THE CHALET - BROUGHTY FERRY

The Chalet Roadhouse, to give it its full name, opened way back in the 30's.
Located along the waterfront area of Broughty Ferry, it has always been a place to go to see bands and go dancing.
On it's opening night on 16 Nov 1933, the band entertaining was Bobby Clark And His London Band.
Forward-wind a few decades and here's an ad for a do at the Chalet for the Grove FP Hockey Club.
The dance, held on 11th April 1970, featured the resident band and a group called The Three Of Clubs.
Later in the mid 70's, the place was transformed into the Sands discotheque, and the dancing continued.

COCONUT GROVE - 1980's

Another well known Dundee flamingo was this neon one above the entrance to Coconut Grove.

The 2 palm trees were actually on a back wall about 30ft away from the main sign above the door, although you wouldn't think it from the top night shot.

This "Coconut Grove" logo design was repeated throughout the interior of the disco - having it stenciled in black on the white walls like urban graffiti.

After a couple of years they decided to ditch the word "Coconut" and opted to just call it "The Grove".

In the advert above dated November 1984, Tarzan is letting it be known that admission is free before 11.00 pm, only, it's not Jane he's talking to, it's Fiona..!!??

But how would he manage to get in dressed like that?

I mean, he's not wearing a tie..!!

They occasionally had celebs visit the disco, and one such example is well known DJ, David Jensen, who was guest there in January 1986.

He was more commonly known as Kid Jensen when he was with Radio 1, but he ditched Kid in favour of David just before he moved to Capital Radio.

DANNY WILSON IN DUNDEE - 1980'S

Collectively they were known as Danny Wilson, individually they are (L to R on photo) Kit Clark, Gary Clark and Ged Grimes. This image of the band signing autographs in the Coconut Grove in Marketgait was taken in December 1987. Getting the bar all to themselves, just a perk of the job!

The band's first small step began by busking around Dundee in the mid 80's, and it was quickly followed by the giant leap of charting around the globe in the late 80's.

Although the band called it a day in the early 90's, all 3 are still involved in music today. Gary, who now lives in Los Angeles, is a composer & producer working with a variety of well known recording artists. Kit is doing his thing with his band, The Swiss Family Orbison, and Ged composes music for computer games as well as playing bass in the present Deacon Blue line-up.

 

Getting back to 80's Dundee, below you can hear a recording of the band at a gig in the Caird Hall on 16th September 1989. The track, their hit single, "The Second Summer of Love".

Big thanks to Eddie and the DW3.

Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG

THE GROVE - MARKETGAIT - 1980's

This well known disco location became the Coconut Grove in March 1984. Previously the Barracuda, it was renamed this when it came under new ownership and a £1/4 million face-lift.
After a couple of years they opted to drop the name "coconut" and it became known just as "The Grove", as in the above picture.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.