1971

In 1971 Britain and Ireland swapped shillings for decimal coins on Decimal Day, and Apollo 14 put another set of astronauts on the Moon. Less happily, 66 people died in a crush at Ibrox in Glasgow, and Idi Amin seized power in Uganda.

Hard rock was settling in as the sound of the decade, and heavy metal was still finding its shape. Black Sabbath's Master of Reality arrived in August, a slow, down-tuned record that did much to define doom metal. Pink Floyd put out Relics in May, then Meddle in November, a record that pointed them firmly towards long-form progressive rock. Led Zeppelin's fourth album followed three days later, and it had been previewed in Belfast that March, when the Ulster Hall heard "Stairway to Heaven" played live for the first time. Further down the ranks, new names were forming: Pentagram, Cirith Ungol, Foghat and Bachman-Turner Overdrive all started up, while Queen played their first London gig in February and found their bassist, John Deacon, by March.

It was a year of endings too. Jim Morrison was found dead in a Paris bath at 27, and Duane Allman died in a motorbike accident in October, aged 24. The Stooges and Derek and the Dominos broke up, Blue Cheer and Iron Butterfly stopped for a few years, and Bill Graham shut both Fillmores. The Celebration of Life festival in Louisiana was closed by the authorities after about 150 arrests.