MISSION COMPLETE

That's me done.

My wee offbeat look back at what life was like for my generation growing up in Dundee during the 1960's - 1970's - 1980's has now reached journeys end and so I'm away to put the time-machine back in the garage and chuck the cover back on.

For those of you who find Retro Dundee for the first time after this date, here is a quick overview.

It started up back in summer 2008 and all the items I have posted (over 1300) are still available to view in the Blog Archive running down the left side of the main layout. You can click on the dates to open up the content and you can scroll through the material month by month or by their title. There is also a Search Box top left if you are looking for something specific where you can scroll through the posts it finds.

You'll find a mixture of photographs, adverts, audios, film footage, publications & ephemera on all sorts of subjects relating to Dundee's retro decades - school, fashion, bands, events, pubs, art, sport, restaurants, gigs, shops and on and on. So if you were kicking around town during this period, there's a good chance you'll spot a few things here you'll enjoy seeing again.

You won't find much in the way of official academic historical accounts as this is more of a retrospective trip off the beaten track than an everyday visit to the museum and library.

The majority of stuff has come from my own personal collection but quite a few others have contributed too.

As for the "Followers" who have been keeping their eyes on Retro Dundee for a while, well there will be no more new posts, so I suppose nothing else for you to follow here anymore.

Thanks for visiting it regularly, and also for those who supplied genuine comments, much appreciate the added extra info.

I will, of course, keep Retro Dundee up & running for as long as I'm around, or as long as time will allow, so unless Google's Blogger shuts down or something, Retro Dundee will remain on the Internet to bamboozle researchers & historians and it will still be kept active for you to drop in, send stuff or leave comments.

I'll also keep my Retro email open should anyone want to get in touch - and stating the rather obvious, you'll find the address top left of the layout where it says "Contact".
Remember, it is just the regular daily posts I've stopped, not the site, I will still be continuing to add fresh content to Retro, so keep sending material in - there's lots of gaps to fill..!!

Anyway, can't stay here yacking all day, I've got a ton of other things lined up ready to be cracking on with, so it's time for me to set off for cyber-pastures new and move on to my next bundle of Internet activities.

That's yer lot then.

Eh'll awa now.

GG

P.S. - Check out my other Retro Dundee related sites...

Dundee Band Index - Dundee Gig Time Machine - Tayside Bar - Bruce's - The Bowlin' Alley - Word From Dundee (fanzine archive) - Associates Gigs.

Lots more Retro Dundee music goodies to dip into!

Links to all at top of page.

VIEWS FROM THE ATTIC

Many of you will have had a Viewmaster as a kid, the plastic toy binoculars you put card discs into to view 3D images.
Probably not so many of you had one of these gizmo's above - a slide viewer.
This was more of a photographers specialist gadget than a toy, allowing you to view photographic slides through a magnified lens. You'd pop the slide into a slot in the top, it would light up inside and you were able to see the slides like ordinary photographs, something you couldn't do with the titchy slides on their own.
This is our family one dating from around the late 60's/early 70's - a Halina Paramount Viewer to give it its full name.
This, along with a big bundle of original slides were found in our attic just a few years ago, after having been hiding there for over 3 decades. I actually thought the slides had been thrown out many years ago because I hadn't seen them since the 70's, so it was a great surprise when they resurfaced after all that time.
It was this recent find that after viewing the content, I thought would be worthwhile sharing on the Internet, because these were the original slides that contained those 70's aerial shots around Dundee, the David Bowie concert, Victoria Road demolition an so on.
So here - many still in their original Agfacolor box - are some of the slides that kick-started me into doing Retro Dundee in the first place.

ARNCHORY IN THE UK

A couple of publications I'd have been lost without during the course of doing Retro, were the old Dundee Directories and old street maps.
The directories have been particularly useful because they list all the shops, pubs, schools, businesses and so on - a very handy aid for fuzzy memories!
I have 3 in my collection, 1966, 1970 and the 1974 one in the photo above, which was the final year of their print run.
Having said that, despite the fact that many of us depend on such official publications for research and fact finding, I've discovered you can't always totally rely 100% on what they print.
Take for example, the street map in the photo dating back to the beginning of the 60's. When I was having a wee look around my old stomping ground - Craigie - I couldn't help notice what appears to be a spelling mistake. The road connecting Aboyne Avenue to Balerno Street, I've always known as BANCHORY Road - but they have it down as ARNCHORY Road, as you can see by my red arrow. They also have it listed in the map index as Arnchory as well.
Forward wind 2 decades to their 1983 map and by heck they still haven't sorted it out properly - now they've printed it out as BARNCHORY Road..!!
Looks like the Geographia Cartography office would have benefited by employing a Dundee taxi driver to help them out!

Since writing the above caption, the entire map has been scanned in and pieced back together again.
So if you want to download the 1960 map for your own research, here is the link... 1960 Dundee Map
It weighs in at 20MB and is good enough quality to zoom in and view all the detail up close.

RETRO ADVERT ARCHIVES

I've put dozens & dozens of local ads up on Retro over the years which have been really useful when referring to a place I don't have any photos of.

There are quite a lot of old publications you can find ads from the past in, obvious ones like a Courier, Tele, football programme, What's On mag, theatre programme, school mag and so on, but the 2 sources I have probably raided the most are Gladmags and Official Dundee Guides.

Above are a sample of some of the 60's to 80's ones I've been dipping into.

GATHERING WINTER FUEL ITEMS

Continuing with the fuel theme (minus coal) here's a few bits & pieces from the past you may remember.

First up is a 1968 photo of the Shell & BP Scotland depot down at the Stannergate. This was a modern installation at the time and had a total storage capacity of 9,000 tons. 8 delivery tankers could be filled simultaneously. Not a place to visit if you smoked!

"High Speed Gas" was a slogan used by the Scottish Gas Board, with the ad above dating from 1968, and a reminder that the Dundee showroom could be found in the Overgate.

You didn't need to have coal to have a fireplace of course, and by the mid 80's, imitating real coal fires was a popular alternative. The next 2 ads competing with each other selling these effect fires are both dated 1986 - Dundee's Fireplace Boutique in North Street and the Fire Surround Centres in Arbroath Road & Broughty Ferry.

Finally, yet another alternative fuel was paraffin, and this badge of mine goes way back to the 60's. No idea if the wee earless elephant creature had a name, but the freak didn't seem to put people off buying the pink stuff!

IT'S ONLY DROSS 'N' COAL BUT I LIGHT IT

So the coal lorry on yesterdays photo got me raking around for a few related items, because many of us who were brought up in the 60's/70's had coal fires or relatives who did.

Oor hoose in Craigie did, complete with coal bunker for our weekly delivery, and the wee indoor accessories like scuttle, poker, brush and fire-guard.

Above are a few reminders from those days.

Smith Hood & Co, the coal merchant, was on the corner of Union St & Whitehall Cres, with the photo of their premises taken in 1960.

James Hood was also in Union St, a few doors up at #28. He dealt with solid fuel, oil based fuel and chuckies! Their ad is from 1968.

The T.Muir, Son & Patton ad is also from 1968 and are highlighting the fact that they have moved away from the old horse & cart days onto a new modern lorry fleet. The photo of them in action in the ad was taken across from the Queens Hotel.

Ingram's place was in Kings Road on the corner of Whitton Street. They came up with a puntastic slogan - "The GRATE Corner". They weren't a coal dealer but they made your fireplace surrounds, installed your boiler and so on. 1966 is the date of the ad.

One of the aspects of having a coal fire was that it meant you had to have your chimney swept regularly, and chimney sweeps were quite common in the 60's. They would cover the fireplace with a big black cloth, stick their bristly brush through the cover and would add extension poles to it until it eventually poked out the top of the chimney pot. Because of all the soot involved, most of the guys looked like they were in the Black & White Minstrels!

However, I managed to find a wee ad in a 1972 Tele that would seem to do away with chimney sweeps - a product called "Imp Soot Destroyer". It says you just drop a packet onto a burning fire. No idea what happened after that!

Probably the majority of Dundonians had changed over to alternative heating systems by the 80's, so not much call for coal from then on.

FOOD ADVERTS - FULL OF EASTERN PROMISE

Here's 5 local ads offering a variety of tasty grub from the East that I'm sure many of you will be familiar with.

Starting off at The Far East in Mains Loan. This was their Christmas menu they had up in December 1977. 6-course for 3 quid - not bad at all.

The Gunga-Din ad looks as if it is from the hippy 60's, but this is actually dated 1981. At one stage, this restaurant in Perth Road was considered to serve the best Indian meals in Scotland, not just Dundee!

The Hong Kong ad IS from the 60's - 1968 to be exact. A rather popular place it was too, with both food and music available at their well known spot in the Seagate.

Across the road from the Hong Kong was The Himalaya. It doesn't say so in this ad dating from 1977, but I'm sure they put on music too sometimes.

Rounding things off with the Peking in Perth Road - and an ad from 1988. I think this place is still on the go but perhaps ought to be called the Beijing by now!

HAPARANDA DEMOLITION - MID 70's

I have put up a couple of items on Retro in the past showing the buzz there was at the Haparanda in Arbroath Road - the haven for Dundee's fashionable youth in the 60's.

Well here below is some film footage showing the moment in the mid 70's when the building was demolished.

The shop to the right of The Hap was Grossett the butcher and Andrew G Kidd was the baker on the left of it on the corner of Baffin Street.

The area has of course since been rejuvenated into...er...a car park!

ANTI BULLYING AD - 1966

Some of you may remember ads like this cropping up in boys comics such as Rover, Tiger and so on, back in the 60's. They always depicted men rather than boys in them - another one for example was the body building ads for Bullworker. I think they were trying to make sure us boys grew up big and strong so we were able to defend ourselves when the occasion arose.

This one above is dated 1966 and was for a variety of books containing different courses to try out - things like Ju Jitsu, Self Defence, Karate, and a few others in that territory.

However, there are also a couple of courses in there that has got me wondering how they can help you when you are being bullied - books on Stamps and Typing?!!

Then again, I suppose if you chucked your Olivetti typewriter at your assailants noggin, it could do a bit of damage!!

BRIDGE DAY - CITY SQUARE - 1966

They brought out the Royal banners in order to tart up the city square, the day the celebrations for the official opening of the Tay Road Bridge were taking place - so these photos were taken on 18th August 1966.

The top image is from the city square looking over at the old Overgate. Quite rare to see photos of the original Overgate in colour. The construction of the 2nd version of the Overgate (the concrete one) was well underway in '66, but you can't see any of the building work that's taking place, in shot.

In case you're wondering, the ad on the side of the red van is for Fish Fingers.

The middle picture is a similar view, but from slightly further down the square.

A nice array of classic 60's cars on display, as well as a wee reminder of the VG van.

The bottom image shows more banners, this time from the other side of the square - and judging from the eye catching black car in the foreground, it looks like they invited Batman!

Click onto the photos to enlarge if you want to have a look around.

Photos from Gordon C.

OLD SCHOOL BUS - 60'S

Remember these?

Well many of you who went to school in the 60's probably do.

They were the buses that used to pick up the handicapped school kids.

The minibuses were grey and had "Corporation of Dundee Education Committee" on the side.

When we went to Balerno primary in the 60's, one of these buses used to pass us daily, down Banchory Road and along Balerno Street, picking up the kids who needed special treatment.

You couldn't help feel sorry for them mind you, while at the same time reminding yourself how lucky you were to have your full health.

Not that us able bodied kids had it all easy.

I remember the pupils who wore metallic callipers on their legs. Then there were some who had the big pink hearing aid. The majority of specs worn were the wire penny roonders, which often had one lens covered up with elastoplast due to their lazy eye. When we did P.E. that's when we discovered some kids had verrucas, ganglions and chilblains. Not forgetting those who had lice or the ones who breathed with snot bubbles popping out and in. There were also guys who would regularly faint, but only when at assembly. I also recall we had our fair share of pee-the-beds and keechy breeks.

Ah yes, it's all coming back now.

And just remember - we were the lucky ones!!

SUMMERTIME TOYS IN THE 60'S

These outdoor toys were the kind of thing you'd treat yourself to during the 7 weekies rather than add to your Christmas list.

The top Air Base ad is from 1969 and is for 2 styles of aircraft - a glider and a propeller based plane.

I can remember these. They were sold in newsagents as well as toy shops and came in long paper packets. You just assembled them yourself with the plane parts interlocking together. They worked really well too.
However, because they were made out of balsa wood, and what with boys being boys, they didn't have a very long life. The good thing was though, that once one was smashed, you'd just go buy another one because they were pretty cheap.

The Jetex ad is from 1966 and is for 2 different products - the Jet Car and the Hydroplane.

These were proper toys (not like the previous disposable type) with solid bodies and motors.

I didn't have these particular models but I have a hazy memory of other boys mucking about with fast modern vehicles, so they may very well have been these Jetex ones.

Perfect summer fun for primary aged kids.

FREE GIFTS FOR KIDS - 60'S & 70'S

Youngsters do like to get their grubby mitts on free stuff.

Here's how us school kids got some of ours back in the 60's & 70's - as gifts in comics.

I'm sure you'll remember some of the ones shown above.

The Super Skimmer and the Wiz Whizz were the same thing, only different names, but they were plastic rotor blade wheels that used either lollipop sticks or elastic bands to get them spinning off into the air.

Toys that made noises were popular.

The Red Racketty was on a length of line and spun around over your head, the toy emitting a rasping buzzing noise in the process.

Thunder Bangs were great - just a swift downwards swipe to set off the loud bang.

I remember we made Thunder Bangs as part of crafts in Primary.

Then there was the Pop Gun of course, with its plastic plug to get the popping noise.

Balloons were also used for their sounds, coming in all shapes & sizes & names, fitted with plastic valves that made the balloons rasp when let fly around in the air.

As well as the Beezers Flying Fizzer above, the Beano also had the Flying Snorter and the Screamin' Demon.

There were whistles too - the Whoopee Whistle and the Happy Howler that made siren noises.

An annoying one was a toy called the Clicketty Clicker which was a hollow metal object with the image of Dennis The Menace on it, and when pressed in & out, made the clicking sound. Not a fave with parents!

The Whizzer & Chips was already 2 comics for the price of 1, but they also gave away free stuff, the one above being for a Flick Book.

Again, we used to do our own versions of flick books by drawing wee animations on the corners of our jotters.

Many of the gifts that were specifically for girls were adornment based items, while the boys were catered for in other comics with football related freebies.

So there's just a small selection of stuff we got for free when we were kids, generating lots of mucking about in the playground and at home.

TONY VINCENT - LIVE - 1964

 

Tony Vincent was actually born in London but moved to Dundee aged 11 in 1952.

He started singing aged 17, doing turns in local dancehalls.

Then he turned professional aged 18 when forming local band, The Men Of Mystery (aka The Mystery Men).

He followed that up by touring UK in the Basil Kirchin Band.

When in Ayr, Tony won a UK singing contest, with a recording contract as top prize which lead to him releasing his solo single "I'm Never Going To Fall In Love Again" in 1961.

Tony was performing solo and sang with a variety of bands throughout 1961 & 1962 such as The Giants, The Monarchs and The Men Of Mystery (who reformed in Oct 1961).

The Men Of Mystery later became resident band on Scottish TV series "Teenbeat" in 1963 with Tony also having a solo spot on the show.

Tony & The Men Of Mystery had a successful tour of South Africa in 1963 and when they came back, they became Rolf Harris's backing band when Rolf toured Scotland for 2 weeks.

Tony also appeared in the band The Teenbeats, who were one of the support acts during The Beatles tour of Scotland in '63.

The Men Of Mystery & Tony then split and Tony went to Hamburg in 1963 where he teamed up with The Giants again.

As a result, The Giants, with Tony, released a single and a live album in 1964, recorded at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg.

After that busy start to his career, he seemed to then just settle for entertaining around the local pubs.

This live album track here, called "Matchbox", captures the gig atmosphere pretty well...

RADIANT HEALTH CENTRE POSTER - 60'S

The Radiant Health Centre was in the City Arcade in Shore Terrace, and here we have one of their posters from the 60's advertising some of the products they had on offer.

The items promoting healthy living were a combination of therapeutic goods, such as the kind used for rheumatism, pain relief, coughs etc, and the other variety were vitality concoctions such as health foods, diet aids, vitamin pills, bath salts and so on.

They were doing really well with their health-giving sales pitch, and then they went and ruined it by flogging home-brew kits that would leave you with cirrhosis!

I've posted it large size so you can zoom in and have a read.

Just give it a click.

Thanks to Brian Wilson.

BOB MACKAY'S - WESTPORT - 1960'S

Officially, this pub was called The Great Northern Bar, but the locals who drank there just referred to it as Bob MacKay's.

The photo was taken in the 60's at a location that no longer exists - the corner of Westport & North Tay Street.

For those of us (like me) who didn't socialise until a little later in the 70's, this spot here was the big car park space beside the Barracuda.

At the time of the photo however, it was the JM Ballroom that was just a few doors up from it, so needless to say, despite it being considered a bit of an old mans pub, the young set would often pop in for a couple of pints before nipping along to the JM.

The pub, along with the rest of corner area, was demolished in 1968.

Photo from Gordon C.

VIEW UP THE WELLGATE

What - no boarded up windows? That means this is a rare colour photo of the old Wellgate when all the shops were still open for business. Wowee!

This would have been taken around the late 60's then.

I can't name all the premises but going up from Boots on the right is - next door, Whyte's pub on the corner of the entrance to Bain Square. Massey's grocer and Hunter's household goods were in the next section up as far as the Kirk entry area, then up from that is British Relay and Watt's music shop. Can't really see much beyond that.

So crossing the road coming back down - I'm fairly sure that's a pub sign above where the 2 guys are - if so then that would be the Forester Arms Bar on the corner of Baltic Street. Can't make out the shops in the section down from it but that takes you onto Meadow Street with another couple of unknowns before it reaches LS Chalmers drapers and Malone Shoe Repairs. Coupar's Alley has Nelson Confectioner on the other corner and finally the bloke standing on the chair is outside the Wellgate Snack Bar.

If ever the phrase "A Trip Down Memory Lane" can be taken literally, then the old Wellgate is the place that does it best for me!

Click onto the image to enlarge and have a look around.

Photo from Gordon C.

VIEW DOWN LOGIE STREET

I don't have the exact year this scene was captured but this is what the view down Logie Street was like around the late 60s-early 70s, a lot of which has since disappeared.

The car in shot is a Ford Escort which were introduced in 1968 so the picture wouldn't be any earlier than that.

The Astoria Theatre can be seen in the middle of the photo but it's difficult to make out if it is still open for business or closed down. According to the Tele supplement I posted up 2 days ago, the Astoria shut its doors in 1971.

Ach well, at least the Logie Bar is still in the same spot today, so that's something that hasn't changed!

Photo from Gordon C.

DUNDEE'S ENTERTAINMENT DUO

Here's a couple of Dundee big shots who were responsible for organising much of the entertainment in town during the retro decades.

Top one is Murdie Wallace, who, in the 60's when this photo was taken, owned the JM Ballroom, which later in the 70's became the Barracuda and then the Coconut Grove into the 80's.

Meanwhile back in the mid 70's, the Wallace family took over the Palais transforming it into Samanthas disco before it then changed into Bloomers.

So although we rarely saw the man himself, lots of us did spend quite a bit of dosh in Wallace owned nightclubs.

The other photo was taken in the 80's and is John McGuire, manager of the Caird Hall. So again, he would have been working away behind the scenes out of the publics gaze, booking all the acts who we all queued up to see perform live on stage.

He also managed a few local bands, Colossus being one I can recall, and I guess this must be the same John McGuire who showed up as one of the judges in a local talent contest that became known as the "Tiffany's Farce", which I've already mentioned on Retro in April 2009.

Incidentally, that's a photo of Doris Collins on Big J's notice board, and her act back then was "contacting the other side".

I can think of one or two bands who have died on stage!!

MW photo by DC Thomson.

JMcG photo by The Bear.

LYON & SHERRIFFS AD - 1963

 

I must admit, this is one record emporium I know nothing about!

Lyon & Sherriffs Gray Street shop in the Ferry.

As a consequence of knowing nowt about the shop, I don't have any info to pass on other than, the reason they are highlighting The Beatles in their ad is because this was published in the local press on the night the Fab 4 were playing at the Caird Hall in October 1963.