THE BLUSH ON VINYL - 1982

There is already a track by The Blush up on Retro Dundee which was taken from the "Dundee Compilation Cassette" and so was not really considered an official release, technically speaking.

This one above, however, was the band's "official" release, recorded at Wilf Smarties studios and came out in 1982.

It is a double A-side - "A Look From Outside" & "Skipping", and when it was out it became a Radio Tay "Toe-Tapper", that is, it got played on the station, twice a day for 2 weeks!

In previous items about them on Retro, I have The Blush line-up as - Jeff Doran, vocal & guitar - Eddie Robertson, guitar - Steve Duncan, bass and Steve Aungle, drums.

If it's still the same team on this recording then most have adopted pseudonyms on the cover, and they have also recruited a keyboard player.

Should this be Steve Aungle we're hearing on drums, then just like yesterday's band, there is a connection with Billy Mackenzie because later, Steve went on to record with Billy.

Coincidentally, The Associates also recorded a track called "Skipping" in 1982, appearing on the "Sulk" album, but a totally different song.

This is the track I've opted for to tune into, it being a bit edgier than the flip side.

Quite a lengthy robust intro, but it does break into song...eventually!

RECORDED DELIVERY - 1970'S

Part of the fun of collecting vinyl records is that moment when you come into possession of a rare recording, and this one here is so rare, it's the only one in existence.

Not that it contains a wonderful song mind you, no, if you recall the item I put up in March 2011 about railway recording booths, then this is an example of the end product.

It dates from the 1970/71 period and was recorded in a booth in Broughty Ferry.

The Calibre Auto Recording was pressed on heavy duty vinyl and is a 6 inch disc rather than the standard 7 inch.

As you may expect from the cheapest recording studio around, the quality of sound is pretty poor, but hey, it's only supposed to be an audio postcard not a chart hit, the idea being that you pop into the station booth with thought of sending someone a message.

So, the background behind the duo on the disc - you know regular Retro contributor Craig Methven, well his brother Jack and his mate Derek, after a couple of pints, popped into the booth to record a message for their fiancees, Judi & Barbara, in Canada. At the end of the day, however, they decided not to send it, but Jack & Derek went over to Canada in 1971 and married the girls in 1972, where they have remained since.

You'll be able to hear a wee Dundee United song at the start but the content after that is a bit hit and miss.

Still a rare wee gem though, and a big thanks to Craig for passing it on.

CHALMERS & JOY RECORD SHOPS - 70'S

I haven't got any photos of Chalmers & Joy, but not wanting to leave them off Retro Dundee, I'll do what I usually do under these circumstances, and use local adverts.

The top ad is one I found in the small ads of a 1972 Telegraph.

However, I don't actually recall visiting either of the 2 shops mentioned in the ad - a place in the Hilltown and a shop up Albert Street.

By 1974, the Hilltown shop had disappeared and their city centre shop on the corner of Seagate/Gellatly Street had opened up, and that's the one I used to go to.

It was an upstairs/downstairs job but us teenagers need not have bothered too much about what was on offer downstairs as, apart from the singles, it was a mix of Scottish traditional and easy listening. The youthful goodies were upstairs - where all my dosh went!

The staircase walls were covered in posters and when you reached upstairs, these walls too were taken over by poster racks. The room itself was quite spacious and they had a sizable vinyl selection, even if they didn't really keep up with the times as energetically as Bruces did.

I think the shop went through a couple of interior changes over the years but the layout I've described is the one that sticks in my mind most.

The other ad is from this very period too, dated March 1977.

Oh by the way, you see the Status Quo "Live" double album in the ad, well technically, I'm on that one! I went through to Glasgow for their gig at the Apollo where the album was recorded, so I was part of the audience.

Anyway, underneath that ad is a reminder of the shop's carrier bags.

The striped one being the Hilltown & Albert Street bag, and the pink one coming from their Seagate shop.

So, were you part of the Chalmers & Joy hoi polloi?

ROCKPILE RECORDS ADS - 1980'S

A couple of adverts for Rockpile Records in West Port, published in local fanzines in 1982.
A neat wee shop, selling a mixture of new and second-hand records.
Very aromatic too I remember.
I never actually bought any records there mind you, my visits were only when I was off-loading parts of my collection from time to time.
And, it was also the only shop in town who dared to sell bootlegs!

THE MEGAZONES SINGLE - 1980

When I posted a feature about The Megazones on Retro last November, I mentioned that they had released a single in 1980, but I didn't have a copy of it in my collection.
Well lo & behold, a couple of days later, a copy of it was sent to me, straight from the vault of Megazones main man himself, Jim Farrell.
So here it is below - the A-side of the record "Never Been So Lonely" - an upbeat, tuneful piece of pop with a slight hint of Split Enz, The Cars and The Beatles swirling around inside.
In the November feature, the drummer named in The Megazones gig review was Kev Devlin, however, on this recording the guy behind the kit is Kenny Farquharson, who later went on to have a very successful career as a journalist and is presently Deputy Editor of Scotland On Sunday.
Big thanks to Jim and Craig.

POOR SOULS RARITIES - MID 60'S

This is a picture of Dundee band, The Poor Souls, photographed in 1965.
It's a typical kind of publicity shot, which cropped up in a national music magazine - and at the time of the photo, the band were promoting their debut single released on Decca, which I have already featured on Retro.
Under it, is a typical gig the band would be playing at that time too - this one at the Masonic Hall, Crieff, in September 1965.
However, this show was not your typical night out with the band, because during their performance, and incident happened in which main man, Doug Martin, ended up later, being fined for assault!
Their van was also vandalised after the gig.
No encore that night then!
Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to play another track of theirs, this time from 1966 and on Dundee's own label - ALP Records.
So here's Thi Pare Sowls with the B-side of the single, a track called "Please Don't Change Your Mind".

THE MEGAZONES - RECORD & REVIEW - 1980/81

2 wee bits of info on Dundee band The Megazones.

They brought out this vinyl single in 1980 - A side was called "Never Been So Lonely" and the flip was "Circles".

Unfortunately, the record has escaped my clutches, so if anyone has an MP3 version of it you can pass on to me, I could put the audio up on Retro later and that would help put a sound to their name.

Meanwhile, the following year, The Megazones played their final gig at the Barracuda.

This short review of the evenings event was written by accomplished alliteration aficionado, Rikki Rimshot, and appeared in the first issue of Cranked Up.

There is mention of the possibility that the band may resurface later with new band members, but having looked through all the local fanzines I have from 1981/82/83, The Megazones name doesn't crop up afterwards, so I think this gig probably was the last thing they did.

A little footnote - I know there is also a recording of a collaboration with Megazones man, Jim Farrell and ex Scrotum Poler Craig Methven, but again, I haven't been able to get my mitts on that either yet.

So you never know, there may be more to come on The Megazones and related material, in the New Year.

The large version of the review will be easier to read - just give it a click. 

DEAN EASTWOOD - DUNDEE TIGERS - 1987

I'm gonna squeeze in a few music items now before it gets all Christmassy in December, so the next couple of weeks will consist of a rummage through some old publications and a dip into Dundee's back catalogue.
It's The Old Tay Whistle Test!
Let's get our toes tapping with this...(snigger)...classic, from our very own singing minstrel (or should that be mincetrel?!) Dean Eastwood.
The tune is called "The Tigers Of Dundee" and is a song about the Dundee Tigers, the ice hockey team who's 2nd generation incarnation formed in 1987.
Perhaps Dean's regular visits to the Kingsway Ice Rink explains his choice of footwear!
Thanks to the Bear.

GROUCHO'S FAKE RECORD - 1979

In 1979, Groucho record shop created a parody of an album by the Specials.
They called themselves the Mundanes - but they were not a real band, so no Mundanes record inside.
The fake sleeve was actually a party invite to celebrate the 3rd year of Groucho being in biz.
They also tweaked the 2 Tone logo to resemble Groucho Marx and changed the song titles - one being "I Don't Like Mundanes".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forward-wind 4 decades, and Groucho's are involved in more piss-takes, this time fake gig posters for the film, Schemers - complete with venues & bands that don't match the fake dates.
They're all as fake as Groucho Marx's moustache!

VIC PETERSON OF THE PETERMEN - 1968

Scottish folk duo, The Petermen, were Mike Petrie from Glasgow and Vic Peterson from Dundee.
They formed in 1967 when Vic was only 17, not long after leaving Kirkton High, it would seem.
You can read a wee bit about them above, which is taken from the back of their album cover.
They made only the one album, released in 1968, but managed to recruit the services of The Strawbs as session musicians in the process!
It was a short lived venture however, as the 2 split in 1969.
In the early 70's, Vic teamed up with Diana Shearer and formed Juniper Green, cut a couple of albums and were stars of Opportunity Knocks!
Getting back to The Petermen though, here below is quite an amusing track from the album. It's called "The Buildings" and is about being forcibly evicted from your home. What's funny about it is the fact that it having been recorded in the 60's, they mention getting kicked out of their tenements to move into the "new" multi's that were springing up - but of course nowadays, it's the people in multi's who are being kicked out.
Michty meh!!

THE ALTERNATORS - NO ANSWERS - 1978

The Alternators formed in 1976 and had in their line-up ; Martin Geldart (bass) - Wayne Hutton (drums) - Colin Warnock (guitar/vocal) - Louis O'Neil (keyboards).

Their punk based material got them supporting bands such as The Ramones, Skids, The Stranglers...and on one infamous occasion when they were the support for The Rezillos at the Marryat Hall, an altercation took place between the 2 bands during rehearsals resulting in Colin Warnock decking Rezillos singer Fay Fyfe, and so needless to say, no home gig for the guys that night!!

The Alternators did come close to signing a major record deal in London, but it fell through, and shortly after that they split.

Incidentally, Billy MacKenzie once had a short spell singing in the band in their early days.

There does seem to be a slight Stranglers influence on the track below, with a touch of the Dave Greenfield keyboard sound, but it does have a chorus which was typical of the kind of punky records from that era.

You can see the poster for this single (released in January 1978) in the photo above, and it also completes the trio of records released on the Dundee NRG label, all of which are now up on Retro Dundee.

 

GOLLY GOSH...IT'S AWB IN 1973!

This is the cover of Average White Band's debut album "Show Your Hand", released in 1973.

The witty graphic on it features a familiar image of a golliwog...but with a rather obvious twist! Although the humour may be a wee bit cheeky, it's easy to get the joke.

Dundee drummer, Robbie McIntosh, used to have a slightly different version of the peely-wally golly on his drum kit - one that resembled the Robertson's jam logo.

The cover artwork was designed by John Pasche, the chap who a couple of years earlier, created the iconic Rolling Stones lips & tongue logo.

MORE DEAN AND DAWN

The latest music theme, which has been running on Retro for the past 3 weeks, comes to an end today, so I thought I'd bring it to a halt the same way the Cranked Up disco ended their stints, by finishing with a Dean & Dawn track.
The song below called "The Bold Discovery", retains the same standards as the previous 2 tracks of theirs I posted, so expect more dodgy harmonising, more duff notes, and as for the lyrics, well I reckon they may have just been jotted down after reading about the Discovery from a leaflet they picked up at the Tourist Info office!
The melody is "Greensleeves", a tune taught in Primary schools and most kids could play blindfold, but good old D&D still manage to fuck it up!!
Anyway, that's all the musical treats for now.
Still got plenty more goodies to dip into for a few more sessions later though!
Thanks to the Bear.

BRUCE'S RECORDS OF THE WEEK - 1977

3 ads for Bruce's Record Shop dating from 1977.
The top 2 are from Bruce's own fanzine "Cripes" dated end Aug '77.
Bruce's back then was in Reform Street, and although their shop stocked all types of music, they did go out of their way to champion new music.
1st ad - Cripes has the debut by 999 as their single of the week, a record which did pretty good biz amongst the punk fraternity.
2nd ad - Boomtown Rats were already pop stars by the time their self titled debut album became Bruce's LP choice for that week, the band having scored a couple of hit singles by then.
3rd ad - from a Tele dated March '77 - and Bruce's  Album Of The Week was "Marquee Moon" by Television.
What I can remember about this album is - I was tuned into Alan Freeman's radio show one Saturday afternoon, and he played a track from Marquee Moon. It caught my attention because it was something a bit different to the more rockier kind of material he broadcast on his Saturday show. As a result of this, I ended up switching the radio off, putting my coat on, getting a bus into town and buying the Television album from Bruce's there and then!
I was a real serious vinyl dude back then!!

THE WILDERNESS CHILDREN ON VINYL - 1988

This was the 2nd single released by The Wilderness Children.

It was recorded in December 1988 at the Chamber Studios in Edinburgh.

Line-up - Andrea Reid - Fraser Reid - Peter Moug - Phil Davidson - Mike Kane.

The record sleeve graphics were done by Laura Anne Walker (remember the DRCU creche artwork?), and photography by Joe Jordan featured on the inner lyric sheet.

So here below is the A-side, a frisky little indie number called "Plastic Bag From Tesco's"

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.

 

JIM WILKIE - LONG GONE - 1979

I put a piece about Jim Wilkie up on Retro in June 2009 along with a sample track from his album, which was an upbeat dancey pop song, and I said I would put up another of his songs later which was more downtempo, as a contrast. Well now is the moment.
This number from 1979 called "Long Gone" is a nostalgic song, referring to places from his childhood which have disappeared, such as the Broadway Picture House in Arthurstone Terrace, corner shop grocers and St Andrews train station. He's also not too happy with what came after them!
Some of you slightly older ones may recognise the intro...the Saturday Morning Club tune which was sung by kids in cinema's.

DEAN AND DAWN ENCORE!

Admit it. You're dying to hear another Dean and Dawn delight!

Well you're spoilt for choice here with this EP they released in the late 80's.

5 new songs, which, in their own words on the record sleeve, will give their fans "something else to rave about"!!

Just what imaginary fantasy land were they living in?

Now if they had stated that they were a clubby act, then that would have been fair enough, but they were trying to pass themselves off as "International recording artistes" during it all.

Somehow they managed to avoid the Trades Description Act!

Anyway, getting back to the record, I already have songs up on Retro about the Discovery and the Balaena, so I thought I'd go for the hat-trick by choosing their song about the Unicorn.

You can't help like the amateurishness of this performance, what with Dean not knowing whether to, or how to, harmonise, cutting each attempt short. Then there's the big duff chord halfway through. Not forgetting the hilarious John Shuttleworth keyboard which makes the whole thing sound like a comedy record. Yes it truly is a classic!!

They say Dean and Dawn give their fans "something that no other performers have".

Now that's just asking for trouble..!!

Big thanks to the Bear

 

THE LEGENDARY DEAN AND DAWN

And now the moment you've all be waiting for...Dundee's very own, television, radio and recording stars, the classiest duo ever to bestow their awesome talents upon us...Dean and Dawn.

Well actually, I don't really know that much about them, but I do know that according to their own publicity hype, they have "many eager fans"!!

I'm not going to pick on them, or praise them, but let's just say my usage of the term "legendary" was a touch of post modern, ironic humour!

So moving swiftly on, this single called "Proud Of Our City" was runner-up in the 1978 Dundee Festival Song Contest ( I take it there were only 2 songs entered?!) although it wasn't recorded and released until the early 80's. EEL Records the culprits!

Those involved were - Dean Eastwood, vocal, guitar - Dawn Westfield, vocal, tambourine - Gordon Nichols, accordion - Ewan McGregor, drums - Tayside Majorettes, chorus.

Maybe not many people realise that this offering achieved cult status in the early 80's as a result of Jock Ferguson playing it at the end of his Cranked Up DJ sets down at the Tayside Bar. It was of course the cue for the pub lights to go back on and everybody to scarper!!

In fact, Jock once asked Dean & Dawn to perform at the Tayside Bar Christmas party one year, but it didn't happen because they were too expensive, demanding twice as much as the bands got paid!

I'm sure their many eager fans must have felt really disappointed!!

Anyway, give it a blast, then feel free to express yourselves in the comments.

INVERCARSE HOTEL ALBUM - 1973

No, you're not imagining it! It is indeed an album called "Music Live From Invercarse Hotel", released in 1973.
The LP is shared by 2 acts - the A-side has the East Coast Jazz Band, and the B-side has the John Huband Trio.
I'll touch on the B-side a little later, but for now, following on from the previous post, here is a sample of the East Coast Jazz Band in action.
Don't let their formal dress fool you as they get decidedly funky on this track, a version of the Stevie Wonder hit "Superstition". Giving AWB a good run for their money too!
The line-up is the 73 one as listed earlier, with the addition of George Cabrelli on vocal.