Candid Caller

PROVING the Sixties revival to be somewhat short-lived, the musical Hair gets the unkindest cut of all after three months and comes off tonight. This week the Candid Caller asked: were the Sixties as wonderful as we think?

Mr D Bailey of Brighton: 'I thought they were wonderful. I really enjoyed the Sixties because I went to university in 1967 and got my first taste of freedom.'

Mr G Best of Bristol: 'The second half of the Sixties was good, musically - until the Beatles came along the music had been dire. And by the early Seventies it had waned again, and has done ever since.'

Mr T Blackburn of Wigan: 'I doubt they were that great, but they were global. Suddenly, with mass television, we could see what was going on wherever it was happening and we felt part of a bigger world, even going to the Moon. There's so much footage from the Sixties that it's an era we've relived over and over again. They're more familiar than wonderful.'

Mr S Dee of Swindon: 'Which were the Sixties, were they punks and platforms? (No, flower-power and kaftans.) Oh. I don't think they were that great. I've never yearned to be living back then.'

Mrs C McGowan of Edinburgh: 'Yes. It was a very positive time and I remember everyone seemed caught up in the optimism. We thought we could change the world. By comparison, today is a fairly pessimistic age. Peace and love have gone out of the window.'

Mr J Lennon of Liverpool: 'The Sixties were certainly unique. National Service was history so everyone could breathe a bit. The peace thing was a revolution, of sorts.'

Mr P McCartney of Liverpool: 'Yes and no. I miss the social whirl of parties, everyone seemed to have them then. But not the stink of joss-sticks - you could never get the smell out of your clothes.'