Something a bit different this week.

A touch of nostalgia that I’m sure will awake some memories for readers, I would welcome your feedback..

Although we have been more fortunate than our near neighbours last year, it’s been a strange time.

What have you missed most? Family and friends social contact?

Not getting outdoors if socially isolating? Sporting events?

Group events? Regular visits to the pub or out for a meal? A combination of all?

We should be very grateful to so many Island front line workers who have put community before self over an extended period and trust that with a combination of initiatives things will improve in the time ahead.

Now for the nostalgia.

Music is very special to me and whilst it’s great that we have had some music events here it’s been a very difficult time for the entertainment industry further afield and we haven’t been able to welcome any performers from elsewhere.

Being born when I was I think we were very fortunate to be on an island that welcomed many thousands of tourists every year. We had been a first choice destination for many of our near neighbours across the sea for a long time.

The tag line was ’Come abroad to the Isle of Man’ long before travel further afield had been an option for the masses.

With that, those who came before us had put in place an attractive offering of infrastructure including a packed programme of entertainment.

I remember older family members and others talking about Feldmans music rooms, Frederick Buxton’s open air theatre, Pierrot village and tea gardens with entertainment 12 hours and numbers in excess of 4,000 enjoying the fun every day.

I am old enough to remember the Derby Castle and of course thousands enjoyed the Palace Ballroom. Many remembered the Palais de Dance in Strand Street with its sprung dance floor.

In the 1960s The Crescent hosted live entertainment, indeed I remember seeing Freddy and the Dreamers and Susan Maughan there as a youngster.

The Gaiety Theatre hosted live acts and variety shows as did the adjacent Villa Marina together with all the big bands of the day - both inside the venue and in the gardens including the Ivy Benson all-girl band and Ronnie Aldrich and the squadronaires.

Who remembers Josef Karma ’the lightning hypnotist’ who played several venues including the Royalty?

He would have the volunteers feeding the fairies or riding a TT bike.

There were cabarets available in a number of the top hotels starting by the jubilee clock where in the Villiers, there was the choice of the clock bar with live music and the big concert room where I remember as well as the acts our welcome visitors from the various nations loudly singing songs from home such as ’I belong to Glasgow’, ’Flower of Scotland’, ’Danny Boy’ and ’The Wild Rover’!

I remember cabarets at the Falcon Cliff which also hosted the folk club, the Bowling Green, The Crescent and in a number of hotels such as the Majestic, Talk of the Town in Ramsey, the Douglas holiday camp, the Glen Helen, Port Soderick, Belle Vue and others in Port Erin.

Help me out, there must be others I can’t remember! Can you remind me? Email [email protected] or pm on Facebook or contact the Editor at Isle of Man Newspapers!

In the 1950s, 1960s and beyond we have had a vibrant music scene which also entertained our visitors, some names come to mind and I was helped by Terry Clough from his Facebook pages but I’m sure I will have missed some so let me know or

share your memories!

Some I had not heard of like Douglas Diamonds skiffle group, the Railwaymen, Embers, Black Arrows, Islanders, Cheetahs, Fortune Tellers, Invaders, Sinners, Beatcombers, Take Four, the Image ... how about you?

Some I do remember although I didn’t see them all such as The Nelson Sound, Dave Damone Quintet, The Ray Norman combo, Suedettes, Phantoms, Meteors, Vampires, Falcons, Vikings, Bluebeats, Sapphires, Melody Fayre, Hunters. It was good to see my old friend Bernie May featured prominently in several!

A number of venues featured this live music scene including the Golden Goose over the Cabin cafe, the Rendezvous, the Alex Inn, the Rushen Abbey Gardens, The Globe, The Douglas Head, The Central Hotel, Bradda Glen, the Jive Club 51 grill, Smugglers Cave in the Ann Hathaway Restaurant and Grill. Do you remember any of these?

Lots of pubs and other premises doubled up with discos when they started off such as The Creg Malin, Marine Hall in Peel, the Coach and Horses, Peveril (also a bierkeller), Port St Mary town hall, The Castle Mona, The Metropole and many others.

My cousin John was in at the start of discos and he operated the island’s first mobile set-up as well as venues including the Fort Anne Porthole Bar. I’m informed but don’t know where it was, that there was a disco called the Manx Cat. Do you remember it?

There was the Scout disco in Demesne Road and one above St Barnabas in Victoria Street.

What really excited my interest in discos was the resident DJ at the original cave in Summerland. He was called Jonny Silver and he did much more than just play records, in particular jumping about!

We have had lots of discos over the years. Please share any memories you might have of the Hawaiian, Peel Castle, MGM, Paramount City, Academy, Nikkei Dow, Dow Jones, Shore Hotel in Laxey, the several versions of the sadly-missed Palace Lido, Legends, Nightlife, Jimmy Bs, Studebakers, Whispers (which featured cabaret as well), Nemo’s Cave, The Groudle with Ma ... remind me of any I’ve missed!

A favourite of mine was the 370 disco in Castletown featuring another old friend of mine Tony (Hovis) Brown amongst others by Castletown harbour.

We all had our first motorcycles and would head there every Saturday making a couple of stop offs on the way for refreshments.

My DJ opportunity came in the mid 1970s when Viv and Mike Hooper developed the first, and only purpose-built under 18s disco on the island called Allsorts.

As the name suggests it was themed up with decorations, seating and so on emulating the sweetie favourite and it was very popular.

Other DJs included Paul Moulton and Jimmy Cowin.

It was nice recently when I was visiting Peel to speak to friends who met at Allsorts and are still together after over 40 years!

Are you still with someone you met at Allsorts or another disco after a long time? Let me know!

I went on to work for the Henthorn family in the Grasmere Hotel and in particular remember vividly the big year of 1979, Millennium of Tynwald, 1000 years of our longest continuous parliament in the world.

We welcomed over 600,000 visitors to our island and it was very busy throughout. I would play for people after they had eaten in the restaurant or for those staying in the hotel and for lots of functions.

We would go on to the early hours of the morning.

At that stage I was using vinyl and it was a dark room so remember the difficulty if I was putting an LP on and looking for track three for example.

Younger people please Google it and you will see how hard it was without headphones finding a track on a piece of black vinyl in such conditions!

I entered a DJ contest about this time in Whispers night club and came second to a really good guy, the late Dip Parker who was Stu Lowe’s partner.

I went on to do the late late shift for some time but it was hard work as I had a day job and the crowd were inevitably getting too emotional for dancing after 2am!

At this time one of the popular things to do around the island were music quizzes.

A part of a track, lyrics, a year, an obscure artist comprised some of the rounds. They were great fun. Also in 1979, when I was managing the original Moochers for Viv and Mike, I took part in the phone-in competition on BBC Radio 2 with DJ David (Diddy) Hamilton.

I nipped upstairs to the flat above the shop where Bill Chrisp of Manx Radio and Palace Lido fame lived to answer the questions.

Well I got through eventually to the UK final of the BBC Radio2 Music Game.

Unfortunately I didn’t win and was just pipped at the post otherwise a trip to the European Music game in Copenhagen would have been on the cards but it was a special experience and during interview with David I said I was getting married the next year, 1980, to Dee so he quipped back at me that we might then be Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch, a well-known 1960s band!

We were very fortunate to have the Palace Lido and other venues as well as lots of people spending time with us and it partly explains my enthusiasm even today for music of the 1970s.

It was an era of contrasting types of music including glam rock, disco, punk and rock.

At the Lido the Rolling Stones played in 1964 and 1965, the Kinks in 1966, the Who 1967, Pink Floyd 1967.

I missed Queen in 1974 but I did get to see T Rex in 1975, missed AC/DC in 1976, but saw Mott the Hoople, Slade, Nazareth, Blackfoot Sue, Canned Heat, Geordie, Atomic Rooster, Sweet, Cockney Rebel amongst others.

On island we had some great bands that supported some of the top acts and entertained us all at venues like the Douglas Head and Port Soderick including Black Mass, Nasty Piece of Work, Debris,Jo Public, Oasis and many more. Fortunately the local music scene is once more full of local talent and the likes of Davy Knowles and Christine Collister have made their presence felt further afield.

So back to the start of this piece, one of the things I have most missed is travelling across to music venues and welcoming acts to our lovely island.

Thinking about all the special times, which we will enjoy again, will have to do for now!

David’s next column will appear in the Isle of Man Examiner on Tuesday.