As we entered the new millennium, Crawley had two thriving Choral Societies – Concordia Singers, formed in 1962, and The Weald Choir of Crawley, formed in 1970. Having co-existed in friendly rivalry for over 40 years, in 2016 the two choirs prepared to put on a joint concert at The…
My family moved into the house next door to Robert Smith in about 1974 when my son, Steven, was 13 and Robert was 15. They obviously knew each other, as neighbours, but did not move in the same circles because Steve went to Hazelwick school and Robert went to St…
When we held our exhibition on The Cure in 2018 we asked visitors to share with us what music meant to them by writing on index cards. Here are some of their answers: ” I like music because you can express yourself. Music has inspired me to be more confident…
I remember when I first heard The Cure. It was March 1979. A friend played me ‘Killing an Arab’ and introduced it to me with the words ‘they come from Crawley!’ The local music scene at that time had certainly never seen or heard anything like it. I was amazed.…
The Crawley Bobby Dazzlers were started by Vi and Bob Leake in 1982 when their daughter Jenny wanted to create her own majorette corps.Throughout the 1980s Jenny, Vi and Bob led the troop to competitions, public displays and of course Crawley Carnivals. They were successful in competitions winning both individual…
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…
I put on quite a few gigs between 2010 – 2015 in Crawley. I did a hip hop night at The Hoppers, and put on various band nights, punk, alternative and rock at the Snooty Fox, Black Dog, the Railway, the Imperial and anywhere else that would have me. I…
As part of our Music in Crawley exhibition, Heather Eves was planning to come and play the ‘cello for us in January 2021. Unfortunately this wasn’t possibly due to Covid-19 and the national lockdown. So instead Heather made us this lovely video. We hope you enjoy it.
As the museum is currently closed to the public we’ve made some videos so that people can see some of the objects and photographs from our Music in Crawley exhibition. We hope you enjoy them. Due to music copyright the videos are silent, but we’ve also created a playlist of…
In the early part of the 20th century it was common for cycle shops to also sell gramophones and records. Kirkman’s was in Crawley Square from the 1930s until the 1950s. They then moved to 40 The Broadway. The Square was the buildings that stood in the middle of the…