Last Saturday I swapped rainy, blustery London, for...rainy blustery Brighton! The 2012 Jukebox & Retro Fair was taking place over the weekend at Brighton Racecourse, so a few of us headed down for a rock'n'roll day beside the seaside.
The fair itself consisted of vintage and repro clothing stalls, Americana homeware, live bands and, of course, jukeboxes.
There were a couple of really drool-worthy vintage stalls, and some top repro brands, such as Heyday (I had a good old natter with the lovely Shona - if you haven't already, check out her website and her blog!) and Rocket Originals - but to counterbalance this there were also a few pretty cheesy stalls (hello pvc stripper shoes...) which we didn't even bother looking at.
There was a dance floor set up, with entertainment courtesy of DJ Rocking Rebel Music Machine, as well as live music by Greggi G & His Crazy Gang and Fever. The bands mostly played covers by musicians such as Johnny Cash, Elvis and Carl Perkins...and they were good! We danced away most of the afternoon, and because the audience was predominantly comprised of an older, seated crowd, we had ample space on the dance floor, which is never a bad thing!
When the bands finished (at around 4.30pm) we headed into town for a drink, and ended up getting dinner at JB's American Diner. This joint was not particularly inviting from the outside, but all of us being suckers for the American diner experience, we decided to check it out. Once inside, it was exactly as I had hoped it would be - full on 50s diner decor, which was suitably cheesy! To top it off, the toilets were signposted as 'restrooms' and the coffee was bottomless!
Alas the food was pretty mediocre to me - my buffalo wings were highly unimpressive (mainly because they weren't prepared in the way buffalo wings should be), although the onion rings were pretty good, and huge! If I were to go back, I would probably skip dinner and order a chocolate malt instead, as they looked good, but the gloomy weather did not put me in the mood for an ice cold milkshake...
All in all a tip top day out! Even the blustery weather cannot dampen your spirit when you are with good friends!
The fair itself consisted of vintage and repro clothing stalls, Americana homeware, live bands and, of course, jukeboxes.
There were a couple of really drool-worthy vintage stalls, and some top repro brands, such as Heyday (I had a good old natter with the lovely Shona - if you haven't already, check out her website and her blog!) and Rocket Originals - but to counterbalance this there were also a few pretty cheesy stalls (hello pvc stripper shoes...) which we didn't even bother looking at.
There was a dance floor set up, with entertainment courtesy of DJ Rocking Rebel Music Machine, as well as live music by Greggi G & His Crazy Gang and Fever. The bands mostly played covers by musicians such as Johnny Cash, Elvis and Carl Perkins...and they were good! We danced away most of the afternoon, and because the audience was predominantly comprised of an older, seated crowd, we had ample space on the dance floor, which is never a bad thing!
When the bands finished (at around 4.30pm) we headed into town for a drink, and ended up getting dinner at JB's American Diner. This joint was not particularly inviting from the outside, but all of us being suckers for the American diner experience, we decided to check it out. Once inside, it was exactly as I had hoped it would be - full on 50s diner decor, which was suitably cheesy! To top it off, the toilets were signposted as 'restrooms' and the coffee was bottomless!
Alas the food was pretty mediocre to me - my buffalo wings were highly unimpressive (mainly because they weren't prepared in the way buffalo wings should be), although the onion rings were pretty good, and huge! If I were to go back, I would probably skip dinner and order a chocolate malt instead, as they looked good, but the gloomy weather did not put me in the mood for an ice cold milkshake...
All in all a tip top day out! Even the blustery weather cannot dampen your spirit when you are with good friends!
Lovely post and it was so nice to meet you! Am drumming up my post about the jukebox fair now too so will be sure to mention you
ReplyDeleteThanks Shona, great to meet you too! I have just read your blog post, so I will go over and comment there now too. :)
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