The 1970s

[Graham Ritchie]

Visiting the museum this week and seeing there displays of what it was like in NZ during the 70s and 80s was interesting, but how life here has changed since I worked as a motor mechanic up to 1976 when this NFU film was made. That's one of the interesting things about film collecting anywhere in the world. Film taken then might not seem so important at the time, its only with the passing of time that it becomes more so.

Here is a short video extract of the film I took a while ago, note the name of "Sam Neill" as associate director long before his Jurassic Park days.

[Graham Ritchie]

Who remembers Quadraphonic? I never had a full system to play it, but did buy a record at the time to see if it was better sounding than the usual stereo. To this day I still have that very LP, its Holst The Planets by Leonard Berstein. When I watched Gladiator the other night, it reminded me of "Mars The Bringer Of War" that was clearly adapted into the battle scenes in the film. What is unusual is that Gustav Holst had actually finished writing "Mars" in 1914 before the horrors of WW1.

One piece of music from "The Planets" that always did grab me back in the 1970s and I was a lot younger then, but is more relevant today as we are all getting much older is "Saturn The Bringer Of Old Age" on the LP back cover is states......and its food for thought for all of us.

Saturn The Bringer Of Old Age.

We seldom see or hear you coming.
We seldom welcome the serenity or horror of your gift.
But it cannot be declined or undone.
It is end and beginning interwined.

[Brian Fretwell]

I remember Quadraphonic I bought the box set of Mike Oldfield albums remixed for it and also didn't have the equipment to get the effect. I seem to remember that along with the QS system shown on that album cover of yours there was also a SQ system that was incompatible - shades of the VHS and Beta video format wars, but in this case no-one won. I'd have to look it up but wasn't QS matrixed and SQ frequency division?

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Never heard of QS. SQ was very similar to the later analog Dolby Stereo where the rear channels were out of phase with the front. I don’t remember how it separated the rear left/right. If you did not have a SQ decoder box then the record would play as normal stereo. The other system was CD4, which required a special needle and cartridge in addition to the decoder. The left/right front came from the lateral side grooves, same as regular records, and the rear left/right came from a sub up/down groove at the bottom of the regular groove. The CD4 decoder routed the discreet channels to where they needed to go. CD4 sounded better but was more costly and if you played a CD4 record with a regular stereo needle it destroyed the rear channel grooves.

The album cover pictured above is SQ.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have looked this up and the Sansui QS system also used a matrix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_Regular_Matrix
Here are the details of SQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_Quadraphonic

[Lee Mannering]

ME! I remember Quad very well and Dad was really into it SQ, QS etc. He had so much kit for it I used to look forward to Sunday afternoons sitting with him listening to the Vinyl.Please bring those days back!
Dad had a large JVC CD4 4VR amp with internal decoder plus Sansui decoders as well. 4 matched Jordan Watts speakers fully lead lined weighing a ton and about 4ft tall it was awesome. Still have a large pile of Quadrophonic Vinyl myself including Christopher Lee reading Dracula and bats flying around the room, Dark side of the moon. You can play Quad on a standard stereo setup as well.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

I bought the JVC receiver pictured below around 1973 and still use it in my bedroom. It has connections in the back to connect an external CD4 decoder. I never had the decoder, that was an additional item that by the time I decided it would be fun to play with quadraphonic, were no longer available.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last year I bought ABBA in concert DVD which was filmed way back in 1979...great stuff . I notice of late there music being re-released on new LP. One album I have from that long ago era, along with a few others I should add is "Arrival"

Anyway who can remember this

[Graham Ritchie]

I am pretty sure Roger Moore once said, this music was one of his favorite of the James Bond films.

This was taken what I gather in 1973....impressive stuff

[Graham Ritchie]

Ah! the 1970s in all these years one record that played on the radio a lot back then was this one.

I have never forgotten the "lyrics" over the years. The meaning behind then is as relevant today, as it was then, when they were first written.

[Graham Ritchie]

Going through some old 45s the other day, when I came across "Blerta" they were a New Zealand group, who I remember made a hit called "Dance All Around The World" in the early 1970s, it was played a lot on the radio at the time..... its very 1970s....