BUILDING BRIDGES – AND A Welcome to the summer of love TUNNEL – IN SWINGING 60s
IT was 1967 – the so-called ‘summer of love,’ Sgt Pepper’s, The Beatles, and all that.
The world has changed dramatically since that landmark year, and the bright young things of the ‘flower power’ era will be making full use of their free bus passes today.
Here in the region, there was plenty going on 54 years ago.
January 1967 saw the brutal ‘onearmed bandit murder’ of cash collector Angus Sibbet, a crime which would partially form the basis of the gangster film Get Carter four years later.
Transport links in the region were improved when the Tyne Tunnel was opened by the Queen. The new Scotswood Bridge over the River Tyne was another step forward.
Famous visitors to the North East included everyone from rock superstar Jimi Hendrix, to civil rights activist Martin Luther King, to Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield who somehow found herself doing cabaret dates in Newcastle and South Shields.
Meanwhile, a spectacular new seat of local government, Newcastle Civic Centre, was nearing completion at a time when the region’s post-war urban landscape was undergoing physical transformation in many locations.
It was a time when the average UK house price was around £3,800, a new MK II Ford Cortina would knock you back £740, and filling it would cost you 5s 2d (27p) a gallon.
In the wider world, the Vietnam War was never far from the headlines, although it remained a conflict Britain steered clear of.
In the United States, race riots raged on the streets of some inner cities, while world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title for refusing to join the US Army. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them told reporters
The Middle East was in a state of flux with the Six Day War seeing Israel and the Arab world going head-to-head.
In the world of popular culture, Britain’s pirate radio was outlawed and Radio I was launched, and The Beatles released their genre-changing album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The best-selling UK singles of 1967 included Procul Harum with A Whiter Shade Of Pale, The Monkees with I’m A Believer, and Scott Mckenzie with San Francisco (reminding us all it was the year of the ‘summer of love’).
At the cinema, Dirty Dozen, You Only Live Twice, and A Man For All Seasons were notable releases.
And on British television, there were debuts for Trumpton, News At Ten, and The Golden Shot.
Our photographs from the Sunday Sun archive recall some of what was going on in our region in 1967.
Vietcong,”
Ali
■ Handyside Arcade, Newcastle, in 1967 (North East Film Archive)