Thetownend.com

Remembering the good old days and what we got up to.
Playing subbueto on the dining room table was entertaining!

'You'd always get palmed off with a headless centre forward and a goalkeeper with no arms and a face like his!'

It was new and fun at the time and I used to get my teams from Terry Warner Sports!

Goalkeeper always went to ground to early. I preferred striker.

The simple things like you could have a face to face conversation. These days people are glued to their smartphones.

Exactly that, it's quite rare now to pass a young person in the street who isn't looking at their left or right hand!

I wasn't alive in the 70s

For balance, it might be worth running a parallel thread on what wasn't so great about the 70s.

The 70s was ace, but then again I was under 10 years old.

I was just a glint in my father's eye....

I understand that there were strikes, power cuts and stuff like that.

Apologies to any of you younger guys

Yes you're right the 70's has stikes and power cuts, petrol queuing and Swindon had to play Pompey in a cup game midweek in the winter at 2pm as they wouldn't allowed to have the floodlights on

I've changed the title to cover all

Hose pipe bans, abysmal road surfaces, Yorkshire Ripper, problems in the Middle East, aeroplane hijackings, rubbish England football team and failing to qualify for World Cups, flares, platform shoes, long hair - The list is endless!

Some of the TV shows I have seen expressed some 'interesting' attitudes and opinions.

Alf Garnett

The 70s were great for me, some brilliant memories, I was 13 at the dawn of 1980.

What wasnt so good in the 70s? a few strikes like the miners and firemen affected us and we only had 3 channels on TV and almost all of them were shit so we went out and did stuff or read a book or played with our friends, simple times.

TV started at 10am for school programs then went off again until about 1pm and then it was all over by about 11pm and the test card.

Surprised nobody has mentioned white dog shit :D

Not a lot has changed

List of memories....

White dog shit  :)
Massive round shirt collars
Car plant strikes
3 day week
Raleigh Chopper/Grifter
Mint creams
Imps, blackjacks and fruit salads
Legs sticking to car seats in the summer
Skin heads
Punch and Judy
The Baron Knights
Dandelion and Burdock
Gold top milk
It's a knockout
The Flashing Blade
Word It (with Wordy).
The Tomorrow People
The Adventure Game
Pipkins

I can remember the Corona pop wagon coming around and Hubbly Bubbly pop at speedway

I am surprised that Savile has not been mentioned

Cherry Corona was the bomb.

Less than 25% of his offending took place in the 70s there was more in the 80s and 90s.

I loved the Cherry and Limeade 😀

Hunt was F1 champion and Sheene was 500cc GP champion in 1976.  Great days for motorsport.

The Summer of 1976 was my first memory of getting sun burnt playing with my mates.

The World Cup in Argentina in 78 was my first that I took notice of too, the goal by Gemmill vs Holland.

Swindon getting to the Semi of the LC and beating Arsenal and Wolves in that.

These were the only thing to be seen in😀

Staying up late on a school night to watch Argentina, sunburnt cycling to lechlade in 76 then Wooky Hole the next day to get relief in the caves.
Arsenal home and away probaly my best football memories and who can forget seeing Everton fans walking on top of the old Shrivenham Road stand or the hot dog stand on fire against Spurs

And the programme was a single sheet of paper costing 2p if my memory serves me correctly !!.

I think I used to pay £3.50 to get in the Townend in the mid-late 70's

I paid £3.50 back in the late 80s

Thinking about it maybe it was £1.50 but not 100% sure

7p in the 72/73 season
5np in the 70/71 season

Used to go around the local building sites in the evening with a mate collecting discarded Corona bottles and taking them back to the local shop,  3d back on each one, 5 bottles were worth 1/3d, which we used to buy 10 Players Number 6 cigarettes, Those were the days (Old Fart).

Excellent stuff and great memories

Single sheet was due to strikes and power cuts.

Gotta mate who still wears them !!.

Harry's styles apparently😀

I remember Corona when it was 2d/2p return on the bottle cap!

All innocently done by young kids and inagine the scams that would go on if there was money back on returns now

Not sure the returns would be that attractive to organised crime (which I suspect was also going on in the 70s).

Life was more innocent and unassuming back in those days

Ahh, the decade when music became no longer all about the light show and the 20 minute guitar solo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxFQ5QBiYk

Most songs are written about love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51OB2YoC4sg

Was for me, I was only 5 when the 70's ended!

I was 15😀

Pretty certain it was 3d.

It was, when we couldn't find any we used to sneak round the back of the local pub, pinch theirs then cash them in at the local shop !!.

I was sure I remembered them as 2d then 2p then 5p then 10p I don't remember them being 3d though.

Its a long long time ago though and you could be right mate.

Maybe you were wearing the appropriate coloured glasses JJ, so couldn't see them in 3D.

:facepalm:

Rose tinted?

Speedway......

Bob Kilby
Martin Ashby (Crashby!)
David Ashby (Long hair and not as good as his brother)
Geoff Bouchard (always last from the tapes but battled through)
Steen Mastrup (Always got to headleader status and then suffered a bad crash)
Rolf Gramstad (Just started to find his feet then went to Leicester where he got good - before a bad accident)
Jan Andersson (Should never have let him go to Reading!)
Soren Karlsson (Meh!)
Rob Henry (with his tiger suit and tassles!)
Leonard Raba (He was awful)
Jerzy Trezkowski (He was worse)
Wally Mawdsley (Shades, suntan and cream suit!) buying the club and bringing in Phil Crump (Awesome races against Billy Sanders), Steve Gresham (The Lee Power of the Robins!) and the 'R' racejacket

Now you're reminiscing and I spent many a Saturday evening watching league meetings and the Silver Plume at a packed Abbwy stadium

I know Martin Ashby's sons quite well, played football with them for a number of years..

Lindisfarne and The Clash, although not necessarily in that order.

The Exorcist.
Jethro Tull
Uriah Heap
Threesome
Emva Cream session
Hospitalised with sunburn
Everton away
Wrexham away

It's great to read the different things from us older posters. Wrexham away was that the infamous special train journey!

Not half! Scrapping on the train before it had even left Swindon station.

And it went downhill from there!

Yes I had heard a few stories regarding that game!

I didn't do the Wrexham special but we had many others back then, but more so in the 80s, Liverpool, Reading, Shitty, Rovers, Burnley, Carlisle, Crystal Palace, Newport and many others, great times without rose tinted specs at all, a better time all round IMO.

I find those who suggest everything is viewed back then as being "rose tinted specs" are those that weren't there or not old enough to understand or just  plain jealous.

It was, but all things Boardroom were a completely closed shop to fans. Those in charge were still skimming money from gate receipts and, no doubt, elsewhere as well.

Oh that was a given, even right up to the Macari days when programme sales were never reported fully, I have heard a few tales from ex players about half time draws and MotM pay outs from the sales.

Yet in those days we regularly had enough money to actually pay for transfer fees for players. So much more money sloshing around now but, seemingly, not enough for paying fees. All goes on wages I suppose.

Yep

Love this  :clap: :girlgiggle:

Same as JJ, great memories taking 8000 to Arsenal & Wolves the same season and the special trains were something never to witnessed again and a case of if you weren't around you've missed out 

No agents then either😀

Apart from Simon Templar.

Its true, JBZ pretending he wasn't around in the 70's  :clap:

think I remember more of the early 80s. still lots of what's need mentioned still applies.

sapphire and steel, and Blake's 7 sneak in as TV shows I remember having started in the 70s.

Harrington jackets!

He was born in 76  ;)

I would guess at 1973.

October 73 is the best part of 73

Ox Blood DM’s.

I have both still :)

Spent hours polishing them!

Loved the 70’s cracking Rock music with the likes of Thin Lizzy and Rush on the scene.

Football back then was an adventure, spending Summers in Portsmouth I could have been a blue but became a Red.
Standing in the TE looking back my best memories of supporting this shit show of a football club. Looked forward to every Saturday and Tuesday night and simply lived for going to the County Ground.

Scary times though and you had to be street wise to avoid the battles in and outside the ground.

What a time to be alive, no pressure in life and always grateful of an older girl taking advantage of me.
Roll the clock forward life is tougher and feels more confined than it used to be. The empty spaces of fields and woodland have gone.
Fishing was better then, no bastard otters for a start.

I love mine

(https://i.imgur.com/qLtTPMV.jpg)

Mine are 8 holes too but worn a fair bit more than those seem to be :)

I can recall playing Pompey a few times in the late 70's and they always seemed to end up in the Townend. You're right football the was exciting but also scary and you definitely had to have your witts about you both inside and outside the ground and going to away games was often a frightening experience as it was a ritual for the home thugs to literally run the away fans out of Town.

So comfortable as well.
Happy memories.

I had a baby pair of docs and they made their debut in 76 against Everton when Stroud scored the wonder goal and when the scallys were climbing over the Stratton bank to gain entry

aye.

I was worried about mine being too hot out here, but they're not. If anything they're cooler than other shoes/trainers and stuff.

Absolutely, football is far more clinical now and softened in pretty much every way. I don't miss the aggro though TBH.

The aggro was at times really scary and glad that it's hopefully gone but any younger fans not around in the 70's & 80's won't realise how bad it was

Lovely pair of DM's and for me they have to be in Brown or black and none of this red,blue or white rubbish

Ironically down in Pompey yesterday. Still love the place and going back.
A fair few 6:57 old boys with the tattoos on show.
One of my favourite games still the 3-1 home win with Kammy scoring the first with that diving header and running to the TE to celebrate.
Going by train that day was scary. The most impressive thing I notice in the City is the amount of Pompey tops on show, always the same a real hardcore fanbase.
Mind you like with most clubs it’s all a little quieter now.

Yes great passionate club Dukey and should really be up there with Southampton but like lots of clubs they've lost their way and have struggled over recent seasons. Back in the day they had a right old mob and were a match for anybody but like all of us they're got older and life has changed for the better.

Starsky & Hutch was my favourite

Huggy bear😀

aztec bar

Texan Bar.

Hop on hop off buses😀

Lou Grant

Dave Allen at Large

Benny Hill :smugfu:

He loved the birds :toocool:

That 70s football terrace 'smell' - a heady mix of Brut, boiled burgers, cider fumes and fear. The Wolves visit in '78, the KKK hoods, the place was wrecked. 'Wovles was here' daubed by a Black country lysdexic, remained for years.

Unlike the Robins, the Falcons have only ever won a single British championship - led by Ivan Mauger (signed by the ubiquitous Wally Mawdsley from Belle Vue). One of 10,000+ crammed into the old County Ground to see the great man make his debut. Happy days.

Alias Smith and Jones. Two tone trousers aka tonics, ruperts, skinners, brogues and loafers !

Great post and great memories Banker, I can remember wwtching Ivan Mauger & Scott Autrey amongst others at a Packed Abbey Stadium. Walking into the Town end and looking towards the Stratton bank to see how many away fans were there esocually when the place used to echo with Brighton fans singing seashells one the great Pompey chimes.
Going to Carnaby street  & Goulston street on a Saturday looking for tonics, stay press & Ben Sherman!

My great memories of the seventies, Wimbledon away in the cup, i was 9. My first experience of the town fans being escorted to the ground from the train station in full voice. 4,000 Swindon fans packed into plough lane.

Then listening to second half commentary of Arsenal v Swindon on radio 2 and listening to that Billy Tucker equaliser.
The replay at the county ground 28,000 fans, the Alan Mayes wonder goal and then winning in extra time.

The high and lows of the semi final against Wolves, beating them at home then losing at Wolves and missing that penalty.

Walking home from junior school in Faringdon and the coaches coming through Faringdon (Rimes of Swindon) on the way to Peterborough.

What a great season to follow the Town !

Peter Eastoe's goal against Everton.

Thoroughly enjoyed the late seventies

Great post and happy memories as the late 70's is the best football era for me especially as I was at Highbury when Billy Tucker scored and bunked off school for the home leg so that we could queue up to get in the Townend. I was also at Plough lane and stood on that steep terrace packed full of Town fans

Who could forget the train special to Wrexham that got there at around half time?

God,
I also remember these wonderful events. Even the speedway when Jan the man Andersson when up to Wembley representing the Robins in the British League riders championship as an outside favourite. Think he was lucky to get 2 points on the night  :no:
Barry Briggs, Martin Ashby and Bob Kilby were tops for me. But Geoff Bouchard always showed pride for the Robins and not forgetting our Malc Holloway.
Football     
Remember travelling to Hull and freezing my balls off and still the Town lost 3-1
But great memories when on Boxing day going to Poxford and losing 3-0 at half time and coming back to a 3-3 draw.
But the most impressive time was in the mid to late 60 see Swindon beat West Ham in the 3rd round of the FA cup in 67
No one could imagine or even dream to believe the following 5 years. 
So many dreams that came true and many times  you simply had to forget  :pint:
     

Excellent and nice to read about your memories  :clap:

Radio Luxembourg  :pint:

Fluff on a stylus.

Radio  Caroline.

The original pirate station😀

Off-licences, clippies, B&W TV. Last orders. Top Twenty on Sunday.

We used to record the top twenty on our radio cassettes😀

The original mix tape.

Great until they jammed up😡

(https://i.redd.it/hcprcw46yqd11.jpg)

Lock-ins. Wanky beer - Starlight, Double Diamond, Tartan, Watneys Red Barrel.

The beginning of the lager generation - Harp, Hofmeister.

Middle classes getting into wine - Mateus Rose, Blue Nun, Black Tower

Starlight bitter then moved upmarket to Ben Truman and loved Watneys pale ale

Take away the B&W telly (albeit the portable I had in my room was B&W) and the 80's were little different.

That's what I used to regularly get😀

Used to keep one in the car for those special occassions too, right up until about 1994 when I got my first in car CD player!

Constantly moving the round wire aerial to try and get a decent picture!

Long Life Lager

I loved that shit!

Bottled Guinness was absolute lately foul. No wonder it’s only cans now.

As a 13 year old I was given, prescribed really, a bottle Mann’s daily when I was recovering from a burst appendix.

That and Guinness were regular ‘iron providers’. My dear old mum, who had leukaemia, was fobbed off with Guinness. May as well have tried leeches!

Party Seven

Wonderful stuff if you had one of these but frustrating if you couldn't open!

Fuck me the 70’s sounded shit

:D I thought the same

Heath and the 3 day week. Start of Thatcher’s Britain. Strikes aplenty. It was dreary - although I skipped most of it in Oman.

My old man was based in Aden, Jordan and Oman in the services, but that was back in the 50's doing his National Service, he was with the Glorious Glosters.

I was based in Salalah in Oman, with frequent jaunts into Aden (nowadays South Yemen).

Interesting times!

I've heard people talk like this before.
Personally  I loved the early 70s. Shagging anything that moved in my mini van, Lager by candle light.  Working on the buildings I was lucky enough to keep earning all the way through.
It was the 80s when i married when life went down hill.

Love that  :D

Then along came an ingenious invention called a 'ring pull ' !!.

My old man did NS out there.

Bahrain is the Arsehole of the earth and Aden is ten miles up it!

His words.........

First beer i ever drank..

I thought....'This tastes like metal!?'

Big gold tins with pictures of Beach Buggys and Ladies in Bikinis on the outside?

I was lucky, my dad delivered beer on his tanker for Bulwark in Chippenham, he used to bring it home so my first beer was Ruddles County probably back around 1977, used to be a cracking beer that came in weird little stubbie wide neck bottles, that was until Ruddles was bought out by Greene King who ruined it.

(http://www.beerinfinity.com/wp-content/uploads/ruddles-county.jpg)

I remember as a young lad that my Nan’s next door neighbour had a colour tv & a freezer, and as a special treat I used to go round to their house to watch the FA Cup final & have an ice cream.

Watching the 1977 grand national around my gran's. My 50p was on Andy Pandy, he fell at Bechers and Red Rum (my sister's bet) went on to win  :badmood:

50p was probably worth about a fiver in today's money at a guess?

Probably about £4 with inflation, a pint of beer was about 40p back then IIRC.

In 1972 I could get pissed for a quid. 14p a pint. And coincidentally, I was paid £7 per week at the time.

According to the online calculator thingy 50p in 1977 would be £2.83 today.


Even in the early nineties when I lived in Newcastle you could have a decent night out on £20 including a kebab on the way home, think Exhibition was c.£1.60 a pint in The Strawberry.

Saw them at the Oasis. Not sure if it was late 70s or early 80s. My first “pop concert”.

Christ, The Strawberry brings back some memories!

My watering hole of choice for the 4 years I lived up there even if for 3 of those years it required a bus ride or go on the metro to get there!

Stayed in the Hotel oppo (with the flames in the window and the waitresses like Hooters)...made sure i had a pint in the Strawberry...

You've lost me (which really isn't difficult!), don't think there was a hotel opposite when I drank there, opposite was a small car park and obliquely the Gallowgate end of St James Park

Got bladdered in there before the infamous 5-0 thrashing

I saw them in 2014 in Taunton on their 50th anniversary tour, they were ok but didn't play any of the great songs from the late 70's early 80s at all, like a Taste of aggro, Live in trouble or the Highworth Cowboy.

Seemingly, every bag of crisps back then contained a small blue sack of salt with a twisty top.

I think you had to be around in the 70's to realise how difficult I thought was to open a party 7

Did he fight in Korea with them? Their story in Korea is frankly remarkable.

Yes, you really needed one of those tin can/bottle openers to punch a triangular hole epithet side to get a result.

I think we were desperate once and used a hammer & 4 inch nail😀

Screwdrivers were also a good weapon of choice.

 :pint: :pint:

Always thought Watneys Red Barrel was shit.

This may be because those Party 7s, once opened, had been handy but camouflaging receptacles for cigarette butts at the rather naff parties I attended.

He was in Korea and proudly wore his Korean medal. He never spoke about it though.

My old chap was in Korea. A Sapper. Got injured with a bit of rock shrapnel when they came under mortar attack, nothing to serious but enough to be withdrawn from the front line.

Its almost the forgotten war, nobody ever talks about it and for those there it was appalling, like I said my old man never spoke about it whereas he loved to talk about Aden and the Oman and saying how unimpressive Petra was back then and how he kept pet scorpions in matchboxes!

Christ he got around, when my old man was doing his National Service in the 50's he didn't get much beyond Hereford, seemed to spend most of the time playing basketball!

My dad was in the forces from 47 to 53 and got to staff sergeant and was head of the motor pool for the Gloucestershire regiment so had to go wherever they needed equipment.

He was based in Imjin Barracks for the first 3 months (obviously before it was called that!) and then went everywhere they fought or defended.

I have a couple of his photos from the middle east but nothing from Korea at all, sitting on his Scammells and Centurian tanks.

These are the only pics I have scanned so far on my PC, the bottom 2 are from Aden.

(https://i.postimg.cc/c151xjDv/04-04-2006-11-27-13.png)

Yeah, the forgotten war is what it is generally known as. He also went to Japan and Cyprus, maybe other places but I’m not aware of them and as he’s passed away I’ll never know unless I did out his service record.

Yep my dads been gone nearly 10 years and they just didnt like talking about the stuff that was the bad side of thing (understandably I guess), he would happily tell me about scorpion racing but nothing at all about the nasty stuff at all.

Tbf, Aden was no bed of roses.

British servicemen were still getting killed in Yemen in the 70s.

I wasn't suggesting it was, just that he never ever spoke about the bad stuff only ever the trivial side of things, he was there for 2 years an could speak fluent Arabic and worked as an interpreter, which wasn't bad as he could barely read English when he left school at 15, he taught himself to read properly in the army.

I hope you've had the chance to read up on it (I'm sure you have). The stand the Glosters took has been described as some of the bravest fighting in history, by the US Army.

I have indeed mate, it is pretty impressive stuff, wearing the 2 badges on his beret too was something they are very proud of.

And rightly so.

I was quite fond of The Damned back in the day. Noticed that they are getting back together with Scabies, Sensible and Vanian in the line-up and tickets are a snip at £79.00. I would baulk at paying that for a weekend at Glastonbury.

Saw them in Bar 12 about 12 years ago, only a couple of hundred there (rammed). It was ace  :toocool:

I bet it wasn't 79 quid!

Can't remember but it wasn't expensive, and it was a great night. They made me laugh when they said they played Paris the night before but now they were in Swindon  :)
All tongue in cheek.

Saw The Damned play the Brunel in 1977. Also on the bill were The Adverts and XTC. All for a couple of quid!
Those were the days. The Brunel were one of the top venues for punk bands around that time.

No miming back in those days just pure music and shouting!