New cafes and bars in Hastings

[seahermit]

It is very encouraging that slowly but surely Queens Road has been pulling itself up. Who would have thought it?! Not so long back, the street was run-down, shabby and rather intimidating after dark - now there is the Drift In Bar opposite Morrisons, very clean, friendly bar which hosts live music every week and quite good stuff too, often a duo/trio performing or it's an open mic night. Not far along, opposite the petrol station is a micro pub - REALLY nice atmosphere and a terrific range of quality drinks including dozens of different fruit gins! One or two other nice cafe/bars further down, near the M 'n S store. The whole street has acquired a nightlife ambience and lots of people walking about. However, significantly, there seems no evidence that the council can claim credit for its input or encouragement - it's all private enterprise from people who have seen the new possibilities for starting up in a cheaper area.

Near Pelham Place, the foyer of St Mary in the Castle has become another very pleasant cafe/bar open in the evenings and a trio was performing there last Saturday night - a bohemian-looking bunch but great music! See images below.

And the Albion in George Street has been hosting some excellent bands for a while - last Friday night a band called "The Hot house Four" had the whole place dancing about to a mix of wild American Roots music - a bit of country, a bit of blues, rag, jazz, even some early rock 'n roll in there too. They are doing more gigs around Hastings in the next few weeks (see www.thehothousefour.com or find them on FB).

What Hastings does best is what gives the town its unique, quirky and very attractive quality.

[Richard]

seahermit Yes! There seems to be more disposable cash coming from the public and no the council have done little, they can't even put litter bins anywhere and the older ones near to Peacock's are owned/maintained by the shops.
The county council are supposed to weed the streets and yet many areas look like a ghost town of the wild west, with tumble-weed blowing in the wind.
As for 'bands' the hothousefour (five) look interesting but no more gigs in Hastings this year unfortunately!
Keep us posted of upcoming music events, please and we might not miss out in future.

[seahermit]

I think people have always been ready to part with some spare pounds if a venue is welcoming and the music good, what nicer way to escape Brexit for a while? I agree that, whilst one has to sympathise with local councils for their chronic underfunding from central government, Hastings Council does not even do the most basic things, like providing enough litter bins, to put on a pretence of caring for the community it is supposed to be serving.

I am not a trained musician - in some reincarnation, I might try to find time to learn the sax properly and aspire to being a music critic - but I cannot really go too long without another fix of good live music and there's plenty of that around Hastings. Yes, I can post things when I come across events which are really worth going out of your way for - I am surprised that nobody has so far done a sort of "top twenty music venues to check out in Hastings". There are several listings of course, like the Hastings Online Times or the events pages in the Hastings Independent Press, but you tend to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of events and it's hard to pick out what is good.

Maybe when I have a moment I could start with a round-up of the best music listings to check-out when you find you have an evening to spare! Then chuck in some of my own favourite haunts ..