A festival of nuclear disarmament and art, poetry, prose, music, badges, leaflets, peace and love when CND had the band stand booked for a whole Saturday in 1980 or thereabouts somehow I was selected to be in charge of music.  I managed to get a band from London booked for a small fee (would they have been ‘postpunk’ or ‘New Romantic’?) On the day, they arrived early to fit in with  Crawley Council rules and it would be many hours until they played. They were a dance oriented band and the set-up may not have been what they were expecting. I had tried to be clear when booking but as it all went through a third party the detail may have been lost.

Meanwhile, I had a secret desire to get “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” by “Pere Ubu” played over the Queens Square Tannoy System. It was played and I thought that it might impress but no-one ever mentioned it. However I still get satisfaction from the fact that this most unlikely recording was played at high volume in Crawley town centre (childish, I know).

At the end of the day I thanked the band and saw them off. I did, however, notice the vocalist round the side of the bandstand and now that they had left I went to have a look. He was a talented artist as well as singer and musician because, in bright coloured chalk he had drawn the best image of a cat’s a*se I had ever seen, below was the slogan, in bold lettering “Crawley, sh*t hole of the world.”

(Tim Holt)