THE GALLEON BAR - INTERIOR

This was the view you got from the balcony inside the Galleon. Most folk made a grab for the seats nearest to the balcony railing because you could keep an eye on what was going on down below. It was like getting a window seat on the bus..!!

THE GALLEON BAR - EXTERIOR

A little reminder of the curvy exterior of The Galleon in Whitehall Crescent. A pub I used to drop in on now and again rather than regularly. In fact, looking back, I think I only went there when there were bands playing, that would have been in the late 70's early 80's.
The main reason why it wasn't a "regular" so to speak, was probably down to the basic fact that it was quite difficult to get around ALL the pubs, all the time...although there were quite a few of us who gave it a good go..!!

THE BUZZ AT MR BEAUJANGLES - LATE 70'S



So who's the bloke causing all the fuss with the Beaujangles babes?

Well it's TV & movie star, Patrick Mower.

This was the official opening of Mr B's shop in the Wellgate Centre in the late 70's.

I think Mr M might have been trying for the Saturday Night Fever look!

Photo by DC Thomson.

MONKEY BOOTS - EARLY 70'S

Following on from my previous post, I thought I'd put a picture of Monkey Boots up for those who may have forgotten all about them. Very popular with Dundee's streetwise teenagers in the early 70's. They were worn by girls as much as the boys, and sometimes were considered to be a cheaper alternative to Doc Martens amongst gang types.
It also meant shoe shops did brisk business selling tins of Kiwi Ox Blood boot polish!

EARLY 1970'S CARDIGAN



Anyone remember these?

All the rage in Dundee around the 1972-74 period.

The maroon ones above were the most popular although there were also a black coloured version and a dark green variant.

These tartan cardies were worn mostly by the 12 to 15 year old age group, usually along with Monkey Boots!

You can see one lad in the photo above wearing one.

Incidentally, the main guy in the picture is Steve Murray, who once played for Dundee FC, although he was with Celtic when this snap from 1973 was taken.

AUSTIN THE TAILOR - WELLGATE - 1960'S

Heading along towards the steps in the old Wellgate, Austin's was roughly half-way up on the left, 2nd shop past the Forester Arms Bar.
Despite the photo being taken in the swinging 60's, the sensible suits & shirts in the shop window display show that they wouldn't have been able to provide the kind of groovy gear as worn by Austin Powers!

THE ASSOCIATES - FAT SAMS - 1985

Sometime around the start of 1985, The Associates played live on stage at Fat Sams.
Above is a review of that very gig, written by local journalist, Bob Flynn.
It was a gig I was at too. Absolutely choc-a-block I recall.
A couple of wee extra details I can remember are - on 2 or 3 of their songs they brought on backing singers dressed in black polo necks - they were called Die Zwei, from Germany.
I can also remember occasionally glimpsing part of the show on the in-house TV screens. They had TV monitors in the back room so you could still catch the act when nipping through for refreshments. I wonder now whether the show was ever recorded onto video? If anyone out there has a copy, feel free to get in touch..!!
I do, luckily, have an audio recording of the Fat Sams gig.
So here below is a reminder of that sweaty evening in South Ward Road.
The vid contains a short piece of film of Billy Mackenzie in Fat Sams at the start, but it's not from this gig, it's only the music that's from Fatties. The rest of the visuals are stitched together from various sources.
The track is "The Affectionate Punch".

ANGUS HOTEL #3 - 1980's

On the Angus Hotel reception desk they used to have a visitors book for guests to sign and an additional separate book for celebs autographs.

Being Dundee's top hotel for 3 decades meant that it did contain quite a few famous names. In there were the likes of Maggie Thatcher, David Bowie, the Queen, Peter Ustinov, Rod Stewart and so on, page after page.

In March 1985, The Associates booked in for the night when they were in town for a gig at Fat Sams.

A while afterwards, I managed to get the page from the celeb book the band had signed that night.

I also attended the gig too and I'm gonna give that a mention on Retro Dundee next. Stay tuned..!!

Incidentally, on the other side of the page was the signature of songstress, Susan Maughan. She had a couple of hit records back in the 60's (remember 'Bobby's Girl'), and she was performing at the Whitehall Theatre in April that year.

ANGUS HOTEL #2 - 1970'S

This photo of the Angus Hotel zone was taken in 1973.
The road layout reminds you it was in a perfect spot to catch travellers from all points on the compass.
There were a couple of small business premises to the left of the main entrance canopies. Grampian TV was next door. Next to them was a jewellers, office supplier and a car rental. Later, one of those premises was occupied by 2nd-hand record shop, Groucho's.
The 2 businesses across the road in the same Nethergate building next to the roundabout were, J.D Brown Photography Studio (the window with the net curtains) and next to it is the Bangladesh Restaurant, where David Bowie & Co once bought meals to bring back to the Angus Hotel after their gig in '73.

ANGUS HOTEL #1 - 1960'S

Built in the early 60's, The Angus Hotel, on the corner of Marketgait and Nethergate (now Debenhams), was Dundee's top city hotel for around 3 decades. It was THE place for visitors to stop off at, whether they be royalty, politicians, rock stars or celebs. It wasn't only for out-of-towners though, locals used it too, for functions, weddings and so on. It even hosted gigs occasionally. I remember going to a few jazz concerts there in the late 70's - early 80's.

The building was part of the overall Overgate Centre design, and adjoining the hotel on the Nethergate side were 2 pubs, The Glamis and The Nethergate Bar. Then around the back of the hotel was the Overgate shopping area.

The short piece of footage below, from the mid 60's, gives a better view of it's position and layout, showing the front of the Angus and the shops at the rear.

 

Photo by the Scotsman.Tints by GG.

THE OTHER RECORD SHOP - INTERIOR - 1984

The photo at the top is of inside The Other Record Shop in the Overgate and was taken in May 1984.

A wee look around the shop shows that there is still plenty of vinyl to be had. However, the ominous appearance of the CD rack (like a Dalek in the centre of the store) would later go on to almost exterminate vinyl from record shops.

Compact Discs started to compete with vinyl in 1982 and although rock & pop acts were a bit tentative to try using this format at first, it wasn't long before everybody released their material on CD. This in turn became especially lucrative for record companies who chose to re-issue their back catalogue which then had punters purchasing their entire record collection all over again!
It was now pretty much the beginning of the end for vinyl.

DJ's and serious record collectors have prevented vinyl being killed off completely though, becoming more of a specialist commodity nowadays. I for one opted to hang onto most of my vinyl collection, many of which were purchased from this very shop.

Underneath the top picture is a reminder of the stores carrier bag.

Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

LED ZEPPELIN - CAIRD HALL - 1970's

Led Zeppelin stopped off at the Caird Hall twice in the 70's - first was on 13 November 1971, and their second was on this day 36 years ago, 27 January 1973.

I missed out on these Dundee gigs but I did manage to catch them live a few years later in England around 78/79.

There are quite a few photos from their Caird Hall shows available to view on fan sites such as Led Zeppelin Database, like Jimmy Page with his double necked guitar.

To get a reminder of them in Dundee, you can travel back in time to their '71 show with this recording below and hear them perform "Heartbreaker", with the Caird Hall crowd getting a bit over excited, inducing a ticking off from Robert Plant!

BILLY PLATER RECORDING - 1985

This recording is a bit of a mystery to me.
It's by Billy Plater and called "Tay Bridge".
This review of it cropped up in a Deadbeat fanzine in August 1985.
For starters, I've no idea who Billy Plater is, never seen the name anywhere before.
Although the track title is "Tay Bridge", I don't know if the act is from Dundee or out of town.
The reviewer doesn't even know if it's a duo or a band!
A 10 minute electronic track means it's probably on cassette rather than vinyl.
Deadbeat didn't give it a thumbs up really, but I wouldn't mind hearing it.
Anyone know anything about it?

LOCHEE BATHS - ST. MARYS LANE

Lochee Baths is where I learned to swim. This was back in the late 60's when my primary class used to visit there once a week for lessons.
The entrance was up a wee side street called St Marys Lane, just off Lochee High Street.
The interior layout was very compact, in fact there was actually hardly any room to move around the edge of the pool.
When we went there it was only the girls who got to use the perimeter cubicles, us boys got chucked in the communal changing room around the back.
I remember we all started off using arch shaped polystyrene floats before any attempts at proper swimming commenced, but it didn't take long before the whole class could swim.
The upside to the trip was, because we attended Balerno school in Douglas, it meant a lengthy bus journey, so we kind of viewed the 3 hour day out as a bit of a skive from class, what with the all-round excursion using up a full morning.
The downside to it was, our class was booked during the winter months so I can also recall the miserable return journey when we were all damp haired, freezing and shivering waiting on the bus back.
Still to this day, anytime I happen to catch a whiff of bleach, I always get a flashback to the Lochee Baths!
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

OLD BANK BAR - REFORM STREET

My memory of the Old Bank Bar is that I used to visit it more often during the day than I did in the evenings. The main reason was probably based on the fact that in the mid 80's it was one of the first pubs in Dundee to get an all-day license. Inevitably, the novelty of not getting chucked out at half-two was taken advantage of on more than one occasion. The thing about being open all day, however, is that it did sometimes mess up your sense of time. Now and again we would plan to pop in at lunchtime just for a quick pint, only to then see it turn into an unplanned all day session. Lethal..!! It took a few weeks to get used to it.

UB40 - CAIRD HALL - 1982

27 years ago today, reggae band UB40 were playing at the Caird Hall, my ticket stub above managing to survive the passage of time.

This was the 2nd time I had seen the band live as I saw them play in Edinburgh 2 years earlier.

Great upbeat vibes on the night that got everyone out their seats!

The item below the ticket is a full page ad from an NME back then that has the tour dates listed.

SLEAZ BAND DEMO #3

Sleaz Band demo number 3...

SLEAZ BAND DEMO #2

Sleaz Band demo number 2...

SLEAZ BAND DEMO #1

A rare compilation of unheard demo tracks by Dundee act, Sleaz Band, was unearthed recently.
20 tracks in total, all of which were recorded during the 1969 to 1974 period.
Although the Sleaz Band did release a proper record in 1974, none of the demo tracks made it onto vinyl.
Sleaz Band seemed to share the same musical arena as bands like, Jo Jo Gunne, SAHB, Geordie, Blackfoot Sue etc - not quite full-on rock and not overtly commercial pop, but all lurking around the same in-between territory in the early/mid 70's.
Don't know why Sleaz Band didn't hitch on board the road to success, they certainly supported many big names and so would have been in touch with plenty influential contacts in the biz - but sometimes that's not always what the bands themselves are looking for.
Perhaps they just enjoyed the booze more than the biz!
Anyway, I'm gonna put up 3 of their demo's, all if which are untitled.
Here's the first of the batch...

CRANKED UP - A DUNDEE FANZINE - 80'S

This is the cover of the very first issue of Dundee music fanzine, Cranked Up. It wasn't the cities first fanzine, with the likes of "Men from Soya" and "Le Sinistre" being very short-lived attempts earlier. Cranked Up, however, kept it going for 18 issues, so they had a good run.
The mag hit the scene in 1981 and managed to capture the start of the "New Wave" bands that were springing up locally, although a variety of other music categories were given plenty fanzine space too.
Performers and places that get a mention in ISSUE 1 are - SCROTUM POLES - BLIND PEW - TAYSIDE BAR - UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS - THE GRIP - TIFFANY'S - NO FIXED ABODE - MEGAZONES - BARRACUDA - ASGARD - ST. ANDREW & THE WOOLEN MILL.
The main man behind Cranked Up was, Jock Ferguson, who nowadays makes a living acting, specialising in Scottish characters. Check out his website to see what he's up to http://www.thesonsofscotland.co.uk/jockferguson.htm