peterchecksfield wrote:peterchecksfield wrote:Tony Papard wrote:peterchecksfield wrote:Perk wrote: I mean Bill Haley drunk in my town! That´s GREAT!
I'm sure Jerry Lee Lewis was drun in Margate....& every other town he visited in 1978!

Kenny Lovelace bought fish and chips in Margate! Well Cliftonville, in a chippie opposite the Winter Gardens during the interval.
That should deserve a blue plaque if Jerry/Kenny fans had any say in the matter, but unfortunately we don't.
Unfortunately that chip shop closed down years ago, as did all the shops (almost) opposite The Winter Gardens apart from an off licence.
There'll be nothing left of Margate soon:
http://www.joylandbooks.com/scenicrailway/

Margate closures in recent months include:
Dreamland cinema (Margate now no longer has a cinema for the first time since the 20's), 3 pubs (Yates, The Cottage, The Wellington), Marks & Spencers (it's now a near-empty art gallery) & Pizzahut, with the biggest remaining store (Primark) rumoured to be going soon. Very sad.
The derelict Dreamland former amusement park site, and now the historic, listed Scenic Railway catching fire, is tragic. It is so much a part of Margate, which was a magic place when I was a kid. We went there year after year, and the Scenic Railway was my favorite ride.
The pier has gone long ago, and the Sun Deck, which was unique to Margate.
But it's not just Margate - the Kursaal amusement park in Southend has long gone, as has Battersea Fun Fair in Battersea Park, opened for the Festival of Britain in 1951, which also had a wooden roller coaster or scenic railway.
Blackpool's Pleasure Beach is one of the few surviving older big amusement parks, which have been replaced by inland developments like Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures.
Still, Margate has other attractions. The sea, sandy beaches, etc. But last time I visited the fantastic 'Shell Grotto' I was dismayed - the once colorful shells, preserved for centuries, had lost all their color due to the artificial lighting installed in the 20th Century sometime.
Jerry Lee played the Winter Gardens on November 9th, 1978. The concert hall is right by the sea, and Jerry made some remark about how beautiful the venue was with 'the ocean' just outside. The British never refer to the North Sea as 'the ocean'!
Long ago in Ferriday down in Louisiana, They all watched Jerry play and pump that old piana
My blog: http://www.tonypapard.info/
My Jerry Lee Lewis page:
http://www.btinternet.com/~tony.papard/JERRYLEELEWIS.HTM