1950s pin up girls ... At Hemsby!

So this time last weekend I was finishing Hemsby 46 off with a bang, what a blast it was, apart from managing to drink practically a bottle of Sailor J's to myself on the first night and it reappearing the next morning which I have to say, I don't intend on doing until the next one at least... But Yes it was a superb weekend. Hemsby is like a home from home to me, I've been going since no. 39 and each time is different because of the people, the bands and the atmosphere.

This time was just as great as the last 8 (oh my gosh has it really been that many!!) I have been to. I cannot tell you how nice it was to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in what seemed like forever! I'm not going to go in depth about it all because frankly 1. I don't want to bore you all with a review of every single band I saw and 2. Most of it has just become a blur now like most weekenders tend to do after a while!

But a few highlights for me were: turning up on the Thursday to see my face all over the Hemsby 47 flyer!(that's right Octobers weekend!)

Photography by Dominic Fenn

Now I've been published in a few magazines and I've never really seen it as a wow factor but this was something quite surreal because my face was EVERYWHERE!!! on every table, on every windowsill, on stalls, my gosh! But a massive thank you to the fabulous Andy Brittan who asked me if he could do this, because he wanted someone different on the cover!

 Apparently he wants to do this with each pin up contest winner, which I think is such a great idea! It'll give a lot of girls more publicity!

Which leads me onto my second highlight of the weekend

Judging the 2011 Hemsby/Outerlimitz Pin up Contest!

Because of winning the first ever one last year (yes a whole year, can you believe it??) I had the great pleasure of being one of the judges for this years contest, alongside the gorgeous and lovely Miss Jessica Orbit  , singer of Jessie and the Orbits and a fantastic model, Julie Cooper of Big Girl's Blouse and Mr Levi Dexter himself (for those of you don't know, Bernie Dexter's singer husband! and a truly lovely man!)

What a fabulous judging panel wouldn't you say, it was a great honour to be beside these lovelies on the comfy sofas watching some stunners strut their stuff! I tell you what those girls sure had some balls, I remember doing it last year and how scary it was, so I made sure I gave the girls some encouragement before they went on, according to Di from Outerlimitz  it was really appreciated which is nice to hear!!

Of course I made sure I had bought a brand new (well brand new vintage that is) dress for the occasion, every girl needs a Saturday night dress at a weekender and I made sure I had that, a summery, green and white Hawaiian 1960s maxi dress, rather special some of you might say, I would have to say that too!

Julie, Myself and Bernie all looking rather Flowery (Bernie in her Scarlett dress  she named after me)But back to the girls of the contest, it really was hard to choose the winner but eventually after seeing 9 girls prance around the stage showing their perfectly pin up poses the winner was to be Pip Love, a true vintage fanatic and a super girl! With two runners up being Miss Cherrie Mae and Carrie Hope (a little pin  up in the making I think).

Don't they look brilliant? (Photo's courtesy of Ruth Archer, I hope you don't mind me pinching these few)

Bernie, Miss Hemsby 2011 and me (Miss Hemsby 2010 hehe)

A super way to get Saturday night started I'd say!
The rest of the weekend was just amazing, one of the most famous modern day pin ups graced us with her presence and that would be of course Bernie Dexter, it was so nice to see her, I did get to spend some time with her and Levi over the weekend and it was lovely having a chat about everything from modelling to swollen feet and barfing alcohol (see the famous ones do it too!!)

Me, Bernie and Miss Stefani Jay, another great gal!!
I did notice this year there was a very strong pin up vibe through out the weekend, with a lot of other models I know off face book,model mayhem etc turning up, which is great to see because it's obviously getting them involved in the rockabilly scene which can only be a good thing! A lot of these girls are true beaut's and it was so nice for even one of them (Ronnie) to come up and say hello because she was following me on face book!! Yes a little claim to fame there!! So for any of you vintage girls who want to know what the rockin scene is all about and to have a great weekend, take a trip on down to Hemsby in October where you'll see me staggering around or hogging the dance floor, and of course my mush on the programme.. You know I'm honestly surprised I didn't see one on a dart board or with a mustache drawn on! Heaven forbid!

But for now I'll leave you with a image from Thursday night events,

a girl, a bike, and a whole lot of rum ...
Until Next Time

Toodle Pip

xxx

Bill Haley... what a man

Good Afternoon peeps! And what a dreary afternoon its been, even though I'm still in excited mode from yesterday's plannings so it's not all bad.
      As I was styling my hair tonight to go round my friends for drinks( strictly sailor jerrys of course) I was listening to a rock n roll/rockabilly complitation that my dad bought for me, for only £5! and its such a great cd, with such a mix of classic tracks from artists such as Jack Scott, Frankie Lymon, Bob Luman, good selecton I'd say... anyway one of the tracks was R.O.C.K by Bill Haley and the comets and as soon as I'd listened to it I was in an even better mood then I was before, of course I have heard this track time and time again and even been lucky to see the comets live a good 4 or 5 times (even though the first time I saw them was still the best in my eyes).
But it got me thinking how brilliant him and the band were, a lot of younger people on the rockin scene dismiss him for being mainstream and "jivey" when I think their bonkers to! He had that sound that makes you want to dance and when its turned up full blast it sounds even better (I'm sure my neighbours loved it). A lot of people turn their noses up at classic rock n roll but if you go to any rockabilly club you'll hear them play classic rock n roll, like Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, you name it they play it and you see these people who say they don't like classic rock n roll jiving to it!
   Now I don't know if its because they associate Bill Haley with jive clubs because to be fair you will hear a lot of him at jive clubs.. why?? because his music is perfect to dance to!! But in my opinion they shouldn't be so fast to criticize because he as well as many other artists from the 50s started out before rock n roll was around in the 1940's so he is clearly one of the fathers of rock n roll and was making amazing records alongside all the fantastic rockabilly/rock n roll artists of the time!

   Today there seems to be a strong line between rock n roll and rockabilly clubs even though as I said they basically play the same music minus a  obscure track that dj's like to dig out every once and a while, I don't know if people are secretly scared they'll get called "plastic" if they admit to liking  music heard at jive clubs, to be honest I'm not that bothered ,it just seems a little daft if you ask me, so I stick to what I like and always liked thanks to my dear ole parents  and that is rock n roll. You never know one Bill Haley track could be the one track that gets someone from a jive club into the other aspects of rock n roll and rockabilly and that can only be a good thing right??
I'm sure Bill would be happy none the less.

                 
                                      Here's the legendary song itself, R.O.CK