‘Gonna have the whole world on a plate’ – why energy has always excited people

Should we always believe the hype?

The hot brass band’s stirring opening bars fade, the first verse begins, and then we see her – Shirley Bassey – on top of an oil rig. “Things look swell!” she roars in a pristine white boiler suit and hard hat, flinging her arms wide. “Things look great! Gonna have the whole world on a plate.”

The song was “Everything’s Coming up Roses” from the musical Gypsy. And, in 1976, when this flabbergasting performance was broadcast on British television, a lot of people really did feel like that. North Sea oil was going to make the UK rich and help post-Imperial Britain advance its position on the world stage. Because energy, as the cliché goes, is power.

The shoot was a precarious one. At one point, Bassey, who was best-known for her recording of “Goldfinger”, was hoisted up while clinging to a conical arrangement of rigging called a basket – used to transfer workers from ship to rig via crane. But she went much higher than agreed, in high winds, and began swearing at the producer. When the crane finally set her down, she walked right over and punched him.

Despite the intended euphoria of the clip, in 2025 it plays rather differently. Climate change is altering our whole world and fossil fuels’ image has changed drastically. But even in the 1970s, the signs were there. Not long after Dame Shirley belted out her best vocals from the top of the Zapata Ugland platform in the North Sea, one oil giant was already gathering data revealing how its products would cause global warming – while it publicly denied such knowledge, according to researchers. The company has denied this allegation.

Today, the public is far better informed about the climate impacts of burning fossil fuels, and deadly particulate pollution.

Danger zones

We shouldn’t forget that oil rigs have been involved in some dreadful tragedies. I first heard about Dame Shirley’s North Sea performance when it appeared briefly during a recent documentary about the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster. On that rig, 167 men died after it was engulfed in explosions and a massive fire in 1988.

Plus, in 1982, the very rig Bassey sang on, Zapata Ugland, dispatched a boat in an ultimately fruitless attempt to save the crew of another platform, Ocean Ranger, which had been caught in stormy weather. All 84 men on board Ocean Ranger died when it sank in the North Atlantic.

The days of celebrating the oil industry in song, or on TV, are over. But energy still sparks joy. Renewables, arguably, are generating the most hype at present. This summer, Swedish energy company Vattenfall published a promotional video about wind farms featuring Samuel L Jackson munching seaweed snacks and enthusing about “motherfucking wind farms”.

I’m not sure what this will do for Vattenfall, exactly – but people who love wind farms did seem to like it. A lot. And what about this even more comedic offering from French energy company EDF? A heat pump can be your best friend! Dance around with it in circles. Why not.

Traditionally, promotion of energy technologies has focused on one or more of four themes: power or sovereignty; cleanliness; financial savings; and convenience. “Run your house with one finger,” suggests a 1935 advertisement for electricity – with a big picture of a finger pressing a switch and lines connecting to various appliances. It’s like having “a staff of willing servants”, apparently.

Separately, imagine promoting nuclear energy as a “bargain”.

On top of all that, energy is often framed as forward-looking. It’s how you get to what’s next. There’s another video floating around the web, purportedly an industrial sales film for portable kerosene heaters, which takes the form of a lengthy, and disappointingly dull, parody of Star Trek – featuring one “Mr Spunk”. I’m still not convinced this one isn’t just an elaborate internet joke.

You might think that all of this is just pushy marketing rather than a reflection of what people really think. No-one actually cares very much about wind farms or batteries, do they? Well, to some extent, you’d be wrong. Polls consistently suggest that huge numbers of people have strongly favourable views about new energy tech.

And, there are crowds of die-hard fans out there for things ranging from natural building materials to renewables, heat pumps and electric vehicles. I know because, ahem, they often contact me to share their views.

Some people profess a passion for heat pumps, for example. Early adopters might be, by definition, a minority of users but they do have the power to shape conversations. Research suggests that getting solar panels on your roof can actually influence your neighbours’ willingness to do the same thing.

The power is yours

Returning to the point about sovereignty, this works on a state level – for instance among the countries bordering Russia now turning to renewables to achieve energy independence – and also on a personal level. Take the electric car batteries that enable people to keep their appliances running should the local grid go down in a storm. One man in Ireland recently fought to be able to “island” his home solar and battery system, making it detachable from the electricity grid, so that he may keep his lights on during a future power cut. Personal autonomy is one reason why rooftop solar is gaining traction in parts of the US, too.

“You get up in the morning and the water’s hot, it’s great,” one Northern Irish user of EnergyCloud told BBC News in April. EnergyCloud makes free hot water available to homes in Ireland during periods of surplus renewable electricity generation.

In many ways, electrification, smart home tech, and domestic renewables all promise to bring energy production and control back to the individual. It’s about, quite literally, empowering yourself. (There are ongoing problems with distributing these technologies equitably, however.)

Yes, energy companies want to sell stuff. We should always be wary of big claims and the potential for greenwashing. But I’m increasingly aware of ordinary people clamouring for energy technologies that they believe will benefit them, their family, their society. It’s a human response, like our innate desire to build. And so they debate how to switch to a clean heating system, and agonize over which home battery technology is the best for them, and so on.

Whatever they come up with, the possibilities promise to delight. Probably since the first moment one of our ancestors discovered how to coax a flame to life, and set a cooking fire, we have always wanted to hold that power in our hands. Energy, ultimately, is freeing – it’s the future.

Or so we have often thought.

Further reading on this week’s story

If you want to look at some beautiful old ads for electricity and electrical appliances then this blog has you covered.

In 2021, The Guardian explored how historical fossil fuel industry advertising frequently denied that climate change was real.

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