Frolicking in the Abyss
AMANDA BROOKS takes in the Hastings Rock Radio 30th Anniversary Party at The Sussex Rooms, White Rock Theatre
Martyn ‘Gripper’ Lee
Hastings Rock Radio started as the provision of a local radio service to the Hastings area that would be different from those existing at the time, and more exciting. It was the brainchild of Nick Thomas.
The station put out its first FM broadcast in August 1993 from a studio at the Cinque Ports Hotel in Bohemia Road. A special feature of their regular programme was a live broadcast from the Carlisle pub in Hastings each Friday night. The two-hour slot, presented direct from the pub, featured live music from a different band each week. This was a significant achievement for a small station and paved the way for regular local music programmes.
Broadcast locations have changed over the years and include the old Silverhill Dairy, The Kings Head in Ore and for a long stretch the Robert de Mortain on The Ridge, where the station currently has a studio location. The station prides itself on the connection it has established with its listeners within the local community and further afield since the introduction of internet broadcasts.
PARTY!
This 30th birthday party was organised by local radio DJ Tony Davis, on behalf of Hastings Rock FM, and was supported by the full line-up of Hastings Rock Radio DJ’s. In addition to his other projects, Tony has also joined another internet radio station, emergingrockbands.com, which supports and promotes new music from lesser known or unsigned bands. The Sussex Rooms were full and the diverse audience, from old rockers to new young metalheads, wildly enthusiastic.
ENIGMATIC SYPHA SPACE
Alicia Pilling of Sypha
Brighton-based hard rock line-up Sypha started the ball rolling with a well-balanced stance. Young, vibrant, ’cool-as-a-cucumber’ melodic female lead vocals, gnarling guitar, bass and drums, delivered a liberating pillar of original, raw material. Conjuring up the stew of emotions bubbling just beneath a cool exterior, Sypha’s unique musicianship shone through with effortless knack and gumption. Inclusive, heavy, lusty and raucous, Sypha knows how to spawn excitation within the audience. Unquestionably, there is much more to come from this feisty young combo.
OBSERVATIONAL
Charismatic and full of mischief, Hastings’ lads Gripper Lee kicked off their set with one of many original tracks, My Train is a Bus. Gripper Lee motivates the audience with laughter and perceptiveness. Purposely deviating from what some may consider mainstream, the band delivers the goods as a duo (bassist Richie Nice and drummer Martyn ‘Gripper’ Lee) with the boundless sound and exuberance of a wacky, punky six-piece band, delivering a staggeringly chunky, lumbering sound, stimulating the senses and the mind.
When they’re not in the process of planning their next practical joke on one another, the devilish duo are limitless in their expertise as songwriters, while their zany outlook ensures that their heels remain firmly fixed in the vicinity of the eccentric and the unpredictable, but without a care in the world.
FULL-THROATED BAG OF TRICKS
Headlining the night was the legendary, in your face, London-based heavy rock band, Sacrilege. Ear catching, a-la-mode, sterling and gilt-edged, the band began its set with driving, steady, ‘getting-it-on’ rock beats, followed by rhythm and lead guitars delivering lightning riffs, all together bringing about a powerhouse of heavy sonic attack. Bill Beadle’s impressive, soaring male vocal, which makes up the band’s emphatic sound, takes the audience to ground-rising altitudes, full-throated and strepitous, with a variety of split-vocal sound types not dissimilar to various famous male rock titans, nicely familiar to the audience. With your eyes closed, apart from Sacrilege itself, it is possible to embrace the feeling of being in the company of other groups and singers who, to this day, remain hard-hitting, do-or-die rock giants.
Hastings Rock Radio is available to listeners over the airwaves on 87.7FM and live, world-wide, online streaming throughout the month of May each year at hastingsrock.co.uk.Listen to: Sacrilege reverbnation.com/sacrilege; Sypha on Facebook; @syphaband and latest single Your Ways on Spotify; Gripper Lee: Facebook @gripperleeband
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