Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
This week in 1974, UK democracy finally got its bum in gear, as Britain, at last, managed to elect a government. That was all thanks to Harold Wilson's Labour Party winning the nation's second general election of the year, to become the new government with a walloping great three-seat majority in the Commons.
This meant Wilson had now won four of the five elections he'd contested as party leader.
The pinnacle of British politics may have hit fever pitch but on the UK singles chart, the pinnacle was noticeably more genteel; claimed, as it was, by John Denver with his only solo British hit Annie's Song.
More youthful activities were afoot on the LP chart, thanks to the Bay City Rollers smashing straight in at Number One with their latest album Rollin', thus toppling Mike Oldfield from the perch he'd occupied for several weeks.
I, of course, have no beef with Annie's Song but other tracks I approved of on that chart were:
Sad Sweet Dreamer - Sweet Sensation
Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
I've Got the Music in Me - the Kiki Dee Band
Pinball - Brian Protheroe
When Will I See You Again? - the Three Degrees
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted? - Jimmy Ruffin
Gonna Make You a Star - David Essex
and
Gotta See Jane - R Dean Taylor.
Should you wish to investigate the matter in greater depth, that very singles chart can be found here.
While the accompanying album chart resides within.
Can the Hulk stop him in time?
And if he can't, just what will be the fate of poor Betty?
I do believe Daredevil finally defeats the Owl, foils his plot to kill a judge and brings the hooting mad mischief-maker's gigantic robot owl to justice.
Speaking of things that came crashing to Earth, I do suspect Alicia's finally managed to convince the Silver Surfer that he should get on his board and go smash Galactus' gob in.
However, will it be enough?
And will he be in time to save the FF from the whirling arms of the space giant's odd little robot?
But what's this? Marko's boss Silvermane has kidnapped Curt Connors to work on decrypting the tablet?
Thinking about it, he doesn't.
Elsewhere, Iron Man's completing his battle with Captain America, having been fooled into thinking Cap's the Chameleon in disguise.
I can't help feeling that, when the heroes discover they've been suckered, it's going to be bad news for the malevolent quick-change flannel-merchant.
Thor, meanwhile, is still on his quest to retrieve his stolen hammer.
And that's taken him to the land of the trolls.
And that's led him to another fight with Ulik - and a determination to liberate the captive alien Orikal.
For once, not hanging round waiting for an assassin to show up and murder him, Iron Fist decides to invade the office block of his deadly enemy Harold Meachum.
But it's no easy task. Like any office block, it's packed with self-firing machine guns, exploding staircases, acid sprinklers, disintegrating door frames, precipitous plunges and hired thugs!
When it comes to the Avengers, the Super-Adaptoid is back!
And I think this might be the first tale I ever read that features him.
From the depths of my memory, I recall that it sees the return of Dashing Don Heck to the strip, and a battle in central Park. One which sees Hercules become an actual ever-loving real-life official Avenger.
And he didn't even have to defeat the Hulk to do it.
Which I'm sure is not at all aggravating news to Spider-Man.
But it's time for us to celebrate because, unless I hopelessly misread the situation, Dr Strange finally manages to rescue Victoria Bentley from the clutches of Yandroth: Scientist Supreme!
And he only needs the Ancient One's help to do it.
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29 comments:
October 12th 1974 was also my father's 47th birthday but no doubt he forgot it was his birthday as he had such a truly terrible memory and forgot his birthday every year!
Steve, you didn't mention the Planet Of The Apes TV series making its' earth-shattering debut on ITV at 7:25pm on Sunday, October 13th 1974 (I didn't inherit my father's atrocious memory thankfully).
Harold Wilson's Labour Party only won a 3-seat majority but they got 39% of the vote unlike 2024 when Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a 174-seat majority on just 33.7% of the vote!
I see Bowie is at no. 10 this week with a cover of Knock on Wood. Even considering some of his left of field releases, this is a weird one. Presumably chosen from the recent David Live album (far from his finest) it seems an odd choice, but reached the top 10 and so what do I know.
That first episode of Planet of the Apes was my gateway drug to a decades long comics’ habit. Damn you Virdon and Burke! ;-)
DW
DW, it was the same for me. I became an instant fan of the POTA TV series and when I saw No.5 of the POTA weekly on sale a few weeks later I had to have it which then introduced me to a whole new world of Marvel comics which I'd been completely unaware of.
It may be 50 years since Harold Wilson's final election win but next Tuesday will be SIXTY years since his FIRST election win on October 15th 1964 - what a coincidence that the gap between Wilson's first and last election victories was almost ten years to the very day.
I searched on YouTube for anything about the October '74 election and I found the declaration in Margaret Thatcher's seat of Finchley. Thatcher held her seat by only 4,000 votes over Labour which isn't that big a victory. Just imagine if Labour had won Finchley in the October '74 election meaning Thatcher wasn't still an MP when the Tories got rid of Ted Heath. There must be an alternative universe somewhere where it actually happened!
And in another YouTube clip from that period Ted Heath is asked if there'll ever be a woman Prime-Minister and if Mrs Thatcher might be the first woman PM (at this point Maggie is merely the shadow environment secretary in Heath's shadow cabinet). Heath obviously thinks the question is absurd and struggles to control his chuckling while trying to answer. Had poor old Ted only known what was coming...
Election day in October 1974 also saw the LAST EVER EPISODE of The Clangers which was a Clangers election special! Let's not mention the recently revived Clangers which is obviously a travesty :D
That Bay City Rollers LP has 'Summer Love Sensation' on it.
I only recently heard it for the first time on a 70s compilation. It's amazing. Upbeat and euphoric but melancholy at the same time.
The Rollers passed me by at the time - I was just too young, though I remember an older cousin being into them.
Kinda surprised to see that ONJ’s “I Honestly Love You” peaked at #35 in the UK. Not that I think it’s a great song or anything , but it was a #1 smash here in the US, seemingly ubiquitous on the radio that Autumn, even won a few Grammys including “Record of the Year” (not that winning a Grammy means anything).
But then again, some of the songs on that UK chart I’ve never even heard of, so the disparity between the UK and US charts shouldn’t surprise me. Maybe it’s more remarkable that songs like “When Will I See You Again” and “Kung Fu Fighting” were huge hits on both sides of the pond…
b.t.
Bt, I don't think I've ever heard that ONJ track. It seems to have been forgotten by the radio stations of Britain.
Matthew, I've grown to appreciate the Bay City Rollers more now than I did then.
Colin, it's a bit startling to realise we had 5 elections in ten years.
DW, doing this feature has made me aware of just how much material Bowie put out in the 1970s whose existence I was previously unaware of.
Unfortunately I don’t have anything much to say about this batch of Marvel UK comics. I was thinking that Ron Wilson’s SPIDEY WEEKLY cover looks pretty solid and more than usually Romita-ish, and it got me thinking Jazzy Johnny himself might have laid it out or maybe Frank Giacoia’s inks were responsible for giving it that Romita-esque/Marvel House Style. Scooted over to the GCD and it turns out none of those three gentlemen had anything to do with it — it was pencilled and inked by Our Pal Sal Buscema! So, a big ol’ FAIL for my Style-spotting skills today.
Also, I don’t have strong opinions about Harold Wilson or The Clangers (I’m gonna have to look that one up)…
b.t.
Just back from Wikipedia. Hmm, that Clangers series sounds interesting — not as nonsensical as Teletubbies, not as obnoxious as Mr. Blobby (you can see there are wide gaps in my knowledge of British children’s TV shows).
b.t.
Just back from Wikipedia. Clangers sounds interesting — not as nonsensical as Teletubbies, not as obnoxious as Mr. Blobby. You can probably tell there are some gaps in my knowledge of British Children’s shows.
b.t.
bt, Mr Blobby wasn't actually a children's TV show - he was a character on a TV show called Noel's House Party which was broadcast on Saturday evenings and meant for adults!
The Clangers was created and narrated by Oliver Postgate who actually respected children's intelligence (I remember watching an interesting documentary about him) which is more than you can say for either Mr Blobby or the Teletubbies. Episodes of The Clangers can be found on YouTube and they are always fun to watch :)
Colin:
I actually knew that Blobby was an intentionally obnoxious and irritating parody of children’s show characters like Barney, and that he originally appeared on “Noel’s House Party” — I’ve seen a few of the clips on YouTube. I was under the impression that he briefly “crossed over” into actual Kids’ TV with a few Direct-to video Specials and assorted toys? Or was that all marketed to adults as well?
I’ll definitely check out some of the Clangers videos on YouTube. They look pretty cool.
b.t.
bt, I've just googled Mr Blobby and it seems he was far more ubiquitous than I'd realised so you may be right about the direct-to-video specials and toys. Wikipedia also says that Danish TV made their own version of Noel's House Party which got cancelled after only six episodes due to negative public reaction so obviously the Danes are far more mature than us Brits.
Make sure it's the original Clangers (1969-74) that you watch on YouTube because there's a more recent revival narrated by Michael Palin which is all soulless CGI rather than the stop-motion of the original episodes.
I just had a quick look on YouTube and it seems most of the available episodes are the newer ones - oh, why can't they leave the classics alone, bah humbug!
Back to Harold Wilson for a moment - he was the last person to be British Prime-Minister twice (1964-70 and 1974-76). Being PM more than once used to be quite normal in Britain but the idea of a PM losing an election then staying on as leader of his/her party to fight ANOTHER election would be unthinkable nowadays!
Colin:
I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that when my daughter was little, we used the TV and VCR as a babysitter more often than we probably should have. We watched a LOT of Pre-school level kids’ programs with her. One of her favorites was THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE , narrated by Ringo Starr and later, George Carlin. The wife and I liked it too, it was charming and had an almost soothing quality. Your mention of the CG reboot of CLANGERS reminds me, there was a brief period when our daughter was into a Thomas knock-off called JAY-JAY THE JET-PLANE, featuring airplanes with humanoid faces instead of trains, horrible grating cartoon voices and rendered with ugly, cheap CGI. It was torture!
b.t.
b.t. - To elaborate...In terms of UK children's television, Oliver Postgate created 4 legendary classics: 'Bagpuss', 'The Clangers', 'Ivor the Engine', & 'The Saga of Noggin the Nog'.
Those 4 Oliver Postgate 1970s classics cannot be compared with 1990s garbage UK kids' tv.
Oliver Postgate's shows are magical, and atmospheric. 'The Clangers' involves mouse-like, knitted (yes, knitted!) creatures (the clangers), who live on a small moon/planet, along with a 'soup dragon'. What makes the show so incredibly atmospheric is its eerie music, and sound effects, evoking space's desolation. I'm getting a nostalgic glow just remembering it. As Colin said, the remake must be avoided.
Phillip
Sorry to nitpick, Phil, but Noggin The Nog was actually late'50s and early '60s but I agree with everything you said about Oliver Postgate!
Was the Spidey cover an original from ASM, perhaps tweaked a bit for the UK or is it a UK original?
BT - I see your point about it being by JR perhaps. I’ve prattled on here a few times wondering about the transformation of JR’s covers going from brilliantly simplistic with ASM to Schaumburg-esque with Captain America a few years later. This cover has that late-60s Romita simplicity going for it.
As far as kids shows around 2000-2005 the Saturday morning cartoon was dead /dying so it was the weekday Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stuff mby us: Arthur the Aardvark, Dragon Tales, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Teletubbies.
We also had french stuff on VCR like Babar the Elephant, Leo et Popi…
But man... Teletubbies… that show really provokes a like/dislike opinion from parents to this day!!! Either they liked it or thought it was way too forking weird. This had nothing to do with the US nut-job religious right thinking the purple one with the hand bag was gay grooming. Rather they tend to think it was a series of 10-minute acid trips! Charlie never messed with chemicals so he don’t know. But if LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS is a reference to LSD then he sees possible similarities.
Charlie was cool with the Tubbies and daughter Rachel had a LaLa doll. But the only “investment” we had in toys was Thomas the Tank Engine!!! That show was a natural tie-in with the hobby stores and selling train sets of wooden hand-pushed trains! Gorgeous stuff!
Speaking of hobby stores… they are rare as intelligent Republicans in the US now…. Breaks Charlie’s heart!!!
Ahh… for the good ole days… as a 10 year old having a bunch of model glue on your fingers and the rug or table… cant’t get the treads of that Sherman tank or guns on that battleship to stay in place… watching your little brother get so irritated he throws the model at the wall! Dad comes runnng in “what the hells the matter with you!!!???”
“Just sniff the glue if you are having trouble building the model!”
Charlie:
Yes, we watched lots of PBS shows like the ones you mentioned too — plus Zoboomafoo , Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow etc — when our daughter was little. Also, Disney Channel (Winnie the Pooh mostly). I don’t remember what channel Blue’s Clues was on but we watched that too.
Fortunately, she didn’t dig Teletubbies — we watched it just once, and the whole family thought it was just too trippy.
There was a cute British cartoon that we liked, about a dog named Kipper. I found some episodes on YouTube about a year ago, and they’re still charming.
b.t.
Oh, and we had lots of Thomas toys too (and track for them to run on).
b.t.
Oh yes… I had forgotten about Blue’s clues, which was quite popular!
I would write more, but l I am going through the 21st century version of hell which is called “assembling IKEA furniture. “
Nothing like trying to get a rectangular door to fit a shelving unit, which is essentially a non-– rectangular parallelogram! I don’t know what happened to IKEA, but if they started making this stuff, any cheaper/less quality I think they could just send it to you in an envelope because it’s essentially a house of cards anymore.
COLIN - I am listening to the radio on my a.m./FM radio! I am listening to “Saturday morning flashback “on WXRT which happens every Saturday morning! They are playing 1993, which is cool for old Charlie because he needs to learn more modern music.
Steve, you forgot to approve of Robert Wyatt's 'I'm a Believer', which was obviously the best record in the singles chart this week.
Wyatt started out in the 60s as one of the original British underground types - a member of Soft Machine, who used to appear regularly with Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and toured the US with Jimi Hendrix in '68 maaan - and went on to do a kind of jazz-influenced art prog in the early 70s, like this -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7xi_p2hQwM
So presumably not many people expected him to turn up on Top of the Pops playing a Monkees song!
Not least because his then current album was the brilliant 'Rock Bottom', recorded in the aftermath of the accident that put him in a wheelchair.
His next hit single was nearly a decade later, and that was pretty good too -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Res3-YX4X8g
What a fantastic, distinctive voice. Has any other singer ever sounded as instantly identifiable as Wyatt? Barry White maybe... and you didn't approve of his single in the chart this week either, Steve! Do you not like 'Can't Get Enough of your Love'?
-sean
Charlie, you count songs from 1993 as modern music??
Did any UK readers see the comet that has returned after 80, 000 years? Me neither.
Colin, I have seen no sign of it.
Nor of the Northern Lights which were also supposed to be visible, the other night.
Sean, I must confess that Barry White's oeuvre has never made any great impact upon me.
Colin - Like Steve, I had no luck. I was looking towards the west, but saw no comet.
Likewise, the Northern Lights. I did try, but pointing a camera at the northern sky, from the back of my place is a challenge.
Phillip
But what about Robert Wyatt though, Steve?
Consistently great over the decades, here he is grazing the singles chart again, this time in the mid-90s, with Ultramarine -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTbHxoAttyk
-sean
Sean, I've only ever heard two tracks by Robert Wyatt. The other one being his version of Shipbuilding, which I liked.
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