I lived through the 1970s – aged seven in the first year of the decade and seventeen when it ended. And I’m still struggling to figure out what I think about the 1970s. Your thoughts would be very welcome. On balance, I believe it was a fascinating time full of amazing music, movies, and other…
OK – I’m going to nail my musical colours to the mast first and declare that back in the 1990s, I was in the Blur army and never really warmed to Oasis. To me, and many others, they were standard bearers for a Laddism that seemed to be dragging us back to the worst aspects…
At the start of the 1990s, the gay and lesbian movement – as it was then known – had been through the wars. The previous decade had seen the AIDS pandemic and battles over Section 28, a pernicious piece of legislation banning what was termed the “promotion of homosexuality”. There was a combative spirit among…
In June 2024, countless thousands of LGBT people will celebrate Pride in London with a huge parade, parties, and an outward display of their sexuality. This is a far cry from the Gay Pride marches of the 1970s where incredibly brave people took to the streets more in the spirit of defiance than celebration. And…
On the night of November 27, 1975, Britain was stunned by the shooting dead of household name celebrity, Ross McWhirter. He and his identical twin brother Norris created and compiled the world famous Guinness Book of Records in 1955 and both men appeared regularly on the BBC children’s show Record Breakers in the early 1970s….
Nearly forty years ago, an LGBT bookshop in London was raided by customs officials leading to a court case against nine directors and staff who faced over a hundred charges. This proved to be a landmark case, largely forgotten now. It advanced gay rights while also raising questions about censorship by the authorities. Key issues…
In the 1970s and 1980s, youth unemployment skyrocketed among young Boomers born at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s – “late” Boomers if you want. Hundreds of thousands of young people were leaving school and months later had not found any work. The Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan in the late…
On April 19, 1995, the United States witnessed the worst single act of terrorism in its history. Just after 09:00 in the morning, a massive explosion ripped apart the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This killed 168 people and injured 680. The building was left a hollow shell as if some gigantic…
June 1985 witnessed a vicious pitched battle between riot police and what were described as ‘New Age Travellers’ in the shadow of Stonehenge. An extraordinary level of violence was used by police against people who had turned up for a free festival at the ancient site. These festivals had been going on throughout the 1970s…
Nearly forty years ago, a police officer was hacked to death during a night of violence in north London. Police Constable Keith Blakelock stumbled during a riot on the Broadwater Farm estate and never stood up again. His neck was hacked at with a machete and knives with one report suggesting he lost fingers as…
