ARNCHORY IN THE UK

A couple of publications I'd have been lost without during the course of doing Retro, were the old Dundee Directories and old street maps.
The directories have been particularly useful because they list all the shops, pubs, schools, businesses and so on - a very handy aid for fuzzy memories!
I have 3 in my collection, 1966, 1970 and the 1974 one in the photo above, which was the final year of their print run.
Having said that, despite the fact that many of us depend on such official publications for research and fact finding, I've discovered you can't always totally rely 100% on what they print.
Take for example, the street map in the photo dating back to the beginning of the 60's. When I was having a wee look around my old stomping ground - Craigie - I couldn't help notice what appears to be a spelling mistake. The road connecting Aboyne Avenue to Balerno Street, I've always known as BANCHORY Road - but they have it down as ARNCHORY Road, as you can see by my red arrow. They also have it listed in the map index as Arnchory as well.
Forward wind 2 decades to their 1983 map and by heck they still haven't sorted it out properly - now they've printed it out as BARNCHORY Road..!!
Looks like the Geographia Cartography office would have benefited by employing a Dundee taxi driver to help them out!

Since writing the above caption, the entire map has been scanned in and pieced back together again.
So if you want to download the 1960 map for your own research, here is the link... 1960 Dundee Map
It weighs in at 20MB and is good enough quality to zoom in and view all the detail up close.

LINLATHEN'S HIGH TIMES - 1989

A few more pages to read from the 1989 Linlathen's High Times mag.

Some of the contents include a visit to Gordonstoun, word about art classes, a new photo club, charity walks, a Shakespeare class, a Christmas Fayre, tree week, and many other bits & pieces.

Also a few adverts such as for - Clep-pers, Lilibets, Hotpot, Parky's, and plenty more - including a den that sold Opium!

Give the pages a click to enlarge.

Many thanks to Dave.

LINLATHEN'S HIGH TIMES - 1988

A little glimpse into what was going on at Linlathen High School in November 1988 with a dip into a few pages of their school publication, High Times.
Front page headline tells of a major flood in school caused by a fire hose that "mysteriously burst"!
Other contents include school prizewinners, a teacher retirement, an interview with a band called Love Cats, notice of a visit to France, and a basketball match between pupils and the teachies.
The bottom image is a poster for a charity Christmas Fayre that took place at LHS in December 1988 - with guest, DJ Graeme Adamson from Radio Tay.
Click onto the pages to read the enlarged version.
Big thanks to Dave.

HARD COPY FANZINE - 1982

 

Hard Copy fanzine appeared on the scene in summer 1982.
However, in the above debut issue, it states that it was not a fanzine but the first computer-related music magazine.
True, it was all done neat & tidily on a word processor rather than the usual cut & paste method, which was quite innovative, but magazines legally have to be registered. They require barcodes or ISBN numbers for official reference identification, Hard Copy did not have any. The British Library require copies of a magazine to document and archive. Were they sent any issues of Hard Copy?
Anyway, the fanzine was mostly the work of Dundee music journalist, Bob Flynn, although there was a team of assistants involved in the write-ups, illustration and photography too.
The content was well written - plenty of gig reviews, some local band info and general coverage of the UK music scene.
A very nice piece of work actually.
A local fanzine with a magazine price tag!

UNIT 47 MAGAZINE - 1980'S

Unit 47 was a Scottish music magazine that hit the racks in 1984.

In fact it actually described itself as half magazine half fanzine and covered the alternative music scene mostly, but it also made room for a touch of jazz and rock.

Although there were a few pages given to well known English acts, the magazine's main focus was Scottish bands, as indicated by Roddy Frame, Fiction Factory & The Cocteau Twins on the covers above.

Lots of space was used spreading the word about unknown bands, as well as supplying demo tape reviews.

It also had stuff like gig reviews, fashion, cinema and special features such as the lowdown on recording studios.

One of the contributors was Dundee music journalist, Bob Flynn, who managed to get a full page feature on the Tayside Bar, including an interview with boss, Brian Sinclair.

Unit 47 also gave away a flexi with issue 1.

The 3 above are dated Feb/Mar, April & June 1984.

I'm uncertain how long the mag lasted however.

CONTACT MAGAZINE - 1980'S

Contact magazine is a University publication that started up around the mid 70's.
Not available to the public, but is an in-house mag for University staff, students & colleagues.
Quite a lot of academic related content needless to say, as well as things like grant reports, lecture news and current affairs.
They also included an occasional feature on a Dundee based topic, and covered areas such as book reviews, theatre projects, sports events and entertainment.
The 2 Contact cover examples above are dated 1980 & 1987.

DUNDEE RELATED FANZINES - 70'S & 80'S

Some of the above fanzine titles may be familiar to a few of you who indulged in keeping track of Dundee's music activity in the 70's and 80's.

Some of the above fanzine titles may not be so familiar due to the short lifespan they had when they were on the go.

I'll supply the lowdown on them anyway as I have a few in my collection.

Most are Dundee based, but a couple are Dundee / Edinburgh combos...

THE VOICE - started up in 1982 as a kind of splinter 'zine when Cranked Up ceased. At least 3 issues.

CRIPES - started up in summer 1977 as a newsletter for Bruce's Record Shop with over 110 issues.

LE SINISTRE - started up in June 1981 and ended in July 1981 after only 2 issues.

FALLING AND LAUGHING - started up in 1983. Unsure how long it lasted but 5 issues at least.

SWEET TV TIMES - started early 80's to promote the activities of The Junkies. Unsure how long it lasted.

MEN FROM SOYA - started and ended in 1980 after only 1 issue (as far as I know).

PROCESS - started and ended in 1981 after only 1 issue.

VEX [VEKS] - started around early 80's mostly to promote Vex's own band(s) and opinions. Unsure how long it lasted.

CRANKED UP - started up in July 1981 and ended in July 1982 after 18 issues.

HARD COPY - started in summer 1982 by local music journalist, Bob Flynn. Unsure how long it lasted but issue 1 exists.

DEADBEAT - started up in August 1982 and ended in 1986 after 33 issues.

S'PUNK (It's Punk) - started up late 70's. Unsure how long it lasted but 13 issues at least.

HERE COMES EVERYBODY - started up around 81/82. Unsure how long it lasted but 4 issues at least.

Another local fanzine planned in 1982 was "The Buck Stops Here" (or There). Issues published?

There was also word of another fanzine starting up in 1982 called "A Junk Bag". Issues published?

If anyone knows of any other Dundee based fanzine (or fanzines where Dundee was mentioned regularly) feel free to pass the info on.

Should anyone like to share copies they have, again, feel free to get in touch.

I made all the ones I have available online for download in PDF format.

You can find them all on a fanzine archive website called Word From Dundee.

Here's the link...

Dundee Fanzine Archive

GG