Hastings Beatles Day celebrates 25th year
Hastings Beatles Day is back celebrating its 25th year with a massive celebration of the Fab Four at the White Rock Theatre on Sunday, April 7 starting at midday.
Transcript
00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now there's
00:06 a really important day coming up in Hastings, isn't there? Beatles Day. Now this is the
00:12 25th anniversary. It's at the White Rock Theatre on Sunday, April 7th. And Gillian,
00:19 Gillian Payne, you are the Event Performance Manager. Now give me a flavour of the day.
00:24 What's it all about? What happens on Beatles Day?
00:27 Okay, if you have never been to Beatles Day, it is, this year and last year, it's four
00:34 stages. Before that we had three stages. But we're inundated with bands, which is amazing.
00:41 We don't turn anybody away. We have all different types of genres. We have pop, jazz, funk,
00:49 rock, blues, heavy metal, folk, quite a few ukuleles bands that play, which are fantastic.
00:57 George Harrison loved the ukulele, didn't he?
00:59 I loved that. Yeah, Roger Daughtry actually popped in last year, the year before, because
01:06 his grandson was playing in a band called The Revolvers, who were amazing. So we do
01:12 have a couple of people that pop in. Paul McCartney hasn't yet popped in. I'm still
01:17 waiting.
01:18 You never know, possibly.
01:19 But that would be very nice. It would be nice.
01:21 But all these different bands, and the one thing that connects them is their love of
01:24 The Beatles, isn't it?
01:26 Absolutely. So they can play Beatles songs or any songs associated with The Beatles.
01:32 We get all different types, you know, all different bands, you know, from different
01:38 ages. Our youngest performer was age seven.
01:42 We have also a band called The Autistics. Two of the members are autistic, and they
01:50 are absolutely incredible. So they go on the main stage every year, and they've got a really
01:57 good following. People like to come and see them because we only see them once a year.
02:02 But we get people traveling from, you know, all over the world, actually, to come and
02:07 play 15 minutes. So that's their time.
02:11 Is that the maximum people can do?
02:12 That's what they get, 15 minutes. And it's amazing.
02:16 And it's worth talking about the scale, isn't it? Because last year, 96 bands, this year
02:22 94 bands. How on earth do you cope with something on that scale, in 12 hours?
02:28 It takes, logistically, it's a bit of a nightmare. So it's pieces of paper everywhere, trying
02:34 to sort out all the different...
02:36 You're sounding quite calm here.
02:39 I'm actually way ahead of myself this year, so I'm quite happy. But it's just trying to
02:46 make sure that you've got, especially on the main stage and the Sussex stage, that you've
02:51 got a good variety of bands and different genres that have to fit in there. And then
02:57 you've got the two acoustic stages now, the upstairs one and the downstairs bar, which
03:06 are amazing. But it's just trying to make sure that you don't have kind of six ukulele
03:14 bands all in a row, that it's all mixed up. And, you know, wherever people go, they're
03:19 going to get different songs. It's really good, actually, because the first year that
03:24 I did it, I had... As soon as I had three Yellow Submarines, that was it. Nobody else
03:32 was allowed to play it. But now I'm a bit more chilled out and I just say, just kind
03:37 of, you know, play what you want, really.
03:39 But you've not been during the days where we get the most Beatles songs? Presumably
03:44 there's some obscurities that just can't be done live?
03:47 There is. Somebody this year, actually, is doing a set, Nick Dogman is his name, and
03:55 he's doing a set to this projector screen video that he's produced. I actually don't
04:03 really know how to describe it, but it's going to be very different and very strange and
04:09 very good, I presume. And then we've got a band called the Abbey Rodeo Band, which is
04:15 going to be Pete Prescott, members of the Rocket Men, like really talented musicians
04:22 who are going to be doing Abbey Road, Side B. So that's going to be really interesting.
04:27 Are you coming, Phil, by the way?
04:29 I will try to, if I possibly can. That would be lovely.
04:32 That would be great.
04:33 Well, it sounds a brilliant event. Good luck on the day, managing.
04:38 Thank you very much.
04:39 And it's so nice that you've emerged so strongly from the pandemic, which is when you came
04:43 to this event, more or less quickly, you had to shut it down and now you've reopened with
04:49 a vengeance.
04:50 We have. And I must say the White Rock actually have been good. They've just been taken over
04:54 by the Guildhall and they've been fantastic so far. So they've been really good.
05:01 Well, it sounds like the perfect venue. So it's happening Sunday, April the 7th. Good
05:07 luck with everything and lovely to see you.
05:08 Thank you very much, Phil.
05:09 Thank you.
05:10 Thank you.
05:10 Thank you.
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