Alex Grech, a veteran musician, was 14-years-old when he started his career playing percussion at the Chalet in 1958.

Ahead of an exhibition by a group of architects on reclaiming the old dance hall as a public space, Mr Grech revisited the place and his memories.

He explained to Times of Malta why its demolition was such a great loss to people and musicians alike and how, in the 1980s, he and six others had attempted to salvage it.

“It was a beautiful place, a place of entertainment. Maltese from all over the island used to come here to have fun and let loose,” he recalls.

As young as 11, Mr Grech remembers sitting quietly in front of the bands and soaking in what he could.

“It was an academy for me,” he says wistfully, staring down at what is left of the iconic venue, a foundation of concrete.

The best musicians would go to the Chalet to showcase their talent. There was all kinds of music: jazz, jive, rock and roll.

One day, Ċikku l-Kumetu, the drummer in a band called Joe Far Band, called the teenager over and offered him his drum set for 10 pounds.The tradeoff was that he would fill in for Ċikku till he paid off the set.

Mr Grech accepted and spent the year before the Chalet closed, rubbing shoulders with the best musicians and getting an occasional peek at the dancers below.

Families and children would gather on the top level, Mr Grech explained, so dancers were relegated to the bottom, out of the public’s view, to avoid scandal.

“In those times women’s dresses were wide and, when they would spin, their knickers would show,” he laughed.

Hardly a place for a teenager but Mr Grech’s parents were also musicians and understood that, for their son to be able to thrive as a drummer, he had to start young.

Alex Grech and his parents, Paul and Vincenza, in the garden of their home in Sliema back in 1953.

At the Chalet and later in Strait Street, where proprietors would draw a moustache above his lips to avoid criticism, he would learn from the best.

Music at all venues would stop at 11pm, at which point his parents would come to pick him up.

Walking the four corners of the Chalet, Mr Grech points out the bar, and the stairs to the sea, where he once saw some drunk male dancers jumping into the water.

“Life was much more simple back then. We had very little but we were so content. There wasn’t this chaos and pollution. I feel like this generation has lost out on so much.”

When the Chalet closed, he said, people were extremely sad. “It was like someone had died,” he says.

Asked whether he thinks the Chalet has the potential to be developed into something else, Mr Grech is quiet.

In the 1980s, he and six other musicians had drafted plans to it take over and open it up as a music venue.

“We had plans to design it like a ship and had done a lot of work on it but the plans fell through when we found out we could only secure the tender for a short amount of time, so it wasn’t worth it.”

Mr Grech had a music career that spanned over 60 years and played with numerous bands in Malta and overseas.

Vinny Vella showcasing his saxophone.

Vinny and the Blue Jackets

Vinny Vella, a 91-year-old retired saxophone player, also remembers the Chalet in its heyday, when he used to play there with his seven-piece orchestra -  Vinny and the Blue Jackets - in the 1950s.

“It was a big shame it closed. The loss of the venue killed Għar id-Dud. Sliema was never the same,” Mr Vella complained, showcasing his gold-coloured sax.

Mr Vella remembers playing rock and roll and blues upstairs at the Chalet on a Friday for families and downstairs for dancers on a Sunday.

While his memories are hazy, he still recalls the dancing and the melodies, particularly Glen Miller’s In the mood, which inspired him to start learning how to play the saxophone at 12 years old.

“I was a young boy outside the Premier. I heard that song and I thought ‘wow, what music’. I’m going to learn the saxophone! I was ambitious. Within three months I was playing it,” he said.

Mr Vella roped in his brothers, Sunny and Duminku, into playing the drums and bass guitar respectively, and, in 1945, they put the band, Vinny and the Blue Jackets, together.

They played throughout most of the latter part of the 20th century, locally and internationally, and Mr Vella only put down his instrument about 10 years ago.

Percussionist Alex Vella, who remembers Vinny and the Blue Jackets as a teenager, says they had a unique style and “were up there as musicians”.

He would end up joining the band in his older years and playing with them throughout the 1980s.

Vinny and the Blue Jackets performing at the Chalet early in the 1950s.