The 1960s were never going to be an easy act to follow and so, as we entered the new decade, we found that "last year's styles are good for 1970". Edward Heath became Prime Minister in June, meaning that the Tories were back in power. Shortly afterwards Mr Heath, he of the hearty chuckles and bouncing shoulders, declared a state of emergency when the dockers went on strike.
On telly, we settled down to a gloomy view of a sandcastle on an overcast beach, Union flag fluttering in the wind... Yes, it was one of the best remembered series of the 1970s - John Finch's A Family At War. This was the tale of an English family, the Ashtons of Liverpool, the story beginning a year or so before the war began and then taking us through it over fifty-two long, long episodes. A Family At War ended in 1972 - the story having finally reached 1945.
The Ashton family fell apart under the strain of the war. Young David Ashton joined the airforce, slept around a lot and led his wife Sheila a dog's life; his parents, Jean and Edwin, fell out when Edwin signed the papers for their youngest son, Robert, to enlist. When Robert was killed, Jean went into a decline and soon died herself... I won't go on.
Don't despair. Not all telly was as grim as A Family At War in 1970: the year saw the start of The Goodies. This show was 1960s-style zany, reminding me of The Monkees, and often providing welcome relief from the enveloping gloom of the 1970s.
So, what music thrilled us? As a tiny wee tot of five, I loved a song called Sally by Gerry Monroe, a cover of Gracie Fields' 1930s original, and Norman Greenbaum's Spirit In The Sky, which charted in March. This song was actually so incredibly 1960s that when it was covered in 1986, one of the members of Dr and The Medics confessed to being very "into" the 60s and dressing to fit the era, although, he assured us, his underpants were from 1982!
It's difficult to estimate the huge influence the 1960s scene and 1960s pop stars had on the 1970s. Excellently funky James Brown had been around for several years when his Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine charted in 1970. The song had everything to do with the funky, free-lovin' 1960s, and not a lot in common with the grim realities of the new decade.
The Beatles officially broke up and Jimi Hendrix died.
What toys did we play with? I don't recall playing with anything that was "new out" in 1970, but we continued to adore Spirograph and Spacehoppers, both of which had been around for a few years.
Raleigh had released the first Chopper bikes in England in September 1969, but they wouldn't become a craze for several years.
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REAL '70s news - no rosy coloured specs...
INTRODUCTION
This is one of a series of three blogs - the other two cover the 1960s (Spacehopper), and the 1980s ('80s Actual).
After all the '70s hype of the last ten years or so, this is a chance to relive the decade as it really was in England, through newspaper and magazine clippings and memories.
This is the REAL 1970s, not the BBC or Wikipedia's versions, which hype the decade to death and bolster it up with 1960s and 1980s pop culture.
The '70s were often grim, far slower moving than today, and saw the '60s hippie spell rapidly fading to be replaced by economic gloom and a glut of anger - which manifested itself in the Punk era.
It's the decade where we liked the Wombles, chucked frisbees, watched Upstairs, Downstairs and Starsky & Hutch, and witnessed the gloriously tacky but hugely danceable rise of a type of music called "Disco" - a new soundtrack for the discotheques, which had been established before the decade began. With its rich influences, including Soul and Pop, Disco was a wow. Though not with everybody.
Very few people had a video recorder (only 5% of UK households had one by 1980), there were no mobile phones, and although colour TV had been around in this country since 1967, they didn't come cheap and many of us poorer folk stuck to black and white.
Tristram of George & Mildred got "Pong" at Christmas 1979, but nobody I knew had a TV games system, which became available, at a price, late in the decade.
Many of us were dirt poor, inflation rocketed, in 1979 interest rates soared to 17% - the highest since records began in 1694, decimalisation (the coins were designed in the late '60s ready for "D" day in 1971) was controversial - was it bumping up prices? - and the Queen's Silver Jubilee Day saw the Sex Pistols in the pop charts with a song which certainly did not express loyal greetings...
Come back to the REAL 1970s, no rosy coloured specs, no rewriting of the decade to include pop culture belonging to the '60s or '80s, but as clear a view as I can possibly give of the decade!
This blog is largely based on English magazine and newspaper clippings and my memories, but I hope that it will also be useful and enjoyable to those living in the other UK nations - and much further afield.
After all the '70s hype of the last ten years or so, this is a chance to relive the decade as it really was in England, through newspaper and magazine clippings and memories.
This is the REAL 1970s, not the BBC or Wikipedia's versions, which hype the decade to death and bolster it up with 1960s and 1980s pop culture.
The '70s were often grim, far slower moving than today, and saw the '60s hippie spell rapidly fading to be replaced by economic gloom and a glut of anger - which manifested itself in the Punk era.
It's the decade where we liked the Wombles, chucked frisbees, watched Upstairs, Downstairs and Starsky & Hutch, and witnessed the gloriously tacky but hugely danceable rise of a type of music called "Disco" - a new soundtrack for the discotheques, which had been established before the decade began. With its rich influences, including Soul and Pop, Disco was a wow. Though not with everybody.
Very few people had a video recorder (only 5% of UK households had one by 1980), there were no mobile phones, and although colour TV had been around in this country since 1967, they didn't come cheap and many of us poorer folk stuck to black and white.
Tristram of George & Mildred got "Pong" at Christmas 1979, but nobody I knew had a TV games system, which became available, at a price, late in the decade.
Many of us were dirt poor, inflation rocketed, in 1979 interest rates soared to 17% - the highest since records began in 1694, decimalisation (the coins were designed in the late '60s ready for "D" day in 1971) was controversial - was it bumping up prices? - and the Queen's Silver Jubilee Day saw the Sex Pistols in the pop charts with a song which certainly did not express loyal greetings...
Come back to the REAL 1970s, no rosy coloured specs, no rewriting of the decade to include pop culture belonging to the '60s or '80s, but as clear a view as I can possibly give of the decade!
This blog is largely based on English magazine and newspaper clippings and my memories, but I hope that it will also be useful and enjoyable to those living in the other UK nations - and much further afield.
Links
- '80s Actual - the 1980s - the true story
- Avenues and Alleyways - interesting and friendly blog
- Cambridge Back Chat - local history snippets
- Coronation Street - Back On The Street - Recollections From The 1960s To The 1980s
- Man Hating Abounds
- SpaceHopper - 1960s fun, news and fads revisited - including flares, lava lamps, hippies and the spacehopper!
- The Beckindale Bugle - Emmerdale In The '80s
- Twentieth Century Ads - 1900 to 1999 in newspaper and magazine ads
- Why I Don't Love The 1970s - is 70s nostalgia based on facts or nonsense?
The Real 1970s...
REAL '70s news - no rosy coloured specs...