AAGA CD - NOW AVAILABLE

Now that Christmas time is closing in on us all once again, some of you will no doubt be wondering what to buy off the record tokens you get. Problem solved - treat yourself to this AAGA CD.

The compilation called "The World Makes Me Sad Sometimes", on Rightback Records, is the first time a collection of AAGA's original 80's material has been given an official release, and so a good opportunity to hear for yourself why Factory Records wanted to showcase the band in Manchester at the time.

You'll know by now that I have featured many of  AAGA's cassettes on Retro, all displaying their homemade covers, well keeping the self assembly process going, here above is the CD cover when it was still work in progress at the design stage. The cover visuals were a joint effort by Mike Kane's daughter & son, with the AAGA logo the work of Dundee graphic artist, Nick Wright.

It will of course be available on iTunes and so on.

Finally, below is another reminder of the band's sound, this time from a gig at the Tayside Bar in 1984 -  catching AAGA in one of their more mellow moods.

A gig I was at too!

Thanks to Craig and Brian.

PARADES IN PERSON - EARLY 80S

Parades were a new wave/alternative pop act on the go in Dundee in 1981-82.

Line-up : Steve Knight, bass - Mike Knight, guitar - Sandy Chisholm, drums - Angus McFarlane, vocals.

They had a really good reputation at the time, almost everyone in agreement that they were a top notch band.

The 2 Cranked Up reviews were both caught live at the Tayside Bar - top one being their debut gig in 1981, and the lower one from 1982.

Parades sound was compared to The Associates, and there is probably a very good reason for this, because bassist, Steve Knight, used to be in The Associates. That's a picture of Steve I've put up to accompany the reviews.

There is also a mini interview with the guys when they all met up in the Tav for a chinwag.

As far as I know, Parades split later in 1982 after Steve set sights on a move to London.

You'll need to click on the top sheet to read the enlarged version.

THE MEGAZONES AROUND TOWN - 1980'S

Elsewhere on Retro Dundee you'll find features on The Megazones single and a gig review, so now it's time to unveil the guys in action!

Here they are strutting their stuff around various venues in town during the 1980-81 period.

The band consisted of - Jim Farrell, lead vocal & guitar - Cliff (Smith) McAulay, bass - Iain Carnegie, guitar - and they had 2 different drummers, Kenny Farquharson and Kev Devlin.

Top picture is at the Tayside Bar, Seagate.

Middle snap is The Windmill, Hilltown.

Bottom image is in the YMCA up the Conshie.

All photos were taken by Ken Cummings.

You can backtrack on the previous posts via the search box where both Cliff and Kenny have supplied further details about the band.

Many thanks to Derek.

GIGS GALORE - EARLY 80'S

Time to catch up with a few gig reviews at various venues from the first half of the 80's.

Starting with Nassau, and a gig that took place at the Tayside Bar in January 1982. This was a funky Glasgow band who were basically refining their set prior to being support act to a couple of well known acts. The review cropped up in the national music press.

Moving onto Jih, also at the Tayside Bar, a gig near the end of '83. Not sure if this was the band's debut gig but it was definitely one of their earliest. However, it turned out to be a night that didn't go down very well with the reviewer!

Another Tayside Bar gig next, this time from mid '83 and featuring Crucial Xylophones who gave us a performance that triggered dancing in the pub. A rare sight for the TSB!

Moving along to the University, with Bow Wow Wow the main attraction, and one I went to. They were very well known by this time and had a packed hall for their lively stage show. This gig was at the end of '82.

A Dance Factory event next and a performance by Talking Drums, early '85. Although the band put on a decent show, it was the Dundee crowd that upset the reviewer (Hilary) on this occasion.

Rounding things off with Plastic Surgery who were doing the biz at Beez Neez in January '85. This time Hilary is well pleased with what she saw!

Click items to enlarge if need be.

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - 80'S

Formed in 1979, Saint Andrew & The Woollen Mill were regulars on the Dundee music scene by the time these 3 articles were written about them in the early 80's.

They stood out from your average local band because they specialised in humour, with plenty of well known tunes getting the comedy mash-up treatment in their set, along with their own quirky material.

You may get an idea of their silliness from the list of influences they mention - Kenny Everett, Dolly Parton, Patrick Wayne, Rolf Harris...etc.

I remember them doing their version of "Close Encounters" at the Tayside Bar and The Bothy - one of those hand held Casio mini keyboards was used for the famous UFO encounter tune bit, I think it then burst into a kind of disco groove!

They also had a few songs in oor oary local lingo.

The line-up in 1981 was - Andy "St Andrew" Pelc, vocal - Stewart Ivins, guitar - Eddie (Chris?) Marra, keyboard - Gus Foy, bass and Glen Jones, drums.

The band have released quite a few records over the years and I'm fairly sure St Andrew still performs from time to time.

So, the 2 items above...

Top, is an interview in Deadbeat, which the band did just before their gig at the Tayside Bar on 22nd December 1982 - and also includes a short review of the show.

Below it is a brief, light hearted introduction to the band taken from a 1981 Cranked Up.

Click them to bring up the large versions.

VEX/DEATH CULT - TAYSIDE BAR - 1982

This rather clear-headed account of a Vex gig, appeared in an issue of Voice fanzine in 1982.

You may recall in an earlier item when they played in Newport they decided to call themselves Mass on the night, well for this do down at the Tayside Bar they opted to be The Death Cult.

The line-up had Ewan on violin, Gary Kidgell and Gail doing vocals, Mike Kane playing bass, and the good old drum machine providing the beats.

There seems to have been a touch of performance art type of behaviour to their show, some of which didn't go down very well!

Anyway, still sounds like a better evening than Tiffanys!

Unfortunately, as you can see by the grainy images, the Xerox machine was a bit hit & miss for this issue, and manages to cut off the final sentence in the review.

It reads - "Last word goes to Al of Waiter Waiter who said it's still one of........." then it fades out at that bit, which is annoying.

In fact, maybe it wasn't the Xerox machine, it might have been the work of Vex!!

NO FIXED ABODE - LIVE - 1981/82

I reckon the graphic at the top of the page on the first item is based on a Gibson Firebird, and so from that you may guess Dundee band No Fixed Abode was a guitar based rock outfit, in which case you'd be bang on. Being a trio, however, they weren't full-on heavy metal merchants, but they did like to rock the joint!

NFA members were - Lloyd Anderson, drums & lead vocal - Jed Ward, bass - and doing all the guitar work was Lyle (or Lyall?) Osborne.

This live review is a positive one, the gig having taken place at the Tayside Bar in 1981. They played for an hour & a half, the majority of which was their own material, but they did slip a couple of covers in the set as well. It doesn't say so in this particular write-up, but to give you an idea of their musical leanings, cover versions they've indulged in have been Thin Lizzy's "Dancing In The Moonlight" and David Bowie's "Stay".

The second item is also a fairly positive review of a gig NFA played up at the University in January 1982. This one appeared in the national music press.

There's a bit of advice in the write-up, but all 'n' all it's a general thumbs up for the performance.

Despite the band's ambitions, as far as I know No Fixed Abode's recording output never got past the demo tape stage.

You may need to enlarge the top item to read it, so just give it a click.

AND THE LAST WORD GOES TO...

Time to bring the retro pub crawl to an end now, so I thought I'd finish the sequence with an amusing quote by Tayside Bar manager, Brian Sinclair. When the pub's Xmas party was in full swing in 1981, he came out with this little ditty - "I want to see The John Cooper Clarke's here."
A slip-up that I'm sure JCC himself would find amusing!
I like to have fun with words, so does John Cooper Clarke, a poet who cropped up on the scene the same time as punk and so found himself dubbed "The Punk Poet". Some of you may recall him performing at the Caird Hall as support to Elvis Costello in 79.
Talking about having fun with words, this is a good time to put up this excellent illustration of JCC done by graphic genius, Ian Wright, who's art career also began around the same time punk started. He first became known with the stuff he did in the NME in the late 70's. This example is actually one of his early ones from his NME days. Not only a great likeness to JCC, but the image, made from a rubber stamp of his name, also reminds you that the man is a bit of a wordsmith.
The perfect portrait of him!

SOUL KISS CLUB - 1986

The Soul Kiss Club used to put on music events along at the Tayside Bar on the first Sunday of every month, and to let everyone know what was going on, they brought out their own wee mag.

The one here is for Sunday 2nd Feb 1986 when they had 3 live acts to showcase - the bands on the night being - The Finks - a mystery female trio and The Shebang Sisters.

There was also to be a SKC "special event" later in Feb featuring Boo-Hooray and Cattle, but this show was scheduled to take place at the Rep.

Some of the other acts who have appeared under the SKC banner have included - Bob Phillips - The Brothers Wine - Alison Burns - AAGA - Joe Public - The Ashen Heart - Steve Knight & Chris Marra - Gary Clarke's Country Extravaganza, and many more.

One of the bands they had in store for their March shindig was Immortalised In Plastiscene (deliberate wrong spelling?).

Anyway, plenty of performers there to test your memory!

There is also an ad for a midweek fashion show happening at Fat Sams on 12th Feb, organised by The Wardrobe shop in Whitehall Crescent and Jack & Irving Hairstylists in Commercial Street.

Lots of other info tucked away in there, so if you fancy a proper read, just click on the items to enlarge.

Many thanks to Drew Ramsay

SCROTUM POLES FAREWELL GIG - 1981

The Tayside Bar was the place to be on 19th June 1981, as this was where the Scrotum Poles played their final gig.

As well as the band live on stage, they also presented their short film "The Epitaph".

And if that wasn't enough entertainment, there was Major Longhorn on DJ duty.

The item underneath the poster also refers to the farewell gig and gives a brief overview of the band's history. It appeared in local fanzine, Le Sinistre.

Getting back to the poster - see the cartoon characters - well they are a take-off of creatures drawn by Savage Pencil (aka Edwin Pouncey) who had a cartoon strip in music paper, Sounds, at the time. You can tell it isn't a Savage Pencil original though because Oor Wullie is stuck in the middle of the freaks looking as if he wants out of there!!

Thanks to Drew Ramsay

THE JUNKIES AT THE TAYSIDE BAR - 1981

Did ya get a good wee buzz scrolling through that lot?

This impressive cascade of images catches The Junkies in full flow at one of their gigs down at the Tayside Bar, probably around the 1981 period.

It's amazing how fresh the pictures look 3 decades on. You'd think they were just taken 3 weeks ago!

For some reason, the Tayside Bar looks quite cavernous in black & white, but as a lot of you will recall, there was hardly any room to move at the area allocated for bands.

Top-notch pics though!

This is a good opportunity to accompany the photos with another track of theirs.

I put up a downtempo tune last year, so this time out I thought I'd go for a song which is more the kind of thing they were known for - an upbeat, sleazy, rock "n" drawl number called "Pretty Boys".

Big THANX to Drew Ramsay

 

ALTRES - TAYSIDE BAR - 1983

Dundee's electronic explorers, Altres, sparked into life in 1983.
The band in full back then was - Kevin L Guthrie - Jeremy Bryning - Brian Hutton - Maurice Richardson - Joe Donnelly - Mike Nelson.
Locally, they played venues such as the Tayside Bar, Mr Dees & Cloisters, and they also ventured outdoors sometimes performing at places like the City Square and Baxter Park.
I'm fairly sure when I saw them in Cloisters they had a slide show projector to accompany the music too, but the main thing about them was all that great gear they had - a multitude of synthesisers, drum machines and effects equipment, all adding up to a rather addictive sound.
Another thing I liked was that they played unfashionably lengthy tracks. This was around the time when tunes longer than 3 or 4 minutes were still generally frowned upon, an attitude harking back to the old punk days. So here were Altres pumping out half hour tracks, mesmerising the locals with their trippy synth sequencers and pulsating loop patterns!
The band also made a few recordings back then, however, in 1985 they decided to pull the plug out and Altres was switched off for good. Or so it seemed, until that is, they were regenerated back to life in 2003, and have been powering onwards ever since - gigs and recordings aplenty.
You can catch up with the band's history and present day pursuits in more detail on their site at
http://www.altres.co.uk/
The sound sample below is taken from Altres first ever gig which took place at the Tayside Bar on 23rd February 1983. The picture above shows some of the band's gear tucked away in the corner of the TB lounge. Only 4 members played on this one, Kevin, Joe, Brian & Maurice.
The piece, just called "Set 1", was semi improvised and lasted around 30 minutes, but this here is only an 8 minute snippet to give you a flavour of the original Altres in full flow!

Thanks to Kevin and the rest of the posse.

THE LEGENDARY DEAN AND DAWN

And now the moment you've all be waiting for...Dundee's very own, television, radio and recording stars, the classiest duo ever to bestow their awesome talents upon us...Dean and Dawn.

Well actually, I don't really know that much about them, but I do know that according to their own publicity hype, they have "many eager fans"!!

I'm not going to pick on them, or praise them, but let's just say my usage of the term "legendary" was a touch of post modern, ironic humour!

So moving swiftly on, this single called "Proud Of Our City" was runner-up in the 1978 Dundee Festival Song Contest ( I take it there were only 2 songs entered?!) although it wasn't recorded and released until the early 80's. EEL Records the culprits!

Those involved were - Dean Eastwood, vocal, guitar - Dawn Westfield, vocal, tambourine - Gordon Nichols, accordion - Ewan McGregor, drums - Tayside Majorettes, chorus.

Maybe not many people realise that this offering achieved cult status in the early 80's as a result of Jock Ferguson playing it at the end of his Cranked Up DJ sets down at the Tayside Bar. It was of course the cue for the pub lights to go back on and everybody to scarper!!

In fact, Jock once asked Dean & Dawn to perform at the Tayside Bar Christmas party one year, but it didn't happen because they were too expensive, demanding twice as much as the bands got paid!

I'm sure their many eager fans must have felt really disappointed!!

Anyway, give it a blast, then feel free to express yourselves in the comments.

70'S AIR SHOT - SEAGATE / DOCK STREET

Retro regulars will be aware that I have put up quite a few air shots taken by my brother around 1974/75. Well there were half a dozen or so I wasn't going to bother about because the plane's wing cut across the image and made it awkward to crop. However, I have changed my mind as I reckoned they'd be better on the net than tucked away in a storage box at home out of view. So here's a wee bonus batch...

This one here is really good actually once you zoom into the large version.

On it you can see Seagate Bus Station with some yellow Alexander buses waiting there.

Across the road from the bus station was the Reo Stakis Olde Worlde Inn.

Moving east you can clearly see Allan Street, which at that time, on the corner of Seagate, had the Quarter Gill Bar.

On the other side of the road along from the Quarter Gill was the Tayside Bar. A path which was to be well trodden a few years later!

Further right, is the Corporation Bus Depot on Dock Street, and if you look closely you can see the transition from green buses to blue ones had just started.

Down at the bottom right of Victoria Dock is the Timber Yard.

These are just a few of the sights, I'm sure you'll be able to spot plenty others.

You can click on the photo to view the larger version, and once on, right click to save, then view it using the zoom on your PC.

I have a Dundee Directory from this same period, so can help name places should you be struggling!

THE VOICE FANZINE - 1982

Another Dundee fanzine that cropped up in 1982 was called, The Voice.

Covering similar topics as Cranked Up, it touched on the local music scene, theatre, food, politics, humour etc, and was on sale at places like Rockpile, Bruces and Tayside Bar.

The top image is the cover of issue 3, showing some of the subjects to be found inside, as well as coming up with the claim that it has "More Pages Than The Dundee Standard"!!

Underneath it is a page I plucked out as an example of the content, containing 4 Dundee gig reviews. KIM WILDE at the Caird Hall and 3 shows at the Tayside Bar featuring - FIRST PRIORITY - DESPERATION A.M. - ZOE & THE ZEBRAS.

Click on the items to read the enlarged version.

THE BLUSH - TAYSIDE BAR -1981

Here is a review from 1981 of The Blush playing their 3rd gig at the Tayside Bar.
The constructive Cranked Up critique, once again, is Jock's work.
Click to enlarge.

THE DUNDEE MUSIC SCENE - 1981

 

You may have noticed the media like to look back over past events when the year ends, and so from the pages of a Cranked Up festive issue, here is an account of what was going on in the local music scene during 1981.

Click on the image to view the large version and read about bands such as - THE MEGAZONES - SCROTUM POLES - STREET LEVEL - ALIEN CULTURE - MAFIA - ST ANDREW & THE WOOLEN MILL - LONDON BROADS - THE GRIP - THE BLUSH - PARADES - VEX - WAITER WAITER - NO FIXED ABODE - PUSH - MISBEHAVIN' - SYNTHETIC DREAMS - PULSEBEAT PLUS - PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES - STRUTZ - ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN - APB - THIRTY BOB SUITS - NEW LONDON - FRENZY - JAZZ TOO - STREET URCHIN - BLIND PEW AND ASGARD.

Phew!...and they even managed to squeeze in a Rockpile ad as well..!!

A salute to "The Major" for getting all that info down in print.