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.

WINDMILL BAR - HILLTOWN 1975-85

The Windmill Bar was located on the corner of Ann Street at 113 Hilltown.
Some of you may remember it as being a place with a reputation for being "a bit rough!".
Well this wasn't just based on hearsay, it was well earned, so much so that it was actually officially documented in city council and police files!
In 1984, the pub was refused a late license because of the amount of incidents there was there. And in one infamous rumble, a policeman was knocked unconscious.
In their defence, the pub owners put in a complaint to local MP, Gordon Wilson, about the "continuing police harassment".
So the place could get a bit lively at times!
On the flip side of the coin to it's Wild West image, the pub was equally known as a live music venue for local talent.
Remember Dundee group, Thynglechyme - well their drummer, Mick Rafferty, used to run the Windmill at one stage, and that lead to many a late night jam session with the likes of Brian Reid, Willie Hastie and many others.
It even became a bit of a draw for the alternative music scene in the early 80's, with bands such as The Junkies, Street Level, Megazones and so on, all playing there.
The black & white photo was taken in 1975 when the pub looked rather grubby.
The colour photo was taken in 1985 after it had a wee bit of a facelift.

B&W by Hes

Colour by Neale Elder

4 DUNDEE GIG REVIEWS - 1982

Before Simple Minds played their December Caird Hall show, a few months earlier some members of the band, along with Lenny Love, were in town to catch a gig down at the Tayside Bar. The act we were all there to see was Hey! Elastica, the trash-pop new wave outfit from Edinburgh.
You can read all about this gig, and 3 others that took place around the same time (mid '82) in the above review page out of Cranked Up.
Starting at the top it's...
Junkies at The Windmill.
Junkies at Dundee University.
Hey! Elastica at Tayside Bar.
Little Wolves at Tayside Bar.
I attended the 2 Tayside Bar offerings, although it seems most of the fun was to be had at the Junkies gigs.!!
All the write-ups were the work of our very own secret agent on location, Jock Ferguson.
To read it, you'll need to click onto the image to enlarge it.