RETRO DUNDEE'S 1000TH POST

I noticed a few days ago, that I was approaching post # 1000 on Retro Dundee, so I knocked out this cheery little graphic to mark the moment.
No big deal really but I thought I'd use the junction to put the Retro Dundee contact details up for the very last time.
Being Retro's final year, this is a reminder open to anyone, that if you have any material you reckon is suitable to display - photos, memorabilia, audios, videos - feel free to get in touch via the email address above.
Retro is averaging between 1000 & 1500 hits a day.
Last month had a total of 37,408 views.
And so because this 1000th item isn't a proper post as such, here below is a cracker of a link to the next item I'm going to put up.
A bit of a tease, but there is a wee Dundee connection!

THE SCROTUM POLES ROCK FAMILY TREE

The line-up of Glen Connell (Burt Spurt) - Craig Methven (Smeg Pole) - Colin Smith (Stripey Sleep) & Steve Grimmond (Sid Gripple), was the last and most well known of the Scrotum Poles unit.
As you can see in the Scrotum Poles family tree, this is referred to as SP3, which is dead centre of the layout.
I thought it was interesting finding out how the band reached that stage and discovering what happened when the lads all branched off afterwards.
Steve joined SP2 from a band called Tinned Atmosphere, who had Johnny Walker and Brian Anderson in the line-up.
Glen went straight into SP3 after his time playing in Carnoustie based bands.
When the Scrotum Poles time was up, Steve joined AAGA, a band who've been well covered on Retro.
Colin moved on to the Arbroath band, Synthetic Dreams, who have been described as a cross between Ultravox and Talking Heads.
Craig formed Pigs Are Cute, again an act who's had a few mentions here.
After that, when Craig moved to London, he was in a band called The Summerbees, which included bassist Ali Friend who later worked with top acts in the 90's such as Red Snapper, Beth Orton, Chemical Brothers and many others.
Glen, who was also in Pigs Are Cute, joined a band called Twice, who were on a bit of a disco-punk/Pet Shop Boys kind of trip.
He then became a member of cow-punk act Boonie Rats, who released a single at some stage.
Glen got involved with the Hodge twins, Les going on to form Coco And The Bean, and Simon concentrating on DJ work.
The tree could probably be extended even further if you saw it through to the present and included what all the other musicians went on to do, but as it is, this is a neat pollarded version of the Scrotum Poles segment covering approximately the 1978 - 1989 period.
The graphic is quite large, so you can click onto it, zoom in, and have a wee journey along all the connections.
Thanks to Craig for the history lesson.

SANTA'S CHIMNEY CHALLENGE

Without the aid of safety gear, here's Santa just after completing an Xtreme chimney descent!

Back in the day, before setting off around the globe to deliver toys, Santa would first stop off at Cox's, because knowing they were the world's biggest jute mill, he liked to stock up on sacks.

This picture captured him before he departed after filling up a fresh sack with gifts.

Not a lot of people know that!

Toys made in the North Pole.

Sack made in Dundee.

DATA - DHSS INTERVIEW - 1980'S

DATA was the brainchild of Dundee artist, Pete Horobin. It stands for - Daily Active Time Archive. The concept behind it was to document 10 years of his life on a daily basis, from 1st January 1980 to 31st December 1989, using art, films, audio recordings, journals, photography and a few other methods. A rather hefty project to undertake! He was based at 37 Union Street, with his living quarters & studio known as "The Attic", which was also open to like-minded artists who he collaborated with. A couple of examples of DATA output here - The image above is his introduction page from a book published by AAGA Productions called "Views From Urban Dwellings - 2" dated 1983. PH was one of 9 contributors to the book, containing poetry, stories, observations, graphics etc. Below is an audio recording he made during an interview with the DHSS using the name DATA DD1 4BS. A great piece of work using layers of cut up loops, similar in style to Steve Reich. The repetitiveness of certain sections is a good reminder of what it's like signing on over & over again, a situation that feels like you're trapped in a never ending cycle, and one that could possibly drive you crazy!! It lasts 7 minutes, so you've been warned..!!

 

A WORD IN YOUR EYE...

Sometimes, what was on the outside of your school jotter was more interesting than the content inside.
We used to scribble our favourite pop groups and football teams in various styles. I can recall 3 lettering styles in particular we used in the late 60's at primary.
The top one has balloon-like letters, each one slightly hidden behind the next. They were often used in hippie designs such as albums & badges, or crop up in pop magazines like Fabulous 208.
The middle style needed a bit of working out. You started with blank squares - 6 in this example - then you'd fill them in using just a simple straight line to represent the gaps in letters. Some letters were pretty tricky to do though - T, P & Q - I didn't like them! This grid system was also used as a puzzle in some comics, like in Beano's "Teaser Time".
The bottom technique with the words bursting out from infinity, was seen in pop graphics too, such as The Beatles "Help" poster and a more psychedelic version in the Magical Mystery Tour film.
As for remembering the stuff inside the jotters - DUHHH!!!!!

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

In keeping wi' abody else, I'm gonna have a wee xmas break. So no more posts till January.
A big THANKS for all your comments. Good to know you're enjoying looking back at Dundee life during the 60s,70s & 80s.
Any newcomer to Retro Dundee who is not too sure of the layout, here's a wee guide:
When you visit the blog, not all the material will be on view, you will only see a few of the most recent posts on the page. To view ALL the items, go to the "BLOG ARCHIVE" to the left of the posts and click on any month to view that months material and scroll through them.
If you want to leave a message, there is a small "COMMENTS" feature at the bottom right of each post, again just click onto it if you have something to say.
Those of you who are regulars, my break might be a good time for you to backtrack over the older posts again to read the comments. There are a lot of amusing ones as well as many with added extra info.
I've still got loads of stuff to put on...so stay tuned and I'll be back in full flow early January.
CHEERZ GG