road area in the Brighton 80's

Yes that's a fair point. But that is a small part of town, most of it doesn't look like that. However take a trip along the seafront, all very tidy and the gardens are lovely. That has been the case for as long as I can remember. Brighton in the 70's and 80's, well the seafront was dingy.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

From my recollection many of the music clubs had been closed over the preceeding few years, by 1984 only a few were left, and live music had taken a bit of a hit. The shops I recall were Snot and Nasty were they still about in 1984? I think it was just Snot, and the T-Shirt shop in Cranbourne Street, which closed only a couple of years ago. What was the record store in Queens Road, was that Virgin, was it in what used to be the old Albion store? I remember queueing there for Bowies Scary Monsters the morning of the day it came out, but that was in 1980, it was also there where I got my copy of So What!

 

[The Large One]

What was the live music and clubbing scene like?

What was it like at the Albion back then?

Best shops?

Have the changes come about naturally or was there a regeneration effort by the council etc at any time?

For live music, the Concorde, the Richmond and the Basement (Grand Parade, since built upon) spring to mind as the three main places. For clubbing, aside from Enrest's hi-NRG shite, you had the Gloucester, which may have been Manhattan's then. Aside from that and the gay clubs, it was mostly West Street, though you also had club nights at the Concorde, Nash's (Catfish Club) and Casablanca.

The Albion, you could see even then, was on the slide. The Goldstone North Stand had no roof; it was our first season back in the Second Division; the perimeter fences were up; and Chris Cattlin had no money to spend (listen to that on The Albion Roar archive podcast). You had to buy your Albion kit in either David Rose Sports or the one in Duke Street that I'm forever forgetting the name of.

The North Laine changes largely came about indigenously; Brighton inherited something quite good, rather than as a result of something specifically done by commerce or the council. The seafront was improved thanks to a large investment by the then Brighton Borough Council in the mid-90s, possibly with European money.

 

[happypig]

It was the year I started working for BT and I got to see a lot more of the town than I previously knew. There was (still is ?) a lot of deprivation in Moulescoomb and Whitehawk but there was also a lot of money in a few areas.
I dunno about people being driven out by students, more likely it was people moving down from London pushing property prices up and making surrounding towns like Eastbourne/Polegate/Hailsham more attractive.
As for Eastbourne now being like Brighton, not in a million years; Eastbourne is still a rather dull, genteel middle class town full of pensioners, it hasn't a tenth of the "vibe" that Brighton had; as an example, if I wanted to go out (and aged 21 I did, a lot) I could find a venue with a live band on any night of the week in Brighton in 1984. In Eastbourne there are a couple of pubs that have "covers" bands on at the weekend but little originality.
If I'm honest, I f''king hate the place