Left at the Pier Festival, Brighton 1994

A feature of the 1980s and 1990s in England was officially sponsored free music festivals, usually one day affairs supported by local councils or other organisations such as trade unions.  One such event was the Left at the Pier Festival held on the seafront at Brighton as a 'festival to celebrate public services' and sponsored by Southern and Eastern Regions of the Trades Union Congress and the Workers Beer Company.

The bands playing at this festival would have been familiar at many summer festivals in this period, including Dreadzone, Tribal Drift, Bhundu Boys, the Oyster Band,  Co-Creators and Transglobal Underground. I remember seeing the latter two on a hot afternoon, with a big screen showing action from the World Cup then taking place in the USA. I was staying in Brighton at the time taking part in an international  conference (AIDS Impact: Biopsychosocial aspects of HIV Infection).

I always associate Transglobal Underground with the Whirl-Y-gig club, which I went to in its early 1990s Shoreditch Town Hall incarnation. 'Temple Head' was a big track there. I saw lead singer Natacha Atlas do a great free outdoor gig on the South Bank some years later (2001 I think).