ROOFTOP VIEW FROM THE LAW - 1970'S

A moody dusky evening shot looking over the rooftops at the base of the Law.
This was taken around the early/mid 70's, and snapped just at the moment of lighting-up time.
You can see the top section of Kinpurnie Place in the foreground, in the middle distance is St John's school and in the background are the Ardler multis.
The Law Hill area was like a 2nd playground to me when I was a wee schoolboy because my grandparents lived in Byron Street, so when the adults wanted to have a blether, me and my brothers would nip out to play for a while, with the Law being like an extension to their backies!
I also remember mucking about at the Kinpurnie swings because they had a Witches Hat there, something we didn't have at home at the Craigie swings, so that would be the first thing I'd make a beeline for!
If you want to see if you can spot anything else, click onto it to enlarge.

LAW TUNNEL LARKS - 70'S

You're guess is as good as mine as to whether these 2 lads are law-breakers up to no good, or law-abiding citizens doing some research on the Dundee to Newtyle railway line - whichever it is, this image of the pair was taken at the bricked up entrance of the Law tunnel, around the Kinghorne Road area, in the early 70's.
2 ghost train-spotters possibly?!

SCOTLAND - 1974 WORLD CUP - #1

The 1974 World Cup in Germany was the first time Scotland had qualified for the tournament since 1958, and so for those who were in my age group (16) it was the first time we were involved in the event too.

There was also the added bonus of there being local interest, with Dundee lad Peter Lorimer a regular in the team. In fact by this stage in his career he had become a bit of a Scottish superstar! Then there was Dundee FC goalkeeper, Thomson Allan, who was also in the squad.

There was a good buzz in town when all this was going on. Most folk had colour TV by this time and the team were getting plenty of coverage. It wasn't just the telly and the newspaper sports pages they were making themselves known, they were also heard blasting out of Radio 1..!!

The Scotland Squad released an album to coincide with the tournament, which not only included the voices of the players but featured a hotchpotch of Scotch talent - Gallagher & Lyle, Lulu, Bay City Rollers, JSD Band, Middle Of The Road and Junior Campbell.

From it, there were 2 tracks which were released as a single - A-side was "Easy Easy" and the B-side was "Scotland Scotland".

However, the LP also presented one of the unlikeliest offerings you're likely to encounter in music ...Denis Law sings Jimi Hendrix!!

Actually, the track itself is fine, the Hendrix track being "Angel" which was a hit for Rod Stewart a couple of years earlier. This version has Rod singing along with Denis and contains a lot of banter which kind of captures the fun the World Cup was having on the Scots.

Top picture is the album cover. The cover opens up into a gatefold centre spread, as seen underneath it, and below is "Angel" by Rod Stewart & Denis Law.

 

BIDE BY THE LAW

Decided to put this photo up because it's not very often you see an image of the Law from the other side, so to speak, it's usually snapped from the river Tay area.
The picture was taken in the early 80's and quite a few changes have taken place since then of course - so click onto the image to view it larger or download it to your pc and zoom in to see what changes you can spot.
At least it was a nice day anyway, plenty of washing hingin' up roond the backies!

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