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Sunday, 9 May 2010

THE WELLGATE BOMB SCARE - 1982

In the early 80's, when IRA bombs were commonplace on mainland Britain, there were often many false alarms and hoaxes that went along with it which kept members of the public vigilant.
Here is an example of one of the more amusing false alarms...
In a generous act of philanthropy one day, local musician, Mike Kane, gave away free packages to the public, containing a music cassette of his band, AAGA, along with some other gifts inside... just like wee lucky bags. One of these packs was dropped off at the Wellgate Library. A little later, one of the observant librarians spotted the package sitting there, thought it might be a bomb, and promptly called the cops. The Wellgate was evacuated and the suspect package dealt with.
A few hours had passed when Mike was visited at home by the boys in blue (he kindly left his name and address on the explosive devices!).
The police commenced questioning him about the incident. Mike's tape recorder was running at the time and managed to capture the conversation, the transcript of which (above) was published in the first issue of The Voice.
You may need to click on the image to read the large version.
AAGA - louder than a bomb!!

2 comments:

  1. Keep up the good work Retro Dundee and all people like Mike, Jock and The Bear etc who send things in, you're doing a fantastic job.

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  2. Does anyone remember the bomb that blew up the Co-op on the Hilltown? I remember a pile of us from Rosebank Primary School raiding it the next day and coming out with 2 litre bottles of Lilt and Orange adele, before Mrs Souter the headteacher went mental and banned us all from going anywhere near the place. I seem to remember it was some kind of family feud/insurance job that causes the bomb. For years later it was derelict but you could see the old walls and tiles at the original front door, before they eventually tidied it up and ready paved it. There were cracks in the wall of the next door furniture store because of the explosion. Mental!

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