The Seventies as I remember it

The decade known as the 70’s woke up with a hangover in 1970 from the 60’s, and asked “what’s happening?’ What was happening was colour TV, Pong, Space hoppers, Spiral graph and the continental quilt. We embraced these ideas and expressed them in our clothing. No material was off limits, as long as it was bright and turned heads, and a few stomachs. The boys with their long hair looked to the excesses` of materials to make a statement. The ties were wide the collars were like wings of a bird and the trousers had to be so wide as to make walking near impossible. The girls had to stay up with the boys and chose to join them in flared trousers, but also to show their figures with hot pants and halter neck tops. However these items were brightly coloured, but never should the colours blend. The more outrageous the better. Once the decade had woke up dressed and smelt the coffee, it turned up the music and headed to the disco, where it stayed wobbling around on it’s platforms until 1979. Which incidentally is only 9 years, but no-one noticed because we were all having too much fun. However someone owes the decade a year-could we have it now please

Music

That’s what it was all about. The music fell into 2 genres, glam rock and of course disco. John Lennon once said glam rock was just rock with lipstick. He was right, as to me the first glam rock band was T. Rex. But as the men looked more feminine the music gained a rawness that rock and roll lacked. Disco Music was the new kid on the block with its subtle blend of soul and funk with a synthesized sounds and a thumping beat. It was easy to dance to and mixed with coloured lights, almost hypnotic. It seemed that there was a Disco somewhere any night of the week. Each Disco was packed out, the dance floor heaved with bodies moving to the beat. No-one worried about how they danced, you just moved to the beat, drinking was not the reason for a night out it was all about the music. Unlike the more grown up 80’s the music didn’t carry a message and very often the song titles were spelt wrong. It was this naivety that makes music buffs overlook this era as it could be just too silly to be important. Yet it was this mixture of mayhem that produced music acts that reached a worldwide audience. Elton John, Queen, Abba, David Bowie and many more were forged in the Seventies and still being listened to today. However many more lived in the seventies and didn’t mature, it’s these acts that make the decade unique.

T.rex

Ride a white swan came into the charts autumn 1970 and launched Marc Bolan into the limelight where he belonged. With Mickey Finn they had numerous hits throughout the 70’s including Hot Love, Get It on, Telegram Sam, Metal Guru’ Children Of The Revolution, Debora, 20th Century Boy and Jeepster

Slade

Hailing from Woverhampton, Slade were very ordinary looking men who played an unsophisticated style of glam rock. Their music struck a chord with the young and their singles were known to go straight in at number one. Their lead singer Noddy Holder was known for basically shouting the lyrics and the poor spelling of their singles, showed how immature the 70’s were. Cum on feel the noise, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Coz I Luv You and the classic Merry Xmas Everybody, were the best.

Mud

In England, between 1974 and 1976, Mud was one of the hottest rock & roll acts there was.

Dyna-Mite launched mud’s career in 1973, then a year later they had the massive hit Tiger Feet, which have rows and rows of people at discos doing a dance in unison. The thing with Mud was that they did all the right things and the music was stomping, but somehow even back then they were rather sad looking aged rock and rollers

I could list the bands and songs of the disco era, Kool and the gang, A taste of honey, Santana, KC and the sunshine gang, The commodores, Average white band, Barry White, the Bee Gees, Dooby Brothers, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. The list would go on and on, and wouldn’t tell you much about the music, far better to let the music talk for its self. Watch the videos below, listen to the music, relive those mad days and laugh at the outfits.

There were 3 main heartthrobs in the 70’s for the teenage girls to follow, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson. David Cassidy shot to fame on the TV program The Partridge Family where he appeared with his stepmother Shirley Jones. The first Song I remember him for was ‘How can I be sure” in 1972. From that point on I collected everything with his picture on. I had a full sized poster of him on my wall, which always `made my mum jump when she went in my room. Donny Osmond had a squeaky clean image, too sugary for me, but not my friend. From his first hit in 1971 ‘Go Away little girl, she was Donny Osmond mad. She lived through the embarrassment of Little Jimmy Osmond; she certainly took a lot of stick. However Things nearly went wrong when in 1974 he teamed up with his sister Marie for "I'm Leavin' it (All) up to You" She resisted coming over to the dark side of the David Cassidy fan club and kept the faith. In among all this were the girls who raved about Michael Jackson, from the Jackson 5. He’s just a kid I pointed out to a die hard fan at the youth club, He might be she said sincerely but he’s so talented. Talented I scoffed. I take my hat off to all you Michael Jackson fans` of the 70’s; you saw something we all missed.

When thinking about the 70’s there was so much good TV, but to me only two shows that could not have existed at any other time. The first, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was aired on the BBC on the5th October 1969. At no other time could a show with a name like this become popular. With its opening music, liberty bell and wild cartoons Monty python was born and grew throughout the 70’s. Several names for the show were bandied about before the title "Monty Python's Flying Circus " was settled upon. Some of the more memorable were "Owl Stretching Time ", "Bunn, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot ", and "Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus ". The six writers -John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam - were influenced by the comic genius of Spike Milligan. Terry Jones described watching Spike Milligan's shows and realizing that not all sketches had to have a beginning, middle and a tag-line. The fact that they refused to be slaves to the punch line made Monty Python unique television comedy. Not only did the Monty Python team give us unforgettable TV but equally memorable films, The Holy Grail, The life of Brian, Now for something completely different and the Meaning of life.

The next program was made by adults for children, but watched by adults. Today Is Saturday or the Tis-Was Show’. It ran from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982, a mixture of pop music, cartoons, sport, comedy and other child-friendly items, fronted by Chris Tarrant.. In between old Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker cartoons and episodes of Tarzan Tarrant and a small invited audience introduced phone-ins, competitions, and such features as the Who, Which, What Year Contest A feature of the show was The Cage wherein initially the child audience, and later their fathers, were confined and periodically doused in water (one spin-off of the show was the hit The Bucket of Water Song , performed by the Four Bucketeers), whilst the show was also frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger, who would throw flans around the studio at all and sundry. Both Tarrant and the Flan Flinger would take great delight in trying to 'flan' cameramen who would go to great lengths to avoid being hit. Adding to the mayhem was bob Carolgees and spit the dog, Lenny Henry, John Gorman and of course dad’s favorite Sally James.