The club, which will mark its 24th anniversary later this year, offers both match participation and coaching to children (from age 5 upwards) and adults with special needs, mental health challenges, and physical disabilities.

Paul Anderson has stepped down after serving six years as Specials Chairman (with nine years of volunteer contributions before that). The new chair is Duncan Nolan, who has also served 15 years with the club, revitalising operations and ensuring robust membership. He comes to the principal role after a notably successful career in club management – both in mainstream and disability football.

The Specials have, in the past, had 90+ players (counting both children and adults) on their books, with 65 or more attending sessions every weekend. Many former youngsters, now in their 20s and 30s, have gone on to play and thrive in mainstream football.

The club used to run teams competing in (and sometimes winning) local disability leagues centred in Maidstone and in West Sussex, but funding to cover the travel and other costs of this was lost after the Covid-19 pandemic. Save for one-off events, which include a charity day out at Hollington, matches are now only played at the home pitch in Bexhill.

Here, Specials teams for ages 12 to 50+ play friendlies through the season against local walking football teams, including the Old Bexhillians (OBs), Monday Night Walkers, and the Walking Wednesdays. Robert Carey of the OBs, comments: “The Specials are, by their very name, special, and a series of matches have taken place where the emphasis has been fun and great spirit between the two sets of players. The results have been somewhat irrelevant – the sessions have been enjoyed by many OB men and women players.”

The Specials also run a team for 6-12 year-olds, while the OBs have a senior side of over

The fair, in association with Bexhill College and Talent Accelerator, is an opportunity to explore hundreds of full and part-time job vacancies, apprenticeships, training and skills development opportunities, back-to-work support and guidance and vocational and recreational courses.

Over 50 businesses and organisations from across the region will be recruiting into roles in Financial Services, Technology, Hospitality, Health & Social Care, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Engineering, Sport & Leisure, Construction, Education, Transport and other sectors.

This year, some of the regular exhibitors will be returning, such as Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Govia Thameslink Railway. In addition, there will be employers new to the event, including Park Holidays UK, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Services and Rother District Council Coastal Office.

Bexhill Chamber of Commerce will be providing free CV reviews, and the Creative Industries Zone will be offering entry-level and skills development opportunities to young people interested in a creative career. Free workshops will run throughout the day, and support for job seekers will be available from organisations including Connect to Work East Sussex. A ‘Quiet Time’ will be in operation between 2pm and 3.30pm. d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse visitors are particularly welcome during this period.

A not-for-profit community-led initiative, Bexhill Jobs & Apprenticeships Fair is organised by the De La Warr Pavilion, Kieran Mullan MP, Bexhill College and Rother District Council with the support of Bexhill Chamber of Commerce.

Kieran Mullan says: “In a jobs market where the application process is now focussed online, the fair is a refreshing and valuable opportunity to talk directly to employers. At this year’s event there will be a fantastic mix of large and small businesses and organisations recruiting into live job vacancies at all levels.”

Bexhill Jobs & Apprenticeships Fair is on Friday 6 March 10.30am – 3.30pm at the De La Warr Pavilion. Find out more and register at dlwp.com/jobsfair. Visitors are welcome to come along on the day but are encouraged to register in advance to smooth their entry to the event. 

Letter

Community Resilience in Practice

Dear HIP

What a pleasure to read about the formation of HASTE – Hydraulic Activity Stabilisation Training Enterprise CIC – and the co-operation between experts, Bexhill College, the local community and the Council. (Landslides Action Plan 19 December 2015).

It marks a significant advance by the Council. It follows the community led approach of the present administration and hopefully its lessons can be learned by all the political parties.

In particular it shows the need to work across the divides of political parties: it is noteworthy that if the Labour and Green Parties had joined forces in the Ashdown and Conquest Council by-election they would have won.

Yours sincerely

William Ackroyd

Letter

The Science of Muddling Through

Anyone involved with management and/or town planning will surely be aware of the article ‘The Science of Muddling Through’ which broadly makes the point that bureaucracies only ever make change incrementally and that, of course, means slowly and in small step adjustments to the status quo. And, of course, that position has been qualified in some later articles by stating that publicly funded bodies have a duty to protect public funds and that large or rapid changes are unlikely to be well received by the general public. 

So, it is understandable why the housing strategy is so lacking in innovation and creativity. But in an age when global warming threatens in all manner of ways and in a town with such poor housing and yet full of creative people, is such a protectionist status quo position still viable? Should not our political representatives be more radical?

Of course, this is only a strategy and not an action plan, but for me at least, it misses the opportunity to be bold, to be ambitious, and mostly to show how it will be possible to work across the usual local authority management silos. There is mention of working with housing associations (HAs) who have considerable land assets for additional housing provision, there is mention of working with the planners to identify more housing opportunities, but the consultative group being referenced by the Council was never able to develop the sort of collaborative working with those other bodies that will be so vital in providing more sustainable communities. The strategy process could have been used to build bridges across some of the people that are vital to creating more high quality housing in the town.

Much of the housing association estate in Hastings was built when land was cheap and that also applies to employment areas which are also built as quite low density and, indeed, are now quite often shops rather than factories, offices, or workshops. Some increase in density designed well and sustainably could provide more housing and more communal facilities without taking up more countryside and, at the same time moving out of areas subject to long term flooding or land slippage. 

We need Housing Association management that looks beyond such immediate solutions as large scale demolition and that could be achieved by very specific planning policy and guidance. We need clear and locally distinctive planning policies/guidance such as for small infill sites (including in conservation areas), tall buildings, mixed use and housing co-ops. 

Above all else, we need locally to learn from each other and from across the world if needed. We need to be visionary, we need to be confident, and we need to embrace the creativity that already drives much of Hastings.

Ken Davis

Letter

There is no bread. We are dying.

Dear HIP

I read with interest your article “An Evening of Sadness and Hope” (05/12/25) commemorating the 1932/33 famine in Ukraine that has in recent years become known as the Holodomor. Whilst it is right and proper that all those who died in the famine should be honoured and remembered it should also be remembered that, though the Ukrainian experience was particularly horrific, not all the victims were Ukrainians. Millions of Russians, Kazakhs and other Soviet peasants also perished in what was a catastrophe afflicting the peasantry all across the USSR. As part of Ukraine’s nation-building project there has been a growing temptation to blame Russia for the famine and indeed to portray it as an act of genocide against Ukrainians, a narrative that has also recently taken hold in the West as a result of Russia’s invasion. Accepting such a picture without question is no doubt tempting at a time of war but doing so should be resisted by those who put the importance of history above that of politics. Despite it being a main plank of Ukraine’s ‘memory policy’ in recent years most objective historians reject the genocide thesis and recoil at the idea that it was an ethnically-targeted attack by Russia. It wasn’t. The perpetrators were the multi-national Bolshevik party, led by the Georgian, Joseph Stalin, and the famine killed on the basis of class, not ethnicity. The causes were many and complex but chief among them was the ruthless, ham-fisted way in which collectivisation was implemented and the fanatical way grain was requisitioned to fund industrialization. For that it “was not so much the Soviet Government as the world crisis which is to blame”. So wrote my great uncle Gareth Jones, someone who, credited as the first journalist to expose the famine, did so with the words, “Everywhere was the cry, ‘There is no bread.  We are dying. This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia.” The famine was an historical tragedy for all its undivided victims. The Holodomor is a way of looking at that tragedy that, by claiming exclusivity in victimhood, itself has problematic aspects.

Yours faithfully,

Philip Colley,

the Gareth Jones Society

Letter

Violence and Administrative Coercion.

The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain responded to Mr Colley’s letter:

The Hastings & Rother Branch is grateful for the opportunity to respond to the letter submitted in response to the article “An Evening of Sorrow and Hope.” We fully agree that the famine of 1932–1933 was a profound human tragedy that affected people of different nationalities throughout the Soviet Union, and that all victims deserve to be remembered and respected.

At the same time, it is important to recognise that Ukraine suffered the most devastating and disproportionate losses. In the case of Ukraine, the famine unfolded alongside an active process of state-building and widespread resistance to Soviet policies. A significant body of historical research demonstrates that food requisitioning, punitive measures, and repression were deliberately used as tools to suppress resistance and to dismantle Ukrainian rural society.

Modern recognition of the Holodomor does not view it as an act of “Russia,” which in its current form did not exist at the time, but rather as a crime of the totalitarian Soviet regime. This distinction is crucial. The famine was not caused by a lack of food; it was the result of the systematic confiscation of grain, foodstuffs, livestock, and other property from those deemed disloyal, carried out through violence and administrative coercion.

Policies were applied in Ukraine that were not implemented elsewhere, including internal blockades of villages, strict bans on travel from famine-stricken areas, and the deliberate obstruction of international aid. By contrast, such measures were not applied in the same way in other regions, where mortality rates were significantly lower.

According to widely cited historical studies, millions of people died during the Holodomor, with estimates commonly ranging from 3.5 to 6 million victims in Ukraine alone. These findings are documented by authoritative institutions, including the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kyiv, as well as in academic research and archival sources.

In recent years, these findings have been reflected not only in public discourse but also in formal, documented recognition. The United Kingdom officially recognised the Holodomor as a genocide in 2023, following similar resolutions adopted by other national parliaments. These decisions were based on historical evidence and scholarly analysis, not political speculation.

The event, organised by the Ukrainian community, was an act of remembrance. Its focus on Ukrainian history reflects both the purpose of the event and the community’s responsibility to speak about its own past, drawing on documented facts, survivor testimonies, and internationally recognised historical research. This does not prevent others from sharing their histories; rather, it affirms the right of each community to do so honestly and with evidence.

Commemorating the Holodomor is not about exclusivity in suffering, but about recognising the specific historical mechanisms through which it occurred. Honest remembrance, grounded in facts, strengthens rather than weakens our shared understanding of history.

The Committee of AUGB – Hastings & Rother Branch

The threat of landslides in Hastings and St Leonards is real and persistent (see page 5), with 24 recorded events in recent years. The most recent landslides at Old Roar Ghyll and between the Bo Peep pub and Marina Church destroyed homes and infrastructure, leaving deep financial and emotional scars on the community.

The scale of landslide damage along the south coast is immense, demanding a coordinated response from national government, local councils and insurers. Yet affected communities often feel abandoned, left alone to piece together their shattered lives.

This looks as if it is about to change, however. On Monday 8 December, a group of Hastings residents and other interested parties gathered on The Green opposite 76-84 West Hill Road, St Leonards for their first physical intervention in tackling the problems of landslides in the town. This was the first step in a bold plan by newly formed Community Interest Company HASTE (Hydraulic Activity Stabilisation Training Enterprise) to install a network of sensors to monitor the cliff system.

It was the culmination of two years of behind-the-scenes work putting together the necessary expertise, getting the local community on board working to ensure that there would be the political will to support this bold community vision.

“This is what community resilience looks like in practice,” says Ben Ramsden, HASTE Coordinator. “We’ve spent two years analysing historical data, building partnerships and planning carefully. Now we’re putting sensors in the ground that will act as an early warning system – helping us to understand where the risks are and figure out how to bring back stability to our cliff.”

The event on Monday was a testament to those partnerships. Bexhill College was represented by 23 students from the Geology Department, Hastings Borough Council by Glenn Haffenden (Leader of the council) along with Land Stability Project Manager, Sarah Tye and Mark Stanley of local firm Thingitude, a consultancy and training company that helps the public sector understand the potential of ‘smart city’ technology. Installation of the sensors was carried out by local company In Situ Site Investigation Ltd.

The monitoring installation is being provided free to the community through the partnership with In Situ and Thingitude and with funding from Sussex Resilience Forum. HASTE is hoping to demonstrate the benefits of collaboration between professional specialists and local residents who understand that protecting their homes requires collective action.

Darren Ward, CEO of In Situ Site Investigation, explains his involvement: “This is about giving back to the community I grew up in. We have the specialist equipment and expertise to help understand what’s happening beneath these cliffs, and if that knowledge can help protect people’s homes, then we want to be part of it.”

Cllr Haffenden agrees that from the council perspective, this is a great example of what can be achieved when the council and community work together. “HASTE has shown real initiative in tackling a challenge that affects hundreds of local homes, and we’re proud to support their innovative approach,” he says.

And it’s not just Hastings Borough Council who are interested in this initiative. Following the first stages of sensor installation on West Hill, Ben Ramsden was off to Westminster to join local MP Helena Dolimore to meet representatives from 56 councils at the Local Government Association’s Coastal Special Interest Group and present HASTE’s community-led approach as a potential template for other at-risk areas. On Monday 15 December a second visit was an opportunity to discuss HASTE’s plans with the Under-Secretary of State for Water, Emma Hardy.

The next project phase involves partnering with an engineering firm to design a stabilisation plan for the entire mile-long cliff. Following this, the work will focus on training local workers and securing the necessary funding to execute the repairs. This is the action plan which will be presented to the water minister.

Anyone with skills or resources who would like to support the project should contact makehaste2025@gmail.com. To read a BBC article about the project visit bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjrj0ll2x1ro. To watch watch a BBC South report visit WhatsApp Video 2025-12-11 at 16.27.06.mp4 – Google Drive

The Technical Picture

HASTE is deploying a multi-sensor network combining piezometers (which measure groundwater pressure – a critical precursor to slope failure), accelerometers and tilt sensors (detecting movement at sub-centimetre precision) and weather stations (correlating rainfall with ground conditions).

The team will also survey existing boreholes along the cliff system to identify which remain in suitable condition for additional sensor deployment. This ‘intelligent reuse’ of existing infrastructure dramatically reduces costs while accelerating coverage. 

The goal is to install monitoring points strategically across the entire cliff area to understand how weather events affect different zones – and to identify any areas showing warning signs and develop solutions before they become dangerous.

Traditional engineering consultancy approaches to monitoring this scale of risk would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. HASTE’s community-led model, with professional engineering oversight, delivers the same capability at a fraction of the cost – and builds local expertise in the process.

Tasters

St Leonards Ceramic Studio celebrates its first anniversary of work by students and members, having taught more than 300 people in courses, tasters and workshops. They are taking part in Coastal Currents with open studio and sales on 8 and 9 October at 36 Marina. 

www.stleonardsceramics.co.uk 

Folk Cultures

Violinist Max Baillie is joined by Berlin-based star Serbian pianist Ljubica Stojanovic for the next St Leonards Concert – an evening of violin and piano music. The programme includes some music inspired by folk cultures, and two of the great French pieces for violin and piano. Friday 14 October 2022. 

Details and tickets from eventbrite.co.uk

Effervescent 

Barefoot Opera are coming to St. Mary in the Castle on 14 October, with Cenerentola – Rossini’s effervescent comedy. It tells the classic tale of Cinderella with a sparkling new twist. The professional cast is joined by Voiceworks, Arts on Prescription Choir, Seaview Choir and students from Bexhill College and Hastings Academy.

Tickets from www.stmaryinthecastle.org.uk/events

3D Self Portrait

Hastings’ Digital Arts Hub mounts an exhibition and event from the 1 – 8 October. It’s a culmination of this summer’s work and a chance for people to take home personal 3D printed scans as part of the XR22 Project – a digital 3D mass self-portrait of Hastings: its town, culture and its people, using the latest the emerging XR technologies. dah.

hastingscommons.com

Dust and Light

Hastings Contemporary celebrates the gallery’s 10th birthday with three new shows this autumn: Caragh Thuring –
a survey show of paintings, drawing and monotypes created in the last 15 years; Making Waves features artworks from 10 alumni artists and Penny McCarthy presents Cloud falls in Love with mortal – drawings inspired by the clouds, water, dust and light of Hastings.

Afrikaba

Habib Koité one of West Africa’s leading guitarists, returns to the UK for a series of live shows this November, including Sussex Hall, White Rock Theatre, as part of Afrikaba Festival.

www.africannightfever.com

Bexhill After Dark, produced by local events company, 18 Hours, will feature 11 light-art installations around Bexhill town centre, along with an illuminated, wheeled parade.

Installations include The Beach Beacon by De La Warr Pavilion and Bexhill College – the iconic art deco building becomes a lightbox of shifting colours and projections with a soundtrack created by BexhillvCollege students. In Talking Heads by Impossible Theatre, audience’s faces are projected onto giant screens and animated with famous quotes from popular media. The Living Snow Globe by the Show Globe will enchant youngsters as a beautiful, friendly princess glides about in her glittering world.

LEFT: Talking Heads by Impossible Theatre credit Richard Kenworthy
RIGHT: The Living Snow Globe by the Show Globe

On the High Street by Shared Space and Light sees the Bexhill Chiropody Centre transformed, with projections onto the shop front bringing to life the history of shopping in Bexhill. In Devonshire Square, an acrobat twirls, suspended from a 9-metre-high candle. There will be illuminated juggling from the UK African Acrobats, a twisting, fantastical, illuminated Leviathan from Radiator Arts and a glowing Light Ship by Circo Rum Ba Ba. Bexhill Heritage will illuminate Bexhill’s bandstand, which they are currently renovating.

An illuminated We are Stardust parade by Radiator Arts departs from the De La Warr Pavilion at 5.30pm. It passes through the sparkling Stardust Gateway, created by Radiator’s Kate Bruce, and is made up of illuminated bicycles, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, skateboards and six illuminated flamingos! Local schools and community groups will be working throughout January to decorate their wheels for the parade.

The event is funded by Arts Council England and supported by an advisory panel, plus the Welcome Back Fund, East Sussex Arts Partnership, Bexhill Lions, Bexhill Chamber of Commerce and Rother District Council and 1066 Country, and others.

“We’re delighted to be brightening up a dark January evening with top quality, enchanting, illuminated art and entertainment,” says Director of 18 Hours, Mandy Curtis. “We hope people will come along and enjoy the performances safely.”

• Please register to attend this event to give an idea of numbers. For full information, to register and to see covid updates visit 18hours.org/bexhill-after-dark

A young Hastings man considers what it means to get an education.

I grew up loving books. I started reading by myself at the age of four, mostly fantasy books. I remember getting about £100 from my family for my ninth birthday, going to the local bookshop and spending it all on books of all sorts. I had books about knights, monsters, aliens, dinosaurs, anything I could get my hands on I devoured. As long as I can remember, I dreamt of writing my own book. And then I went to senior school. Just what is it about our education system that stifles, dulls and dampens natural enthusiasm?

School is in some ways the very opposite of an inspiration. I emerged from that process with no idea how to write creatively. I had little understanding of the art of writing, my only significant experience being with my journal, which I started last October. Journaling is a beautiful way to calm the whirlwind of the mind: slow down, first write the letters, then you’ve got words going, now sentences, and suddenly your problems don’t seem so bad. But how to develop this? My mum mentioned the idea of doing an evening class, and I saw that Bexhill College had a Creative Writing class, huzzah! A place to learn about writing, how wonderful, only £80 for an eight week course, what a deal! 

CREDIT: Ed Robertson/Unsplash

It was to be a bit odd returning to Bexhill College; only a year and a half ago I had been studying there. Like a lot of teenagers I had previously chosen subjects for reasons other than their intrinsic interest. I chose Maths, Business Studies and Modern History. That was probably a mistake. But I don’t remember any sane advice coming my way. As a result, going to college felt like a bit of a chore to me. Fundamentally I was doing subjects that I wasn’t that interested in just because I thought they would be good A-Levels to have. I suppose at some level I assumed that my subjects would lead me to a good University and then go get a good job. Makes sense, right? Or does it?

 Now Uni is the last thing on my mind. I did end up getting good grades though – possibly because I didn’t have to sit the actual exams due to good ol’ Covid. But returning to the college for the evening classes, I found myself in a familiar classroom but it was an utterly different experience. Something almost exciting.

I would begin my learning experience with a blustery bike ride along the seafront to Bexhill College, managing to clear off some of the morning cobwebs, stumbling into class covered in sweat, likely stinking out the room but I never had any objections. The class had a casual feeling, helped by the fact I had my friend Louis with me there. We’d talk about books, authors, we’d laugh, joke, the class had a very relaxed feeling, probably because everyone actually wanted to be there, unlike a lot of classrooms. I really feel like I learned a lot. Andrea, our teacher, used a variety of methods to get the creative juices going. For example, we tried the technique of cut-up, which WIlliam Burroughs famously used, cutting up random words from newspapers and putting them back together in our own order. From this I got the wonderful sentence, “I taught two dogs to fly a plane fuelled by martinis”. 

From this I got the wonderful phrase, ‘I taught two dogs to fly a plane fuelled by martinis

Without Andrea’s class I don’t think I would’ve ever known how to write the first article I wrote for HIP, reading it out to the class was a pretty proud moment for myself. I learnt a lot from this class: to think sort of sideways, use different methods of creativity and to understand that decent writing is like constructing an object for the mind. It needs not to fall to bits. And it needs to be fun.

 It would’ve been nice to feel this way the first time round, but I don’t think the education system is set up to inspire teenage minds. Instead, it seems focused on herding as many poor zombies as they can into University, arguably so they can stay in debt to the government for the next thirty years. Maybe best not to get into that one but it does seem that something is not right about our current state education system. Not that our current leaders use it. 

 What I do know is that the evening class was the best classroom experience I’ve ever had. Perhaps that tells us something. Just maybe education could be reformed to let everyone fly their own martini fuelled plane. 

By Safiya Young 

Never before have I had a stronger desire to take up outdoor sports. Even two weeks ago, I would have thought nothing of spending the afternoon, indeed the weekend, at home, leaving the house occasionally to walk the dogs or run an errand. Now, every second I spend indoors is a prison sentence for a crime I didn’t commit. In the time before – which I, like Offred, have the urge to call it –the complaint was of teenagers cooping themselves up to rot in their rooms. Now, there is talk of ‘disbanding’ great gangs of us who fester untethered in the streets. In the time before, they worried for us as we squared our eyes with hours of screen time, and typed our fingers blunt. Now, we do remote learning, accessing classes online, receiving daily emails that detail how to work ourselves senseless and why that really is the most beneficial option for our futures. 

When college announced that they would not be opening the following day, I almost wanted to laugh (nervously). It was as if someone had torn out the storyboard for a new dystopia and materialised it in our actual lives. Frustratingly, I am just at the right age to lead a rebellion against the sort of totalitarian regime that would impose a global quarantine. But right now, to follow in the footsteps of my fictional heroines would be devastatingly inappropriate. Even the people who had spent the week preaching the irresponsibility of our close proximity stopped in their tracks. Time stood still for just long enough for reality to pour cold water over our bewildered faces: this was actually happening.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have devoted my time to becoming an expert in nothing. The sudden boom of quarantine advice only further inflated my pre-existing vicious circle of procrastinating my work and then feeling bad about not having done it. It is both a comfort and a nuisance that the rest of the country, practically the world, is also living through this. On one hand, it is a relief to feel solidarity with my peers. On the other, much more selfish hand, how will people have enough pity left for me if it’s all being used up on more pressing matters, like themselves or the NHS? 

The only thing scarier than not knowing what on earth is happening is everyone else not knowing either. The mouths say “everything will get back to normal soon enough”, the eyes add a silent but despairing “hopefully”. How bizarre, that for all our technological advances and medical progress, the best advice anyone can come up with is to Stay Inside. It’s like a new world: a strange distance-based dystopia and, for those uninfected, an incredibly boring apocalypse.

• The writer, a pupil at Bexhill College, was due to sit ‘AS’ levels in May.

Barefoot Opera launch new call-out and Jamboree for people to take part in a new homegrown opera project!

Do you have a secret passion for music, singing and performance? Ever wondered what it might be like to sing in a professional music theatre production? Do you know anyone with a great voice but who’s always been too shy to perform? Do you know a young person who dreams of a career in music and theatre? 

Bloom Britannia preview performance in 2019
PICTURE: Chris Parker

If the answer to any of these questions is YES, now’s your chance to try something completely different! And it’s FREE! 

Barefoot Opera announce the launch of their new campaign, a call-out to everyone in the towns of Hastings, St. Leonards and Bexhill. They’re inviting us all to take part in an ambitious new project – Bloom Britannia a home-grown, professional opera, three years in the making, telling a story inspired by our lives in Hastings and St. Leonards. With diverse musical influences, characters we can all relate to, quite a few surprises and a lot of laughs…it’s an opera, but not as you know it. 

“It’s open to everyone…you don’t need any singing experience…just enthusiasm!” says Jenny Miller, who has been leading the project since the beginning. “You’ve heard that singing makes you feel good…and there’s scientific research to prove it’s true! This is also a great chance to meet people, and experience the buzz you get from singing with hundreds of others”.

Rehearsals will be taking place once a week from May-July. It all picks up again in the Autumn, with the show itself taking place in October at St. Mary in the Castle, Hastings. 

Bloom Britannia preview performance in 2019
PICTURE: Chris Parker

It’s an all-singing, fun-packed family-friendly afternoon for anyone and everyone who is interested. And there’ll be free tea and cake

If any of this sparks your interest, why not go along to St. Mary in the Castle on Saturday 21st March from 3-6pm for the Bloom Britannia Jamboree – a free event/launch party for people to find out more about the project.

You’ll hear the composer and creative team talk about the project, meet other people taking part, and find out about the organisations who are already involved, including: Rattlebag; Acapella Bellas; Now and
Then; The Seaview Choir; Bexhill College; Soundcastle; Arts-on-Prescription; and more….

This is an event for everyone across generations, for people with all levels of singing experience …or none. Go on, give it a go!

FREE, by booking in advance at https://barefootopera.com/shop/bloom-britannia-jamboree or free entry at the door.

• For further information, email bloom@barefootopera.com, check their website or look on HIP’s website for past coverage of Barefoot Opera. 

A wedding scene is the traditional finale to comedy theatre from Shakespeare to Gavin and Stacey.  All the cast can be gathered – two main protagonists as happy couple, along with dysfunctional family members, drunk best man, disappointed suitors and a well-wishing chorus – in an often sentimental reconciliation of the preceding drama. 

Chris Packham
PICTURE: Simon Newbury

In The Wedding Singer, originally a Hollywood film starring Adam Sandler, later turned into a Broadway musical, and last week performed with panache by the Bexhill Light Operatic and Dramatic Society (BLODS) at the Izzard Theatre of Bexhill College, these elements are all present but re-ordered, and repeated successively. The male lead Robbie Hall is the singer in a four-piece rock band ‘Simply Wed’ that plays regular gigs at local wedding receptions. In an early scene he himself is jilted at the altar by a fiancée who had aimed at getting a rock star for a husband and realised that Robbie wasn’t up to it. The rest of the plot revolves around his alternative romance with a local waitress, Julie: will she or won’t she dump Glen, the high-earning but duplicitous Wall Street trader she’s due to marry, and settle for the chunky, cheesy and charming songster instead? Of course she will.

The main action is set in Ridgefield, New Jersey during the 1980s – cue for terrible 80s clothing and hairstyles, jaunty but unmemorable pastiche 80s music, and variable East Coast accents. The climax takes place in a Las Vegas wedding parlour replete with celeb-impersonators including Madonna and Tina Turner. Robbie, having composed a winsome love song for Julia – “I Wanna Grow Old With You” – makes a five-hour flight to deliver it to her as she’s about to exchange vows with Glen. The show ends with yet another wedding back home as the right couple tie the knot.

PICTURE: Simon Newbury

Star of the BLODS production was Chris Packham as Robbie, who looked like he was impersonating a young James Corden but added an excellent singing voice. Other fine performances were given by Daisy Estall as Julia, by Damon Miller as Simply Wed guitarist Sammy and by his on-off girlfriend Holly played, with classy vocals, by Abby Doherty.

But stand-out plaudits are owed to director Lee Lyons and particularly choreographer Hollie Jane Saunters, who in several scenes deployed an ensemble cast of over 20 adults and several kids across the stage with military-grade precision as they peopled the successive wedding receptions (or, at one point, a bar mitzvah ceremony), singing, dancing, talking, laughing, drinking – the stuff people do when it’s someone else’s future life being determined. Minor characters got their opportunities to perform briefly in the spotlight, and the children offered their own dance cameos. As demonstrated by BLODS, The Wedding Singer is a perfect show to stage with an animated, variable-talented amateur cast who are prepared, as they obviously were, to put in a lot of rehearsal time.

A mention too for the literally unsung musicians, who played behind a screen throughout and curiously failed to take a visible bow even at the curtain call. Middle of the Road 80s rock doesn’t come at the top of many people’s music playlists, but they thumped it out regardless.

“We wanted to do something that was fun and really stood out from the more classic musicals”, said Lee afterwards. “I was especially pleased with the energy that the cast put into the production, I was blessed with a really talented ensemble that really took the direction and choreography on board.”

• Future BLODS productions still in planning stage include a drama Five Lesbians Eating A Quiche (no, nor do I) and Shrek The Musical. The latter is booked for performances at the De La Warr Pavilion next August.