In 2012, Keane released as a single their track 'Sovereign Light Cafe'. The band members grew up in Battle and as young lads they got on their bikes and trained into Bexhill, spending their summers playing on the beach here by the Sovereign Light Cafe.
So did my children and their friends. As families we knew that if we went to the beach by the cafe, we were all bound to meet up and endless summer days, throughout their childhood, were spent playing together on this beach.
All those children are now in their 20s and 30s, scattered across Britain and beyond, but all of them share the memory of happy, innocent times spent here on this beach. They were thrilled when the Keane song was released: I think it will always be the theme song of their childhood.
You can see the youtube clip that was filmed here on the beach one day early in summer 2012 on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH13eUiDhmo
The lyrics are:
Let's go down to the bandstand on the pier
Watch the drums and the lovers appear to take turns
As the stars of the sovereign light cafe
I wheel my bike off the train, up the north trade road
And look for you on Marley Lane in every building and every street sign
Oh why did we ever go so far from the road
But you've got nothing to hide,
you come to change who you really are
You can get a big house and a faster car
You can run away boy but you won't go far
Let's go down to the rides on east parade
By the lights of the palace arcade
and watch night coming down on the sovereign light cafe
Let's go down to the bandstand on the pier
Watch the drums and the lovers appear to take turns
As the stars of the sovereign light cafe
