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

WILLIE FREW AND HIS PUB

I thought I'd end this recent short, but cheery jaunt up Hawkhill, with how I started it - a visit to Frew's.

Here's the man himself emerging from behind the pillar.

The picture was taken by Moira Bird who, along with fellow Art College pal, Bob McGouldrick, would go there on Friday nights to sell tickets for the Students Union disco down Hawkhill Place.

Willie was known to slip them the odd free pint when they were broke!

The snapshot was taken around Christmas 1977.

Under it is an item from 5 years later - its final night when the pub was closing down.

This was 24 July 1982 to be precise.

Needless to say it was packed inside, and also outside as well.

Bring up the large version to read by giving it a click.

By the way, I missed out on this one because I was away on holiday in France.

Photo courtesy of Bob.

FREW'S - HAWKHILL - 1978

Here's an image I bet many of you have been longing to see - Frew's on the Hawkhill.
It's another of Neale Elder's photographs, this one though he took when he was only 14 years old, using his first camera, a good old Polaroid.
A few years later when he was doing his Higher Art at Craigie High School, he made a model of this very tenement scene!
I suppose the pub and the location has inspired a few folk like artists and musicians. I know Frew's gets a mention in a poem called "Step Row Nights" written by author/poet Scott Martin.
If you check out the comments on Retro about city pubs I posted on 12th January 2010, the Captain gives the lowdown on a few aspects of the pub as well as the variety of characters who frequented it - a diverse a range as it could possibly be in fact - from the "Carry On" team to Jocky Wilson!
Captains log...
And when Willie Frew wasn't in his pub at 157a Hawkhill, he'd be home at 22 Finavon Place.
Both rather humble abodes for someone who has achieved such legendary status in the history of Dundee pubs!