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.

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!

EUROPEAN FLAVOURS IN THE 80'S

The top 2 ads are for Don Quixote, the Spanish restaurant in Blackness Road.

First is dated 1981 and 2nd is from 1984.

The reason I put both up was because in the 81 ad it mentions Miguel the chef - but in the 84 one, his name's not there and is replaced by a "dedicated young staff". Well by 1984 there was a new restaurant opened up in Broughty Ferry. It's name? Miguel's. So I'm putting 2 and 2 together here!

In 1980, Le Mirage, on the corner of Ward Road and the Conshie, was indulging in European dishes every Wednesday, a theme they termed "Continental Night", with a variety of cuisine from Italy, Spain and France to choose from.

Since writing the above caption, I have been given photos of Miguel's and they can be viewed in the January 2010 Retro archive.

Here is the link - Miguel's

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!

TRAINEE CHEFS AT KINGSWAY TECH - 80'S

Thought I'd pop this picture up of trainee chefs trying out their recipes over at Kingsway Technical College, sometime around the early/mid 80's - just on the off chance that one of you can spot someone you know.
This was the place to go for further training in your chosen profession - or for the unemployed to have a bit of a skive - this was the era of the YTS Scheme after all!
Wonder how many of the cooks in shot went on to have a successful career in the trade?
Anyway, the other reason for the photo was to lead in to a couple of days worth of food related material.
Tasty old adverts - yum yum!

AAGA CD - NOW AVAILABLE

Now that Christmas time is closing in on us all once again, some of you will no doubt be wondering what to buy off the record tokens you get. Problem solved - treat yourself to this AAGA CD.

The compilation called "The World Makes Me Sad Sometimes", on Rightback Records, is the first time a collection of AAGA's original 80's material has been given an official release, and so a good opportunity to hear for yourself why Factory Records wanted to showcase the band in Manchester at the time.

You'll know by now that I have featured many of  AAGA's cassettes on Retro, all displaying their homemade covers, well keeping the self assembly process going, here above is the CD cover when it was still work in progress at the design stage. The cover visuals were a joint effort by Mike Kane's daughter & son, with the AAGA logo the work of Dundee graphic artist, Nick Wright.

It will of course be available on iTunes and so on.

Finally, below is another reminder of the band's sound, this time from a gig at the Tayside Bar in 1984 -  catching AAGA in one of their more mellow moods.

A gig I was at too!

Thanks to Craig and Brian.

DUNDEE COMPILATION CASSETTE - 1982

Well I've raided just about every tune from this cassette during the course of doing Retro Dundee, but I haven't actually done a feature on the tape itself - so better late than never.

Here is then the extremely rare Dundee Compilation Cassette which was made available locally in the early 80's, and was put together by AAGA Productions.

Musically it consisted of a mixture of alternative, pop, rock, new wave, electronic and experimental - and stating the rather obvious, all the acts were from Dundee.

Rockpile and the Tayside Bar were the places to go to grab a copy.

A review of the cassette was published in local fanzine, The Voice, in 1982, which is the 2nd item above and was given a track-by-track assessment. If you want to read the large version, just give it a click.

While I'm here, I'll squeeze one more track out of it.

Here below is Waiter Waiter with a catchy wee song called "Discipline". 

ACTING TROUPE IN HILLTOWN - 80'S

This is an acting troupe posing near the demolition site of the Tap O' The Steps pub on the corner of Hilltown/Victoria Road, sometime around the mid/late 80's.
That's Alison Burns far right, and possibly Derek Thomson far left but not too sure who the others in her company are.
Just wondering if this might be the group of actors who performed up at the DRCU in the Hilltown before Alison joined the more well known Wildcat cast.
All a bit hazy, but if you think you can supply further details, feel free to drop them into the comments.
Photo by The Bear.

SHOWING UP AT WITCH'S BLOOD - 80'S

The photo on top is of the bearded Alain Breitenbach (AKA Legrand) having a chinwag with the hair chewing Al Hendrickx.

This image was captured behind the scenes at Dundee's large-scale local play - "Witch's Blood".

Which "Witch's Blood" the picture was snapped at, I'm not sure, the original took place in 1987, but as you can see from the other item, a "Witch's Blood 2" happened in 1988.

The article itself is asking if anyone, ANYONE, is interested in mucking in, to get in touch.

 

Photo by The Bear.

BROWN STREET ARTWORK - 1985

Here's a couple of examples of public artwork that sprang up in the 80's, and both done by the same artist.

I took the top 2 pictures in 1985 in Brown Street near the junction of Miln Street.

They are the work of Stanley Bonnar, who is now more known for his sculptures.

The tree shadows were freshly painted when I snapped them but a quick glimpse at the same area on Google Street View shows that although the trees are still there, they have faded quite a bit and the wall itself is rather grubby now.

As for the dog, well it seems that has since been put down.

The bottom image is from a leaflet I have and lets you see what the place looked like when they were side by side.

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.

EDDIE'S STYLE CHANGE - 80'S

This is the same Eddie as seen in yesterdays items, only this time modelling a totally different hairstyle, where he seems to have gone for a John Lydon kind of look.

I just put this image up to subtly flow from fashion to hair, and to kick-start a few days worth of retro salon action!

Photo by The Bear.

PERTH ROAD'S CANADIAN SHOP - 80'S

Those of you who frequented places like the Centre Bar, Club Feet and other youthful dens in town in the 70's & 80's will probably remember (Fast) Eddie Donnelly.

Well after his first trade went bust, he opened up this fashion shop in the Perth Road, the clothing on the racks being stuff he imported from North America.

The shop may have been called Dan Rivers, not 100% sure, although that's a name that crops up on the funky interior design.

Eddies co-owner was George Craigie, and Billy Shaw helped out in the shop - this was sometime around the mid/late 80's period.

Photos by The Bear.

NME FASHION ADS - 70's/80's

On the occasions when you couldn't always find what you were looking for in Dundee shops (which was quite often) and you couldn't always afford to go to London to indulge, then the mail order pages in music papers were a good alternative.

The ones above are all from old NME's I have, so let's tuck in...!!

The top ad is dated 1978 and features gear with a distinctly early 70's look - rugby shirt, cheesecloth shirt, embroidered kurta, loons and smock top.

The next 4 ads are all from 1981 and include a mish-mash of punk, new romantic, rock, new wave and soul boy gear, items such as - PVC breeks, denim jacket, bomber jacket, patch jeans, hardcore punk vest, jack boots (with the ad saying that they make Dr Martens look like ballet shoes!), stud belt & wristband, deck shirt, colonial shirt, Syrian scarf, cavalry shirt, regency shirt, leopard print trousers, stripy jeans, Bowie suit, pirate shirt, boating trousers, army surplus, Hawaiian shirt, tukker boots, and plenty more examples in amongst them.

The last one is dated 1985 and already there seems to be a bit of a retro thing going on in their ad with their mohair jumper, bondage trousers, gas cape, ski goggles, buckle boots, creepers and such like.

I'm sure some of you will have spotted your particular look!

I used to send for the odd item using this mail order route. One from around the 1981/82 period being a "Dread At The Controls" T-shirt. It was pertaining to Mikey Dread's radio show - and I wore that for years!!!

I remember Joe Strummer used to wear one too.

So anyway, it seems quite appropriate to include it here.

Click onto the ads to have a closer inspection.

C&A FASHION - OVERGATE

 

The photo at the top is a wee reminder of how C&A appeared back in the mid 70's - this being the upper level of the Overgate.

In the early 70's, C&A was not exactly a cool shop to go shopping compared to what they had in trendy boutiques. The gents clothing dept for instance sold rather standard stuff - safe, sensible and somewhat boring.

They then came up with a concept in the mid 70's to make them be more hip - "Man At C&A" was their slogan - but the look was still the same corny style stuff in the main.

In the 80's, they did manage to become a bit trendier, the guys had "Avante" and the gals had "Clockhouse", and these ideas did at least catch onto what was going on in street-style fashion.

The first advert is an example of the Man At C&A gear which dates from 1973.

The second is for Clockhouse and is dated 1984.

The third is for younger teenage lassies called Girls In Style, and is dated 1986.

Definitely an improvement on their 70's dreary-wear!

THE PRINCIPAL PLAYER - EARLY 80'S

[THE PRINCIPAL PLAYER
Throughout the ten-year DATA project, Pete Horobin used several names - Principal Player, Acrobat, Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot. The Principal Player was the first born and performed many actions – publicly and privately – in Dundee. These actions invariably examined the ordinariness of everyday activities – politics – improvisation and experimentation. Actions were scripted so that anyone could act out the role of the Principal Player. Scripts were sent through the post to correspondents and put up in Willie Frew’s pub on the Hawkhill.]

Shown above are 3 of the scripts the intro caption refers to.
These were put up on display in Willie Frew's for all to read - or in the case of the top example - scribble over!
Below is a recording Pete made when in Principal Player mode.
It was done at 3.00 a.m in the DATA Attic, using tape machines, a radio and various timpani.
It's called "Star Chant" and he adopts a Robert Wyatt style of vocal on this one while the wheezing, whirring and purring melodious machinery sets the hypnotic ambiance!

Courtesy of The Attic Archive

MIDNITE MASQUE - DEMO TRACK - 1983

This is a good example of the transformation that can take place when a person not only departs from a band, but makes a total departure from a music genre.
When singer, Gordon Band, exited Dundee prog-rockers Colossus in the early 80's, he joined another bunch of rockers called Hologram, an Edinburgh band who ironically were managed by former Colossus manager, John Maguire, for a period. Anyway, although they had a record deal and recorded a full album, as is what often happens with bands, they split soon after.
Gordon, by this time however, was losing interest in rock, especially the way the scene was going with its spandex & hairspray look, and his musical leanings were becoming influenced more and more by sounds from such bands as The Cocteau Twins, The Associates, acts in that kind of alternative territory.
So in 1983, Gordon formed a band called Midnite Masque, which included bassist, Keith Grant, who used to be in punk band, The Freeze.
Below is a demo track from a cassette they made back then, a song called "Back To The Flame", a rather luscious creation with a memorable hook - and quite a giant leap from Colossus!
Big thanks to Gordon Band.

SEVERED ARM APPEARANCES - EARLY 80'S

Recently unearthed photos have surfaced of Dundee alternative band - Severed Arm.

The images all come from around the 1982 period.

Top picture was taken at the Tayside Bar.

Middle shot has the guys striking a pose in the street.

Bottom image is the band on stage at an outdoor festival in Baxter Park.

A reminder of the line-up....Jim Low, vocals - Dave McDonald, guitar - John Anderson, bass - Cass, drums.

And a reminder of their sound....here below is a nifty little number captured at Ardler Community Centre, recorded around the same time as the photos.

A nice bit of chainsaw guitar powering its way through the tune - a song called "Leave Me To My Own Devices".

Big thanks to Dave.