Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Life in Britain - or, at least, London - suddenly got a whole lot more popadabadobulous, this week in 1973 because it saw the launch of Capital Radio, the United Kingdom's first legal music-themed commercial independent local radio station. This act started a cultural revolution that would hit its very apex with the creation of Radio Hallam, several years later.
And it wasn't the only big event occurring. It was also the week in which the Dalai Lama made his first visit to the UK. I have no doubt that Capital Radio was the only radio station he listened to while he was here. Indeed, he must have returned home with the tunes of Slade, Suzi Quatro and Alvin Stardust spinning around in his head.
And it happens because the Mandarin wants to test the Hulk's abilities, in order to see if he'd make a worthy ally in the villain's quest to rule the world.
During the issue's other tale, the Sub-Mariner kidnaps Sue Storm in an attempt to convince her to marry him.
Needless to say, this leads to the rest of the FF showing up with an eye on retrieving her.
I'm no expert psychologist but I suspect that, generally, if you want to convince someone you're the kind of man she should be marrying, it's probably best not to kidnap her.
Regardless, the Avengers attempt to stop him - but they're going to need all the power of the Teen Brigade to do it!
Meanwhile, in our other story of the issue, Nightmare's gained the ability to bring humans to his world.
That leads the police to call in Dr Strange.
And that leads to a paranormal punch-up.
As Spider-Man's been accused of robbing a bank, the brand new super-hero decides to capture him but is growing more unhinged by the moment.
And guess what, Tiger. That's not the only excitement, this issue, because I do believe this to be the tale in which Mary Jane Watson's face makes its jackpot-smashing debut.
Elsewhere, Thor and Loki must endure a Trial of the Gods which will show Odin which one of his sons is lying to him. Frankly, I would have thought the answer to that one would be obvious. But not to Odin, it isn't.
Needless to say, Loki attempts to cheat his way to triumph while the Enchantress and Executioner set about mistreating Jane Foster in a bid to swing things their way.
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29 comments:
Given the way, Stan and Jack portrayed Sue storm, and in fact, all the female superheroes in the 1960s at marvel, I would not be surprised to think that they thought Sue would be admiring Namor for kidnapping her to show his love, lol
A pedant writes:
Apparently Radio Hallam - or Hallam FM as it's known these days (I looked it up) - started broadcasting in October 1974, Steve, so actually only a year away. You're welcome.
What I don't understand though is why, when you already had the famous Radio Sheffield? I mean, even I knew about that back in the day because the first track on the old BBC Radiophonic Workshop album - the classic first one, with the pink and orange sleeve, that first came out in 1968 - was the original 'Radio Sheffield' theme.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7mWSYHLCi4
Futuristic, or what? And a decade before the Human League! (It was even recorded before Kraftwerk). How was there any room for competition with a radio station broadcasting stuff like that? Actually, I'm surprised to find out commercial radio was even allowed in a glorious workers paradise like south Yorkshire tbh.
-sean
Apologies for overuse of the word 'first' in that second paragraph there. Poor editing. Duh.
-sean
This week is also 50 years since the opening of the Sydney Opera House on October 20th 1973. Construction had begun in 1959 and was supposed to be completed by 1963 so the building was ten years late and went massively over-budget.
Steve - i sure hope you will be seeing the Heaven 17 tour kick off in Sheffield in the next days!
I'm trying to recall if Iron Man solo stories had yet featured in Marvel UK. I appreciate they had appeared in the earlier Power comics, but wont they become the second back-up in Spider-Man at some point? If so, had the Mandarin technically been introduced prior to this Hulk story? Another Marvel UK continuity conundrum...
Speaking of Trevor Slattery, he's not shy confronting some pretty O/P heroes. The cover to Titans #3, where he faces Black Bolt was a favourite of mine, back in the day.
DW
Part of the reason the Sydney Opera House took so long to build was that, having selected the winning design entry (which had legendarily been fished out of the reject pile), no-one could figure out how to build it...a lot of it was learning as they went along.
I've never been a fan of the phrase "ahead of its time" but one could be fairly certain there was nothing else like it in 1959 when it was first envisaged, and when completed in 1973, it didn't looked at all aged.
Just compare it to some of the other entries, and you might understand why Eero Saarinen fished it out of the bin....
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2019/feb/10/sydney-opera-house-the-designs-that-didnt-make-it-in-pictures#img-1
Charlie - Bride stealing still happens in some countries, so maybe Namor was fulfilling a time-honoured Atlantean custom!
Sean - Radio Hallam/Hallam FM was more irreverent & edgy than staid BBC Radio Sheffield, as was Radio Aire, as opposed to BBC Radio Leeds (I know you know that already!) Steve - didn't Martin Kelner join Hallam FM, after leaving Radio Aire? On Radio Aire, I remember listening to 'Whaley on the Wireless' - 10pm 'til 2am, with its 'phone in, with James Whale dealing with crazy phone calls. Aged about 13-15 (I'm not sure?) such things seemed very amusing. To adult me, in contrast, opinionated radio jocks seem idiots. Also, Carol Vorderman was just starting out. Maybe this was 1983ish, as 'Break My Stride' (Matthew Wilder?) was played a lot, I seem to remember.
DW - I only watched Iron Man III recently - otherwise that reference to Trevor would have gone straight over my head! I only know the Inhumans from Blockbuster/the FF, and didn't read the Amazing Adventures stories. Does the Marvel Superheroes card game Black Bolt pic come from the Titans, perhaps?
https://retromash.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/MarvelSuperHeroesCardGame03.jpg
Colin & B - To me, Glasgow's SEC Armadillo resembles the Sydney Opera House, but with its "carapace" segments less pronounced!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEC_Armadillo#/media/File:SEC_Armadillo.jpg
Phillip
Phillip, Martin Kelner was at Radio Hallam before joining Radio Aire. I think he left Hallam in 1981 when Aire was launched. Believe it or not, I was going to mention Martin in my post, along with Kelly Temple, Bill Crozier and Roger Moffat but suspected no one but me would know who they were.
Radio Hallam's greatest moment was, of course, broadcasting a fake nuclear alert, one Sunday in the mid 1980s and getting into trouble with the broadcasting authorities over it.
Sean, as Phillip says, Radio Sheffield was definitely Blue Peter to Hallam's Magpie. From what I remember, it was only when the likes of Tony Capstick, Rony Robinson and Ian MacMillan came along in the 1980s that it became a bit more irreverent.
B and Colin, looking at those designs, I think they definitely chose the right one, although I do quite like the fake Babylonian one.
DW, Iron Man's stories have yet to appear in Marvel UK but they'll be showing up in just a few weeks' time.
Charlie, I must confess I was never really into Heaven 17.
Moving on from the important subjects of Heaven 17 and local radio in Yorkshire...
October the 20th was the day 50 years ago that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states put an embargo on oil exports to the US - in response to weapon exports to Israel during the Yom Kippur war - which had the effect of quadrupling the price by '74.
This became known as the 'energy crisis', which abruptly bought the post-WW2 economic boom to an end. And made vinyl records thinner! (Pressing quality definitely went downhill after late '73)
Although in the UK the energy crisis was also the result of industrial action by the miners. Inflation had been eroding their wages - which were actually lower than agreed after the '72 strike - so they implemented an overtime ban at the end of October, which reduced production and led to Ted Heath's 'three day week'.
Incompetent right-wing government, inflation, industrial unrest, conflict in the middle east... plus ça change, eh?
-sean
PHILLIP!
Thank you for the heads up on the BANANARAMA interview on BBC Oct 19. I did listen to it at work!
1) It really was a fun interview. Insightful to their past, humourously poking fun at days gone by.
2) Holey Moley - They are two very attractive ladies, especially for being in their early 60s.
SDC CLUB - If you want to chuckle, enjoy some nostalgia, enjoy some eye and brain candy, I recommend this! Two thumbs up!
DANGERMASH!
I really love the "BEATLES or STONES" question!
We did do a bit of that at the university, for sure. Oddly, while I did lean towards Beatles, I definitely listened to more Stones at that time.
Having seen the Stones 2x and McCartney 2x, it is really a great question!
SDC CLUB, next "open mic" I am hopeful that question is the discussion topic!
MATTHEW - Yes - the early BEATLES are worth a listen. Again and again and again... Also I can recommend a book TWIST and SHOUT for that time period.
Lately, been listening to a lot of the 1965-66 time frame.
It's really a bitch sorting through which songs were on which albums here in the USA. Honestly... I don't know wtf CAPITOL records was doing.
But here in the USA we have the infamous "BABY BUTCHER" album which I understand was cobbling together bits and pieces from BEATLES 65, HELP, RUBBER SOUL, and REVOLVER and singles the BEATLES released which were not on albums in the UK.
But oddly enough, driving my car yesterday and listening to FM 87.7 they played the so-called "MELODY STARS on 45" which has BEATLES 65 and RUBBER SOUL and / or BABY BUTCHER to a disco beat. I'm sure we've all heard it like a thousand times, non???
After yesterday's by-elections the Tories seem to be on course for another 1997-style wipeout!
Phillip, James Whale had a TV show on ITV in the early hours in the mid-'90s. The Tory MP for Harlow (I've forgotten his name) appeared every week as a sort of side-kick to Whale but he ended up losing his seat in the '97 Labour landslide. In one episode they visited a sewage works but that's the only thing I can recall about the show!
I must admit that the only reason I know it's the Sydney Opera House's 50th anniversary is because there was a documentary about it on Radio 4 a few weeks ago.
The voters seem to have decided its time for a change of union jack waving idiots running the country, Colin.
Charlie, I expect Capitol were maximising profits - why only release 12 studio albums when you have enough material to put out 17 instead? Reconfiguring lps in that way was standard practice in the US prior to '67 - before 'Satanic Majesties' there were more American than British Rolling Stones albums too.
Supposedly the Butcher cover was the Beatles' protest against that. I guess the Beatles could get away with quite a lot and apparently insisted on the design, but even so its kind of baffling in retrospect how it was ever approved by label.
-sean
Anyway, forget about the Beatles - Herbie Hancock's 'Head Hunters' album came out this week in '73. Iirc, the cover was designed by Zap Comix artist Victor Moscoso (not that its particularly obvious from just looking at it).
Here's a clip of Herbie and the lads playing 'Chameleon' early the following year -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BEtFX37reU
-sean
Sean, a few months ago you predicted that Starmer would renege on his promise to abolish the House of Lords and it seems you were right as he's now rowing back on the plan.
My local Tesco is selling Halloween tinsel! Whatever next? Halloween trees? Halloween cards?
SEAN - CAPITOL RECORDS maximizing profits, huh? Who'd a thunk it?
THough I did read something about this notion that albums should have 12 songs, 6 per side??? Thus the generous UK versions had to be chopped down to size.
Did anyone hear the news about Eric Cantona going into singing and releasing an album? Footballer, actor, philosopher, singer - is there no end to his talents? Apparently he speaks French too.
Colin -
"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea!"
Sometimes I half suspect Cantona's merely trolling the mainstream media!
Phillip
Colin, are you sure it isn’t just Xmas tinsel? Most of the stores around here have already replaced the Halloween items with Xmas stuff — and there are STILL TEN DAYS TO GO BEFORE HALLOWEEN. It’s insane!
b.t.
Valentine's day cards will soon be on sale at this rate.
Sad news that Bobby Charlton , Man Utd and England legend has passed away. One of the VERY best players ever so much so even Scotland fans loved him..
Not just Scotland Fans but ABU fans too, McScotty.
Very true "Danger"
ABU?
Anyone But United.
bt, the tinsel was labelled as "Halloween Tinsel".
There was an interesting documentary on Radio 4 tonight about the history of fangirl hysteria. As well as Capital Radio and the Sydney Opera House it seems this weekend also marks 50 years since the Osmonds landed at Heathrow to be greeted by 10,000 screaming fangirls but in the documentary Donny Osmond claimed that such hysteria wouldn't happen nowadays because social media has destroyed the mystique of pop stars!
Well COLIN Donny probably has a point… Supply of pop star “images” via YouTube, online concerts, etc. is way more bigly than 50 years ago when all we had was Album Covers and Tiger Beat magazine lol
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