Culture

Is he a mint with a hole? (No, but he does carry them around in his pocket). Is he a German hatchback or a game for posh people on horseback? No! He’s actually a genius Argentinian composer and pianist living in Hastings and he’s one of the loveliest people I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing.

When you think of the word ‘muse’, several people come to mind: a mid-nineties rock band, obviously Kate Moss in all her forms, the Pre Raphaelite poser, Elizabeth Sidall and last but not least, St Leonard’s based Freudian nudie, Sue Tilley.

Nothing says Hastings like Jack in the Green: clog-dancing maidens, stomping steampunk drummers, Morris dancers a-leaping with their knee bells and handkerchiefs, happy LGBTQ+ samba troupes, beardy blokes with owls perched on their arms, a long procession following the presiding deity of the rite, Jack, the spirit of Spring, making his way up the winding cobbles of the Old Town

There was absolutely no mistaking Lorna Hamilton-Brown for anyone else when I saw her enter Eggtooth’s The Nest at The Old Town Hall for our interview this May. Dressed from head to toe in colourfully printed sports luxe with a matching bucket hat and luminous trainers, donning her trademark Black Girl Magic earrings, she looked every part the craft maverick I’d heard so much about.

When I first began looking into my family ancestry I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life. In January 2022 I was feeling creatively stuck. The post-covid landscape for musicians such as myself was looking pretty bleak and my Dad had just been diagnosed with mixed Dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

When I got into the car the other morning to take my kid to school, the radio defaulted to BBC 6 Music and I immediately heard something I recognised. It was ‘Treasure’ by HotWax and once the song finished, Lauren Laverne was gushing about them being the ones to watch out for in 2023. At this point, I had already interviewed the band for Get Hastings but even in that short period, their potential had grown so much.

“Why!? What’s he done?” Louisa, the landlady of the Tower pub asks when I mention that we’d like to take some photos to go with my interview of James Endeacott, the subject I had left sitting on a sofa in front of a pictorial shrine to the Arsenal football team.

An interview with street photographer JJ Waller.

I don’t know — one minute you’re being chemically castrated for being a homosexual and the next minute they’re sticking your face on money and hailing you as “The Gay Man Who Saved the World” on the front of Attitude Magazine.

We first visited Hastings around Halloween time, a year before we moved. I hadn’t consciously accepted our time in London was up yet, but I felt it in my waters. I often found myself dreaming about the seaside in that untenably expensive East End boxroom flat around that time. 

Approaching Doon Mackichan’s doorstep, busy with its flower-filled plant pots, I am brandishing a bunch of roses and a packet of Dead Fly biscuits (AKA Garibaldi). From the doorstep, I hear her on the phone, to her agent as it turns out – how showbiz! She opens the door and I’m greeted by two large, very friendly grins: one from Doon, and the other from her elegant Staffordshire bull terrier, Stella, who wants to show me her ball.

I wake up and it is Monday – notorious for the start of the working-mans’ week, or a death toll for students under pressure. I belong to the second category, however fortunately for me, Mondays are when I have English: two hours of arguments, debates and Christina Rosetti – I can think of nothing better.

Peter Quinnell is a popular and successful illustrator, working for 25 years, primarily with collage. You will have seen his instantly recognisable work whilst out and about in Hastings but also in countless magazines and advertising. He works from Black Winkle Studio opposite the fisherman’s huts where he prides himself on being “Experienced, fast and inexpensive. No job too large or too small”.