LAW TUNNEL LARKS - 70'S

You're guess is as good as mine as to whether these 2 lads are law-breakers up to no good, or law-abiding citizens doing some research on the Dundee to Newtyle railway line - whichever it is, this image of the pair was taken at the bricked up entrance of the Law tunnel, around the Kinghorne Road area, in the early 70's.
2 ghost train-spotters possibly?!

FUN IN THE OVERGATE - 1973

It's that Overgate sculpture again!

You may recall I put a couple of pictures up on Retro last month of the same piece of work, but because those photos were taken in the mid 80's, the structure was a bit drab looking and the surrounding shops nearing the end of their lives.

Well in comparison, here's what it was like when it was still kinda fresh - the artwork being put to good use by wee Leigh and co back in 1973.

The b & w shot below them was also taken in the mid 70's and shows the whole structure..

Although it's the work of Dundee artist, Iain Eadie, there's a hint of Ben Nicholson about the design!

According to my 1974 Dundee Directory, the name of the shop in the background was Brentford Nylons - but as you can see, it's actually just Brentfords. The company was technically called Brentford Nylons, so not sure why Dundee ended up with a shortened shop name.

Their slogan at the time was "Quality With A Conscience" - which makes it sound like you'd end up feeling guilty if you bought one of their expensive blouses!

Photos from Leigh, via Marky.

THIS IS HUNS LAND - BEWARE

Shifting from yesterday's Urban environment to another urban setting - the Hulltoon.
The scrawl on the wall says it all!
Photo by The Bear.

STAN URBAN AT SESSIONS - 1980'S

Dundonian, Stan Urban, is an old-school rock 'n' roller. He was hooked on the music at a young age - and I mean young - playing in a local band called The Mystery Men when he was only 13 back in the 50's, when rock 'n' roll was as fresh as he was. By the early 60's he had progressed to providing piano backing for Gene Vincent & Chuck Berry and was also part of the bustling Hamburg scene at the time. In the 70's, when he had a residency in Ibiza, he even found himself jamming with Jimmy Page & Robert Plant!

Since the 80's he has released many records as a solo artist - with one of the albums called "Dundee Jivin' "

Performing live is what he likes doing best though and the above picture is him playing a home gig at Sessions in 1989.

He lives in Denmark now and you can find out more about what he's up to from his own website here - http://www.stanurban.dk/ (remember and click the union jack if you don't understand Danish!).

And so as Stan brings the house down - it's time now for Retro to bring the curtain down on the present music theme and head off to pastures new...

Photo by The Bear.

ALAN PRICE GIG AT SESSIONS - 1989

Alan Price had a 2 night stint at Sessions in June 1989.

I can remember when Alan was a regular on the telly in the 60's when he was in The Animals, a band who had some serious chart-busting singles in the hit parade, as it was called back then.

Alan then departed The Animals in the mid 60's to pursue a solo career - he actually played a gig at the Palais (Top Ten Club) in 1966.

Around the early 70's, he kind of became a lightweight all-round entertainer appearing on naff variety shows.

I never saw or heard him again after that.

So obviously, as this picture shows, he went back to doing what he was doing in the mid 60's, playing the pub & club circuit again.

His 2 female backing singers appear to be sharing a joke behind his back rather than providing vocals!

Photo by The Bear.

HAVANA & DEUCHAR AT McGONAGALL'S - 80'S

This top notch image features the guitarists of Dundee jazz outfit, Havana Swing and local legend, Jimmy Deuchar on trumpet.

Havana Swing started off as a guitar trio in 1986 - Alain Legrand, John Whyte and Kevin Murray.

By 1987, the band had added Calum McKenzie on double bass and Walter Smith on clarinet.

However, also around 1986, story has it that during one of Havana Swing's gigs in Dundee, Jimmy was in the audience (he had his trumpet with him) and was so smitten with their performance that he leapt out of the crowd and joined them centre stage for a bit of the action!

After that impromptu introduction, he actually went on to play regularly with them.

Just wondering if this photo was that actual gig's "spontaneous moment" or whether this was taken later when they were all together as a unit?

The venue was that well known pub along Perth Road, McGonagall's.

The pub started jam session twice a week in 1986, and as you can see on this particular advert dated March 1986, Havana Swing were the band leading the jam.

So there could be a connection to the photo.

By the way, in the 50's, Jimmy released an album called "Pub Crawling" - so the Perth Road the perfect place for him to be!

Photo by The Bear.

ARRIVAL PLAY THE CAFE CLUB - 1980'S

Here's Dundee heavy metal merchants, Arrival, blasting out their stuff at Café Club Bar.

I don't know much about these guys and couldn't find anything substantial about them on the net, but when I dipped into past Retro comments, I found out their guitarist was John Curran and their drummer, Kipper, was the son of local jazzman, Jimmy Deuchar.

If anyone else has more Arrival facts, then drop the gen into the comments.

 

Photos by The Bear.

WATERGATE STUDIOS - 1985

The ad at the top dates from March 1983 and gives the lowdown on recording session costs at the Watergate studio in the Seagate.
Later in 1985, Hilary, from Deadbeat mag, popped along to the Watergate studio to have a chat with boss, Phil Ramsay.
He gives a bit of background info into the kind of gear the studio had available, as well as a quick word about the musicians who dropped by to use it.
Click on item to enlarge.

ROCKPILE'S MISSING ITEMS

Rockpile, in Westport, was a popular Record Exchange shop that cropped up on the scene in the early 80's.

In the mid 80's, I used to visit them regularly as one who sold them records when I was gradually offloading the mountain of vinyl I had amassed.

Well now it's confession time - 2 of the albums I passed onto them were missing a couple of items!

The top image is a set of art prints done by Peter Schmidt that were a free gift with an album by Eno called "Before And After Science" which I bought in 1977. The set of four 12 inch prints came in a kind of presentation folder in the record sleeve.

The other photo is of a free bonus album that I got with a record released by Bill Nelson in 1981 called "Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam".

It turned out that the free album "Sounding The Ritual Echo" was one I played more often than the actual official LP it was with, so just as I had decided to hold on to the art prints when I sold the Eno album to Rockpile, I also opted to keep the free Bill Nelson album, considering it too good to sell!

I do remember peeling the "INCLUDES FREE ALBUM" sticker off the record sleeve before innocently handing over the "Quit..." album!

So if anyone can recall buying either of those 2 albums out of Rockpile - well, I still have your stuff!

If you want to claim the missing items, you'll need to show me your receipt as proof of purchase!

Meanwhile, especially for the person who missed out on it, here's a wee taster of one of the tracks from the bonus album, a track called "My Intricate Image". All the "experimental" tracks on the LP were recorded using faulty equipment Bill had at home!

"Sounding The Ritual Echo" was officially released in it's own right on CD later in the 80's, I think I'm right in saying.

 

J.M. BANDS - 1970's

The photo is the JM Ballroom, and a reminder of its location in North Tay Street, later renamed Marketgait.
Hundreds of bands played there throughout the 60's and early 70's, so the 2 ads here are just a tiny example of who was on.
The first advert is dated May 1971 and the bands that were on over this particular period were - PENDULUM, HOROSCOPE and MAXIS TAXI.
Local act, PAT'R FOUR were also doing the biz.
The other ad is dated January 1972.
The 2 main bands in this one seemed to be doing battle with each other to see who could come up with the most macho band name - STALLION and STAG.
Wow, bet they made the lassies go weak at the knees!
The support act on both nights were Dundee based act, FIVE IN A BUSH.
You can also check out the Dundee Gig Time Machine website to view a larger list of JM bands.

UP A CLOSIE WITH GREY APPROACH - 1981

I would normally make an effort to clean up a photo using my computer software - remove scratches & stains and so on - but on this occasion, I reckon the mucky surface looks OK to me. Enhances the image even.
So who are the trio in grey who approach the photographer?
That's right, you managed to suss it out from my wee clue there - it's The Supremes - nah, only kiddin, it is of course Grey Approach, pictured in 1981 up some closie in Westport.
Jim Low, Colin Warden & Gordon Walker, who were once described in Cranked Up as "Dundee darling boys", their position in the local music scene back in 81.
Unfortunately, Fanta (GW) has admitted that the guys chose to mess about as a band rather than work at it, and so cut short any potential they had. Now we'll never know if they could have gone on to greater things, like their idols at the time, Joy Division.
Colin was the one who left grubby paw prints on the synth - Jim & Fanta were the ones who scuffed at the tunes.
They may not have made much of a mark on the alternative music scene at the end of the day, but they sure did leave plenty on their photo!!
Big thanks to Dave.

INTERVIEW WITH THE GRIP - 1982

Roy Terre (Reuters - get it?) from Deadbeat mag, had a chinwag with The Grip down at the Tayside Bar in late '82.
Jim Grieve & Ross Ramsay were the 2 band members who answered the questions.
Lots of info supplied on the band (they started off as Tender Grip) as well as giving an insight into their future plans.
I like the fact that Jim name-drops The Ruts, Misty In Roots and Talisman as influences, rather than UB40.
Although The Grip and UB40 ended up in similar musical territory, if you dig deeper than the superficial parity, you can can see that their backgrounds would have been entirely different.
UB40, Birmingham - a huge black community, reggae record shops in abundance, reggae clubs, established sound systems, pirate stations blasting out reggae & dub all day, all this on their own doorstep.
The Grip, Dundee - ....er....zilch! No black community to set the scene, no clubs, even finding a reggae record was a needle in a haystack job. So all their learning, know-how and enthusiasm would have had to be gleaned from ploughing through the music papers, listening to the odd radio programme (Peely) and travelling to major cities to visit reggae clubs, see bands and grab records.
The Grip's was a much tougher task from the outset in comparison to UB40.
I for one, doff my giant rasta hat to them for giving it a really good go.
Click item to read the large version.

UB40 - MM82

I was amused by this little snippet in an old Melody Maker I have, dated January 1982.

A piece about UB40 playing in Dundee.

It says they were banned from playing in a few cities around Britain because of their political stance on the previous years riots. However, Dundee Council, considered to be the most left-wing in the country at the time, welcomed the reggae rebels to the extent that Lord Provost Gowans laid on a civic reception for them!

It mentions Liverpool as being one of the cities they were banned from, so that must have been just before Derek Hatton's Militant Tendency took control!

Anyway, what I'd like to know is, did any of you get an invite to the Dundee do?

By the way, I only put this photo of the band up because it was the one that accompanied the article in MM. Not sure if it was taken in Dundee. They are standing in front of some Space Invaders machines, so maybe they nipped along to the arcade beside the Caird Hall before they went on stage!

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - 80'S

Formed in 1979, Saint Andrew & The Woollen Mill were regulars on the Dundee music scene by the time these 3 articles were written about them in the early 80's.

They stood out from your average local band because they specialised in humour, with plenty of well known tunes getting the comedy mash-up treatment in their set, along with their own quirky material.

You may get an idea of their silliness from the list of influences they mention - Kenny Everett, Dolly Parton, Patrick Wayne, Rolf Harris...etc.

I remember them doing their version of "Close Encounters" at the Tayside Bar and The Bothy - one of those hand held Casio mini keyboards was used for the famous UFO encounter tune bit, I think it then burst into a kind of disco groove!

They also had a few songs in oor oary local lingo.

The line-up in 1981 was - Andy "St Andrew" Pelc, vocal - Stewart Ivins, guitar - Eddie (Chris?) Marra, keyboard - Gus Foy, bass and Glen Jones, drums.

The band have released quite a few records over the years and I'm fairly sure St Andrew still performs from time to time.

So, the 2 items above...

Top, is an interview in Deadbeat, which the band did just before their gig at the Tayside Bar on 22nd December 1982 - and also includes a short review of the show.

Below it is a brief, light hearted introduction to the band taken from a 1981 Cranked Up.

Click them to bring up the large versions.

THE MEGAZONES SINGLE - 1980

When I posted a feature about The Megazones on Retro last November, I mentioned that they had released a single in 1980, but I didn't have a copy of it in my collection.
Well lo & behold, a couple of days later, a copy of it was sent to me, straight from the vault of Megazones main man himself, Jim Farrell.
So here it is below - the A-side of the record "Never Been So Lonely" - an upbeat, tuneful piece of pop with a slight hint of Split Enz, The Cars and The Beatles swirling around inside.
In the November feature, the drummer named in The Megazones gig review was Kev Devlin, however, on this recording the guy behind the kit is Kenny Farquharson, who later went on to have a very successful career as a journalist and is presently Deputy Editor of Scotland On Sunday.
Big thanks to Jim and Craig.

LIVE...FROM THE INVERCARSE - 1973

In May 2010 I posted a feature on the East Coast Jazz Band which included a recording of them playing at the Invercarse Hotel in 1973.
That one back then was a funky little number by Stevie Wonder - so this time out I thought I'd have the band doing a song in a slightly different style, a rock-pop crossover which was a chart hit in 1971 for Ashton, Gardner & Dyke - a track called "Resurrection Shuffle". A tune that was sure to get everybody tapping their toes underneath the dining tables!
Same line-up as before, except it's Brian Rose doing the vocals on this occasion. So... Les Cameron, keyboards - Dave Fimster, trumpet - Jim Wallace, trombone - Doug Gow, clarinet/sax - Harry Morrison, drums - Ron Elder, bass and Brian Rose, guitar & vocal.
A nice sound coming out of the Farfisa Compact Deluxe too!

THE RAUNCHY GUYS - HOSS PRISON BLUES - 1983

Hot diggity dang, those rootin tootin country & western critters, The Raunchy Guys, are on the loose again - go get the Sheriff!

Since their last escapade, progress has been made unmasking 2 of the posse, with these recently discovered pictures above.

The top one is Bullet Fritter Snakebelt, who also uses the alias, Jim Low.

Here you can see him in the process of mapping out one of the Raunchy Guys lily-livered exploits.

At the time, he was in one of the hideouts the gang used in the early 80's, located in Court Street and belonging to cohort, Stompin Hoss.

Which brings me to the 2nd photo - it's none other than Stompin Hoss himself in one of his many cunning disguises. Also known as Gordon Walker, Fanta, Cresta to name just a few, Stompin Hoss is pictured here at yet another of the gangs hideaways, a shack owned by The Bear.

The identity of his accomplice in shot is known to be Gwen Margetson.

Visible on the wall is more damning evidence, an actual original Raunchy Guys tablature.

So, along with The Bear aka Joe Jordan and Big Musket Teepee aka Al Hendrickx, here's a reminder of what The Raunchy Guys get up to when let loose on us music loving, law abiding citizens down at OK Dundee, an undertaking they code-named "Hoss Prison Blues", the content of which quite clearly mocks authority and the entire judicial system.

The sooner these desperados are rounded up, the better.

But before that, time for a bit of line-dancing before the Sheriff gets here..!!

 

DUNDEE DISCO ACTION - '77 STYLE!

A nice reminder of the kind of local mobile disco action that was going on around town during a typical random week back in March 1977.

Starting at the top - with the I.E. Discotheque getting in the groove up at the Ferry Lounge in the Tay Centre Hotel.

Next up we have the Sweeney's who managed to break loose from the Sands for an evening and take their Venus Ultra Disco for a spin along at the Invercarse Hotel - in the appropriately named Spinney bar!

Dancing around the edge of town, the Scenic 7 Disco were pumping out their beats across at the Longhaugh Hotel.

Off to the Golden Pheasant now to sample the ample sounds of the Deepwater Disco, who were normally to be heard along at the Bowling Alley each week.

The Nine Maidens had an over 20's night when the Neoteric Disco stopped off to spin their selection of vinyl in the Silver Cage.

From silver to chrome and it's back into the city centre we go to boogie on down to the Gemini Disco at the Chrome Rail.

The good thing about mobile disco's was it meant you didn't always have to dress smart and go queue up at the Barracuda every weekend just to have some fun on the dancefloor - the DJ's brought the dancefloor to you sometimes too!

The last item, however, has got me wondering - just how many of the Disc Jockeys who were on the road this particular week, decided to take part in the DJ competition held in Tiffany's the same week?

And who ended up the vinyl victor?!



CRANKED UP ALPHABET - 1982

Here's an amusing take on these well known A to Z charts.
It was published in August 1982, and it being relating mostly to Cranked Up fanzine, those of you familiar with this publication should be able to identify the references based around Dundee's alternative music scene.

THE SCROTUM POLES ROCK FAMILY TREE

The line-up of Glen Connell (Burt Spurt) - Craig Methven (Smeg Pole) - Colin Smith (Stripey Sleep) & Steve Grimmond (Sid Gripple), was the last and most well known of the Scrotum Poles unit.
As you can see in the Scrotum Poles family tree, this is referred to as SP3, which is dead centre of the layout.
I thought it was interesting finding out how the band reached that stage and discovering what happened when the lads all branched off afterwards.
Steve joined SP2 from a band called Tinned Atmosphere, who had Johnny Walker and Brian Anderson in the line-up.
Glen went straight into SP3 after his time playing in Carnoustie based bands.
When the Scrotum Poles time was up, Steve joined AAGA, a band who've been well covered on Retro.
Colin moved on to the Arbroath band, Synthetic Dreams, who have been described as a cross between Ultravox and Talking Heads.
Craig formed Pigs Are Cute, again an act who's had a few mentions here.
After that, when Craig moved to London, he was in a band called The Summerbees, which included bassist Ali Friend who later worked with top acts in the 90's such as Red Snapper, Beth Orton, Chemical Brothers and many others.
Glen, who was also in Pigs Are Cute, joined a band called Twice, who were on a bit of a disco-punk/Pet Shop Boys kind of trip.
He then became a member of cow-punk act Boonie Rats, who released a single at some stage.
Glen got involved with the Hodge twins, Les going on to form Coco And The Bean, and Simon concentrating on DJ work.
The tree could probably be extended even further if you saw it through to the present and included what all the other musicians went on to do, but as it is, this is a neat pollarded version of the Scrotum Poles segment covering approximately the 1978 - 1989 period.
The graphic is quite large, so you can click onto it, zoom in, and have a wee journey along all the connections.
Thanks to Craig for the history lesson.

DUNDEE HEAVY METAL GUIDE - 1981

In Cranked Up #3, back in 1981, there was an entire page devoted to local talent titled "A Guide To Dundee Bands - For The Uninitiated".
It consisted mostly of acts generally tagged as "alternative", many of which have had a mention on Retro in the past.
In amongst the alternative pack, however, were a few bands categorised as being Heavy Metal.
Each band was given a brief description and a score out of 10.
Here's the 7 HM bands who made the list - ASGARD - STARFIRE - SATAN'S EMPIRE - STREET URCHIN - SPEARHEAD & SARCOPHAGUS - PUSH - SILIGON.
Top of the pile was Street Urchin with 7/10, a higher score than many of the alternative bands.
Bottom of the bucket was Spearhead & Sarcophagus with no points, the only zero on the page and who were described as being a heavy metal kiddie band, a music genre I've not been aware of!!
Anyway, I thought they were all worth a gaze on Retro to see if anybody could recall them.
I don't have any other material on these bands, so if someone knows a little something about them, drop the info into the comments.
Or if you have any photos, memorabilia, sound samples etc, feel free to send them into Retro and I'll do a wee feature.

DEADBEAT - FIRST ISSUE - 1982

It's good fun looking back at "first issues" to get a reminder of how they once looked before they became more established, and so here's #1 of Deadbeat fanzine, given away free in August 1982.

The mag's debut was printed out of just one A3 sized sheet folded into quarters, but eventually it became available in a 20 page A5 sized magazine format, which later would cost a whopping 10p!

It's lifespan was 1982 - 1986.

Although it was distributed around the country, the mag's content was generally based around the Scottish alternative music scene, with Dundee getting sizeable coverage.

One reason why Dundee was represented so often was because Deadbeat's main contributors, Alan McEwan (aka Vinny Bee) was at St.Andrew's University and so would often socialise in Dundee and Hilary Smart (previously featured on Retro), went to Art College and lived in town.

They still had to do plenty of whizzing around Scotland to collect material mind you!

An example of how well known Deadbeat had become around the UK, was the time when it was runner-up to Viz on the John Peel show in a feature on alternative publications!

So getting back to the first issue, one Dundee related item in it was the article above announcing the cancellation of The Associates tour. The piece didn't quite fit the xerox machine properly as you can see, but these wee teething problems were soon sorted and later they went on to have one issue which gave away a free flexi-disc, then afterwards there was a series of compilation cassettes featuring demo recordings made by Scottish bands.

Alan has quite recently started up a blog documenting Deadbeat which can be found at this link - http://www.deadbeatfanzine.blogspot.com/

The blog's content is accompanied by lots of amusing "behind the scenes" stories, with, needless to say, Dundee getting a mention quite a lot.

He's also gonna put all those rare recordings that appeared on the cassettes, up on Youtube, so's we can all catch up with them after all that time.

There is even talk of a Deadbeat party later this year to celebrate 25 years of it's death!!

So plenty to keep your eye on throughout 2011.

The good news for Retro is that Alan sent over a few original issues of Deadbeat, so watch out for some more past items on the local music scene cropping up here too!

Big thanks to Al.

HEY! ELASTICA - DANCE FACTORY - 1982

Here's a nice close-up shot of Hey! Elastica playing at Dundee's Dance Factory in 1982.

The venue for the Dance Factory back then was Teazers, at the Royal Hotel in Union Street.

Under the photo is an article from Deadbeat fanzine detailing their debut single which had just been released at the time - and although it mentions the gig date as being the 15th, the gig actually took place on the 14th October '82.

Thanks to Al McEwan.

CLUBBY BANDS RULE OK - 1972

Straight outta the Tully dated 14th January 1972 is this Lounge Bar Entertainments guide for the weekend.
Spoilt for choice or what?!
There are a few wee extra bits of info in the guide itself which you can click onto and read the large version of - but for search purposes, here's the basic lowdown on who was playing and where :
...............................................................................
The Hubara - LYALL DUNCAN QUARTET - DANNY MITCHELL TRIO.
Chrome Rail - TWO'S COMPANY - THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY.
Jimmy Shand - WISHBONE - THIRD EDITION - CAMERON KERR TRIO.
Musket Lounge - ALLY ALCORN & D. THOMS.
Broadway Bar - NORRIE.
Scourinburn Bar - THE TINY TOTS.
The Silver Tassie - JIM & ALEC - THE ABBI LANE TRIO.
Piper Lounge - THE GLEN MAC.
Admiral - THE ESPLINS.
The Longhaugh - EDDY KENNEDY.
Oddfellows Bar - THE TRADE WINDS.
The Heatherbell Lounge - ABBI LANE.
Polepark Bar - THE EVERGREENS.
Charleston Bar - THE MINTED COIN.
Copper Beech Lounge - JIM & ANN.
Dolphin Lounge - THE MHERKIN.
The Kettledrum - THE NEW MILL TRIO.
The Elm Lounge - THE RON GALLAGHER TRIO.
Tayside Bar - ALEC RICE & THE MELODYMAKERS.
Ellenbank Bar - THE NEWCOMERS.
Robin Hood Bar - THE POOR FOLK.
..............................................................................................
My cousin, drummer John Lunan, was in Third Edition, but I was wondering if the "Norrie" that's listed was the later to be, Dean Eastwood?
Anyway, plenty names in there to spark some memories for some of you no doubt. Band-wise and pub-wise.

LEES MACAROON BAR THEME TUNE - 1967

I searched and searched the Internet but couldn't find any commercials from the 60's for Lees Macaroon Bars.
Just like Ricicles, Milky Bars, plus a few others, the tunes used on these kids ads were drilled into our childhood psyche and have since gone on to become fond memories many decades later.
Well I'm pleased to say I had the Lees theme tune in my own collection, and after discovering it's non appearance on the net, I thought I'd do the honours.
The recording below is from May 1967 and is a radio ad for Macaroon Bars using the same tune they had for their TV ads.
Not only will most of you (my age group) recognise the tune, some of you may even be able to sing along to it - "Lees, Lees, more if you please..."
The radio version doesn't actually have the TV ad lyrics because back then Radio Scotland's DJ's still read out the product ads live on air themselves, but you do at least get the same tune along with the DJ's sales pitch.
The image above of the cheery chap pointing to the Lees products is the piccaninny who was referred to in the TV version.
You wont need me to remind you that Lees also made the scrumptious Snowballs, which would then be put into a Squasher (or Skwaashir) and made it so messy as a kid with most of it ending up all over your face. (Cue - tongue trying to clean face, but not long enough to reach the remnants stuck too far away!)
Anyway, possibly for the first time in over 40 years for some of you, here's the original Lees Macaroon Bar theme tune.

THE JUNKIES ROYAL LETTER - 1982

In 1982, Jock Ferguson cheekily sent a cassette of The Junkies to Buckingham Palace suggesting that the band would be available to perform for any forthcoming Royal Gala's planned, should Her Majesty have been looking for a decent trash-glam combo to play for free.
Master Of The Household, Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Ashmore replied on the Queen's behalf with the above letter.
Sadly it was no can do as regards The Junkies bringing their gear down to the palace, but at least their music was given the royal seal of approval when the cassette was returned stating that it was "enjoyable"!
Peter Ashmore was the chap in charge of palace security when that intruder got into the Queen's bedroom, some of you may remember.
This item was published in a fanzine called "Sweet TV Times" - (with the emphasis on TV - if you know what I mean) - and was given out at Junkies gigs.
Click onto it if you need to read the larger version.
Thanks again to the Major.

PEGASUS - MARRYAT HALL - 1975

The guys in Pegasus were still at school when they formed in 1974 - not all at the same school mind you.
Left to right - JOHN MUIR, bass - GORDON McQUILLAN, drums - FRANK MURRAY, vocal - ANDY BUTTER, guitar - WILLIE FORREST, guitar.
John & Gordon were at Craigie High, Frank was a Morgan pupil, not sure what school the other 2 went to but Andy is from Kirkton and Willie is from Ardler.
Although it looks like a gig on top of a giant dressing table, this shot of the band was captured at the Marryat Hall in 1975.
They usually played less plush venues such as community centres, church halls and youth clubs.
I can remember seeing them play at Craigie High in 74. Although it wasn't his normal band image, the dizzy excitement of performing in CHS Assembly Hall saw Frank prance on stage wearing Alice Cooper style make-up! All good fun.
Plenty vigorous tremolo arm action on the guitar solos too I recall!
Can't say for certain how many years Pegasus stayed together but John later had a stint with Erasmic Superfoam, and nowadays has a successful Solicitors firm.
Gordon has provided beats for many bands in the past...(deep breath)... Kandy, The Junkies, The RB's, Tiffany's resident band, Combo Vito, Hoochie Coochie Band, The River Crows, Kick, Midnight Blues Band - and if that wasn't enough, he's also done recording sessions for The Blue Nile and Fiction Factory.
One project he is involved in these days is beating the drum for the Dundee RATT cause.
Frank - well he just decided to dig for gold in Venezuela!
I don't have the lowdown on Andy & Willie, so over to you lot to fill in the remainder.
Big thanks to Willie.

THE FINAL POPAROUND - 1986

Here's the very last ever "Poparound", the local music column written by Toni Scott. This was a regular feature in the weekly Dundee newspaper, The Peoples Journal, with the final issue above dated 11th January 1986.

I'll do a shortened version of the content in the caption for search purposes, but you can read the item in more detail yourselves.

So the main topic is an appearance by ANGEL (in photo), who was doing 2 stints locally, Buddies in the Ferry and the Coconut Grove in town.

Along with the Fat Sams advert listing the weeks events, Toni reminds us that THE MEN THEY COULDN'T HANG were playing that Sunday at the Dance Factory.

Next up is a piece about a gig at the Marryat Hall under the "Jobs For Youth Campaign" banner. Acts taking part were AAGA, BOO HOORAY, CHILLI PEPPERS and JOE PUBLIC.

There's news also of a Reggae Disco at Beez Neez.

Finally, there's an update on a competition where 4 winners were to be going down to London in January with local DJ Tony Cochrane, the prize being to meet PAUL WELLER at his recording studio.

At the bottom of the same page was the other ad for the Dance Factory's forthcoming gigs. The schedule at the time consisted of the following bands - THE MEN THEY COULDN'T HANG, PLAY DEAD, WIN, BLUBBERRY HELLBELLIES and the HOUSE MARTINS.

However, the Play Dead & Win gigs were cancelled, and one of the dates was filled at short notice by DEAF HEIGHTS CAJUN ACES.

I've uploaded the Poparound section "actual size", so give it a click and have a wee read.

By the way, anybody recall what Fat Sams "Back To Front Party" was all about?