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.

GROUCHO SHOP AD AND BAG

I'll end the recent run of shop ads with how I started it, that is, by displaying another one that uses the pun "just for the record".

There have been many variants of the Groucho Marx image over the years but the advert here, dated 1978, is my particular favourite. This graphic was also painted large size on the exterior wall of their shop in Perth Road.
The carrier bag is one from the 80's when they were in the Overgate.

So giving the final word to the man himself, here's a music themed quote of Groucho's I'm rather fond of - "Military justice is to justice what military music is to music".

LYON & SHERRIFFS AD - 1963

 

I must admit, this is one record emporium I know nothing about!

Lyon & Sherriffs Gray Street shop in the Ferry.

As a consequence of knowing nowt about the shop, I don't have any info to pass on other than, the reason they are highlighting The Beatles in their ad is because this was published in the local press on the night the Fab 4 were playing at the Caird Hall in October 1963.





CHALMERS & JOY RECORD SHOPS

Although I don't have any photos of Chalmers & Joy, I don't want to leave them without a presence on Retro Dundee, so I'll do what I usually do under these circumstances, and use other bits & pieces.

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 shop locations mentioned in the ad - one 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 Bruce's 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 Top 20 album chart dates from December 1975, and gives a general idea of what kind of material was selling at the time. Apart from a couple of corny easy-listening crooners, the remainder are all well known established pop & rock acts. Disco Hits 75 is a good reminder, however, that the mid 70's wasn't just all about pop & rock music.

Next up we have another advert, this one 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.

The final ad dates from 1985, and reminds us that they had a special discount on offer for students.

Underneath that ad is a reminder of the shop's carrier bags.

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

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

CATHIE McCABE'S ARCADE POD - 70'S

Looking like a set out of "2001 A Space Odyssey" and using the Countdown typeface, you might expect this shop to be a hip, ultra modern retail outlet where the young trendy youth hung out, but no, quite the opposite, it was a family friendly place selling a strange mix of toys and rather mundane records.

This is Cathie McCabe's Record Shop at the Arcade in Shore Terrace - picture taken in the early 70's.

The shelving racks were interlocking octagons, a theme that also crops up on their ad, dated 1974 and their carrier bag underneath it.

If you zoom into the photo you'll find a combination of easy listening 8-track cartridges, a few toys scattered around, electrical goods and of course, vinyl records.

Here's the albums I've spotted in the picture -

Klaus Wunderlich - "Around The World".

The Alexander Brothers - "Let's Have A Ceilidh".

Bee Gees - "Best Of".

Various - "Total Sound".

Paul & Linda McCartney - "Ram".

Soundtrack - "Love Story".

And one of those stereo sound samplers called "Impact".

Doesn't really set the pulse racing!

The other item above is from the small ads in the Tele dated January 1972 and you can see for yourself the products they had on offer down at the pod.

In 1974, Cathie McCabe also had shops in Reform Street and Lorne Street Market.

Photo by DC Thomson.

BRUCE'S RECORD SHOP AD - 1978

Another great record shop doing brisk business in 1978 was Bruce's in Reform Street.

I've already got a few items relating to Bruce's in the Retro archive, so because I've covered the basics, there's no need to repeat it here.

Something I haven't mentioned before is, in 1978, Bruce's main man, Jim Stewart, had a stint as DJ down at the Sands, playing a wide variety of sounds. Some of his selection would have been the latest hot imports, because as you can see in the ad, they were the only importers in town at the time.

The shop wasn't huge but they did cater for just about everyones tastes and I can even remember buying comedy records out of there. In fact I can rattle off 3 I got in 1975 for example - Billy Connolly "Cop Yer Whack For This" - Richard Pryor "Was It Something I Said" - Bill Barclay (remember him?) "Almost Live".

Mind you, I've no idea who the funny looking fella in the ad is, holding up the vinyl.
Mark Knopfler?

B.G. FORBES IN COMMERCIAL STREET



Here's some ads pertaining to BG Forbes, a shop that sold records and musical instruments.

First though, the photo is a good wee reminder of its location - right on the corner of Commercial Street and Dock Street.

I shopped in here quite a lot in the 70's because it had a really cool selection of jazz vinyl that other record shops in Dundee didn't have - a fine array of ECM albums for example. Some I recall buying were - Terje Rypdal, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, Eberhard Weber, these kind of acts, although I must admit I also came home with a heap of pretty obscure albums from this place too. Names that spring to mind are Pacific Eardrum, Opa, Stomu Yamashta, Passport, Brand X, Casiopea, Shakti, Turning Point, PFM, Milton Nascimento, Nucleus, Marscape, Solution, Azymuth, UK, Nana Vasconcelos, White Noise, Isotope....and plenty others of this variety.

Why they stocked records such as these was probably down to the fact that the guy who ran the shop, Rob Adams, was himself a bit of a jazz-rock aficionado. In fact he was also in a couple of local bands called Europe and Head, acts influenced by the likes of Weather Report.

Anyway, getting back to the above items - the first ad that's making a "note" of the name, dates from 1978.

The small ad under it is from a 1972 Telegraph and the next one is from a 1977 Telegraph - both displaying albums that were more commercial than the kind I usually bought from there.

The 2 yellow items date from 1980 and were adverts that cropped up on the reverse side of tickets for gigs on at the University. The idea being that if you took the ticket stubs into Forbes you got £1 knocked off the price of the related albums - these here being for Peter Gabriel and Mike Oldfield.

We'll just have to ignore the fact that the Uni got the address wrong on one of them!!

Top photo by Neale Elder.

TAYSIDE CASSETTE CENTRE AD - 1973

In '73, the Tayside Cassette Centre were in 73...Perth Road.

So they specialised in music tapes, both cassette format and 8 track - definitely no vinyl.

Why then do they have a gramophone in their ad?

Duhhh!!!!

BUILDING THE LEISURE CENTRE - 70'S

Back down town we go for the final construction image, with this one here of the Leisure Centre in progress in the early 70's.

The stone building to the right of shot is the old baths which they kept open until the new one had been completed.

It looks like a few volunteers from Douglas went down looking for work in 1972 to help out but obviously there wasn't anyone around at the time, so they just left a message.

A smashing bunch of lads!

Photo from Gordon C.

ANN STREET ACTIVITY - EARLY 70'S

These 3 pictures were all taken along Ann Street in the early 70's.

The top image is the calm before the storm as it was snapped just before the main part of the demolition commenced.

The Heatherbell Bar was still open for business in January 1972 but by 1974 all these shops and tenements had disappeared.

The middle shot is further along the street where you can see an old building being demolished behind the modern block. If you go back to the top photo, it's still standing.

Photo 3 is looking back along Ann Street in the other direction with Ellen Street corner behind the JCB that has just reversed into a shop!

Photos from Gordon C.

DALLFIELD MULTIS IN PROGRESS - 60'S

Here's a crackin' shot taken at the bottom o' the Hull in the mid 1960's when work on the Dallfield multis was well under way.
This image has "the 60's" stamped all over it - the multis being built, the cars, the red phone box, the community police box and the billboard ad for Consulate cigarettes.
What a whopper!
Photo from Gordon C.

DALLFIELD MODELS - EARLY 60'S

It looks like an aerial photo at first and then you realise it's an architects model.

This miniature dates from the early 1960's when the idea of multi dwelling was forward thinking and ultra modern.

At the time, these new plans for the foot of Hilltown were to have 376 houses and a day nursery on site.

WELLINGTON TOWERS IN PROGRESS

Here's a couple of rare colour photos of Wellington Towers caught during and after construction.

The top one was taken in the 60's from Cotton Road near the junction of Ann Street (going off to the left) and Hillbank Road (straight on).

The second image from the early 70's is taken from virtually the same spot and shows the work on the multi complete, with an additional block added to the Hillbank Road section.

Photos from Gordon C.

DISMANTLING VICTORIA ROAD - 1988

They seemed to be going a bit canny with the demolition work at Victoria Road when this photo was taken on 19 Feb 1988. Perhaps this was the "snaffling the lead tiles off the roof" phase or something!
Anyway, the area in shot stretches from the Butcher on the left (#24) to the Knitting Centre on the right (#38).
I can't make out all the shops but the Central Cafe is there, also Chima, who sold saris and suchlike.
I remember in the mid 60's the 2 Chima daughters were the first Asians to enrol at Balerno Primary School, with Ravi Chima coming into my class.
The other feature in the picture is the lamppost at the top of Wellgate steps, referred to as the Bobbys Helmet.
And if you are in a particularly silly mood, you could do a double take and view the photo through surreal eyes where you might be able to see a wee gnome repairing the inside of the light!
Photo by Neale Elder.

GOODBYE MID STREET - 80'S

It's not just only buildings that disappear, sometimes it's the entire street, and here we are in the 80's bidding farewell to Mid Street.

Mid Street ran from the Dudhope Street/Hilltown junction, through to Constitution Road.

Top pic is from the Hilltown fork, Dudhope Street off to the right, Mid Street being demolished on the left.

The other photo is from Mid Street looking back over at the Hilltown.

It was time for it to go to make way for the Marketgait tunnel.

Photos by The Bear.

BUILDING THE WELLGATE CENTRE - 70'S

The top photo shows us how the council reached the decision to grant planning permission for the Wellgate Centre - as you can see, it was based on their observation that the building was "sympathetic to its surroundings", a phrase town planners like to spout!

So it's the mid 70's and the construction work is in full flow - just like the contractors champagne!

Photos by DC Thomson.

HILLTOWNS DISAPPEARING PUBS - 70'S

Here's a couple of Dundee pubs in the process of being wiped off the map.

The top one is the Empire Bar & The Copper Bell Lounge which was on the corner of Rosebank Street / Constitution Street.

Underneath it is Bradley's Bar & the Talk Of The Town Lounge located on the corner of Ann Street / Ellen Street.

Both pub positions are listed in my 1970 Directory, but in my 1974 Directory the 2 addresses don't exist, so this demolition occurred sometime in-between these two dates.

Photos from Gordon C.

CENTRAL FIRE STATION DEMOLITION

The retro decades in particular were pretty active when it came to demolishing Dundee's old buildings, so much so that sometimes we thought the Councils motto was "What goes up, must come down"...(well, apart from their salaries!).

There was also a fair bit of new construction going on too, so over the next few days I'm going to put up a mix of images showing some structures going up, and some tumbling down.

Kicking off with this one here which is Bell Street Central Fire Station being knocked down in the late 60's.

The photo was taken from Courthouse Square looking over into the firemen's living quarters above the main station, with the entire corner area bulldozed.

Below the snap of the rubble is a photo of the fire crew who worked at Bell Street Station in the 60's.

It was sent in by Mark Ritchie whose father is the chap top left in the picture.

Bell Street was such an apt place-name to have a fire station too don't you think?!

Demolition photo is from Gordon C.

WRESTLING IN THE PARK - 70'S

I've heard of all-in wrestling before but here's an example of all out wrestling!

Not got any info on this photo at all but a couple of guesses has me thinking it may be Baxter Park in the early 70's. Baxter's used to put on events like this during the summer weeks, and I've gone for the 72/73 period based on a boy in the crowd wearing what could be the Dundee FC "penguin" strip (near the bottom left corner standing to the right of the girl with the patterned coat). Also, the car in the background could be an early 70's Vauxhall Viva.

I'm not 100% certain on any of these statements, but that's the best I could come up with using what possible clues there are available in the picture.

The other obvious alternative is Camperdown Park.

If you fancy a stab at it, drop it in the comments.

LOCAL GOLFING YOUNGSTERS

The top photo was taken in the early/mid 80's and has a bunch of youngsters trying out their golfing skills somewhere in Dundee. I'm not too sure which course it is they are on, Camperdown pitch & putt possibly. Anyway, if anyone can say for certain where the scene is taking place, or even recognise someone, feel free to pass on your knowledge.

The one below it I can definitely nail because that sporty looking chap is me! Yes that's yours truly in 1969 aged 11 playing on our championship course in our back garden. We turned the entire length of our lawn into a mini golf course, a 6 holer stretching from the side of the house, through the washing green and all the way down to the plot at the bottom lawn. It was mostly used for putting. One of the holes was located in front of a greenie pole which was like a giant flag pole and that allowed you to get great rebound shots!

For pitch & putt, some of the hazards were - the ball rolling under the shed, getting snagged in the hedge, rolling down the rockery onto the pathy slabs (out of bounds) or ending up in the plot amongst the rhubarb.

For real golf swing work-outs with a driver, being surrounded by housing, we had to use a plastic practise ball for obvious reasons. However, the inevitable happened one day when our mate had a go and gave one a full wallop, but he made the mistake of ignoring the guidelines and used a real golf ball - then it was CRASH..tinkle, tinkle - straight through the kitchen window!

Needless to say, golf was banned on our course for a short while afterwards.
That said, I didn't take up the sport at all - I've never set foot on any golf course!

The other image next to me is a toy my wee brother got for xmas, early 70's - Arnold Palmer's Pro Shot Golf. This was a great invention that had a miniature golfer on the end of a club handle, which, when you pulled a trigger mechanism, made the player swing and hit the ball. It came with various items such as sand traps, putting green, score cards and a set of clubs. Great fun.

By the way, the image of me and the toy box are not to scale..!!