Fatty Towers of Margate

Once being a prime holiday destination for holidaying working-class Londoners, Margate offers a genuinely British slice of seaside tackyness complete with donkey rides, fish and chips and chubby, red bodies frying away on the beach. The jewel in the crown used to be the town's amusement park called Dreamland, featuring a huge rollercoaster and enough slotmachines to ensure that you would leave the place without a penny. Life was good here back in those days.

Then came the introduction of charter flights and things started to change. Suddenly people could afford to go to Mallorca or Torremolinos for the cash they had earned down the factory. From the 60's and 70's Margate has experienced a steady decline, and the town's tourist industry is nowadays just a fraction of what it once was. Even Dreamland has had to close down, and its scenic railway is slowly rotting away behind the gated fence.

A glimmer of hope could however be seen on the horizon in the mid-90's, when Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners moved in. Buster had a vision of running a hotel for the larger than large, the fatter than fat and Fatty Towers was his creation. Run by Buster between 96-98, it featured extra large bathtubs, pleasure rooms, huge beds and mega-sized portions of greasy food in the hotel restaurant. Buster, being somewhat of a local celebrity, often held local publicity stunts such as the popular "Belly of the Year" contest.

Around the same time, an album to support the Margate Football Club was published. Dubbed the first non-league football team tribute, "Down to Margate" the album's first track features a duet between Buster Bloodvessel and Judge Dread (a resident of nearby Snodland), followed by other punk/ska/oi! acts like Arthur Kay, The Business and The Exploited, all singing their support for Margate FC.

Sadly, Buster had to give up his hotel business to other commitments and the hotel is now history. And so is Buster's belly after having had liposuction and reduced his bodyweight to just half of its original 30 stone. He now lives his life in a houseboat on the river Thames.

Who will bring back the glory to Margate?