I used to really like going to Larg's in Whitehall Street. I always made a beeline for the basement to gape at all the guitars hanging up on the wall, the drum kits on the floor and the amps in their wee room. Always ended up buying more plectrums than I could use when schoolboy age.
Another room in the basement area sold racks of sheet music.
Upstairs there was a roomful of electric organs and another area that sold electrical goods & records.
Underneath the photos is a reminder of the record dept.'s carrier bag with a keyboard design on it.
Below that is an advert for the shops range of amplifiers.
The reason they were highlighting the fact that The Beatles used Vox was because the ad was published in the local press on the night the Fab 4 were playing at the Caird Hall in October 1963.
In 1976, I made quite a major purchase now that I was a wage-earner. I bought a very expensive hi-fi. Huge wooden speakers made in Norway with a very powerful amp and top quality turntable. The amazing thing is, it's the same one I still use today. I have of course added lots of modern extras to the stack since but over 3 decades later, the Larg's hi-fi still gets played on a daily basis!
I worked here late 60's upstairs in the photographic department
ReplyDeleteHello, not sure you'll see this but I just bought a zenith 3m camera from someone in Devon via ebay. It still has the supplying outlets stamp in front of the instruction booklet...one Larg and sons, Dundee. Maybe you sold it to the original buyer!?
DeleteI worked in the record department around 1975/76. Cant remember the older ladies names but they were very particular about customer service and quite right too. My Uncle Angus was manager of the who,e shop. Also my great uncle Wullie and Andrew Black I think were directors way back in the day. Also remember the two girls who sold the music sheets they were so friendly and so nice to me. I was only around 15/16yrs of age but I did love my Saturday job.
DeleteMy mum and dad bought be a Pinky and Perky Greatest Hits album here and it was whereI bought my first single ...The Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt Kickers.
ReplyDeleteI too remember marveling at the sheet music in the basement where I got the music books for my ill-fated primary school piano lessons.
I worked in the sheet music dept in the late sixties
ReplyDeleteLargs, ha ha. The guitar.drums department was like an Aladins cave for anyone interested in music. I remember bugging my parents for months to let me take on a Drum Kit on hp which they never did.
ReplyDeleteI got a bass guitar here "on tic", i.e. I paid it up- it was Gibson SG copy by rose morris- however I was more interested in posing and never learned to play it and then some bam stole it and sold it back to Largs. Life is a bitch ah....
ReplyDeleteI was in Dundee for a Walker Brothers concert at the Caird Hall in 1966 and went in to Largs to buy guitar strings and who was at the counter in front of me but my hero Scott Walker (Engel) I had always wanted to meet him but was far too shy to speak to him. My twin brother was with me and whispered to me not to dare speak to him. Little did he know I was dumb- struck. Scott bought guitar strings, turned round, glanced at me, smiled and left the shop. Gone was my hope of ever speaking to him! It was in the era of screaming girls but we were near the front so able to enjoy the concert despite the did of the fans.
Deletethe din of the fans
Deletein the sixties seventie, largs was a great place to meet fellow musicians and even to get a gig. many a time i would be giggless and walk into largs on a saturday afternoon , go downstairs past the sheet music and into the place where john dunn was manager, and evelyn and ron were serving too , and just peruse the drums and guitars and trade in bargains that they had to offer. john dunn was a true gentleman and fully understood us up and coming young musicians. although there was a commision scheme , he never ever pressurised anyone into buying, he made one feel very comfortable about trading in etc. i got my first kit there when i was working with elena maes, i think it was six and a penny a week for three years. sadly we lost john last year and i was surprised to not see a tribute to the man in the local tabloids. anyway largs will always hold fond memories for me of how it was a great meeting place for all us musos. even when i go into tisos shop in whitehall street as it now is ,and i go downstairs to where it all happened all those years ago i still get that buzz and my memory takes me back to what was once there. oh i forgot to mention that in the music department, sheet music etc, was , young greg mcaffrey, norma and i think the other girl was june. greg is now a fully accomplished drummer. one last thing, i remember too when brilliant vocalist worked dowstairs in the record department.
ReplyDeleteronnie jack
the keyboards not working right. the vocalist was yvonne robb
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a youngster around 10 years of age in early 1970s, the people at Largs used to let me come in and practice playing piano and the organ inside the shop. I think out of all the music shops I've been in over the years, Largs remains my favourite.
ReplyDeleteI also spent lots of time in the basement of Largs. Later in the 70s I remember taking a guitar amp for repair there. The repair man had a small office on the first floor. You got to it by a doorway off the street to the left of the shopfront. It just seemd so right, buy your amp in the basement, take it out the front door to your car then return a few months later for repair up the stairs over the shop. If you bought your gear at Wilkies it went back to Perth for repair.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in the music department with John Dunn a gentleman and Bill Foreman a great character and drummer. I was 15 at the time and got £2 for the Saturday but always left with lots of goodies (say no more)! I was a drummer too and many a time at last knockings a band would come in and ask Mr.Dunn if he new any drummers available and Mr.Dunn would point to me which usually met wth the retort "but he's just a wee laddie" however I was usually there only hope and was taken on and to their surprise extremely competant as I had been taking lessons at Harris since 12 years old and had school bands. My favourite band was 4 in Bush who I was with for around a year playing all over Scotland, Friday night Saturday & Sunday lunchtime and nights until my dear old Dad put a stop to it as he was worried about my 'O' level study time. However I was getting paid fivers and tenners each gig in 1974 so was soon able to buy my first real kit (from Largs) after Bill Forman giving me his staff discount and my £146 Olympic kit only cost £105 with cases.I then met John Clancy and joined Freeze band one lunchtime they all came in to the shop and whisked me away to the mormon church up Buters Loan where they used to practice. Sadly I fell out with Bill Forman as my gigging started to interfere with my saturday job so I was always having to leave early which didn't sit well with Bill, so I soon left Largs. I loved working there and have many fond memories of the great laughs Bill and I had and all the other staff from Graham in the camera department to the record girls, great days, god bless Mr.Dunn
ReplyDeleteDo you remember Eric and Margaret Larg ! They owned the business.
DeleteMr Larg lived on the Clepington Road a couple of doors west of Forfar Road. He had a black any yellow Rolls Royce with running boards I recall and his own chauffeur.
ReplyDeleteI knew Eric and his Sister Margaret very well indeed. They both spent their retirement in a magnificent house outside Dykehead not too far from Kirriemuir. They still had the chauffeur and that same Rolls Royce along with ther housekeeper right up until their deaths. I experienced many great parties which they hosted at their mansion home !
DeleteChauffeur was called David Niven.
DeleteI worked as an apprentice TV engineer in the Lochee branch in the mid 50's. I had the opportunity to push off abroad with my parents. This seemingly got to Mr Larg, who came to our home (in Cleppy road) to try and persuade me and my parents that it would be best for me to finish my apprenticeship, that he would organise accomodation etc 'above the shop'. I was much taken by his concern, as were my parents, but the thought of three years in the sun won out.
ReplyDeleteOn my return, I joined the RAF, where my skills learned with Largs gained me accelerated promotion and a happy life for 27 years in 'The Mob', finally leaving as the ex boss of a calibration and repair unit.
Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing...
RIP, Mr Larg and your now gone superb organisation.
I sign off as someone who for many years was known as:
GrumpyChiefie
My mum is trying to trace a photo of her brother and aunt who were in a crowd looking into the window of Largs shop in Whitehall street some time in the 60's. She think there must have been some significant event on that the folks were all looking in the window at the tellys. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteThanks Claire
I have a challen piano which I bought second hand. It is similar to one the Beatles used. It has Largs of Dundee on it. From around 1960. I adore it. I am 70 soon.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather worked his way up to be the managing director-Andrew Black.He encouraged the wonderful Christmas display windows and as a child I inherited some of the figures/ features used in the displays.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Black was also my grandfather, so I guess theses comments are coming from the oldest sister of the family.
DeleteI bought my Gibson acoustic guitar from that basement on 10th Jan 1967. I was a student with a grant of 113.68 a term, and I spent 110.00 on it! Never regretted it, earned my living with it for many years, and it's still my main guitar - never found one to equal it. I still have the receipt, just o prove how mad I was!
ReplyDeleteDoes Larg & Sons still exist in Whitehall Street as I have vynal records in sleeves wit their name on them.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid not. I was there checking the premises out in August 19 and they clearly had closewd down a long time ago.
DeleteMy uncle Sandy Anderson was a tv engineneer in Largs 1960.s went to South africa 1970. used to look after Largs vans in Jack Gows dundee
ReplyDeleteLargs Sandy Anderson 1960s
ReplyDeleteLargs great great company. I won the Largs prize in music when I was at the good old Logie. Largs vans were parked overnight at Develins Garage in the Perth Road. My pal used to park them up for the night. Vans were immaculate, Largs set high standards in everything they did. We will never see their likes again, just like Justice
ReplyDeletefurniture shop over the road. Classmate was an apprentice there and he was trained to a very very high standard. Never knew that we were mixing with future classics. ATVB. Alan Mac
Any body know anything about the Thomson acoustic guitars which were sold there
ReplyDelete