Back in the day, I went to see the hit beat combo Chas and Dave at the Sundowners Entertainment Centre. You don’t know it? Well, let me explain.
Sundowners was THE place to play if you were a middle of the road 1970s light entertainment act. If you happened to be in Eastbourne I mean. Even Prince Charles turned up there once when his favourite group appeared at the venue (The Three Degrees, in case you wondered).
With that in mind, you will share my surprise to know that a venue as important as that is now long gone. If you visit it now, instead of Chas and Dave you will get bread and milk – because Sundowners is now an ASDA.
There was a nod towards local legends Toploader when “Dancing in the Moonlight” was played over the sound system, and a bored voice welcomed everyone to “ASDA Eassbawn Save Money Live Better.” And maybe that was the ghost of Chas Hodges singing “you’ve got more rabbit than Sainsbury’s” as we left the shop. Who can tell?
When we got back to the house, the boys had created (yes, that’s the word) a glorious bacon sandwich. The rain arrived and the next few hours we spent reading books, watching Shrek and drafting a blog. That’s right. This sort of nonsense doesn’t just happen by chance you know.
We wandered off into town along the seafront once the rain stopped along a path between the road and the beach that I never knew existed. Of course we were thirsty by the time we arrived in the town centre and headed off to the first pub we saw, which turned out to be a mistake.
The Royal Sovereign was a pub that I usually avoided in the 1970s as it was a “bit rough.” Nice to know it hasn’t changed.
Shabby, dirty and a clientele that look like they were there to hide from the realities of life. Babies in pushchairs competed with the Liverpool game on TV in the corner for their parents attention. We hastily sipped our drinks and left to rejoin our own world in the shape of a Greek restaurant called gr.eat.
After a very lovely meal (see exhibit A) and a tour of bomb sites, including the place where my Dad was blown off his bike and through the window of what is now Marks and Spencer’s in Terminus Road, we beetled off to The Ship in Meads for the Sunday Quiz.
Where we were up against Hell’s Teeth, in the form of four middle aged, silver haired quiz machines who knew everything. That’s not being nasty; they actually scored 50/50. Whilst we were proud of our 44/50, we failed in areas where they excelled. We didn’t know who the main character was in the Da Vinci Code, or the air signs of the zodiac. And as a result we ended up 5th out of the ten competing teams.
It’s a pity there were no questions about Chas and Dave.
Steve's Journal 