FUN IN THE FERRY - 1970'S

Here's a wee reminder from the mid 70's of the Broughty Ferry go-kart track and crazy-golf course.
Click on image to enlarge.

DUNDEE DISCO ACTION - '77 STYLE!

A nice reminder of the kind of local mobile disco action that was going on around town during a typical random week back in March 1977.

Starting at the top - with the I.E. Discotheque getting in the groove up at the Ferry Lounge in the Tay Centre Hotel.

Next up we have the Sweeney's who managed to break loose from the Sands for an evening and take their Venus Ultra Disco for a spin along at the Invercarse Hotel - in the appropriately named Spinney bar!

Dancing around the edge of town, the Scenic 7 Disco were pumping out their beats across at the Longhaugh Hotel.

Off to the Golden Pheasant now to sample the ample sounds of the Deepwater Disco, who were normally to be heard along at the Bowling Alley each week.

The Nine Maidens had an over 20's night when the Neoteric Disco stopped off to spin their selection of vinyl in the Silver Cage.

From silver to chrome and it's back into the city centre we go to boogie on down to the Gemini Disco at the Chrome Rail.

The good thing about mobile disco's was it meant you didn't always have to dress smart and go queue up at the Barracuda every weekend just to have some fun on the dancefloor - the DJ's brought the dancefloor to you sometimes too!

The last item, however, has got me wondering - just how many of the Disc Jockeys who were on the road this particular week, decided to take part in the DJ competition held in Tiffany's the same week?

And who ended up the vinyl victor?!



DUNDEE'S DUFF PISTOLS POSTER - 1976

It has been in circulation as a fact that, the Sex Pistols cancelled this 1st December Dundee gig "at the last minute" to appear on the infamous Bill Grundy TV show.
Well here below is a factual timeline sequence published in the music press that suggests otherwise...

On 13th November 1976 the music press published details of a punk tour to be co-headlined by Sex Pistols and The Ramones, with Talking Heads, Chris Spedding & The Vibrators the other acts.

The Dundee date arranged being 1st December.

Then on 20th November 1976 the music press published an announcement that all of the acts had pulled out of the tour except the Sex Pistols. The tour was then revamped with Sex Pistols the headline act and support bands being Johnny Thunder's Heart Breakers, The Damned and The Clash.

The 16th December was now the date for Dundee as a result of the revamped tour.

As you can see, the 1st December date on the poster has the second choice of bands (Sex Pistols, Johnny Thunder's Heart Breakers, The Damned and The Clash), but these acts weren't confirmed until the revamped tour dates for 16th December.   

If the gig poster WAS for the 1st December, it would have had the first choice of acts on it (The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Chris Spedding & The Vibrators).

This confirms the Sex Pistols did not cancel the 1st December Dundee gig "at the last minute" to appear live on the Bill Grundy TV show because the revamped dates were confirmed 2 weeks before the TV show aired.

The only reason Sex Pistols appeared on Grundy was because Queen had to cancel their scheduled appearance the day before the show and Sex Pistols replaced them at the last minute.

There is no Dundee gig connection with Pistols on Grundy.

Furthermore, a different music press article from 13th November had Newcastle the date for 1st December punk tour package, so there was never anything definitely secured for that date. 

The real Anarchy In The UK tour officially started on 3rd December after the first attempt was scrapped.

The poster's date and support acts don't go together at all - the information is meaningless.

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The above is only a small sample of evidence.

There is much more wrong with the poster than just the date & support bands.

To read the detective work about it, you can download the full 13 page PDF in the link below.

Confirms that the poster is not connected to a gig, Tech College, Caird Hall or Pistols.

It's FAKE..!!

Pistols poster PDF

Click items to enlarge.

SCOOBY DOO DEMO - 1971

Back in April 2009, I posted an item to do with a Scooby Doo protest that took place in Dundee in the early 70's.
I put it up as a pretend April Fool, but revealed it was an actual real event.
Although it generated lots of comments, all of us were a bit hazy as to how it came about and when it took place.
Now I have a few details about it.
February 1971 is when the city square / Tay bridge demo started up, organised by Jimmy Brown and his schoolmates.
It wasn't just Dundee either, word soon got out to the youngsters of Scotland and not only did big cities like Glasgow join in, many of the smaller towns got involved too, places such as Fort William, Keith and Lochaber.
The protests all ended the same way - sending petitions with hundreds of signatures, into the BBC.
2 months later, Dundee's Jimmy gets a message from the BBC - Scooby Doo will now be returning to the screens.
A rather satisfying victory for those pesky kids!
The article above was published on 8 April 1971.

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!

THE SEAHORSE - HILLTOWN - 1970'S

The Seahorse up the Hulltoon wasn't my local chip shop but this advert from 1976 reminded me that I used to pop in there quite a lot efter the futba on Saturdays & Wednesdays back in the 70's.

SHERRIFF'S - VICTORIA ROAD - 1960'S/70'S

Brian Sherriff's shop at 93 Victoria Road was THE place to go to get Airfix models and radio control cars. Just looking in the shop window was fun, seeing all the ships, planes and vehicles. It had everything you needed for model making, the kits, spare parts, wee pots of paint and transfers. It's heyday was the 60's when it was as popular with dads as it was with kids.
The above picture was taken in the mid 70's when it closed down to make way for new development on the site. The wee side street with the big incline is Idvies Street.

UGANDA'S SCHOOL TRIPS - 1970's

Popular in the 70's were the "educational trips" on board the ship, Uganda. I wasn't on any myself mind you, but I do recall some Cragie High schoolmates ventured on trips in the early 70's to places like Gibraltar and Malta. These voyages were on offer to most UK schools, Dundee being just one of the stop-off points of departure.
Here below is a short film clip of the Uganda berthed at Dundee in 1973/74 dropping off some local lassies at the end of a Scandinavian tour. You may even recognise someone you know!

THE TAY CENTRE IN THE 70'S / 80'S



Not much of a picture really but the 2 doors in the top image were once buzzing with life back in the 70's & 80's.

They were part of the Tay Centre Hotel building in Whitehall Place. These 2 doors, however, were situated around the side in Dock Street and were an upstairs / downstairs job.

The door on the left of the photo lead upstairs to the disco.

The disco in the mid 70's was called the FERRY BAR, and played rock music.

In the late 70's it became JUNCTION 9 and played a mix of rock, pop & punk - the photo showing the sign above the entrance and the ad dates from summer 1979.

By the time it reached August 1982 it was known as CLUB FEET, and was playing trendier New Wave music.

The Club Feet ads are from '83 and underneath it is a shot of the Club Feet dancefloor.

Around 1984 it had a short run under the name MR DEES.

Then afterward it became JASPERS who went full circle going back to playing rock music again, the ad dated 1986.

The other door next to it lead downstairs to a pub called the CENTRE BAR and in mid 80's was renamed the CELLAR BAR.

The interior shot is from mid 70's Centre Bar mode.

It too had DJ's that blasted out music, but no dancing took place - and anyway, it was so jam-packed most of the time, it was difficult enough to reach the bar for a round, never mind make any other kind of bodily movement!!

CRAIGIE HIGH SCHOOL SUBWAY - 1974

The CHS subway at Monymusk Road was constructed in 1972, 2 years after the school opened. The photo above of the pupils painting it was taken in June 1974. The object of the exercise was to fight fire with fire in an attempt to camouflage the graffiti being daubed on the walls. I remember we each had to design our own individual graphic in art class first for the teacher to permit it being painted full size. Each class involved was given it's own patch of wall.
This picture of the 4th year pupils was taken around the time of the O Levels which meant there was quite a bit of spare time in-between exams. This was probably one of the last things this lot did together as a class before leaving Craigie High School for good in July. Most of the faces are hidden, but I do recognise some in the class - Graeme Morrison, Ally Stewart & Gail Phillips are there, and that is the art teacher in the pink jumper, however I can't recall her name. If anyone can identify any of the others feel free to drop it in the comments.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

LITTLE CHEF - CLAYPOTTS - 1970'S

The Little Chef opened on the Arbroath Road near Claypotts in 1974.
I recall popping in there a few times in the 70's, usually after a bit of fun in Dawson Park or on the way back from Broughty Ferry.
My choice was nearly always their pancakes with maple syrup. Very nice!
In March 1977, this Little Chef was visited by a couple of rock bands, namely, Graham Parker & The Rumour and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.
They were on tour at the time and had played in Glasgow the previous day, so when passing through Dundee on their way to the next gig in Aberdeen, the Little Chef was chosen for a stop-off for the bands to have some grub!

DUNDEE ON TV - 1977

 

Dundee was transformed into a town called Medburgh when filming took place in August 1977.
This was for a TV comedy play titled "The Mayor's Charity".
It starred Thora Hird, Frank Windsor, Roy Kinnear and a few others.
A local taxi driver, John Mackay from Douglas, also made an appearance.
Locations used were, Euclid Crescent, the old Reference Library and Morgan school.
The play was broadcast by the BBC in November the same year.

Click article to read.

MR BEAUJANGLES - OVERGATE - 1970's

Mr Beaujangles was a fashion boutique dreamt up by Dundee businessman, Ian Dand.

His first store opened in the Overgate in November 1973, with well known Scottish DJ, Stuart Henry, doing the opening ceremony. That was soon followed by shops opening in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

The stores were targeting the 16 to 25 age group and closely followed the latest London fashion styles. 

Mr Beaujangles also came up with the novel idea of having go-go dancers perform in cages at weekends, to attract custom.

Later, 2 more shops were added to the Dundee collection - one in the Wellgate and another in Commercial Street. However, when all 3 stores were operating at a later stage, they dropped the "Mr" part from their business name and just settled for being called "Beaujangles". The main reason for this was that they introduced a female clothing section, thus becoming unisex stores.

However, it all crashed to a halt in April 1982 when Beaujangles closed its doors for good.

The top image is how the shop looked in 1978 in the Overgate when it was still called "Mr Beaujangles" and so too the shop carrier bag from the same era.

TARGET SHIRTS - 1973

Target shirts were a familiar sight around Dundee in the mid 70's. "Target" being the brand name. They were first worn in 1973 by skinheads who were kicking around in gangs, and were as popular as Ben Sherman shirts. Shops such as "Robbie's" in the Overgate sold them.
However, it was a rather short-lived fashion in gang circles, because in 1974 the Bay City Rollers had stormed onto the music scene and these tartan shirts became part of the BCR image. Needless to say, the gangs ditched the shirts once teenyboppers started wearing them!

BOY MEETS GIRL - OVERGATE - 1974

Boy Meets Girl in the Overgate, was Dundee's first go at a "Unisex" boutique in the early/mid 70's - the concept being to sell gents & ladies clothing from the same shop, rather than from separate stores or departments as it had been up to that time. You can see the window display has both male and female garments mixing with each other.

It's a pity it was a rather short-lived store because despite the place selling all the latest up-to-date gear around, it also had the best shopfront logo on town!

Photo by DC Thomson.

DUNDEE GANG JERSEYS IN THE 70's

Dundee gangs in the 70's came up with a unique way of displaying which housing scheme they came from - by wearing jerseys of different colours.

Most of these high V-neck jersey's were made at the Knitting & Sewing Centre in Victoria Road.

The design consisted of 1 main broad band across the chest and arms, with a pocket on the top left of the chest in inverted colours, and 2 thin bands around the waist, cuffs & collar.

As time went by, customised variants would be seen, such as pockets on the upper arms, initials on the pockets, and anything up to 5 bands around the waist & cuffs.

In addition, most gangs usually wore the colours in their opposite layout, like for example, as well as a blue jersey with black band, they'd have a black jersey with a blue band. A bit like having a home & away strip.

There were also cardigan versions of the concept.

Although this gang knitwear was exclusively Dundee based, the designs were an adaptation of the high V-neck jersey worn by Steve Ellis, singer with 60's band Love Affair, Fred Perry 60's cyclist shirts and American Varsity College cardigans UK Mods wore in the 60's.

The V-neck jersey's above are - TODDY (Douglas), MID (Mid Craigie), HUNS (Kirkton), MOB (Beechwood), SHAMS (Fintry), FLEET (Lochee).

The cardigans are - HUNS (Hilltown), SHAMS (Whitfield), PAK (Ardler), YMB (St Mary's), HULA (Linlathen), SHADE (upper Hilltown).

These examples are just a small selection of who was wearing what back then.

Click on the images to enlarge/download.

DUNDEE'S AMUSEMENT ARCADE - 1970's

Around 1970, another Amusement Arcade was proving popular in Dundee - this one was in the Wellgate, and on 2 levels.

The ground floor of #34 (on the corner of Baltic Street) had all the slot machines & games, and upstairs there was a mini dodgems track.

I remember it had the first ever primitive computer screen game, it was called PONG and based on table tennis (ping pong).

Spent quite a few bob at the arcade there Saturday mornings - Pong in particular.

Photo by DC Thomson.

CRAIGIE HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE BADGES - 1970's

It wasn't until around 1973 that Craigie High School introduced "Houses".

They were all named after Scottish "Firth's".

So it was PENTLAND - MORAY - DORNOCH - SOLWAY.

I was in Pentland, but the team to beat were Moray, who dominated years 73/74.

We had enamel badges made too, as above.

CRAIGIE HIGH SCHOOL UNIFORM - 1970's

Craigie High School's uniform didn't appear on the scene until many months after the school opened it's doors in 1970.

It was actually a team of teachers from CHS Art Dept who helped design it.

We got to see the school badge artwork develop as "work in progress" during its design stage.

I remember head art teacher, Mr Higgins, explaining that the school badge image consisted of the Law Monument to represent Dundee's highest point, the River Tay, representing Dundee's lowest level and both connected by an abstract "Tree Of Knowledge".

There were also 2 different shades of green used for the blazer - a dark version which was the more deluxe option, and which tended to be worn by kids who used a briefcase rather than a schoolbag.
The example above was the economic version, and although it was a more lurid green, it was the most common.

The uniform wasn't compulsory back then and I reckon less than half of the pupils chose to wear it.

The clash of colours was interpreted light-heartedly by pupils at the time as Green for Catholics and Orange for Protestants.
Back then it was a mixed religion school and we all got on fine.
Then they built St Saviours in Whitfield and so triggered an exodus of Catholics.
Religion not being part of any learning process!

HANSOM CAB - 1970's

The Hansom Cab, on the corner of Seagate & Commercial St, had a reputation for being a haven for underage drinking in the 70's. For many it was seen as the place to visit as your first "city centre" pub, and it was indeed very easy to get served when aged 16. I suppose it was a rehearsal for the more serious boozing that was to follow in your later years!
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.