THE SNOWY SEVENTIES

3 shots here that'll make you want to snuggle up in front of a coal fire - all from the 70's, and maybe even the same winter.

Not sure if the guy in the top image is someone in particular, like a well known skier, but I have a feeling that he was an ordinary member of the public who came up with the idea of skiing to work. Which ever it is, he was stopped in his tracks by a photographer up beside the Morgan.

Middle picture, taken along Meadowside, has the traffic sliding tentatively passed the museum.

And the view at Samuel's corner shows that it might have been a better idea to have had a cosy day in that day!

Photos by DC Thomson.

CITY CENTRE BALLOONS - 1980'S

A glimpse along the High Street on 25th July 1985 caught this wee lad in the top picture carrying a couple of large balloons.

They don't appear to have cheered him up any mind you. Still girnie!

And a glimpse along Reform Street in the mid/late 80's caught these 2 characters carrying a heap load of balloons.

The balloons were used to advertise McEwans Ale who were sponsoring the Jazz Festival, the balloons being placed around all the venues where the gigs were taking place. So being snapped in Reform Street means they had just dropped a few balloons off at the Old Bank Bar. You can also see a jazz banner hanging above the duo in the middle image.

Colour photo by Neale Elder.

B&W photos by The Bear.

STOP THE BUS!

Buses feature in all 3 of these city centre pictures from the 80's.

Starting with the top one of the High Street and the Dryburgh bus outside McColl's.

This was taken on 2nd June 1986, just as World Cup fever was kicking in. You can see on the news board on the pavement, The Scottish Daily Express had the headline "Mexico 86 - We're Shouting For Scotland!" As usual, Scotland never made it past the first round in a group containing Denmark, Uruguay and West Germany.

The bus heading for Fintry seems to be popular in the middle shot which was taken in Reform Street on 25th July 1985.

These blue local buses were Volvo-Ailsas.

Back to the High Street for the third image, snapped from the city square on 23rd April 1988.

The bus in the Jaffa Cake colours is a recycled London Routemaster operated by Strathtay Scottish.

The board in the square was reminding folk that there was an Antique Fair going on at the Caird Hall that day.

Now, all 3 buses themselves have become an antique fare!

Photos by Neale Elder.

BRUCE'S RECORD SHOP AD - 1978

Another great record shop doing brisk business in 1978 was Bruce's in Reform Street.

I've already got a few items relating to Bruce's in the Retro archive, so because I've covered the basics, there's no need to repeat it here.

Something I haven't mentioned before is, in 1978, Bruce's main man, Jim Stewart, had a stint as DJ down at the Sands, playing a wide variety of sounds. Some of his selection would have been the latest hot imports, because as you can see in the ad, they were the only importers in town at the time.

The shop wasn't huge but they did cater for just about everyones tastes and I can even remember buying comedy records out of there. In fact I can rattle off 3 I got in 1975 for example - Billy Connolly "Cop Yer Whack For This" - Richard Pryor "Was It Something I Said" - Bill Barclay (remember him?) "Almost Live".

Mind you, I've no idea who the funny looking fella in the ad is, holding up the vinyl.
Mark Knopfler?

BORDERMATICS & HYND BROS AMUSEMENTS - 70's-80's

The top ad is dated 1981 and is for Bordermatics. They supplied local pubs & clubs with gaming machines, jukeboxes, pool tables etc, and were located at 137 Lorne Street at the time.

I also have another ad of theirs from 1984 and by then they had relocated to 109 High Street, Lochee where they shared premises with Cherry Video rentals.

Bordermatics are still on the go, only now they are based in Broughty Ferry.

I suppose Hynd Bros have done a bit of business with Bordermatics over the years, what with the Hynd's having had an amusement arcade in Reform Street for many years.

The first of the Hynd Bros ads is dated 1972 and is for an exhibition of arcade games at the Angus Hotel.

Then a jump to 1986 and they were announcing the very latest in gaming machines - the Laser Disc System.

In 1988 Hynd Bros had a Scottish exclusive - the first appearance of After Burner.

CAIRDS AD - 1971

Here's Cairds in Reform Street giving us their sales pitch, emphasising being "up-to-the-minute" with their fashions.
I don't recall them being particularly trendy, but on offer for the gals was a department called "Honey", which according to the ad was "packed with swinging fashions"!!
The guys had a place called "05ive". It looks like a misprint to me, but if that's what it was called then it sounds like a shop you'd go for hip-hop gear nowadays!
An international range of menswear is what they really had though.

ELENA MAE ADS

Elena Mae had shops in Reform Street and Castle Street.

The top ad from 1966 is typical of the kind of stock they'd have on offer - in this case an Asahi Pentax Spotomatic.

The full page ad under it appeared in the Sunday Post in December 1973.

Although the shop specialised in photographic equipment, by the 70's they also sold items such as binoculars, calculators and cassette recorders.

My old man used to favour Elena Mae's when he did photography in the 60's and when my older brother took it up in the 70's, he also shopped there.

I have no memory of myself ever having been in their shops so don't know much else about them.

Click on the ads to enlarge if you want to read the small details.

BRUCE'S RECORDS OF THE WEEK - 1977

3 ads for Bruce's Record Shop dating from 1977.
The top 2 are from Bruce's own fanzine "Cripes" dated end Aug '77.
Bruce's back then was in Reform Street, and although their shop stocked all types of music, they did go out of their way to champion new music.
1st ad - Cripes has the debut by 999 as their single of the week, a record which did pretty good biz amongst the punk fraternity.
2nd ad - Boomtown Rats were already pop stars by the time their self titled debut album became Bruce's LP choice for that week, the band having scored a couple of hit singles by then.
3rd ad - from a Tele dated March '77 - and Bruce's  Album Of The Week was "Marquee Moon" by Television.
What I can remember about this album is - I was tuned into Alan Freeman's radio show one Saturday afternoon, and he played a track from Marquee Moon. It caught my attention because it was something a bit different to the more rockier kind of material he broadcast on his Saturday show. As a result of this, I ended up switching the radio off, putting my coat on, getting a bus into town and buying the Television album from Bruce's there and then!
I was a real serious vinyl dude back then!!

REFORM STREET - 1983

An ordinary, everyday scene of folk going about their business along Reform Street on 3rd December 1983.

The most prominent shop sign on view is the one for Wimpy, who also have the "Restaurant Open" sandwich board on the pavement.

Some of the other shop signs down the left are - Sixty Minute Cleaners? (it says 2 hour on the sign!) - Elena Mae (cameras) and the Cairds canopy.

The Christmas decorations in the city square are up as well.

Across the road you can see the main entrance to newsagent R.S.McColl. This is where, in 1984, I started to indulge in a magazine called "The Great Artists". It was one of those which built up into an encyclopedic collection, featuring a different artist each week. I was on the dole during this period so it was a bit of a luxury item for me! I did, after nearly 2 years, complete the set, and surprise surprise, I still have all 96 of the magazines, a sample of which can be seen above.

Nowadays I can afford proper books!!

Reform St photo by Neale Elder

WILDCAT JEANS - 70's/80's

Here's an original badge from the late 70's for Wildcat jeans & jackets.

As well as their own denim products, Wildcat also had their own shops, and Dundee had one in the Overgate and one in Reform Street around the late 70's/early 80's.

The advert for their Overgate store is dated 1988 and highlights that they also stock Pepe denim products.

THE RESTAURANT - REFORM STREET

The not very imaginatively named, "Restaurant", was on the corner of Reform Street and Bank Street.
You may remember it was next door to Betty White's fruit shop.
Although this photo of the Restaurant was taken in the early 70's, by 1974 it had changed into the Corner Coffee House.

THE UNICORN - REFORM STREET

The Unicorn in Reform Street was part of the DPM (Dundee Pasteurised Milk) Company who had quite a few dairy's scattered around town in the 60's/early 70's.
This restaurant was located across the road from Bank Street, approximately.
When the Unicorn/DPM closed down in the early 70's, the premises became Cathie McCabe's record shop.

XMAS SHOPPING IN REFORM STREET - 1965

2 Christmas ads from '65 for 2 shops that were next door to each other.

Cairds providing Gift Vouchers and Meldrum's offering gifts for all the family.

MELDRUMS #3 - THE INTERIOR

A wee nosey inside Meldrums in Reform St. They sold sports gear, leather goods, travel items, waterproofs, toys, games, industrial rubber goods and would also repair your umbrella..!!

MELDRUMS #2 - THE LOCATION

Reform Street at night in the mid 60's and a reminder of just exactly where Meldrums was situated. That's it next to Samuels.

MELDRUMS #1 - THE ADVERT

This ad from 1963 has a photo of Meldrums shop front.

Get a load of those Flash Gordon lightning bolts!

THE CAIRNGORM - REFORM STREET - 1970

At 26 Reform Street there was Andrew G Kidd, the bakers, and connected to it at 26a was the Cairngorm Restaurant.
What I can remember about the interior was that it had huge images of the Scottish Highlands on the walls. Not paintings or murals but actual real photos the full length. The above picture is just a wee mock-up I did to give an impression of what I mean.
I'm not sure now if you went downstairs to it, or if it was just partitioned off from the bakery area on ground level. I also had in mind it was only a cafe but it is listed as a restaurant.
And the bakers were contenders for the "best custard slices in town" in my opinion!

1963 AD #2 - CAIRDS HAIRDRESSER

2nd ad is for Cairds Hairdresser's at 21 Reform Street.
Not a place I ever went to but I can imagine there was probably quite a lot of Bristow's shampoo involved!

BOOTS RECORD DEPARTMENT - 1970'S

Around about 1970, Boots on the corner of Reform Street, became the first store in the city to install an escalator. The first weekend it was operating saw an influx of kids to the shop who wouldn't normally be in Boots. They were the ones trying out this modern contraption the most. It was just like a visit to the funfair I suppose, the novelty of it.

What I liked about it was that it lead straight into the record dept on the first floor. Yes, Boots did used to sell albums, singles, cassettes and posters in the 70's.

They didn't have a "down" escalator though, so after a wee rummage through the record racks it meant having to use the "old fashioned" staircase. They did have framed pictures on the stairway walls, so at least you got a free art gallery display for your efforts!

The top image is of when Boots changed their exterior appearance the same time as they got the escalator put in.

Underneath it is the carrier bag from their record department - with a pop act on one side and a classical conductor on the flip.

OLD BANK BAR - REFORM STREET

My memory of the Old Bank Bar is that I used to visit it more often during the day than I did in the evenings. The main reason was probably based on the fact that in the mid 80's it was one of the first pubs in Dundee to get an all-day license. Inevitably, the novelty of not getting chucked out at half-two was taken advantage of on more than one occasion. The thing about being open all day, however, is that it did sometimes mess up your sense of time. Now and again we would plan to pop in at lunchtime just for a quick pint, only to then see it turn into an unplanned all day session. Lethal..!! It took a few weeks to get used to it.