Popular Nostalgia

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

Following a crash at Charles de Gaulle crash in 2000, an investigation led to a series of safety improvements to the design of the Concorde. However, this wasn’t enough to save the service, which was eventually retired in 2003. Richard Branson had offered to buy the fleet for £1 to keep it in service -later […]

Concorde quickly became a symbol of technological advance and British pride despite being a joint enterprise with the French government. More than 2.5 million passengers flew supersonically on British Airways’ Concorde since she entered commercial service in 1976. The most frequent passenger, an oil company executive, clocked up almost 70 round trip transatlantic crossings a […]

A comprehensive history of the Grand National from its official beginning in the 1800’s. From paintings to photo finishes and radio commentary to internet broadcasting. 1839 The Grand National was run at Aintree for the first time on Tuesday, February 26 and a horse named Lottery took the honours. Captain Martin Becher was unseated from […]

When you think of Queen, you most probably think of Bohemian Rhapsody. The longest radio played song (five minutes and fifty five seconds!!), the first pop video ever and using ground-breaking multi-layered vocals, Queen were to change pop and rock for ever and to stay at number one for nine weeks with this fantastic and […]

The pythons were: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin and they broadcast on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Their madcap approach to comedy broke all the boundaries and they were as controversial as they were successful. If I could, I would play every Python episode and film […]

In 1999 DJ Luck and MC Neat released “Do you really like it” which sparked a small phenomenon in people saying “we’re loving it” (like the MacDonald’s slogan) and “wicked”. Their blend of UK Garage was somewhat more palatable than what had been heard before as they lent a house touch to the rather DIY […]

Although she sounds like a Europop legend on most of her singles, Lolly is actually called Anna Kumble and is from North Birmingham. She was 21 when she released her first single “Viva La Radio”, even though she is dressed up to look like a girl. I once spent about three hours trying to get […]

The do-it-yourself art program presented by Neil Buchanan, who apparently never had an art lesson in his life. The best bit was where he created giant installations out of related materials e.g. a toilet made out of toilet rolls and such like. Neil’s favourite Art Attack was making a portrait of the Queen out of […]

Everyone remembers the spontaneous emotion displayed by the last governor of Hong Kong -Chris Patten. He was upset to leave the place he loved and it showed. He later left the Foreign Office. After 99 years of British rule, Hong Kong was handed back to its rightful owners, the Chinese. A tactical stronghold and last […]

In or around 1997, an American outfit by the name of ‘Next’ produced an all time classic, if not one-hit-wonder by the name of ‘Too Close’. UK readers might recognise this from the cover that the boy band ‘Blue’ did in (from memory) 2002. Looking back, it is amazing to see just how filthy this […]

This song sums up everything nostalgic about Christmas. Christmas in Australia just wasn’t the same without chestnuts roasting on an open fire or snow glistening outside. Bing felt the same way when he sang this classic as part of the 1942 classic “Holiday Inn” and later the 1954 hit “White Christmas”: Lyrics I’m dreaming of […]

Nobody really likes them and you get them every Christmas, but somehow Ferrero Rocher exude the aspirations of middle-class housewives everywhere with their gold wrappers and ability to be stacked into pyramids. I have a friend who once mentioned that she was enjoying a particular Ferrero Rocher only to be given an entire box every […]

Every Christmas party, every year. There’s no getting away from this anthem -even if you want to. This song is twice my age and yet I’ll probably be telling my kids one day that “it was dead cool at the time”. For those who wish to sing along: Lyrics “Are you hanging up your stocking […]

I never quite understood why we had satsumas in our stockings at Christmas and oranges at the Christingle service. It may well be something to do with them being expensive in “the olden days” and so reserved for special occassions like Christmas. However, I always much preferred the sweets, chocolate and other presents inside and […]

“Holidays are coming, Holidays are coming” You know it’s Christmas when… Coca-Cola ramps up the advertising. This particular advert has become the signal for yuletide to begin. I heard somewhere that Coca-Cola invented the red coat for Santa Claus but that could just have been a self-aggrandising press release. I know the reindeers are German […]