Ulster's Rocking Past Recalled

Ulster's Rocking Past Recalled By Eddie McIlwaine

Remember the Maritime Club? It was a haven of rhythm and blues music in Belfast's College Square North, home to the likes of an emerging Van
Morrison and Them, and every other young musician who dreamed of greatness in the charts.

Well, BBC television producer Stuart Bailie (45) is making a documentary called So Hard to Beat, about the history of rock and pop down more than 40 years in Northern Ireland.

And, naturally, the Maritime - which started out as a police station, then became a seamen's mission before flourishing as a music club - figures
prominently in his story.

It was demolished in 1991 and the hallowed spot where it stood is now part of Royal Belfast Academical Institution, which should put up a plaque to the club where Van the Man once appeared.

Van has a mounted brick from the Maritime in his living room. It was presented to him by me on behalf of musician Rab Branagh, who salvaged the
piece of masonry for his hero.

Van and Them first played the Maritime in April 1964. Bailie has a problem, though - there aren't a lot of photographs or film shots, inside or out of
the Maritime, and he is asking former patrons to dig deep into their Super 8 treasures or their photograph albums to help him out for the
programme, which will be broadcast on BBC1NI in March.

"Old footage of big moments in the club," Stuart explained. " In fact, any old pictures or film of some of our homebred stars in action in Belfast or
Londonderry would be welcome to make the documentary work."

Apart from Van, whom he is hoping to interview, Stuart will be talking to Billy Harrison of Them, Phil Coulter, Gary Moore, Stiff Little Fingers,
members of present-day Ash, Snow Patrol and Brian and Bap Kennedy.

He will also be telling the story of Ruby Murray and her Softly Softly, when my old friend from Benburb Street on Belfast's Donegall Road was being
a pioneer for Belfast in the charts. You'll know, of course, that the title of the show - So Hard to Beat - is a line from Teenage Kicks, the song by
the Undertones that the late John Peel adored.