Had a bit of a rummage in our cellar this morning with a view to sorting stuff and clearing out some junk . There’s a few of things in there from the people we bought our house off about 11 years ago. I picked up a dusty old scrap of newspaper and was about to throw it in the bin when some of the styling on the adverts caught my designers eye.  I stopped what I was doing for while to look at it – as it had put a smile on my face. I was amazed to see that the print date – 15th May 1971 – was 40 years ago, exactly to the day.

It’s got some great stuff in there.  Some things never change, like the way Smiths the Rink set their stall out in this advert – but some things have changed quite radically. For instance a brand new Ford Capri would have only set you back £1,066. You could order a Soup of the Day for 9p and a Harrogate phone number comprised of just 4 digits.

The evening entertainment look rich and varied. Cat Stephens and YES we’re playing the Harrogate Theatre whilst you could choose between two cinemas – The Odeon we’re showing “When Eight Bells Toll” whilst ABC (now the golden arches embassy) were showing “Creatures That The World Forgot”. Club land listings – You could go to the Savoy Club and/or Countdown. Pre DJ entertainment looked interesting. Club land now seems to have forgotten all about the old formats. Caberet, and Live music with a racy bit of exotica thrown in with acts like “Naked and Naughty – Janet Montana and fantastic vocalist Yvonne Dixon dancing to the Pete Verity Trio”.

An interesting find. I wonder what else is down there that I’ve not noticed before..

Click to view more images of this newspaper