What era/decade did you miss out on or want to relive?
Discussion
Inspired by the 'Things you can't get now but wish you could' thread:
I thought I would ask the bigger question of which era or decade(s) do you feel you were too young to enjoy, missed out on altogether, or would relive tomorrow if you could?
For me, I'm going to say the 80's and early 90's. I was born very early 80's, so as a child, I didn't get to experience them like my parents generation did, and when I listen to them talk about the 80's with their friends after a few glasses of wine, I really feel I missed out.
For them it was the decade of excess. Proper Gordon Gecko stuff. It was cocktail bars, restaurants, Discotheques, pinstripe suits, carphones, briefcases, widebody 911's with whale tails, the explosion of computing, offices in the city, flying by the seat of your pants building a business without having clue what you were doing, buying property, holidaying abroad, and so on. Seemingly anything was possible if you reached out to grab it, or moved to a big city, or just had a go.
It was an exciting decade of change. The governments foolish introduction of 'Section 28' legislation encouraged a huge uprising in gay rights, and it was a time when men could wear makeup and dress like women, and women could dress like men. Culturally the 80's were a massive shift for the UK.
Love the music, the cars, the culture, the attitudes. There was plenty of great technology, but not to the point that it invades our lives 24/7 like it does now. The kids of the 80's had a great mix of computer technology and 'outdoor' hobbies like BMX, skateboard, radio controlled cars and so on.
Satellite TV arrived in 1989 with only 10 channels, but it was glorious, and MTV was just amazing.
I sometimes wish I could be working on a green screen monitor in my office, in my pinstripe suit, using a proper desk phone, with a copy of The Times, before grabbing my briefcase and my 'brick phone' and heading down to a flashy cocktail bar to get pissed on Pina Colada with a bunch of other obnoxious braying office workers, all wearing Rolex Datejust's, before all hitting TGI Fridays and having a loud discussion about which Porsche I might be buying next..
I appreciate there is always an significant element of rose tinted spectacles going on with this sort of thing, but it's still fun to think about.
What did you miss out on? The roaring 20's? The Sixties? The Disco era?
I thought I would ask the bigger question of which era or decade(s) do you feel you were too young to enjoy, missed out on altogether, or would relive tomorrow if you could?
For me, I'm going to say the 80's and early 90's. I was born very early 80's, so as a child, I didn't get to experience them like my parents generation did, and when I listen to them talk about the 80's with their friends after a few glasses of wine, I really feel I missed out.
For them it was the decade of excess. Proper Gordon Gecko stuff. It was cocktail bars, restaurants, Discotheques, pinstripe suits, carphones, briefcases, widebody 911's with whale tails, the explosion of computing, offices in the city, flying by the seat of your pants building a business without having clue what you were doing, buying property, holidaying abroad, and so on. Seemingly anything was possible if you reached out to grab it, or moved to a big city, or just had a go.
It was an exciting decade of change. The governments foolish introduction of 'Section 28' legislation encouraged a huge uprising in gay rights, and it was a time when men could wear makeup and dress like women, and women could dress like men. Culturally the 80's were a massive shift for the UK.
Love the music, the cars, the culture, the attitudes. There was plenty of great technology, but not to the point that it invades our lives 24/7 like it does now. The kids of the 80's had a great mix of computer technology and 'outdoor' hobbies like BMX, skateboard, radio controlled cars and so on.
Satellite TV arrived in 1989 with only 10 channels, but it was glorious, and MTV was just amazing.
I sometimes wish I could be working on a green screen monitor in my office, in my pinstripe suit, using a proper desk phone, with a copy of The Times, before grabbing my briefcase and my 'brick phone' and heading down to a flashy cocktail bar to get pissed on Pina Colada with a bunch of other obnoxious braying office workers, all wearing Rolex Datejust's, before all hitting TGI Fridays and having a loud discussion about which Porsche I might be buying next..
I appreciate there is always an significant element of rose tinted spectacles going on with this sort of thing, but it's still fun to think about.
What did you miss out on? The roaring 20's? The Sixties? The Disco era?
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 13th September 17:31
eyebeebe said:
Born in 1980 and think the same as you, with the added element of the rave/acid house culture and trips to Ibiza.
Yep.House music alone is a reason to love the 80's. I'll also had Hip-Hop, New Wave, and Synthpop into the mix. What a hell of an era to be going to a nightclub!
Has to be the 80s
I was 11 to 21 and it was just the best time to be alive.Cracking, ground-breaking music, especially in the first half of the 80s.
Just three TV channels up to 1982 but the quality of the programs was streets ahead of the crap today.
Loads of freedom, blind-eye turning pub landlords (cheers Kenny), the explosion of arcade machines, CB radio, ZX Spectrum, paper round (or milk round if you could get up early enough).
First kiss, first grope, first broken heart, first car, first job, first proper haircut at a barbers.
I was 11 to 21 and it was just the best time to be alive.Cracking, ground-breaking music, especially in the first half of the 80s.
Just three TV channels up to 1982 but the quality of the programs was streets ahead of the crap today.
Loads of freedom, blind-eye turning pub landlords (cheers Kenny), the explosion of arcade machines, CB radio, ZX Spectrum, paper round (or milk round if you could get up early enough).
First kiss, first grope, first broken heart, first car, first job, first proper haircut at a barbers.
Musically, an element of rose-tinted nostalgia for something I never experienced firsthand but part of me would have loved to have been of pub/gig-going age in the early-mid 80s to experience New Wave in full swing, as that's where a lot of my more "mainstream" music tastes seem to have drifted as I've gotten older. As it is I've just been over-exposed to, and developed a distaste for most 90s Britpop-era stuff (especially Oasis 
) which is slightly annoying as it was my social mainstay through a pretty awesome period of life. One thing the 90s definitely gave us is awesome evolution of electronic/dance music so swings and roundabouts I suppose.
) which is slightly annoying as it was my social mainstay through a pretty awesome period of life. One thing the 90s definitely gave us is awesome evolution of electronic/dance music so swings and roundabouts I suppose.I'm going to kill this 1980's love by remebering :
1981 Riots, with more riots in 1985
Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%, according to the Freddie Mac data.
The 1980s were an expensive time to borrow money.
During the 1980s :
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London,
Miners strike
Brighton bombing
Falklands war
AIDS Crisis
Chernobyl
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Challenger Explosion
Finally moving into 1990 with the poll tax riots.
But I did pass my driving test in 1988 on my 30th birthday - It was a good time.
Edited to add - I forgot to mention Bhopal
1981 Riots, with more riots in 1985
Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%, according to the Freddie Mac data.
The 1980s were an expensive time to borrow money.
During the 1980s :
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London,
Miners strike
Brighton bombing
Falklands war
AIDS Crisis
Chernobyl
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Challenger Explosion
Finally moving into 1990 with the poll tax riots.
But I did pass my driving test in 1988 on my 30th birthday - It was a good time.
Edited to add - I forgot to mention Bhopal
Edited by rayny on Monday 13th September 20:51
rayny said:
I'm going to kill this 1980's love by remebering :
1981 Riots, with more riots in 1985
Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%, according to the Freddie Mac data.
The 1980s were an expensive time to borrow money.
During the 1980s :
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London,
Miners strike
Brighton bombing
Falklands war
AIDS Crisis
Chernobyl
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Challenger Explosion
Finally moving into 1990 with the poll tax riots.
But I did pass my driving test in 1988 on my 30th birthday - It was a good time.
Yep - all of this was on my mind as I was writing my post, and really why I chose to frame it musically as I think in most other respects it probably wouldn't have been a great time to be a working-age young person from a fairly poor background. In reality, had I been at that impressionable age at the time I'd probably have been brainwashed into becoming a lifelong bitter raving lefty and been the worse for it!1981 Riots, with more riots in 1985
Interest rates reached their highest point in modern history in 1981 when the annual average was 16.63%, according to the Freddie Mac data.
The 1980s were an expensive time to borrow money.
During the 1980s :
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London,
Miners strike
Brighton bombing
Falklands war
AIDS Crisis
Chernobyl
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Challenger Explosion
Finally moving into 1990 with the poll tax riots.
But I did pass my driving test in 1988 on my 30th birthday - It was a good time.
t whatever the date.I'm born in the late 50s with older brothers and sisters so for me the 60s are great childhood memories of family and the music that my older siblings was playing on the record player.
The 70s was my teenage era. So music,motorbikes,girls and sex was a fantastic decade.
80s I got married so kids came along,so of course was unforgettable along with the large high interest mortgage. Still enjoying the music as usual but earning money was a high priority.
90s showed me that I was doing ok building a business but life was going tits up on the marriage side.
I'm still alive and I think I've lived some great decades!
So if I could live in the Knights Templar times I think I would have done ok and enjoyed it. Fantasy I know!
The 70s was my teenage era. So music,motorbikes,girls and sex was a fantastic decade.
80s I got married so kids came along,so of course was unforgettable along with the large high interest mortgage. Still enjoying the music as usual but earning money was a high priority.
90s showed me that I was doing ok building a business but life was going tits up on the marriage side.
I'm still alive and I think I've lived some great decades!
So if I could live in the Knights Templar times I think I would have done ok and enjoyed it. Fantasy I know!
I was born at the start of 1971 so grew up through the 80s and 90s and enjoyed 20 years of superb music, so no real complaints. Other than the racism, riots, strikes and power cuts (ok some of that was the 70s). Food was awful and so was the booze, however smoking in pubs was cool if you were a smoker and we used to talk to/go out with real girls, instead of staring at them on our mobile phones which hadn’t been invented. If you wanted to contact somebody, you went to a phone box with a stack of 2ps. Happy days 
80’s for sure. I was born 68 so came of age at the right time to enjoy it, left school, first job, first car, clubbing, drinking with your mates, girls, etc. etc.
As I get older I’m finding myself increasingly nostalgic and love watching the films or listening to the music from the era.
I’d go back in a heartbeat.
As I get older I’m finding myself increasingly nostalgic and love watching the films or listening to the music from the era.
I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Edited by Kwackersaki on Monday 13th September 21:32
Born early 80s, teenage years in the late 90s. Loved the 90s grunge, alternative scene and when I get out on the town nowadays I get a good feeling when I see the 20 somethings listening to all the rock, punk, grunge of the 90’s!
I vaguely remember my older cousin getting dressed up to the nines and bathing in Lacoste (which I still for a school dance once!) to go out to the local pub/club in his S1 RS Turbo! I wish I was older to have enjoyed his era more but wouldn’t give up the 90s for sure.
Rose tinted specs I’d love to have experienced the 40s. I can appreciate what a difficult time it would’ve been to be alive, but the idea of simpler time’s, everywhere round here still being mainly farming, and the bombers/fighters screaming around the skies after taking off the local airport must’ve been something.
I vaguely remember my older cousin getting dressed up to the nines and bathing in Lacoste (which I still for a school dance once!) to go out to the local pub/club in his S1 RS Turbo! I wish I was older to have enjoyed his era more but wouldn’t give up the 90s for sure.
Rose tinted specs I’d love to have experienced the 40s. I can appreciate what a difficult time it would’ve been to be alive, but the idea of simpler time’s, everywhere round here still being mainly farming, and the bombers/fighters screaming around the skies after taking off the local airport must’ve been something.
The mid 90s were ace, I’d relive it in a heartbeat. The music was amazing, you could be at a Brit rock concert one day, watching Fat Boy Slim the next, every genre was just incredible. Culturally it wasn’t high brow (Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and erm, Loaded magazine, but who cared, New Labour getting stronger, the nation riding a wave of optimism…. And a very horny young man in Bristol….
This is definitely a rose tinted view and very specific for me but here goes:
I was born in 76, and grew up listening to everything from Jethro Tull through to the New Romantics as we had my aunt live with us for a bit. I never got the whole Brit pop scene despite being at uni at the height of it, much preferring the 80’s and rock/ metal
In my 20’s I spent a few years as a press photographer mainly covering music gigs. I’d live to go back and start at 79, and cover try ABBA gig at Wembley and the start of the New Romantic period.
I was born in 76, and grew up listening to everything from Jethro Tull through to the New Romantics as we had my aunt live with us for a bit. I never got the whole Brit pop scene despite being at uni at the height of it, much preferring the 80’s and rock/ metal
In my 20’s I spent a few years as a press photographer mainly covering music gigs. I’d live to go back and start at 79, and cover try ABBA gig at Wembley and the start of the New Romantic period.
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