The 1970's... best decade ever!

kleinstroker

A comment on another more serious thread, has lead me to believe that there actually some people who think life is better now than it was back in the day, the day being any day in the gloriously un-PC 1970's.
For the older members of this forum, I would like to ask if it is only me that remembers the 70's so fondly? And if it wasn't the greatest decade ever, then what is better now apart from technology?
The inexorable rise of political correctness would have seemed like a fairytale way back then, or maybe I'm just being too nostalgic and things were actually pretty crappy, strikes, powercuts, we had it all, but it was never uneventful.

lettingthedaysgoby

Yeah, if only we could go back to the good old days days of unchecked casual bigotry, sexism, racism and homophobia.

briantrumpet

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Yeah, if only we could go back to the good old days days of unchecked casual bigotry, sexism, racism and homophobia.

...and the Austin Allegro with it's 'Quartic' (square) steering wheel. That pretty much sums up the 1970s for me. Oh, and inflation peaking at 25%.

Stevo_666

I'm not biased or anything, but the 80's were the dogs bollox. The 90's weren't too shabby either.

kleinstroker

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Yeah, if only we could go back to the good old days days of unchecked casual bigotry, sexism, racism and homophobia.

Those things still exist, the only thing that has changed is the language used.

kleinstroker

briantrumpet wrote:

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Yeah, if only we could go back to the good old days days of unchecked casual bigotry, sexism, racism and homophobia.

...and the Austin Allegro with it's 'Quartic' (square) steering wheel. That pretty much sums up the 1970s for me. Oh, and inflation peaking at 25%.

Yes innovation was far more progressive in the 70's, now all we get are incremental rehashes of previous iterations of just about everything

kleinstroker

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

Yeah, if only we could go back to the good old days days of unchecked casual bigotry, sexism, racism and homophobia.

I've decided that's too easy to let get away. The freedom to express yourself can easily be abused by some, but that lack of freedom of expression has gone way too far and can only get worse.
It will very soon attain the levels of "right speak" and " wrong speak". What then?

trivial_poursuivant

Best thing about the 70's - I was too young to remember any of it.

pinno

Disco, Diana Ross, Motown, flared jeans, ABBA, Lego, proper bikes with chrome and all the music that came out of the era*. I was in Kenya and it was teaming with Vietnam veterans; hippyville, all relaxed, laid back. Loved the 70's. Iconic films: Star Wars, the Shining, 2001 a Space odyssey, the man who fell to earth, The Outlaw Josey Wales, women with long hair, Charlies Angels, Starsky & Hutch, The exotic Lamborghini Countach and the De Tomaso Pantera, the East African safari Rally at it's peak. "You to me are everything, the sweetest song that I could sing...", Ford Escort Mk1 and Mk2 and the Fiat 131 Super mirafiori Abarth in Alitalia Livery,

*Okay, we had chrome in the 80's.



Datsun 280zx, Eddy Merckx, Ti Raleigh...

The 80's: Sean Kelly and the Vitus 979. Totally strippable Mavic rear mech:



Oh and the Suntour Superbe groupset.



But the 80's were as brittle a frozen sheet of gelatin. Music was pants, fashion was worse. Grim unemployment, miners strikes, Brixton and Toxteth riots, and all under the cloud of the cold war and impending annihilation. Ron Kitching's everything cycling, cycling weekly and the last 4/5 pages, double Deeside cycles ad...
Dunno about the 90's except for Olaf Ludwig winning the inaugural 'Perrier World Cup series, Big Mig, Rominger, Bjarne Riis and Ullrich. I was either in hospital, studying or in Sweden and I remember drooling over the Vitus Carbon 9 ridden by the tri-athlete Sally Dawes at the Eastbourne Rovers TT's. The game changing C40... F*cking wall to wall Spice Girls, Pulp and Oasis. The Brit pop era - it was shyte.

Oh and f*ck political correctness - it actually prevents some proper debate from happening and distorts history. We also now live in an era of moral relativism. The pendulum has swung from one extreme to another.

sungod

^this

plus hawkwind, punk, reggae and loads of bands and loads of grimy seedy dives to see them in, worlds end, ladbroke grove etc. before they got sanitised and the fuc​king yuppies moved in, and the arabs, russians and chinese bought up london aided and abetted by the never ending toxic slurry of our corrupt self-serving pocket-lining governments

i coped with the 80s by carrying on like i did in 70s but with more drugs, consequently it's all a bit of a grey area

pblakeney

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Best thing about the 70's - I was too young to remember any of it.

Even if you had been a bit older there was no digital media.
No evidence. Bliss!

trivial_poursuivant

PBlakeney wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Best thing about the 70's - I was too young to remember any of it.

Even if you had been a bit older there was no digital media.
No evidence. Bliss!

But there were lots of BBC radio and tv presenters about so maybe they are just suppressed memories.

veronese68

I been working in the 70s until a couple of years ago. There are plus sides and downsides if you ask me. Now we have a proper HR person we are being forced to modernise. Girly calendars are now frowned upon and banned anywhere customers might see them. There is still one that survives in the darkest recesses of the goods in department. Not many suppliers give them out any more though.
I think Piña pretty much hit the nail on the head. With sensible additions from SG.

ayjaycee

Here's another one who agrees with most of what Pinno and Sungod have written. That said, I think that I remember the first half of the decade with a bit more fondness than the latter part but that's perhaps because I had started taking adulthood and life in general a bit more seriously by then (the army tends to do that to you!). If you are of a 'certain age' I can highly recommend that you read '1971 - Never a Dull Moment: Rock's Golden Year' by David Hepworth (https://www.amazon.co.uk/1971-Never-Mom ... 0593074866).

pblakeney

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Best thing about the 70's - I was too young to remember any of it.

Even if you had been a bit older there was no digital media.
No evidence. Bliss!

But there were lots of BBC radio and tv presenters about so maybe they are just suppressed memories.

BBC types didn't hang around in the sticks so I was safe.
Can't speak for the metro types though.

Garry H

The 70s for me:

Evel Knevel
Six million dollar man
Space 1999
79 General election
Argentina world cup


80s
BMX
Vans off the wall
Anthrax
Cider
Burds
La Vie claire
Greg Lemond

seanoconn

I was only a babe in the 70's but when I'm at a party I always ask the DJ to stick on the Bee Gees 'You should be dancing' I've got the John Travolta moves down to a T.

bikes`n`guns

All the above things .


Yes they were great, but the power cuts , crippling inflation, having to save up for milk and bread etc also remain as fact.

Nostalgia is ace, but Di2 is better.

slowmart

Energy crisis, held to ransom my OPEC, overly strong unions compounded by weak politicians. Terrorist activity at an all time high, the majority state sponsored. Poorly run businesses whose management, productivity and processes were basking in a post world war glow while the rest of the world overtook. us. The economy in turmoil, inflation rampant which was all a precursor to Maggies reign.

Which was the single most important event for this country.

pinno

The rot had set in in the late 60's:

The UK had 87% of the motorbike market in 1967 and less than the remainder by '73, such was the resistance and blindness to change. Those blasted nips offered indicators as standard and engines that didn't leak oil! How dare they?!
In fact. you could trace the demise of British industry to incidents like the one back in 1924 when the ship workers in Glasgow had a strike because there was a move to start seam welding. The strikers won and the Japanese, the Germans and the Finns took it up wholesale. You can't pin all the blame on the Unions -there is a deep resentment to change in the UK and there has for time immemorial, an 'us and them' attitude between Management and Staff.

Anyway, back OT:

Argentina vs Holland. All the ticker tape and that year, I was given a pair of Adidas Samba's by my good friend Georgio Guerrero, son of the Venezuelan Ambassador to Kenya*. It was the first world cup I watched and at half time, I was some Argentinian footballer kicking a ball of newspaper around with my Samba's at silly o'clock in the morning.
*We could never afford trainers like that.
IN April '77 we came to the UK to wrap up my Grandmothers house. Red Rum won the national for the 3rd time and Kevin Keegan was on the back of the Shredded Wheat packet. He was paying for Hamburg FC. As a 7 yr old, he was like something up there, magical even.

mamba80

the 70's ??? your joking, a shitte hole of a decade, men could legally rape their wives, children could be beaten and/or sodomised with out fear of redress....

on a serious note the uk's culinary standards were dire (about to return with brexit) my mum would cook us spagbol or a decent curry and that was deemed a fucking highlight !!!
if you need any evidence of our total ignorance in anything other than pie and chips or dry over cooked roast beef, Panorama had an April fools joke program about the spaghetti tree harvest and most british people believed it...... and you pinno wonder why we could nt build a decent Motorbike lol!

But the best decade is the one you live in right now because thats the one you can try and enjoy or even change?

briantrumpet

The nostalgia bit reminds me of people who do the same about the war - all their mates, people coming together, the cameraderie, and so on, though overlooking the rather high price for those 'good times'. (It's the same with miners, very often - though these days you do hear the dissenting voices saying that the jobs were terrible, and good riddance to the awful conditions.)

So, yeah, if you overlook all the terrible bits, the 1970s were quite good.

On a slightly related note, I remember seeing some black & white footage in "The World At War" of VE Day in 1945, and thinking that the kids playing in the street looked a bit like me in the 1960s... then realising that I was born less than 20 years after that footage. Gulp.

Garry H

Vesta Curry!

mamba80

briantrumpet wrote:

The nostalgia bit reminds me of people who do the same about the war - all their mates, people coming together, the cameraderie, and so on, though overlooking the rather high price for those 'good times'. (It's the same with miners, very often - though these days you do hear the dissenting voices saying that the jobs were terrible, and good riddance to the awful conditions.)

So, yeah, if you overlook all the terrible bits, the 1970s were quite good.

On a slightly related note, I remember seeing some black & white footage in "The World At War" of VE Day in 1945, and thinking that the kids playing in the street looked a bit like me in the 1960s... then realising that I was born less than 20 years after that footage. Gulp.

So my mum wasnt the only parent who made their kids sit through the World at War

she d say "just think you were born 20 years after all this happened less than a 100 miles away" i guess if you lived in mainland europe whilst all this went on, perhaps you might wish someone would start up a club where countries could trade freely and settle their difference in a more productive way, wont catch on though, someone is bound to start moaning and storm out in a huff, wishing that things were back like they were in the 70's. specifically pre 1973.

briantrumpet

mamba80 wrote:

So my mum wasnt the only parent who made their kids sit through the World at War

she d say "just think you were born 20 years after all this happened less than a 100 miles away" i guess if you lived in mainland europe whilst all this went on, perhaps you might wish someone would start up a club where countries could trade freely and settle their difference in a more productive way, wont catch on though, someone is bound to start moaning and storm out in a huff, wishing that things were back like they were in the 70's. specifically pre 1973.

I bought the DVDs about 10 years ago - didn't see it at the time of original broadcast. Essential viewing. Even more so in these uncertain times, when distrust and nationalism are on the rise.

Garry H

briantrumpet wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

So my mum wasnt the only parent who made their kids sit through the World at War

she d say "just think you were born 20 years after all this happened less than a 100 miles away" i guess if you lived in mainland europe whilst all this went on, perhaps you might wish someone would start up a club where countries could trade freely and settle their difference in a more productive way, wont catch on though, someone is bound to start moaning and storm out in a huff, wishing that things were back like they were in the 70's. specifically pre 1973.

I bought the DVDs about 10 years ago - didn't see it at the time of original broadcast. Essential viewing. Even more so in these uncertain times, when distrust and nationalism are on the rise.

Did the same, too young to see it at the time. Possibly the best documentary series ever made, given that a lot of the major participants were still alive when it was filmed.

briantrumpet

Garry H wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

I bought the DVDs about 10 years ago - didn't see it at the time of original broadcast. Essential viewing. Even more so in these uncertain times, when distrust and nationalism are on the rise.

Did the same, too young to see it at the time. Possibly the best documentary series ever made, given that a lot of the major participants were still alive when it was filmed.

Yes indeed. Long enough after to have some perspective, but close enough to events to have plenty contemporary testimony, including from Albert Speer, Karl Dönitz, Walter Warlimont, James Stewart, Bill Mauldin, W. Averell Harriman, Curtis LeMay, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Alger Hiss, Toshikazu Kase, Mitsuo Fuchida, Minoru Genda, J. B. Priestley, Brian Horrocks, John J. McCloy, Lawrence Durrell, Sir Arthur Harris, Charles Sweeney, Paul Tibbets, Lord Avon, Traudl Junge, Mark Clark, Adolf Galland, Hasso von Manteuffel, Jock Colville and historian Stephen Ambrose, and Himmler's assistant, Karl Wolff. (List from Wikipedia.)

Garry H

The movie "Downfall" is worth watching just for the Traudl Junge bit at the very end.

Abert Speer "Renta Nazi". Used to get wheeled out everytime someone was looking for some quotes from the Third Reich.

ProjectObject

Led Zeppelin.

mamba80

Garry H wrote:

The movie "Downfall" is worth watching just for the Traudl Junge bit at the very end.

Abert Speer "Renta Nazi". Used to get wheeled out every time someone was looking for some quotes from the Third Reich.

Speer was an interesting character, did he cheat the gallows? or was he truly ignorant of the Nazi crimes.

Made Houdini look like a rank amateur.

at least even Speer could nt escape the horrors of the 1970's dying in 1981.

Its a great pity that History post 1939 WW2 wasn't taught in UK schools until fairly recently and even now doesnt seem to focus on the european aspect, at least at gcse.

Garry H

mamba80 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

The movie "Downfall" is worth watching just for the Traudl Junge bit at the very end.

Abert Speer "Renta Nazi". Used to get wheeled out every time someone was looking for some quotes from the Third Reich.

Speer was an interesting character, did he cheat the gallows? or was he truly ignorant of the Nazi crimes.

Made Houdini look like a rank amateur.

at least even Speer could nt escape the horrors of the 1970's dying in 1981.

Its a great pity that History post 1939 wasn't taught in UK schools until fairly recently and even now doesnt seem to focus on the european aspect, at least at gcse.

He cheated the gallows, without a doubt. Should've hanged.