'Beach, sun and flying saucers', an invitation to return to the Benidorm nights of the 50s, 60s and 70s

Next Monday, April 15, at 8:00 p.m., the Benidorm City Hall Assembly Hall will host the presentation of the book 'Beach, sun and flying saucers. A Pop Guide to Benidorm and the Marina Baixa (1958-1978)', a book that revisits the mythical decades in which the city was a national benchmark for nightlife. Signed by the “Asturian from Benidorm” Pedro Delgado, the work is edited by Vicente Sanjuán Ediciones sponsored by the Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage and directed by Ana Pellicer.

Pellicer has pointed out that “this is an exhaustive and very well-documented work, to which the author has dedicated months and months of research and writing and in which there is a lot of soul, heart and recognition for an entire generation that opted for Benidorm and the that this city provided great opportunities and satisfaction.”
The councillor has stressed that "as the City Council we love to support projects that delve into the study of our history and what we are, and especially to be able to collaborate, as in this case, being a source of information through the documentary and graphic collections of our Municipal Archive.”

In addition to the story and historical journey, "the graphic part of the book, made up mostly of images that the author has been collecting and acquiring and where readers will discover unpublished and curious images, which will awaken their interest."
Pellicer has pointed out that “this is not a typical work and, consequently, neither will its presentation be.” Thus, she has advanced that “in the act, as happens in the book itself, music is going to have a central role.” Specifically, after the presentation and discussion, New Experience, a band formed by former members of Control, Blue Stars and Signos, the first local pop group, will perform.

Pedro Delgado talks about those groups, which performed in the clubs that colonized Benidorm's nightlife for two decades in his pop guide. He also does so about the businessmen who promoted those establishments, the great international stars who passed through them and the successive editions of the Song Festival.

The Festival is, according to the synopsis of the work, "the guiding thread" of this "exciting and enlightening journey through a time tunnel that takes us to the period where Benidorm became one of the most fun tourist cities par excellence in the world." From this temporal base, the book runs through “the birth and growth of an exciting map of leisure and entertainment, with its infrastructure of nightclubs, discos and pubs, emphasizing live music and the international artists that They starred, without forgetting, the first rock groups that emerged in Benidorm” and in the region.