UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS - 1981

Broughty Ferry wanted a piece of the action, live band action that is, and so Upstairs Downstairs cropped up on the scene to provide such a venue.
I have no images or ads of their place in Erskine Street, but I do have these 2 articles from a 1981 Cranked Up.
Top piece is a short review of Upstairs Downstairs, describing the sewing machine tables they had.
The one below it tells of the time The Grip played there, and in particular the moment the van carrying the band's gear crashed into the canopy above the main door!
Luckily the landlord wasn't there to witness it!!
You should be able to read it ok as it is, but if you're struggling, just click it to get the large version.

INTERVIEW WITH THE GRIP - 1982

Roy Terre (Reuters - get it?) from Deadbeat mag, had a chinwag with The Grip down at the Tayside Bar in late '82.
Jim Grieve & Ross Ramsay were the 2 band members who answered the questions.
Lots of info supplied on the band (they started off as Tender Grip) as well as giving an insight into their future plans.
I like the fact that Jim name-drops The Ruts, Misty In Roots and Talisman as influences, rather than UB40.
Although The Grip and UB40 ended up in similar musical territory, if you dig deeper than the superficial parity, you can can see that their backgrounds would have been entirely different.
UB40, Birmingham - a huge black community, reggae record shops in abundance, reggae clubs, established sound systems, pirate stations blasting out reggae & dub all day, all this on their own doorstep.
The Grip, Dundee - ....er....zilch! No black community to set the scene, no clubs, even finding a reggae record was a needle in a haystack job. So all their learning, know-how and enthusiasm would have had to be gleaned from ploughing through the music papers, listening to the odd radio programme (Peely) and travelling to major cities to visit reggae clubs, see bands and grab records.
The Grip's was a much tougher task from the outset in comparison to UB40.
I for one, doff my giant rasta hat to them for giving it a really good go.
Click item to read the large version.

THE GRIP - KEEPING THE PEACE

Last March, you may recall I put up the B-side of The Grip's single, a dubby instrumental called "Musicland Pt 2". Well here is the A-side, a catchy vocal track called "Keeping The Peace". This was released in 1982 by the way.
Band line-up reminder - RONNIE CHALMERS lead vocal/guitar - NEIL FORBES sax/percussion/vocals - DAN STEWART trumpet/percussion - JIM GRIEVE drums/percussion - ROSS RAMSAY bass - KENNY BLAIR keyboards.
There is some particularly fine trumpet work in this, in my opinion. Reminds me of Donald Byrd a wee bit.
Anyway, they were a great band live on stage. I remember on the odd occasion when the mood grabbed him, Jim Grieve (Sykes) would take over the mic and burst into some improvised old-school Jamaican "toasting", with a Dundee slant! The band would then really go to town backing him up with some mad dub effects and a percussion frenzy that would go on for ages!! A very entertaining way to end the set!!
Lots of band memorabilia from all over the UK to spot in the slideshow too.
Big thanks to DD.

THE GRIP - CLUB FEET AD

An ad from 1983 for The Grip playing at Club Feet.
Club Feet was part of the Tay Centre set up in Dock Street and was the upstairs nightclub previously called Junction 9, with the Club Feet transformation taking place in 1982.
Talking about 9 and looking at The Grip ad - 9 on stage must have been a bit of a squeeze!
Thanks to DD

AN OVERVIEW OF THE GRIP - 1982

This piece written by Jock Ferguson is an account of the general state of play with Dundee reggae band, The Grip, who at the time (early 1982) had made changes to the band line-up and were trying out new material live before going into the recording studios.
It includes a bit of background info, a brief interview and a smashing photo of the lads!
Click it to read it.

TAYSIDE BAND CONTEST - TIFFANY'S - 1981

Here's an interesting night that was going on at Tiffany's in the Nethergate in April 1981. A competition to see who was Tayside's no1 band. Unfortunately, apart from The Grip, I don't know who else was participating or who won it, so if anybody has any info on the contest, feel free to pass on the details in the comments.
In the 70's, Tiffany's had a bit of a nasty reputation for being a place notorious for fights. I remember visiting it around 77 just to assess it for myself. Think I stayed for 1 hour in which there were about 3 scuffles, so scarpered and never went back. Amusingly, an anagram of Tiffanys is - ANY TIFFS - yeah, loads!
The place did try to get a change of image around 1980 in which putting on events such as this helped.
Still involved doing battle though!
Thanks to DD.

THE GRIP AT BLAZERS - 1982

Another reggae night at Blazers organised by Gripping Youth and this time featuring The Grip.
Not quite sure why it says "Leather Jackets Not Allowed". Don't recall any Hells Angels running amok in the city in 82!
Blazers opened in 1981 but was only in business for a couple of years despite having a licence up to 1985.
Did you know that in it's former life the place that became Blazers used to be a Masonic Lodge? It's full title was - "The Ancient Order of Buffalo's Meeting Rooms".
I remember being in there in the mid 60's too for a Christmas party, a works do organised by Charlie Gray. I got a book about Cowboys & Indians from Santa!
Cue - Buffalo Soldier!!
Thanks to DD.

GRIPPING YOUTH REGGAE CLUB - BLAZERS

Blazers reggae disco was located in a wee Pend in Victoria Road, quite near to the Vic cinema, in the early 80's.

I can remember being at this very gig in 1982, because before there were any reggae clubs in Dundee, I used to visit the Ital Club in Edinburgh regularly, and Papa Swi was the DJ.!
Papa Swi's girlfriend used to be on the door there, and when I visited I used to keep asking her when they were going to bring their Sound System to Dundee.
And so after a couple of years passed, they did indeed eventually visit Blazers - this of course was organised by Dundee's Gripping Youth rather than me, and once again the same lassie was on the door!!
Papa Swi had a fantastic record collection and one mighty Sound System, and often during his sessions he'd mix in an array of sound effects to enhance the dub sequences, such as echo machines, sirens, ricochet drum loops and so on. Wicked.!!...as we used to say back then. Right up my street in fact...or in Blazers case...Pendie!!

The article announcing the gig is from Deadbeat fanzine.
Thanks to DD for the ticket.

THE GRIP'S TAYSIDE BAR FLYER

From the early 80's - this flyer for a gig taking place in August may very well be the one The Grip used to advertise their gig featured in yesterday's post.
Everyone in the photo is wearing summer shirts anyway!!
Thanks to DD.

THE GRIP - TAYSIDE BAR - EARLY 80'S

Here's The Grip dropping some live reggae & dub down at the Tayside Bar in the Seagate in the early 80's. A place where I saw them play a couple of times myself.

The crowd participation on this occasion would appear to involve the use of Rizla papers and filling the room with herbal aromas..!!

For a reminder of the The Grip in full flow, you can backtrack to the March 2009 Archives and give them a wee blast.

Thanks to DD.

THE GRIP - PROMO AD - EARLY 80'S

Described on this promotional ad as playing "jute mill reggae", The Grip did indeed bring the sound of Jamaica to Dundee in the 80's, playing various venues around town.

It also mentions their single called "Keeping The Peace" which was recorded in Edinburgh at Wilf Smarties Planet Studio.

The photo of the lads splashing about with their troosers rolled up was taken in that far off exotic location...The Barracuda!!

You'll probably need to click on the image to read the large version of it.

I've got a bundle of great Grip stuff coming up, so the guys are gonna be hoggin' Retro Dundee for the next couple of days.

Thanks to DD.

DUNDEE ON VINYL #3 - THE GRIP - 1982

The Grip are probably the only reggae band to have come out of Dundee, well certainly during this era anyway. I can remember catching them play a few times around town in the early 80's.

This single, "Keeping The Peace" they recorded over in Edinburgh in May '82 with well known producer, Wilf Smarties.

Band line-up is - Ronnie Chalmers, guitar & vocals - Neil Forbes, sax/percussion/vocal - Dan Stewart, trumpet/percussion - Ross Ramsey, bass - Jim Grieve, drums/percussion and Kenny Blair, keyboards.

On the back of the record sleeve in amongst their "thanks to" list are J.T.Forbes music shop, and Brian Sinclair who ran the Tayside Bar, one of the venues The Grip played.

I have picked out the B-side of the single, an instrumental track called "Musicland Part Two". Reason I opted for this is because near the end they indulge in a bit of dub, which I'm particularly partial to. Dub is usually considered being a mixing process done in the recording studio, but The Grip used to be able to do this live on stage using a combination of copycat loop machines, drum machines, echoplex pedals and bunch of other gadgets & gizmos. The wilder it was the more I enjoyed it!

Give it a wee listen and get a taster of summer in Dundee in 1982.