POOR SOULS RARITIES - MID 60'S

This is a picture of Dundee band, The Poor Souls, photographed in 1965.
It's a typical kind of publicity shot, which cropped up in a national music magazine - and at the time of the photo, the band were promoting their debut single released on Decca, which I have already featured on Retro.
Under it, is a typical gig the band would be playing at that time too - this one at the Masonic Hall, Crieff, in September 1965.
However, this show was not your typical night out with the band, because during their performance, and incident happened in which main man, Doug Martin, ended up later, being fined for assault!
Their van was also vandalised after the gig.
No encore that night then!
Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to play another track of theirs, this time from 1966 and on Dundee's own label - ALP Records.
So here's Thi Pare Sowls with the B-side of the single, a track called "Please Don't Change Your Mind".

THE VIKINGS ON ALP - 1966

Last month, I put on a recording released on Dundee based label, ALP. The single by Andy Lothian was an example of the label's traditional Scottish music output. ALP also chose to put out records by hip young beat groups, and this one by The Vikings, was the label's 11th record, released in September 1966. The song called "Bad News Feeling" features the groovy sound of an electric harpsichord, which were all the rage in the mid to late 60's.
3 Dundee guys in The Vikings - Mike Fraser & Donnie Coutts, are the 2 at the front in the band photo, and Drew Larg is centre at the back. The other 2 are, on the left, Doug Wightman, and of course on the right is Alan Gorrie of Average White Band fame.
The ad is dated June 1966.

DUNDEE ON VINYL #1 - ANDY LOTHIAN - 1966

Dundee based entrepreneur, Andy Lothian, who used to put on gigs at the Palais as well as have his own jazz band, also ran a local record label called ALP (Andy Lothian Promotions). The label had a total of 11 releases, all dated 1966.
The musical content of the singles was split into 2 categories, Scottish traditional bands and modern beat groups.
The first 7 inch single - #001 - was by The Red Hawkes, and the final 45 - #011 -was by The Vikings.
This one here from my record collection is #006 - actually by Andy Lothian himself. Well it says Andy Lothian, but I'm not certain of the band line-up. You see there was Andy Lothian junior (of ALP and East Coast Jazz Men) and Andy Lothian senior, his father who had a dance band. The track is the traditional Scottish tune "John Anderson, my Joe", which would suggest AL senior. AL senior was a violinist and the tune here has lead violin, but at the very end of the track you can hear a couple of wee jazzy chords. So I have always thought that it could be a father and son collaboration. The record does say AL junior arranged & produced it.
The B side is called "Piper o' Dundee".
You can hear it yourself below, even if it is a bit worn now!

ALP RECORD ADVERTS - 1966

These 3 ads for Andy Lothian's ALP Records were all published around summer / autumn in 1966.
The releases were kind of split into 2 categories - the pop/blues/folk/jazz stuff and the traditional Scottish material.
Some Dundee acts were involved needless to say - The Poor Souls, Peter & Alison, John Huband and Andy Lothian too.
ALP hooked up with Polydor Records and got a good deal with them running the behind the scenes activity - management, promotion, publicity, advertising, distribution etc.
The first record put out on ALP was by The Red Hawks which got to number 1 in Radio Scotland's pop chart, and it also made it into Radio London's top 40.
At the time of the adverts, the latest ALP release was by trendy Glasgow band, Studio Six.

PETER & ALISON'S TAY BRIDGE RECORD - 1966

To coincide with the opening of the Tay Road Bridge in 1966, Dundee duo Peter & Alison, released a single called "Highway O'er The Sea".
It came out on Andy Lothian's ALP record label.
For the record cover photo-shoot, it seems they got the brand new bridge all to themselves!
The advert for the single was published in a national music paper in August 1966.
To read a bit about them and the record, you can click onto the article above which dates from September 1966.