In Perfect Harmony: Singalong Pop in ’70s Britain

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Cent takes a swipe at Diddy after he's sued by a third woman claiming he choked and raped her... shortly after settling lawsuit with ex Cassie Will takes us on a journey through the most colour-saturated decade in music, examining the core themes and camp spectacle of '70s singalong pop, as well as its reverberations through British culture. This is the pioneering social history of a musical revolution.

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North London’s de Paul was a glamorous figure who was so outraged by her former boyfriend Sean Connery saying it was OK to slap women that she did a kiss-and-tell on him and gave the money to Erin Pizzey’s domestic violence charity Refuge. She and fellow mainstream songwriter Barry Green wrote this 1940s Gypsy jazz-influenced slice of sensual, escapist pop for a simple reason. “The 70s were bloody depressing,” said Green. “So we were doing major key songs that looked at the past through rose-coloured glasses: those were the days, my friend.” 6. Hector – Wired Up (1973) EMILY PRESCOTT: Cressida's chilled to the Bonas... Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend shows she's still a fan of real shops I'm A Celeb's Sam Thompson 'fanboys' over Tony Bellows and shares a hug with the boxer leaving viewers in HYSTERICS: 'This is so cute!'Jennifer Lawrence exudes wintertime chic in beige scarf and leather gloves as she enjoys NYC stroll with son Cy, one, after Thanksgiving I'm A Celebrity SPOILER: Tony Bellew gags while downing murky brown drink during gruesome challenge Strictly star Layton Williams defends his pole dance routine after viewers compared it to a 'strip club' show

The latter half of the 70s saw the rise of suburban disco – dance music for stressed adults needing respite from a climate of national strikes and economic hardship. An early example was this massive hit for east Londoner Charles, who two years later went on a promotional tour of sex romp The Stud, the ultimate suburban disco movie, with its star Joan Collins. “It was two worlds,” she said. “An IRA bomb went off outside Harrods in the very place I had parked my car, just as Joan Collins was telling me: ‘Always wear a hat in the sun, darling. It stops the skin from ageing.’” 10. Dollar – Shooting Star (1978) From luxury skincare to must-have make-up collections - get Christmas all wrapped up with dream gifts they'll loveJennifer Lopez shares teaser for new album This is Me... Now: 'A life's journey on the search for the truth about love' In Perfect Harmony takes the reader on a journey through the most colour-saturated era in music, examining the core themes and camp spectacle of '70s singalong pop, as well as its reverberations through British culture since. This is the pioneering social history of a musical revolution. Chanelle Hayes showcases her impressive 9st weight loss in a yellow bikini as she soaks up the sun in Spain This is an extract from In Perfect Harmony: Singalong Pop in ’70s Britain by Will Hodgkinson (Bonnier Books). Full of bold characters and strange stories, In Perfect Harmony might start out Middle of the Road but it takes audacious left turns all the way. 4/5'»

Lawrence grew up in the village of Water Orton near Birmingham, where on the evening of 21 November 1974, bombs attributed to the Provisional Irish Republican Army went off in two city pubs called the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town, killing 21 people and injuring 181. Among the fatalities were an 18-year-old girl called Maxine Hambleton, who had popped into the Tavern in the Town to hand out invitations to her housewarming party, a 17-year-old called Jane Davis, who had gone in to look at the holiday photographs she developed earlier that afternoon, and Neil Marsh and Paul Anthony Davies, 16- and 17-year-old friends with a shared love of Bruce Lee and kung-fu, who were killed by the blast as they walked past the Tavern in the Town. They were only in the city centre because they were at a loose end after the youth club they had planned to spend the evening at was closed. It led to school concerts and at 14, answering an advertisement for a pop group formed by a bunch of printers who played in the local youth club: “And I got to sing. But I discovered I had a squeaky little voice, like Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits. That’s why the Wombles sound like they do.” I'm A Celeb's Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage leave viewers 'heaving' as they are forced to drink blended penises during gruesome trial: 'This is vile!' Napoleon was six years younger than Josephine - so why are they played by Joaquin Phoenix, 49, and Vanessa Kirby, 35?

The Wombles marked a sea change in seventies music by being a pop band aimed entirely towards the pre-teen market. In the sixties, the Beatles had kid appeal, and even more so did their American imitators, the Monkees, but the former at least cut their teeth playing five sets a night to sailors and prostitutes in rough bars on Hamburg’s Kaiserkeller, which is a very different experience from starting life as a fluffy creature with a long nose who likes to womble around Wimbledon Common and makes use of the things everyday folk leave behind. From Clive Dunn’s Grandad in 1970 to the St Winifred’s School Choir’s There’s No One Quite Like Grandma in 1980, the singalong pop of 70s Britain is generally dismissed as naff, sentimental, unstylish and just plain bad. Can these songs so firmly sewn into the fabric of British life really be so awful? Don’t they have something to say about the era they came from? That was the inspiration for my book In Perfect Harmony: a serious look at family favourites that have been derided by the critical minds of the day as, to use one embittered songwriter’s colourful description, vomit. Strictly fans hit out at judge's scores for Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola as they wow with sizzling Argentine Tango and continue to fuel romance rumours