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.

DUNDEE'S 70'S BRAINIACS

1978 saw Dundee University win TV's "University Challenge".
The winning team above for the 77/78 series were - Tom McGhee - Isabel Morgan - Alistair Thomson - Enid Anderson.
I'm fairly sure this was the Dundee team who had a captain (so it would be Alistair) that answered every single music question that cropped up. What was amusing about it was he always supplied much more information in the answer than Bamber had written on his card, so generating a more enthusiastic applause from the audience each time!

The other quartet underneath is the Craigie High School "Top Of The Form" team of 1974.
This, however, was not the TV version or the radio version of the show, but a general knowledge contest between local secondary schools organised by the Dundee police.
In the photo, L to R - John Muir - Rab Gordon - Richie Robertson - Craig Methven.
CHS got through to the final but were beaten by those pesky swots at Morgan!
The Morgan winning team were - Kenneth Millar - Alex McMichael - Gwendoline Bowden - John Todd.
Thanks to Craig for the CHS snap.

THE SNOWY SEVENTIES

3 shots here that'll make you want to snuggle up in front of a coal fire - all from the 70's, and maybe even the same winter.

Not sure if the guy in the top image is someone in particular, like a well known skier, but I have a feeling that he was an ordinary member of the public who came up with the idea of skiing to work. Which ever it is, he was stopped in his tracks by a photographer up beside the Morgan.

Middle picture, taken along Meadowside, has the traffic sliding tentatively passed the museum.

And the view at Samuel's corner shows that it might have been a better idea to have had a cosy day in that day!

Photos by DC Thomson.

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!

VANISHING VICKY - EARLY 70'S

Another group of photos from the early 70's showing the demolition around Victoria Road.

Top picture is of the upper area of the Vicky.

2nd image, from the edge of the crater, was taken in Charles Street off the Wellgate. The derelict building at the opposite end, was the Kings Road location.

The 3rd view is where the buildings I displayed on yesterdays post would have been positioned.

Lastly, a look back over from the other side - the photographer was standing in Kings Road at the time.

Photos from Gordon C.

McLEISH BROS - ARCADE - EARLY 70'S

One of the well known shops in the city arcade in Shore Terrace was McLeish Brothers, who were a fishmonger/wee grocer.
This used to be the spot of another popular fishmonger, Cantrell's, but McLeish Bros took over in the early 70's, around about the time of this image.
Photo by DC Thomson.

THE OVERGATE SILHOUETTE

A scary tale for Hallowe'en...
I was told this story in the 70's from the girl it happened to, but to be fair, she was tripping on drugs when it occurred!
You remember how the 70's Overgate between Dixon's corner and Boots was often like a wind tunnel - well this one time, because of her hallucinatory condition, the scene had become really exaggerated, and so in her mind she thought she was battling against a powerful storm as she made her way through the passage.
She then spotted a hazy image of a guy in front of her, silhouetted against the light at the end of the tunnel.
As she got closer, she could hear a metallic jingling sound with every footstep he made, and this became louder and louder the nearer she got to him.
By now she had conjured up the image of a Frankenstein monster type of creature, one that had shackles & chains attached to his ankles.
Then when she got right up beside him, that's when she made her horrific discovery!
Here below is a recreation of what the poor lassie was going through - with the real explanation.
Sleep tight..!!!!!

3 GLIMPSES OF CHARLES STREET - 70'S

Here we have 3 shots taken in the early 70's showing the area around Charles Street.

Top image is the upper stretch of the Wellgate with Charles Street junction on the right.
Some of the shops around this location, such as Ken's Bazaar (far right) have called it a day and have the boarding up, while others seem to be hanging on in there just a wee bit longer.
The middle image is from the remains of Charles Street looking back over to the Wellgate. The street itself was connected to Idvies Street which would be further back behind the photographer.
The street sign visible on the building on the left is Charles Lane.
The bottom picture's view from the Hilltown reveals that the demolition work has nearly reached the corner of Charles Street, and so almost the end of its existence.
Photos by Gordon C.

JOHNALAN ADS - 70's/80's



The top Johnalan ad is from 1979 and lets you know the whereabouts of their salons.
You also may have noticed that the image is a merged photo of both John & Alan - John with the mouser, Alan with the beard.
I assume they didn't offer this look to their customers, but it does remind me of the time Jimmy Savile made an appearance on Top Of The Pops in the psychedelic 60's, with one half of his hair white and the other side black!
The middle ad is dated 1984 and just has their Crichton Street salon on it - but it does display their futuristic "Countdown" typeface logo which I've always liked.
As regards their outlandish third ad - well it's not often I'm lost for words on Retro but on this occasion, I'm completely dumbstruck!!
All I can add is that this bizarre creation was published, large sized, in the Tele in March 1977.

PETE HOROBIN AND VAP - LATE 70'S

[THE ACCESSIBILITY OF THE ART OBJECT
1977 - punk exploded in the Scottish cultural landscape Pete Horobin and Harry Nelson hitch-hiked to France. While they travelled - by erratic stops and starts - southwards - they sang those classic lyrics made popular by Plastique Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi. The Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway. Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner. This emotional energy seemed to make everything possible – even hitch-hiking through France!
St Tropez - while lying half-asleep Horobin glanced across a space of a few metres towards a line of nubile – honey-coloured - female bodies - petite triangles covering their sex - nipples erect on pert breasts – oh so inspirational in that moment that he thought he should begin putting his art into a common space where it would have to fend for itself - instead of continuing to place it in the protected environment of a gallery. It is unlikely that naked female breasts alone nourished this epiphany so we have to consider other possible sources of inspiration such as – the very precariousness of hitch-hiking itself and the close proximity of Fluxus artist Ben Vautier in Nice - implying a viral attack.
Whatever – the virus was carried back to Dundee where Horobin began to mass-produce hundreds of small collages. Two hundred of these were distributed to people by a random process which combined an invented code imposed on the local telephone directory. It was extremely unlikely that any of the originals would survive - if any did Horobin reckoned they deserved to become works of art - therefore his criterion for establishing what might be termed a work of art was based upon that item's survival.
Horobin’s tireless activities attracted the attention of two Edinburgh-based artists – Tom Wilson and Dick Ross – who suggested he join them to form Visual Arts Promotions (VAP). The combined energies of Ross & Horobin were formidable – the public’s opinions on Scottish art were recorded in the street – art had to become more socially interactive or die! Products – comics and badges, postcards and books - were packaged like ubiquitous commodities and sold cheaply in commercial galleries.
The complete documentation of The Accessibility of the Art Object and Visual Arts Promotions is archived in the National Library of Scotland and is publicly available by arrangement.]

Some examples of VAP/Pete Horobin product above...
1st - Badge collage.
2nd - Collage drawing.
3rd - Envelope collages.
4th - Page from collage book.
5th - Postcard collages.

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

CLIFF RICHARD - CAIRD HALL - EARLY 70'S

This picture of Cliff Richard on stage at the Caird Hall, probably dates from around the 1972-74 period, judging by the clothing being worn anyway!
He has been to the Caird Hall a few times, but on one of his early 70's tours, he had Olivia Newton John as his guest - not sure if this photo is from that particular show.

LIST-D IN THE PRESS ... AND IN COURT

List-D cropped up on the local music scene in the late 70's.

The band kinda started off as teenage punks music-wise, and as a result their gigs had a bit of a reputation for often ending in fights!

Later in 1980, they tried to develop a more mature sound.

They played locally at venues such as the Junction 9 & Marryat Hall, and sometimes ventured out of town too.

The above photo was taken in 1980 in the spare grounds near the Grey Lodge in the Hilltown area. The Grey Lodge being where they rehearsed. Spot the nifty piece of graffiti in the background!

Line-up, L to R...

Jim Grieves (Sykes), drums.

Mark Stuart (deceased), guitar.

Eddie Harrington, bass.

Dek McHugh aka Zippy, vocals.

This was the band's strongest line-up but a couple of other members came & went - Colin Ramsay, Gordon "Fanta" Walker for example.

Zippy was only 17 at the time of the photo, and left Dundee before he was 18.

The photo was published in the Dundee Standard, and while they were at it, Dek was asked to supply his Top 5 records.

The 3rd article is a report from the time List-D ended up in court.

This was in summer 1979 when they were supporting London band, Beggar, who were doing a mini-tour of East Scotland & Highlands.

After Peely gave the band a shout-out on radio, both bands over-did the celebrations and it all went wrong.

You can read about it yourselves.

Click onto it to bring up the large version.

Many thanks to Dek.

THE BARRACUDA GOOD LIFE - 70'S

The advert from December 1977 is one that cropped up in the Tele on a regular basis back then.

It was for local soulsters, Susan Childe & The Flamingoes, the band who got everyone up on the Barracuda dancefloor.

Hidden away under all the nosh details in the ad, you may be able to spot the Barracuda slogan - "The Good Life".

You will also be able to see the same slogan on the t-shirts the two Barracuda babes are wearing - the lassies posing for the camera in the nightclub in 1978.

Thanks to Yvonne and Marky.

FRANK BOYLE'S DUNDEE ARTWORK - 70'S

Before he became the well known cartoonist he is today, Frank Boyle spent a short time working in Dundee.

He was a student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art from 1970 to 1974, a time when he socialised around the pubs of Hawkhill and Perth Road, often mingling with Skeets Boliver.

From college, he went straight into a job at DC Thomson's where he worked as an illustrator, doing non-cartoon based artwork for the likes of Peoples Friend, Sporting Post, Sunday Post and so on.

Above are 3 examples of his illustrations from his DCT days.

The top 2 feature his portrayal of Dixon Hawke, the detective who appeared each week in the Sporting Post. Some rather nice old-school crosshatching on display there. These 2 are both from 1974.

The bottom example for the Topical Times Football Book is from the same period, with Frank doing the graphic for the ad.

Although he enjoyed the camaraderie of the DCT art dept, he didn't like the thought of being in the same place for 50 years, so he left in 1975 and headed for London.

He actually stayed with a couple of Dundee guys in London, Alan Docherty and Brian Galloway, and so it wasn't too long before Frank found work again, only this time it was with DC Thomson rivals, IPC Magazines!

In the early 80's, he was becoming more politicised and that's when he began drawing topical cartoons, with his work being published in mags such as Labour Weekly and New Statesman.

In the late 80's he returned to Scotland and continued his political cartooning with Glasgow Herald, Scotland On Sunday and Edinburgh Evening News.

Check out Franks website for a fuller and more detailed biog, and also find out what he's been up to after the 80's - such as dabbling in stand-up comedy, his cartoons appearing in a movie, being Cartoonist Of The Year...twice, with plenty of books and exhibitions along the way!

Here's the link -

http://www.boylecartoon.co.uk/

Big thanks to Frank.

LOUIE IN THE TELE - 1972

Some of you may remember this wee fella who used to crop up in the Tele regularly - it's Louie.

This was a syndicated cartoon and his creator, Harry Hanan, kept the strip going for around 30 years up till he retired in the mid 70's, with this particular example dating from January 1972.

Although there was never any dialogue in the strip, somehow you always knew what was being said!

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.