Saturday Nights

Market Hall 1899
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What memories this building holds.  It gave the opportunity for a lot of teenagers to have their first Saturday night outs.  It usually cost 1s 6d entrance fee unless there was a fairly well known group appearing that night then it was 2s 6d.  I attended Redhill Tech (my surname then was Watts) and worked on a Saturday in Woolies on the sweet counter and most of the day was spent chatting to various friends who used to come in and there would be great excitement in waiting for the evening to arrive.
I would rush home, wolf down some tea and then spend about 2 hours trying on outfits, usually wearing the first dress that I had put on.  It was such an exciting time, minis were just coming in and there were clothes that were actually designed for teenagers and not trying to make them look like mini adults.  One of my favourite dresses was a mustard coloured dress with black buttons and mock drop collars, oh I thought I was the bees knees!  I would meet up with friends and we would all troop off together (god knows what we looked like sometimes) We cottoned on to the fact that the groups would stay in the old South Eastern Hotel (anyone remember that) and I can vividly remember when the Hollies came to town and my mate, Liz and I just sat there looking and trying to sound cool when answering any of their questions.  Liz came away with a chicken bone that night that Graham Nash had nibbled on.  I wonder how many years she kept it.

And the handbags! a great pile on the floor with all us girls dancing round while all the boys sat around the outside of the dance floor eyeing up the girls and trying to look big.

What groups did we have, well I remember the Hollies, Swinging Blue Jeans, Long John Baldry (I think, or is that wishful thinking) Freddie and the Dreamers and lots more that have unfortunately slipped my poor old memory.  

They were such happy times!