70s Britain is portrayed too gloomily

[Imani]

70s and early 80s Britain is often portrayed in a gloomy way.

Yes, there were strikes, violence, unemployment rising, the rise of the nf, sectarianism, and that's an indelible part of the history. At the same time, it produced some of the best music and television programmes. There were plenty of places to go and socialise both for adults and kids. Loads of venues for groups to play, local and national. The fun of those times gets overlooked.

It was a golden age for sport also. For all of the darker and more violent side of the times, kids still had freedom to roam that would be unthinkable today.

In terms of creativity, people had less and produced more, much of which has endured.

It's become a convenient cliche to speak of 2 Tone and 'Thatcher's Britain', and it obscures how things were. The truth is, the conditions of social decay that were the backdrop to the formative years of 2 Tone, was at a time when 'the other lot' was in power. Yet it's downplayed. This is even more true of the rise of the uk punk scene.

Things are rarely black and white-good and bad, and it'd be good to see history portrayed in a way that reflects this.

[Trojan]

You should have tried living on the other side of the Irish Sea. It was a fucking horrendous time. Belfast City centre was like a zombie film after 6pm every day. No one ventured in to for fear of their life. And I don't mean a few drunk punch ups either. Northern Ireland had very strict shop opening hours. No late nights and Never on Sunday. In terms of gigs, only a handful of bands each year would play in Belfast. And I went to a primary school which had a bomb drill as well as a fire drill.

You might say the portrayal of that time is overly gloomy. For me looking back I find it difficult to put into words just how bad it was.
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Richard Eddington is innocent.

http://2-tone.info/

[Imani]

It definitely wasn't as bad where I lived, and that's not to say it was idyllic, either. Far from it, but when I talk to people who lived through the 70s, we still conclude it was better than the dour and gloomy place Britain is portrayed as, for all the reasons I gave.

[Trojan]

Looking back at that period it produced the best politically minded bands, the best protest songs, and the largest and most effective protest movements. All of which did not exist in a vacuum. They were very much products of their time and a very toxic atmosphere.

Yes, back then TV and music was better and Wagon Wheels were larger, but when you think of the social tensions, the divisive politics and outright violence its'a time I would rather forget.
_________________
Richard Eddington is innocent.

http://2-tone.info/

[Imani]

Dare I say it, without the flaws and imperfections of those times, we might have never had the richness and originality of the creativity. That's the great paradox. Saying that, I wouldn't for one moment want to go back to those years, and obviously people experienced it differently depending upon geography and environment, some harsher than others. I didn't have it as tough as someone living in Belfast.

Something of that spark has been lost. Probably because things were less rigidly controlled, for one thing.

[bombscare79]

[Trojan]

[bombscare79]

[Trojan]

I'm not really a biscuit or chocolate fan, but I have always been found of the odd Wagon Wheel.

Bombscare79, you want one this size:




_________________
Richard Eddington is innocent.

http://2-tone.info/

[bombscare79]

Jesus wept where do you get them? They are a proper shite biscuit like Penguins, not great chocolate etc but every so often 4 or 5 with a pint of tea is delightful
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Naked from your bath, you go naked to your bed, but i cant stop the hatred running through my...... f * * k i n g .. head.

[Trojan]

[bombscare79]

absolutely not. Everything in moderation. Now toffee YoYo's that would be a different ballgame
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Naked from your bath, you go naked to your bed, but i cant stop the hatred running through my...... f * * k i n g .. head.

[Harry]

I recon Orson Welles would have agreed with Imani's point about bad times being good for the richness and originality of the creativity

"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They producedd Michaelangelo, da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock."
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I got one art O'level it did nothing for me

[Imani]

[bombscare79]

[Imani]