Drugs and excess alcohol: a curse, a blight.  I was regularly drinking half bottles of White Horse at fourteen.  Surprised I didn't end up in hospital.  I tried telling a nurse this a few years ago and she evidently didn't believe me.  But getting hold of whisky and cigarettes in 1974/5 was no problem whatever.  The law was lax.  I was horrified to hear that my eldest had snorted a line or two but my drug intake was fairly high, I suppose.  You did weed or pills; sometimes both.  I once necked an entire bottle of valium.  Fun?  Not really. 
I was glad to see the back of the 70s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waxaiAjh-r0

The High Numbers live in 1964. Musically speaking I'd take the original versions any time, but it's worth a watch because: the band were dressed by Pete Meaden so their style reflects the top mod looks of the time (with a strong US influence); their repertoire reflects top mod tastes (R&B and proto-soul); plus of course the audience is overwhelmingly mod so we get to see their style, dance and how blatantly amphetamine influenced many of them were. By 64 mod had just gone overground but it was at least a couple of years before it became overdone and passé. I don't think I saw anyone in a suit (apart from Stamp or Lambert) - casual was the order of the day here.

Last edited by Yuca (2021-12-07 11:59:58)

(I suppose nearly everything goes mainstream sooner or later - as money-minded types begin getting fancy ideas.  Looking back, though, even in the dismal town I grew up in, by 1976 the more advanced types had turned away from what was becoming known as 'punk rock': moving slowly toward jazz-funk, African music etc.  I also still recall talking to one of these guys in around 1979/80 (before he decamped for NYC) who predicted a big future for a group called Spandau Ballet.  'Punk' was already being seen as violent, non-creative, having the potential for political extremism etc.  The clothing had become a uniform.  It was, in short, pathetic).

N soul was a direct descendant of mod; the music changed a bit (deteriorated I would say), clothes went from the main focus to being of marginal interest and the north led the way whereas in the mod scene it just followed. But the core elements remained: speed (and other drugs); dancing all night; obscure black American dance music from the 1960s.

Punk was a big rebellion against the pomposity of prog rock and the superficiality of disco. But in this country I don't think anyone knew about the cutting edge disco scene in the US, they just knew about the commercial end.

By the time I was old enough to know any punks (early 80s) they were absolute losers e.g. they would go to parks and teach 5 year olds to sniff glue. If they'd had a bit more money and aspiration they would have been 'trendies', indeed as I recall one of them eventually went from punk to trendy.

I remember watching a repeat of a mid 1970s edition of Top of the Pops and every tune was absolute garbage. Even the soul/disco tracks were dire (much to my surprise). I can understand people wanting to rebel against that. By the late 1970s better soul tracks were charting and new wave had made chart music vastly more interesting.

Disco in the original underground US clubs was an incredible mix of soul, funk, Afro, Latin, rock, reggae, new wave and electronic music, with the DJs' mixing skills taking it to another level. Many of the tunes were unknown and would have remained as such, until the pioneering DJs discovered them. Not to mention the movement's political aspects. I'm pretty sure there was very little like that in the UK.

Punk never looked good and the music has never done anything for me. They did appreciate reggae for a few years but no one needs to be a punk to do that.

'Disco' - in the UK, as I remember it - was looked down upon.  It was liked by 'soul boys' or 'smoothies' (not the drink).  There was a lot of animosity between them and the safety-pin wearers.  No-one I knew had the slightest idea of what might be happening in the US.  The sound to them was 'Disco Inferno' or anything by The Three Degrees, Gloria Gaynor etc.  I loved Donna Summer, however.  'I Feel Love' has stayed with me.

^ My man!  Otis was just beautiful.  I heard those rasping horns in an episode of 'The Sopranos' and said to my wife, That's Otis.  Brought tears to the eyes.

Anyone who said they hated Otis Redding has no sole (soul) and is, in fact, an arse hole.

'As the pills got stronger they really created problems. Much closer to what we would recognise now as drug related issues than the early 60’s ‘moral panic’ associated with french blues, purple hearts etc.'

That may well be true however I'm pretty sure there were plenty of mods in the early to mid 1960s with serious issues directly related to amphetamine use. It's a nasty drug really.

Otis live must have been an experience.
At Monterey cutting through the hippy nonsense. And they loved him for it.
The man was just living breathing charisma.
Refusing to finish Try a Little Tenderness.
JB may have been the hardest working man in show business. But you don’t have to work THAT hard to nick half of someone else’s act.

Ready, Steady, Go. A must watch for young aspiring boys like myself. The clothes, the music, the girls, the way they moved. And Cathy McGowan. Who didn't lust after her. The way she flirted with the camera was delicious.

Last edited by RobbieB (2021-12-07 11:03:36)