AND A BIG SHOUT OUT TO...

I was originally planning on doing Retro Dundee for around 2 years, that being how long I thought I would be able to post items regularly based on the amount of material I had in my collection, however, because of all the items I had sent to me, I managed to keep going for another year and a half!

So to all the people who chipped in with their stuff - a big THANKS - great to know that lots of you kept all those old rarities tucked away after all that time.

Here is a list of those who helped contribute to Retro Dundee...and in no particular order...

MIKE FRASER - EDDIE G - CRAIG METHVEN (R.I.P) - THE SCOTSMAN - YVONNE J - STUART BETTY - NEALE ELDER - DREW RAMSAY - JOHN GURVAN - FRANK BOYLE - JIM GRIEVE - BRIDIE - MAC CARNEGIE - JOCK FERGUSON - NICHOLL RUSSELL STUDIOS - MIKE KANE - STEPHEN SMALL - GARY ROBERTSON - CAMERA KEN - BOB McGOULDRICK - ANDY GURVAN - DC THOMSON - GERRY MITCHELL - THE BEAR - ALI STRACHAN - RONNIE CHALMERS - THE ATTIC ARCHIVE - YVONNE McKINNEY - BRIAN WILSON - DEREK THOMSON - JOHN LUNAN (R.I.P) - JOE OGILVIE - PETER ROSS - EWEN ALLARDYCE - MARK MECHAN - KEVIN L GUTHRIE - AL McKEWAN - GORDON COBBAN (R.I.P) - GILLIAN JORDAN - DAVE McDONALD - JIM AIR - MIKE GALLACHER - SCOTT McKINLAY - GRAHAM GURVAN (R.I.P) - GORDON WALKER - LLOYD SMITH - JIM WILKIE - LYKEN - LORRAINE WILSON - COLIN RAMSEY - WILLIE FORREST - LAURA WALKER - GORDON BAND - BILLY GRAHAM - ANGUS RAE - CAROLYN LOTHIAN - ECKY COCHRANE - DAVID ROBERTSON - MOIRA BIRD - LUDA ALBIT - DONNY COUTTS - VIKING STUDIOS (R.I.P) - MARK RITCHIE - BRIAN HUTTON - NEIL MENZIES - PETER ASHWORTH - JIM FARRELL - MARTIN KIELTY - ALLAN BROWN - RICHARD ROONEY - GEORGE DUNCAN - DEK McHUGH - DAVID PENTLAND - RICHARD C. - KENNY MACKINNON - ALAN WESTON - DEREK HIGH - MARTIN DUDLEY - ANGUS CARNEGIE - GRAEME WHITE - GEORGE ARTHUR RONEY - BRIAN PERRIE - GRAHAM KENNEDY - DOUG B - MOIRA BERNARD - NEIL HOWIE - ALISTAIR LITTLEJOHN

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!

RETRO WINTER BREAK

Time to shut shop at Retro Dundee for a bit of festive fun.
The door will be locked but you can continue to have a nosey at the window display.
Once again, it's been another thoroughly enjoyable dabble into the past.
Thanks too to those of you who took time to dip into your own treasures to share on Retro. It's amazing what you find when ye hae a wee rake!
Although I wont be posting any new material for 2 or 3 weeks, I'll be keeping an eye on the comments and the Retro Dundee email IN-box.
If anyone wants to contact me, or send any goodies for inclusion next year, the contact address is along the bottom of the groovy graphic.
Now that I've turned over the door sign to show the "CLOSED" side, I'll away and call for my horse & carriage to take me back to my castle.
I've got a smashing log fire burning, warming up my baffies on the hearth.
So as soon as I get home, I'll prise the lid off a tin of Creamola Foam, burst through the paper seal, stir some magic strawberry crystals into my tumbler and drink to your health.
A very Merry Christmas to one and all, and may you still be able to scoff the entire contents of your selection box, all in one day!

70'S CADBURY'S BADGE

I've put the Retro Dundee email address on the image above, so if anyone wants to contact me about anything, or send some Dundee based items from the 60's, 70's & 80's, feel free to get in touch.
A big thanks once again to those of you who have contributed material for sharing, appreciate the effort. I'm always amazed at what some people have tucked away in the loft!
So, ending the recent sweets theme, the badge above dates from around the early 70's and is of course referring to the well known TV adverts from back then for Cadbury's Fruit & Nut.
Finally, another tasty treat from my childhood years is this classic piece of bubblegum pop below, the original cartoon of The Archies mega hit from 1969, appropriately titled "Sugar Sugar".
8 weeks at number one!!

HIGH WAIST JERSEY - MID 70'S

A new variant of the V-neck jersey cropped up on the scene during the mid 70's.
It was referred to as a high waist jersey, or as us Dundonians called it "a heh waister".
The design was based on an extension to the size of the waistband and cuffs.
The really exaggerated ones would have the waistband go right up to just below the chest area with the cuffs nearly reaching the elbows.
These jersey's would usually have hoops around the waist & cuffs too which would emphasize the look, normally 4 or 5 bands, like the one in my graphic above.
But as you can see in the photo, this dude is wearing a whopping 6 banded beast!

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS

Every so often, I like to put up the Retro Dundee email address for anyone who's looking to get in touch or send stuff. So feel free...

This photo (taken by my brother in the early 70's) reminds me of the time I got the Tay Road Bridge all to myself!

This was in the early 80's after a boozing session at my mate's in Tayport. When it was time for me to go home, I decided to walk back over the bridge rather than get a taxi. However, unbeknown to me, while I was merrily getting tanked up before then, behind the scenes the weather had made a drastic change for the worse, and had become extremely stormy. When I got to the bridge in the wee hours, they had the "Bridge Closed" sign up because of the high winds. If I was sober, I'd have turned back at that point and crashed out at my mate's in Tayport, but of course having a touch of Dutch courage, I dived over the barrier and stuck to my decision to walk it. I remember giggling to myself all the way across, especially when I was being shoogled aboot by the wind!

When I reached the Dundee end, the traffic police were parked there to enforce the closure, and when they saw me emerging out of the storm, one of them jumped out of the car furious, shouting something like "Where the hell did you come from, didn't you see that the bridge is closed?". I just made up something stupid like "Oh I thought that was only for traffic!". Anyway, it's not as if he was gonna send be back across for being a naughty boy was it, so he ended up shaking his head in dismay and doing the "On your way" routine!!

RETRO'S WINTER BREAK

Time to have a festive break now.
I'll be gone from Retro Dundee for about 3 weeks but I'll still be beavering away behind the scenes getting things ready for 2010.
Thanks once again to all of those who have been in touch to contribute material, much appreciated. Thanks also to those who have supplied info & opinions in the comments. Apart from the odd bout of hair-pulling, they have been a joy to read.
Anyone new to Retro Dundee, you can catch up with all the previous posts (over 500) by clicking on the dates in the Archives down the left-hand side of the page layout. Or if you are trying to find something in particular, you can use the Retro search box.
Meantime, hae yersels a belter of a Christmas, and if any of you ever want to contact me, I'll still be around to reply to your messages.
So feel free to use the RD address above, and just like the Johnny Seven....fire away!

JIM WILKIE - ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE

The cover photo of the 2nd Jim Wilkie book informs you that the content is about the 2 Dundee teams. It see-saws from Dundee FC to Dundee United in equal measure as it delves into the history of both clubs in tandem. Year by year bites of interesting information on and off the field of play. So you get accounts of matches - player performances- transfer details and all the goings on behind the scenes. In between all the retro football facts are occasional reminders of what is happening elsewhere in the world to give you a bit of background knowledge.
The original version came out in 1984 but this one here is the latest revised edition which brings you up to date with events in the new millennium.
Available from most main booksellers.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - DOCK ST / PRINCE'S ST AREA

Continuing the mid 70's flight over Dundee, here we are at the area around Dock Street, Arbroath Road & Prince's Street (all the way up Albert Street).
The green patch, bottom left, is Corporation buses parked in the depot.
Quite a lot of demolition being done around here too as you can see by all the voids where there were once buildings. One such building that I used to go to that is not in this image was located in Robertson Street, just off Arbroath Road nearest to Prince's Street crossroad. This was the late 60's period. There was a large works called Taybridge Products and in this building they had the "Dundee Alsatian & Training Club". Well the room the club used also doubled as a 5-a-side football venue. I used to go there once a week in the evenings, which was organised by the BB, and had some brilliant games of football there. The photo just has it as wasteland but it is now the site of Taybank Medical Centre.
You can also make out the red & cream Tay Spinners mill in Arbroath Road which is now flats.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - CITY CENTRE

In the mid 70's, my brother went on a flight around Dundee. Luckily for us he had his camera with him and managed to capture quite a lot of the city, some of which looks much different to how it is now. I must have around 40 aerial shots from the session but I'll just put up 6 over the coming days to give you a reminder of how the toon looked back in the day.
So settle down in your seats and get ready for take off...
Starting off bang in the centre of town, where you can see by all the workers huts around it that they were still putting the finishing touches to the new Tayside House at the bottom right of the picture. The most obvious observation though is the giant gap where they demolished the old Wellgate and South side of Victoria Road.
The fact that the photos were taken out of the plane's window means they are not going to be high definition clarity but they are still good enough to make out where you are and what's what, so I recommend for those who would like to do a kind of Retro Google Earth on them, to click on the image to get the large version, then right click to "save picture as" and save it onto you pc, and then you can use your zoom & pan to have a wee nosey around.

STAR WARS QUEUE - 1978

Bet most of you remember this...queuing to see Star Wars. This photo was taken in February 1978 on the day it burst onto screen at the Odeon for the first time. It was on a Sunday that it made it's debut in Dundee, and the queue having began at 9:00am, ended up along the length of Cowgate and all the way down to the bottom of St Andrew's Street, as in the photo. Not only that but the doors didn't open until 4:00pm and because of the size of the crowd the Odeon had to bring in an extra cashier to help out.
I remember going to see it a few days later, and although I enjoyed it I'll never forget my mates comment as we were leaving the building with everyone raving about it. Looking rather bemused, he quipped "It was a bit far fetched!".
If you think you may be in with a shout of spotting yourself in the picture - click on the image to view the large version.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

CLOTHES ENCOUNTERS OF THE NERD KIND

In 1976, when punk fashion first started to generate a stir with people who didn't understand the style, I too wore a garment that triggered an adverse reaction.
I bought this T-shirt (illustration above) which featured the slogan "I Love Unorthodox Behaviour" on the front.
The slogan is nothing now of course, but back then it seemed to annoy certain unenlightened blokes.
I didn't buy it specifically to trigger this response, but every time I wore it, the damn wording would always attract these nerds over who would then get het up just because they couldn't make out what it was all about!!
They'd desperately try to tag me as a punk, or a lefty, or rebel, or fascist, a loony, coming out with all sorts of nonsense like this.
Having a good sense of humour however, I was always amused by these encounters, especially seeing the stroppy state some of them would get into as a consequence of me knowing something they didn't know.
But the good news is (and this reveals the difference between being musically aware and being out of touch) I did experience one instance when someone DID know what the wording was referring to.
I wore it once when I was shopping in Forbes record shop on the corner of Commercial Street, and when I went over to the counter, Rob Adams, who worked there, as calm as you like said "Oh, I like your Brand X t-shirt".
For that is what it was!
This was the only time someone knew what the wording pertained to and at long last, no hassle to accompany it!!!
Yes I bought this t-shirt from a music paper mail order company back in '76.
Brand X were a jazz-rock band that had just released their debut album called "Unorthodox Behaviour" - and I thought it was an excellent LP, so I decided to get the merchandise to go with it.
I also reckoned there probably wouldn't be anyone else wearing the same t-shirt in Dundee, knowing that they were not available in any local shop, so I liked the obscurity aspect of it too.
That's all it was though, just a t-shirt with an album title on it.
But blimey, talk about getting a reaction - "Never Mind The Bollocks" was like a wee kiddies record in comparison!!

WHAT'S THAT IN OLD MONEY?

Found these coins the other day.

It's the old £SD currency we used before 1971.

The top large one is One Penny.
The small silver one is Brian May's plectrum...er I mean a Sixpenny bit (tanner).
Bottom left is a Ha'penny (hupnae).
Next to it is a One Shilling (bob).
The brassy one with the straight edges is a Threepenny bit (thrupnae).

In the 1960's, these were the coins we got our pocket money in and spent on things like the penny tray and comics.

We'd play pitchy with them in the school playground too.

They also got chucked out of cars at wedding scrammies!

If something cost 2 Shillings it would be written 2/-, and if it cost 2 Shillings and sixpence it would be 2/6d.

I can clearly recall when I was in my last year at Balerno Primary school in 1969/70, we got lessons teaching us how to convert old money to the new Decimal currency which was on the horizon. Us kids got the hang of it pretty quick but the older generation struggled at first when prices in the shops changed from old to new. So when people were trying to figure out the prices when shopping after the transition took place, that's when you would hear the phrase "What's that in old money?".

The big change-over - "Decimal Day" - took place on 15th Feb 1971.

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

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.

TELEPHONE HOUSE MURAL - 1976

I was always impressed with this piece of work every time I saw it.
The 30ft long Dundee Panorama Mural was made from cut-out copper panels and hung in the foyer area of Telephone House in Ward Road.
It was created by John Shields and Joe Millar who were lecturers in Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
These 2 images, taken on 7th April 1976, show the full panorama in the top picture and a close-up of the central section below it.

LARG'S - WHITEHALL STREET - 1977

I used to really like going to Larg's in Whitehall Street. I always made a beeline for the basement to gape at all the guitars hanging up on the wall, the drum kits on the floor and the amps in their wee room. Always ended up buying more plectrums than I could use when schoolboy age.

Another room in the basement area sold racks of sheet music.

Upstairs there was a roomful of electric organs and another area that sold electrical goods & records.

Underneath the photos is a reminder of the record dept.'s carrier bag with a keyboard design on it.

Below that is an advert for the shops range of amplifiers.

The reason they were highlighting the fact that The Beatles used Vox was because the ad was published in the local press on the night the Fab 4 were playing at the Caird Hall in October 1963.

In 1976, I made quite a major purchase now that I was a wage-earner. I bought a very expensive hi-fi. Huge wooden speakers made in Norway with a very powerful amp and top quality turntable. The amazing thing is, it's the same one I still use today. I have of course added lots of modern extras to the stack since but over 3 decades later, the Larg's hi-fi still gets played on a daily basis!

ABC CINEMA - SEAGATE - 1971

This is how the ABC in the Seagate looked back in the days when cinema's only had one screen.

I used to visit it quite regularly in the 60's & 70's.

Whenever there were real big blockbusters on, the queues used to stretch way past Gellatly Street car park.

Another thing that I recall was when we were still at school, aged around 15/16, we used to get the bus into town at half-fare, then go see an X film!

A double victory for school kids!!

That was the only way to see Bruce Lee in action because videos hadn't been invented.

In the photo above is a full length animation called "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", along with the advert published in the local press in April 1971.

It just so happens I have the movie in my collection. So below is a quick view of the intro for all those who would like a wee trip back in time.
By the way, the other film on with it is "Our man Flint".
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

THE MURRAYGATE - 1973

The 3 shops in the photo taken in the Murraygate in 1973 are :
Dolcis shoe shop.
The golden fronted one is the fab & groovy Miss Lewis, female boutique.
The green marble place next to it is Hendersons furniture store.

THE 70'S MILK SACHET

In the 1970's, milk was available to buy in these plastic sachets shown above. A quick snip of the top corner, either using scissors or your teeth, and you had access to the contents. In addition, you could get plastic holders to place the sachets into which were designed to make it easier to pour and store at home. People used sachets a lot for their breaks at school and workplace.
I remember at Craigie High School we used to chuck them at each other in the playground. The idea was to catch the sachet without it bursting. Needless to say there were occassions when the bag did burst, resulting in sour blazers!!
Photo by The Scotsman.Tints by GG.