WILSON & GORDON RESTAURANTS

The original Restaurant Wilson in Union Street was destroyed by a fire in 1956 - and so this picture here is how it looked after it was restored and modernised for the 60's.
Restaurant Wilson is listed in my 1966 Dundee Directory, however, by the time the 1970 Dundee Directory had been published, it had changed into the Gordon Restaurant.
The ad above is dated March 1977 and as you can see there was wining, dining & dancing - and on this occasion the music was supplied by an act called Pastel Colours.

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

VISITING SANTA'S GROTTO IN THE 60'S

I remember being taken along to Santa's Grotto in department stores like D.M Browns, Draffens & G.L Wilsons (photo above) as a wee lad in the 60's.
The one thing about it I can recall most is that us primary kids applied a bit of know-how to the situation.
Santa's sacks of gifts were seperated into different age groups. Something like Under 5's, 5 to 7's and 8 to 10's. We noticed the pressies were bigger & better the higher the age group. So when it was time to chat to Santa, instead of telling him our correct age, 7 for example, we'd say we were 8, and he'd take something out from the appropriate sack!
Well it was the difference between getting a water pistol or a Luger with a silencer!
Photo by Dundee University.Tints by GG.

DUNDEE DEMO #3 - DANNY WILSON

The 3rd in the wee series of demo's from Dundee is taken from a 10 inch ep conveniently called "The Dundee Demo's", by local band, Danny Wilson. This was a limited edition released in the late 80's, each one individually numbered. There is 1 remix on it and 3 original demo recordings, and I've chosen the demo track "Steam Trains To The Milky Way" to accompany a little video I stitched together featuring some old moody footage from around the city.