Names on the buses

 685 Donald Peers

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Donald Peers was one of Britain's most popular entertainers in the Fifties with his dashing good looks and rich tenor voice. Born in 1908, Peers became a crooner with British dance bands before the Second World War. Later he achieved great success singing ballads on Radio Luxembourg. Peers had his own BBC programme called Cavaliers of Song. His best known songs were his signature tune By a Babbling Brook and A Slow Boat to China. At his peak, Peers was earning £600 a week and receiving 12,000 fan letters each month. But when he went to Australia for two years, most people had forgotten him on his return. At one time he was so popular that he sold more records than Bing Crosby in Britain. He was also the first singe to pack out the Royal Albert Hall in London, Peers went out of fashion with the advent of rock 'n' roll in the Fifties but recovered to be given his own TV programme called Donald Peers Presents. In 1962 he gave Tom Jones his first exposure on British television. He broke his back during another visit to Australia and was told he would never walk again. He confounded the doctors by recovering and performing again on stage. Peers made several films and also wrote an autobiography called Pathway. He lived for many years in St John's Road, Hove, and died in a Brighton nursing home in 1973.

685 Scania Omnidekka - carried name since delivery in October 2007 in Regency livery. Regency branding changed March 2011. Repainted into new Regency livery October 2014. Regency branding removed August 2015. Bus transferred to Go-Ahead North East in August 2020.