Get a taste of the ’70s through visual feast (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Get a taste of the ’70s through visual feast

9:52am Tuesday 6th July 2010 in

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WAS the 1970s the decade taste forgot?

Visitors to The Willis Museum can decide for themselves when they see a special exhibition on show in the Sainsbury Gallery.

For many, The 70s Exhibition will bring back memories of long floppy shirt collars, flares, tank tops, platform shoes and sideburns.

Others may remember glam rock and those scary punk rockers, industrial strife, LED watches, the Raleigh Chopper and TV hits such as Fawlty Towers and The Good Life.

Excited about the museum hosting The 70s Exhibition, curator Sue Tapliss, said: “It’s a visual feast of 1970s objects and room settings, so it’s a really bright and bold exhibition.

“We have recreated a 1970s bedroom and living room and we have got space hoppers and trim phones – so all the 1970s design icons are there to see.”

Sue said the touring exhibition is a partnership between Hampshire and Oxfordshire County Museum Services, and will be on show at The Willis Museum until Saturday, September 18.

The 70s Exhibition has certainly brought back many memories for Sue, who was a child of the 1970s, growing up in Lacock, in Wiltshire – the beautiful village forms the backdrop of the BBC’s Cranford drama series.

Among her memories are the long heatwave of the summer of 1976.

“It was so hot,” recalled Sue. “And we had this plague of ladybirds in the village.

“I also remember the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977. The whole village took over Lacock Abbey and there was this get-together on the meadow and we were all given commemorative mugs. I’ve still got that mug and have never let anyone drink out of it.”

Sue also has one particularly sweet memory.

“Do you remember Space Dust?,” she asks.

“There was a playground legend that if you ate space dust and drank coke at the same time, your head would blow off ! It was one of those things kids used to get themselves terrified about.”

No doubt youngsters will not be encouraged to indulge in eating Space Dust or any other retro sweets popular from the 1970s such as WHAM Bars, Parma Violets and Love Hearts. As Sue points out, the exhibition is not specifically about Basingstoke. However, being mindful to encourage local people to engage with the exhibition, the museum is using technology very much from 2010.

Sue said: “We’ve created a little gallery of 1970s photographs of Basingstoke on our website, which can be found at www3.hants.gov.uk/museum/willismuseum.htm “And also on our Facebook website – its link can be found on the website – we’ve added even more 1970s photographs, so people can interact with us, make comments, add information, and add their own photos, making it more of a networking experience.”

At the museum, there are clothes which visitors can dress up in and, if they wish, take a picture, which can be added to the Facebook site. Sue also suggests visiting a website called yearbookyourself.com.

“There are various devices where you can make yourself look like you are from different decades, so you can have the Farrah Fawcett curls of the 1970s if you like,” she said.

The 70s Exhibition is free to see at The Willis Museum, which is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am to 4pm. For details, call 0845 603 5635.