Thursday 25 July 2019

For you I'd get down on my knees


Yes. People did look like this in the 70s.

The stiflingly unpleasant heat today [I can cope with 38C/100.4F temperatures if the sun is out and the air is moving, but it's been overcast and humid-as-hell - even the thunderstorm just now fizzled out after barely dampening the leaves in the garden] takes us back - as all heatwaves in this normally moist island inevitably do - to the great Summer of 1976.

And so, appropriately, we have a mini-timeslip-moment...

In July forty-three years ago, apart from melting pavements and stand-pipes in the streets (London had fifteen days over 80F, and five consecutive days over 90F), there was also in the news: the raid on Entebbe airport, Nadia Comăneci's seven "perfect 10s" at the Montreal Olympics (and our own gold-medal-winning swimmer David Wilkie in his skimpies setting many a teen-queen's loins-a-tingle), the first photos from Mars taken by the Viking 1 lander, the murder by the IRA of British ambassador to the Irish Republic Christopher Ewart-Biggs, an earthquake in China that killed 242,769 people, three British (and one American) mercenaries shot by firing squad in Angola, and the US Bicentennial celebrations. In our cinemas: The Omen, Bugsy Malone. On telly: The Bionic Woman, The Sky at Night and the Olympics.

And what of our charts that memorable high summer - this week in 1976? The Top 3 remained firmly in place - Elton & Kiki at #1, Dr Hook at #2 and Demis Roussos at #3. Also present and correct were The Manhattans, Tavares, Candi Staton, Dorothy Moore, Jonathan King (masquerading as 100 Ton and a Feather), David Dundas and Queen. But just outside the Top Ten, waiting its turn, was this one [here, in a very strange set indeed]...


It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

10 comments:

  1. that's the temperatures we had last weekend. but we are well equipped to cope.

    "For you I'd get down on my knees" - says ivanka to daddy dump

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  2. 1976 - the summer before starting big school!
    It has been warm in Devon, but also very breezy. I'm pleased it's cooling down now because I'm feeling a little addled due to lack of sleep.
    Sx

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    1. The year I turned teenager. It's returned to grey mizzle here, too - although the house is still horribly stuffy, so we need a bit more breeze yet before it feels comfortable... Jx

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  3. The year I lost my virginity in a Texas motel room. What a cliche.

    Do you think the producer of that video was deliberately making it as bad as possible? Was it a Tragic Art Piece?

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    Replies
    1. You are Blanche Devereaux, and I claim my prize...

      The clip was from Dutch television in the 1970s. Say no more.

      Jx

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  4. It's like being on the set of Tenko. I froze a hot water bottle and took it to bed with me last night, it was bliss.

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    Replies
    1. I drank myself into a fit state for sleep. Apparently there was another thunderstorm overnight. I never heard it. Jx

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  5. My hair then was a bit like the chap in white second from the left.
    I hope there are no surviving photos.

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