in fact it was the last really good year 

http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/tol_archive/article4390526.ece

Sailed out in what sense, Stanley? He lasted long enough to take Britain into the EEC (as it then was) the following year*, and only stopped being Prime Minister when he lost the General Election in February 1974 (although the Labour Government subsequently formed under Harold Wilson did not have a parliamentary majority).

*When I was young my grandma used to give me 50p every Saturday when I went to visit her. It was always the 1973 coin she gave me, which had 7 clasped hands on the reverse in place of the usual Britannia design - she used to save the 'special' ones up in a jar for me. I don't think it was because she was a Europhile (I never thought about this at the time, actually!), just because they were different ...

 Yes, tinners, - and thank you - the 'Who Governs Britain?' election was, indeed, February 1974; mystery posters appeared throughout London featuring The Who rock group as an alternative!   February 1972 was, in fact, the first miners strike, followed by frequent power cuts.    I'd just opened in a production at the Cambridge Theatre which, due to indifferent notices and loss of power without warning, left us playing to the usherettes and half a dozen bemused Japanese tourists.

   Cinema audiences used to cheer when the newsreel showed Heath's grand piano being removed from Downing Street.  Later, when he made frequent appearances at The Proms, the Arena standees used to turn and heave their shoulders up-and -down and he always responded in kind.     In December, 1973, he instructed that TV would shutdown at 10pm each day, during the Festive Season,  to conserve energy.     Six weeks later and he was out-of-office - just!   

We were instructed to clean our teeth in the dark in 72** I think.  I didn't clean my teeth in the dark. I thought sharing a bath was a good idea but was too shy ( at 14) to ask anyone. The power workers must have struck in their own right in Dec 73. I distinctly remember blackouts then, but the second miners strike wasn't until early 74,  when the graffiti in Boundary Road NW6 (a famous place for this) read "Come in Morning Cloud... Your Time Is Up!"

** It was in fact 74
 from the New Stesteman

Patrick, who was energy secretary during the miners' strike of 1974, when he urged the nation to clean their teeth in the dark to save electricity. Tabloid snappers found his house lit up like the Lusitania.

The link, dear John, is only a springboard to the times!

So many references to the dark.   I spent my childhood/adolesence in the 1939/45 years of the blackout.      Later, it was power cuts in the streets and at home.   

       Reminds me of Iras's plea to the dying Cleopatra:

       "Finish, good lady; the bright day is done
        And we are for the dark."                               Act V, ScII

Awww!! IGI, obviously you inherited your love of all things cardinal from your mother's side. 

IGI,
You were such an exeptional child. You have such a thoughtful expression. May be you were considering deep philosophical problems of humanity and how they are expressed in music.

I am trying to remember 1970s. There were great people with us still (Shostakovich, Britten), I feel that composers have moved on a lot with time.

1970 was quite bad for the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, the painter Mark Rothko and the poet Paul Celan, all of whom took their own lives in that year.