The decision for the book cover for 2009s Beyond the Reso was also relatively simple given that we had developed a rather exuberant house style.
The focus for the cover was the old Rhyl Pavilion Theatre which stood on the promenade for seventy years. In its heyday, all the great stars of stage and variety had played there and it was noticeable from miles away as it had a white ice cream dome roof, with coloured lights playing on it in the summer season.
I remember going there to see the circus, and having a tour of the lion and tiger enclosures, whilst seeing the elephants bathing in the sea. The seats in the enclosed shelters which faced the sea were also a prime area for going to sit quietly with my girlfriend of the time. Unfortunately the coast at Rhyl was north facing, so you could either be in the sunshine, or shelter from the wind, but you remained cold whichever option you chose.
The old Pavilion, which both my taid’s had worked on building in the first decade of the century, was knocked down in 1973. There was much scandal in the town at the loss of this beautiful and iconic building. The justification for the demolition was ostensibly that the dome was unsafe. The dome tumbled the fifty foot to the ground completely intact. It was in fact the walls supporting the dome which were time expired.
The building was replaced by a 1970s style theatre, which was attached to the Sun Centre water park. The new building looked like a wholesale fish merchants warehouse, but it is now the only theatre left in the town, except for the Little Theatre which was built to develop a generation of talented youngsters.
Both my son Luke and his friend Ben Overton developed the first two covers.
Rhyl Promenade and Pavilion 1974
Ambrose Conway 