It's funny how thing's pan out sometimes, i'm sat here 10mins ago and in walks the owner of the Indian Garden. Well you just know what cropped up in conversation

So I put the question to him, "When you first opened in the early 70's did you ever use Patak's?" he replies, "what is Patak's?"
I remind him that I have seen Patak's jars in his kitchen to which he responds "oh no, only pickles, you understand?", "we don't use pastes in our curries".
He looks tired and hungry due to Ramadan and with his order in hand, wants to go, as he exits the door I beg of him one last question "do you use paste in your tikka?" his reply, "no paste, no, we put only spices we make in the kitchen" amongst a list of ingredients he then starts to real out, he also added "you only find Patak's in those cheap take-aways!"
This affirms my initial thoughts and indeed CA's comments, that paste's were not in widespread use in the 70's and 80's. It would be great to get further input on this, to paint a wider picture.