Born on 1 January 1974

Back in 1974, life in Britain felt like a bit of a balancing act between the grey and the Technicolor. You’d sit in the amber glow of the living room, probably shivering a bit because the coal was running low during the Three-Day Week, but then *Top of the Pops* would come on and Mud would be performing "Tiger Feet," making all that gloom vanish for half an hour. It was a year of proper polarities; we were all flocking to the cinema to be terrified by *The Exorcist* or *The Towering Inferno*, yet we’d come home to the gentle, stop-motion charm of *Bagpuss* on the telly.

If you were nipping to the corner shop, you’d grab a packet of Fizzers or maybe some Monster Munch—which were brand new back then—and if you were lucky, mum might have whipped up a Beef Stroganoff or a Findus Crispy Pancake for tea. The summer was actually a scorcher that year, a real blazer, which made the news about ABBA winning Eurovision at Brighton feel like part of one big, sun-drenched party. We didn't have much, and the news was often heavy with the miners' strikes and those two General Elections, but there was a warmth to it—the smell of Brut 33, the clatter of Raleigh Choppers on the pavement, and the simple joy of a Double Diamond down the local.