Looking for anchors during turbulent times

During the 70s, Britain had four prime ministers, four general elections, five official states of emergency, two property booms, two oil crises, a riot of youth subcultures and a pop music revolution. There was also a preoccupation with national decline and a dwindling faith in the future.

The late 70s was when the first big suburban shopping centers opened, when universal car and home ownership began to be seen as the natural state of things and when journalists and social scientists detected the first symptoms of a public disengagement from politics. Women gained new independence, they were allowed to drink in pubs without men and, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister. Escalating sectarian violence in Northern Ireland spilled over to the mainland with bombings in British cities, creating an underlying atmosphere of public fear. The period was marked by harsh immigration debates and the rise of far-right groups like the National Front, which in turn sparked powerful anti-racist cultural movements.

All this change triggered some nostalgia for a more stable past. It was a good time for antique shops, for second world war comics, for conservation campaigns to save Victorian terraces from new developments. Even punk had quite a few vintage components. As well as safety pins and ripped jumpers, Johnny Rotten wore ancient teddy boy jackets and brothel-creepers.

So the national mood was a complex mix of economic anxiety, political disillusionment, and intense cultural rebellion. A “nostalgia wave” emerged as a result of accelerated social change. The Goldhawks would have been embarrassed to admit it but they yearned for the places and for the faith of their childhood.