The 1970's are remembered by some as a sort of Golden Age in England. But for all that the 1970's produced some great music, it was a decade that style forgot when it came fashion, and it was a decade probably best remembered for the Winter of Discontent, rampant inflation, unparalleled industrial strife, IRA atrocities, and Britain being dubbed 'The Sick Man of Europe.' It was the decade of my teenage years, and although there is much to look back on with fondness, there was much about the 1970's that was a struggle and not all that pleasant.
My abiding memories of the 1970's are the various shortages. At some point or other during that decade there was a shortage of something. Early in the decade there was a strike by tanker drivers which led to shortages of oil. This was actually quite welcomed by me and my school friends, since the heating at North Romford Comprehensive School was oil fired, which meant that if there was no oil, there was no heating, and the dispute taking place during winter, if there was no heating, then school was closed. From the window of the living room of the flat we lived in at the time, I could see the lights if they were on at school, and every morning I would peer out; if the lights were on, then school was open, if the lights were off then there was a good chance it was closed. The mile and a bit walk to school was well worth it if I got there and immediately had to turn round and walk home again!
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| Miners on the picket line. Shortages of coal and oil caused frequent power cuts. Picture: The Guardian |
In December 1974 the nation's bakers went on strike in pursuit of a 66% pay rise (yes, that's right 66%, the 70's were a decade of rampant inflation and huge pay rises); shortages of bread inevitably ensued. In 1977 the bakers went on strike again, and although I do not recall how we dealt with the first strike, I recall that in 1977 my Dad decided to bake his own bread. Flour was difficult to get hold of and so he bought, from some health food shop like Holland & Barrett, a bread making kit. I suspect that the kit he bought did not contain wheat flour, but some gluten free alternative, since although what came out of the oven looked like bread, and to a degree tasted quite like bread, it had the consistency of cake. It was difficult to slice, it was almost impossible to butter, and when made into sandwiches, disintegrated at first bite.
In 1975 there was a potato shortage. Old potatoes ran out due to a wet November in 1974, while a subsequent lack of rain meant that new ones were not ready in time. Potatoes were naturally a staple of school dinners - no meal was complete without chips or lumpy mashed potatoes - and a shortage of spuds tested the ingenuity of the school cooks. Their solution was to replace potatoes with Ready Salted crisps, which are really no substitute when paired with sausages or fish.
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| Crisps, not really a proper substitute for chipped, fried potatoes. |
By 1979 I had been at work for three years, and having started at Midland Bank at Gants Hill, near Ilford, had been transferred to the bank's Queen Victoria Street branch in the City of London. It was while working there that I was sent by my Mum on a mission to get some milk, which was then in short supply. The City is not renowned for grocery stores - well, not then it wasn't, the supermarkets now have shops dotted about, but not so in the 1970's - and I wandered about fruitlessly for some time before, eureka! a shop selling cartons of milk. I bought two pints and proudly took them home. It was only on closer inspection that I realised this was UHT milk (hence it being available); it was our first encounter with the stuff, and we were not impressed, so much so that I think we poured it away.
In 1974 there was a sugar shortage; imports of cane sugar from the Caribbean fell by 30% and supermarkets and other retailers rationed customers to two or four pounds of sugar a time. I confess that I had forgotten all about this shortage, which I can only put down to my not then being a big tea drinker.
Former football referee Dennis Howell, then MP for Birmingham Small Heath, became a household name in 1976 during Britain's driest summer for 200 years when he was appointed Minister for Drought. For 15 consecutive days between 23rd June and 7th July temperatures reached 32.2 °C somewhere in England, and parts of the South West went 45 days without any rain. We sweltered indoors and roasted outdoors, but fortunately where we lived we didn't suffer the severe water shortages that had some people queuing at standpipes. Just days after Howell's appointment, severe thunderstorms brought rain to some places for the first time in weeks. September and October 1976 were both very wet months. It was perhaps the most effective political decision made by a Labour Prime Minister, perhaps any Prime Minister, ever.
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| Dennis Howell inspects a standpipe. |
In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) introduced an oil embargo against nations thought to have supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War; this included the United Kingdom. The price of crude oil rose from $3 per barrel to $12. Coupled with a strike by Britain's coal miners, this resulted in power cuts and a three-day week being introduced by Ted Heath's government. [1]Television stations closed down at 10.30pm, pubs were shut in the evenings, and the use of floodlights at football matches was prohibited. When the power cuts came, my parents and I decamped to the kitchen and put the gas oven on for warmth. My Dad would read the newspaper and I would try to do my homework, both of us doing so by candlelight.
On January 6, 1974, FA Cup ties were played on a Sunday for the first time, and some midweek games kicked off in the afternoon, rather than in the evening. Suddenly football fans were having to find excuses to get out of school or work to go and see their teams play, although this didn't affect me as Romford went three months without a solitary midweek match. Romford were scheduled to play Maidstone United on Monday 25th March 1974, with a 5.45pm kick-off, but any conflict I might have had between school and football was resolved as the ban on the use floodlights was lifted, and the game went ahead at 7.30pm.
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| Romford's game against Maidstone United was the first midweek fixture the club played in three months following the lifting of the ban on the use of floodlights. |
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| West Ham's cup tie against Hereford United in February 1974 kicked off at 2.15pm on a Monday afternoon. Over 42,000 bunked off school or work to see the game. |
The 1970's were a decade of much change. It was the decade of Watergate, and the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games in Munich. Britain entered the European Economic Community and elected its first female Prime Minister. Elvis Presley died and South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko died in police custody. Star Wars was released and The Beatles broke up. The 1970's were like the curate's egg - good in parts.
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| Stephen Biko |
Next time: From The Immigrant to Immigrant Song: A musical journey from MOR to prog.
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