Welcome to the Seventies with buskerbrian.com The seventies began innocuously for me. I left school and spent the next two or three years trying to find my way socially. An introduction to the music of Led Zeppelin (via a workmate) opened up a whole new world for me. Bands were exploring the boundaries of music - and it inspired me. But it took awhile to connect with the 'hippie' crowd and be invited into the fold. I could be boxed as a bit of a 'downtown guy', madly into football and hanging out with gangs of greasers, smoothies or skinheads. Despite that, I increasingly sought to get the hippy look and gain the attention and acceptance of their 'in crowd'. By the middle of 1973 this was occurring and the 'real me' was fast emerging. There followed a golden age of fun, love and friendship that lasted until 1977. Then came an obsession with science fantasy books triggered by Stephen Donaldson and 'The chronicles of Thomas Covenant.' In addition, my six months spent travelling on archaeological digs and an increasingly rabid obsession with history took me right out of the 'hippy world' my friends still lived in. The explosion of punk and the 'John Travolta' disco world took me into other crowds, but I always felt peripheral and unconvinced within them. The seventies ended much the same way they had begun for me. Innocuously.