Popular Nostalgia

Popular Nostalgia specific to Australia & (or) New Zealand. These are either events which took place in Australia or New Zealand, or those remembered by people who were in Australia or New Zealand at the time…

He-Man was another of my favourite cartoon TV shows when I was growing up. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, as a TV show really had it all. A main character with muscles and a big sword. Check. An enemy with a skull for a head (Skeletor). Check. At the end of the show, […]

Saturday (or was it Sunday??) mornings never were the same once we lost the Orange Organics front-man Pugwall (Peter Unwin George Wall) and his epic series of the same name. In the UK, we used to watch these glorious moments of Aussie stardom on Channel 4. Pugwall was played by a chap called Jason Torrens. […]

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 […]

This was, very possibly, the album of the 1990s. Nirvana didn’t produce one better and, for me, only Pearl Jam’s 10 has stood the test of time anything like as well as Nevermind by Nirvana. It amazes me a little to think this album dropped onto the scene in the very beginning of last decade, […]

Obviously deserving of “The Best Title Sequence Ever”. I especially like the part where half a capsicum flies towards the camera -in black and white! This series was aired in the 1970’s, 1990’s and as recently as 2007 (in radio format). It featured a group of humans who had progressed to the next stage of […]

Spare a thought for personal CD players. In the age of the Ipod, these clunky old pals have gone the way of the Walkman… and walked. Does anyone still use them? Does anyone still sell them? I don’t know. One thing I do know, however, is that I still have one. All reasonable offers accepted

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 […]

They always used to serve arctic roll for school dinners. I don’t know whether arctic roll was especially cheap for some reason, or whether someone just liked making it but I always enjoyed it and could never work out how it was made. Everyone always tried for seconds and thirds when arctic roll was involved. […]

An excellent singer and perfect pin-up for teenage girls, Craig David was the poster boy for UK garage. His album sold loads and he became instantly famous for “7 days”, mainly because it was so liable to spoof versions and mockery at the method of seduction. Little goaty things and cornrows became de riguer for […]

All the little girls had Quiddity perfume. It was pink, after all. I remember doing a media advertising project on it and over-analysing the word “Quiddity”. It means “the essence of the thing” but the advert said energy, pazazz and female empowerment. There you go: a full market analysis. It was also fairly cheap.

Romeo & Juliet – the first time I cried at a film -and one of the last. Deeply upsetting for 11 year old girls the world over. The good chest shots throughout this film made it even harder to part with the photogenic Leonardo Di Caprio. Good job that every girls’ magazine had printed a […]

“Jack, Jack,” Rose whispers as he slips into the depths of the Atlantic… …and the sound of a thousand little girls’ hearts breaking. Everyone wanted to be Kate Winslet in this epic movie until they saw the inevitable. In the same way as Sixth Sense, someone spoilt this film for me by telling me that […]