Rock band REM's 1983 appearance at the Carioca Club is the stuff Worthing musical folklore is made of.

If only for no other reason than if everybody who claims to have attended the gig was actually there, I doubt there would have been enough room for Michael Stipe and the boys.

In his excellent article about Leo Sayer and the Carioca, formerly the Mexican Hat, in last week's Sentinel, Paul Holden said the attendance was actually about 50, the first time I had seen a figure for the event.

This was confirmed to me the following day by a good friend of mine, Barry Hodson.

He was at the Carioca that night and, what's more, was actually on the same bill, playing drums for support act The Starbeats.

They were a Beatles tribute band with a difference. Clad in black leather, they played the same set as the Fab Four did during their time at the Star Club in Hamburg in the early Sixties.

Barry recalls the REM show vividly and says the 50 figure included bar staff and doormen. He remembers REM, in particular lead singer Stipe, were a bit standoffish but then again being faced by four young men in black leather might have had something to do with it.

After that night Barry and the rest of the band continued to gig around the South before manager Steve Ellis lined them up to be the backing band for a young, little-heard-of Canadian rocker about to arrive on these shores.

Unfortunately, before Bryan Adams turned up at Heathrow, the Beats, just like the Beatles before them, split up because of "musical differences.

At least there was no influence from meddling Japanese girlfriends.

Barry, now working locally for pharmaceutical company Glaxo SmithKline, can only think of what might have been.

But he will never forget the night he shared a stage with musical legends.

Mentioning Worthing's seagull problem a couple of weeks back clearly struck a chord as The Argus has received a number of letters and emails on the subject.

After recounting an incident in Durrington, I also spoke to a couple of readers whose troubles are being compounded by a neighbour who actually buys food for the birds.

Is she completely mad? Seagulls may not quite be vermin but but they are the next best thing.

What is she going to do next? Give up on having her rubbish collected from her house and throw it across her lawn so foxes can come and have a midnight feast as well?

Trying to stop the cabbies from sounding their horns has a bit of the King Canute about it.

Surely Worthing Borough Council has a lot more problems to deal with before it starts picking on a group of law-abiding citizens who just want to earn an honest living.