Popular Nostalgia

Popular Nostalgia from the 1960s. Memories of events and items from popular culture recorded in words and pictures on the internet. Share, remember and get wonderfully sentimental…

Teddy Boys’s style was a reaction against the austerity of the post-war years. A new generation attempted to scandalise their parents with wasteful fashions that were far too camp for working class sensibilities. Velvet collars on long jackets harked back to Edwardian style (which was only 40 years previous). Edward was shortened to Ted – […]

Friday nights at 6pm were where everyone knew – “The Weekend Starts Here”. The BBC’s flagship youth programme opened to the tune of The Sufaris’ track: “Wipe Out,” which was later replaced by Manfred Mann’s “5-4-3-2-1″ and finally Them’s “Baby Please Don’t Go”. Cathy McGowan cemented her place at th forefront of Mod fashion after […]

Released in 1966, “Reach Out I’ll Be There” epitomised the Tamla Motown era. Sung by Levi Stubbs, Renaldo Benson, Lawrence Peyton and Abdul Faki, the song took the US and UK by storm. They were shown round Britain by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. In Stubbs obituary, The Independent says: “The unusual arrangement with its use […]

He’s way meaner than Postman Pat but “Number One” and the Welsh deliveryman share a love of cats. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was the inspiration for Austin Powers’ character, Dr. Evil. He appeared in early Bond films as just a pair of hands, a white Persian cat and a voice. His face was provided by Donald […]

Q was wonderful – fulfilling the dreams of every man and boy. Cars with machine guns, oil slicks, bulletproof windscreens, smoke screens and, most importantly, ejector seats. Watches with ziplines, compasses, plastic explosive detonators, magnets and more. Anything you could dream of was somewhere in the depths of Vauxhall Bridge being worked on by Q […]

Goldfinger is memorable for several things: the girl painted in gold, the remote control golf ball, Oddjob who throws his hat and decapitates a statue, a chase involving an Aston Martin DB5, Bond being strapped to a table left to the mercy of an industrial laser and, of course, the infamously named, Pussy Galore.

In 1962, the first Bond girl was deemed racy for stepping out of the sea in a tiny bikini. Sales of the new swimwear item went through the roof and the Bond girl genre was established. Fifty-four Bond girls have since graced our screens but Ursula remains the icon of what it means to be […]

The sound quality isn’t the best on this video, but I chose it because it showcases the best of sixties and seventies style. How did she get her hair so big? And check out the guy twisting around in the stripy tank top. Are those chops I spot? The flares and the silly dancing are […]

896 ATHENS, Greece Dates: from 6 to 15 April 1896. Participants: 14 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), 43 events, 241 athletes (men only). Officially opened by: King George I. The Games of the Olympiad in Athens were financed by a donation of approximately one million drachmas from a rich businessman, Georges Averof, and by the sale […]

It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, which in those days was called East Cote. Whilst out riding in 1711, she came upon an area of open heath, not far from Windsor Castle, that looked an ideal place for “horses to gallop at full stretch.” The first race […]

The Queen’s involvement with racing stretches back to before she came to the throne in 1952, with her first winner, owned jointly with her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, being Monaveen in a National Hunt race at Fontwell. On the death of her father, King George VI, the Queen inherited the Royal […]

1780 Diomed, owned by Sir Charles Bunbury, wins the inaugural running of the Derby on Thursday, May 4. 1784 The distance increases from a mile to a mile and a half which still prevails today, though from 1991 the offi cial distance has been one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards. 1794 The smallest fi […]

The Derby has been run on the Downs near Epsom since 1780 and is named after Edward Smith Stanley, the 12th Earl of Derby. The original race was The Oaks, named after Derby’s estate, and was exclusively for three-year-old fillies. The race became so successful that The Derby was created to find the best colts […]

We’ve been renovating a very old cottage and found this old wallpaper under several layers of paint, plaster and paper. The owner informs us that this design is from the 1960’s. We also found this design from the 1950’s. The design is very colourful and abstract.

George Formby was born George Hoy Booth on 26 May 1904 in Wigan, Lancashire. He started out as a professional jockey because his father didn’t want his son to follow him into showbusiness. Once his Father died, George went into stand-up. He bought a ukelele from an actor for £2.50 with a bet that he […]