Popular Nostalgia

You are browsing the archives of 2007 July.

In 1993 we saw “the National that never was” as the world’s most famous steeple chase was declared void after false starting twice, and one totally armless flagman… The race was declared void after the horses false started twice, and, on the second occasion, most of the runners continued without having seen the officials flagging [...]

Lime Green Shirts were extremely cool in the nineties. Coupled with circular sunglasses, white jeans, a curtain hairdo for the boys and Kickers for all, Lime Green Shirts shouted Blur vs Oasis and no more Berlin Wall. For added kudos, one could purchase a Ben Sherman version or even opt for the rival to the [...]

All that chocolate, all that chew. Just right for you, the Riesen chocolate chew! Such a catchy tune and even better toffee. Few sweets (or lollies for our Aussie readers) have such dark toffee or such a demanding chew. Made by Storck, these delectable chewy treats even have their own games.

If P Diddy thought he was pimp, he’s got nothing on Sir Jimmy Savile. The tracksuit wearing, gold crusted old timer was best known for his TV program “Jim’ll Fix It” where children had their dreams made true by the program makers. The daddy of all signet rings, aviators and cigars, Jim is also a [...]

An item of big time nostalgic value: that milk advert. “Milk, yeurgh!” Advertising milk to children must be the stuff of nightmares for any marketer, but somehow those who produced this classic early 90s TV ad hit the mark so well that they entered an entire generation’s psyche. The Advert on Video

Linford Christie, the (only?) Olympic Gold Medal winning British 100 metre sprinter wore some tremendous Puma contact lenses during the 1990s. This was soon stomped on by the authorities as “advertising”, but I admire his moxy to this very day. Whether or not the powers that be banned the use of the lenses, they were [...]

She fixed everything and wore a jump suit long before Uma Thurman. Anneka was always trying to convince companies to do stuff for free, when really, the BBC was giving free advertising to local companies in return for cheap TV. But they always pulled together the labour and materials just in time. They once made [...]

Starburst used to be called Opal Fruits until 1998. Mars changed the name to bring the UK in line with its international markets. It did the same with Snickers (formerly Marathon) as part of a global branding exercise. Check out the dungarees and roller skates in this ancient 90′s advert.

Together with long hair, roller-skates and Bruce Lee, flared trousers epitomised the 1970′s. I heard a rumour that my next door neighbour once owned a pair of bright orange bell-bottoms and a purple velvet cape. Yeah baby! Groovy to say the least, these fashion assets weren’t complete without a waistcoat, granny glasses and a disco [...]

My paternal Grandad retired from coal mining two weeks before the strikes began. The government punished him and others by withholding pensions for former miners for 18 months before a journalist threatened to put them on the national front pages. A colleague in Newcastle once recalled to me how her miner husband and their children [...]

Wispas -the forgotten chocolate bars launched in 1983 and then inexplicably discontinued. Where have they gone? For those who have never had a Wispa they are like normal Aeros but with smaller bubbles and nicer chocolate. They came in a pleasing trapezium style bar. Who axed them? I want to know. Rumour has it that [...]

It’s 11:30 and you know that hunky builder has gotta get his shirt off. A shameless piece of sexual gratification on the part of Diet Coke. Pictures of female office workers perving on a construction worker led to claims of reverse sexism but, frankly, it’s just the way the cookie crumbles when you’re in an [...]

Pretty girl, great jeans and an intergalactic advert with the best soundtrack anyone had ever heard. We all rushed out to buy the CD and were sorely disappointed when, a minute into the track it all slows down and goes goth with some weirdo roaring into the microphone. What a let down. Worse still, no-one [...]

I remember watching this event on TV and not really understanding what was going on . Too young to realise the symbolic importance of jumping around on a concrete wall, I thought there was some sort of riot going on in Germany. Furthermore, I couldn’t understand why all of my family were standing around and [...]

Every female born after 1983 has done a Sporty Spice kick. There was Sporty Spice (Mel C), Scary Spice (Mel B), Baby Spice (Emma B), Posh Spice (Victoria) and Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell). Nobody ever wanted to be Baby Spice. Girl Power infused the nineties with high-kicks, shouted lyrics and tasteless costumes. Where would we [...]