Goodbye Mr Best

Last night I said goodbye to an old friend who is re-locating to Cyprus.Martin Best was the manager of Harpers Bar here in Hastings during it's hey day in the late 90's and early part of this century! We shall all miss him but life always changes and we must embrace change as part of our journey.I learned such a lot at that little bar.It helped me to have fun with music again.Until i started to go down there and just sit in the bar and play,I was someone who was pretty"precious" about where and when I would sing.I had been used to singing in large halls around the country and found it hard to just sing for sheer pleasure.We had some great sing-songs,I remember nights when the whole roomful of people were singing together at the tops of their voices.We often had an international flavour too when Andrew (Warren)used to bring down some of his foreign students and we'd all sing old Mc Donald had an international farm!It may sound naff to you but until you've heard a chinese dog bark or a russian cow moo, well you haven't really lived have you? So Bon Voyage Martin, best of luck,don't take a pebble from the beach..so many good memories to treasure .love Claire