The Year That Punk Took Off and Other Historical Facts From 1976

The new year of 1976 was not even a month old when

 commercial supersonic travel began with Concorde. This was meant to be the start of a real shrinkage of the world as the speed of Concorde would ’slash’ travelling times around the world. Alas, that is not how it turned out as Concorde was retired in 2003 without ever ‘really taking off’.

Concorde took off in 1976: Image Source

Britain in 1976 had hit an all time low; unemployment had reached record figures.  5.6% of the population were out of work, inflation rocketed to 23.7% and the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson had to resign due to ill health.

There was an increasing drug problem which painted a very bleak picture.

In Scotland, the newspaper ‘The Evening Times’ even went as far as to demand the banning of a Ramones song because they thought it encouraged solvent abuse.

1975 had seen the release of the film ‘Jaws’ in America, which had dominated the US box office that summer. The British public had to wait until early 1976 before they got the chance to see it. And boy did they take that chance. An amazing 16.2 million people went to see the film in the UK which made it the biggest film success in the UK the Jungle Book 8 years previous.

Not released in the UK until 1976: Image Source

In modern times we are used to having an almost unlimited amount of television that we could watch, with hundreds upon hundreds of different channels. But back in 1976 the UK only had 3, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV and they did not start broadcasting till lunchtime and finished at 11:30pm. I suppose people could have phoned people they know to have a chat but at the time only half the population had access to a telephone.

It was in this year that a very special product was launched, the VHS. Now people could record things off the TV and watch it at their leisure and not to mention the numerous films that were soon released on video too.

With such little choice of channels to watch it is no surprise that advertisers were quick to get their ads on TV. Millions would see it. One American business saw the opportunity to sell itself to the population of Britain. The company have gone on to be one of the most recognisable brands in the world and have outlets in many countries around the world. Their first UK branch was in Woolwich in 1976. The name of the company was McDonalds.