BUILDING THE REP THEATRE

The top picture was taken in the summer of 1979 and shows the foundations being put in place for the new Rep Theatre - with the view looking out over Tay Square onto South Tay Street.

Building was completed in 1982 and the 2nd image is a photo of the interior which was taken in '82 when everything was all brand new and ready for business in April that year.

THE REP THEATRE - LOCHEE ROAD

When the old original Rep Theatre in Nicoll Street burnt down in the early 60's, this church in Lochee Road became the Rep's 2nd home. It was only supposed to be a temporary base, but it remained in use right up until the opening of their present theatre in Tay Square in 1982.

Under the photos are some items pertaining to Lochee Rep, the advert being 2 plays performed in 1966.

I can remember visiting the Lochee Road Rep in the late 60's as a special school treat when my class went to see a "marionette show".

Being primary school age, we were used to string puppets on TV with shows such as Thunderbirds, Stingray, Joe 90 and them all, so needless to say the show was a big hit with the kids.

They had to construct a small puppet stage onto the main stage for them to perform. All the drapery & cloth surrounding it was black, as was the puppeteer's clothing. This was to keep the puppeteers hidden during the performance of course, which meant we could concentrate on the puppet action better!

Read the 1968 article above for more details.

I also recall my parents going to see John Cairney do his show at Lochee Rep, a play about Robert Burns which was also very popular at the time.

On the final night of the performance, however, he created a little confrontation afterwards, which you can read in the above clipping dated 1967.

UNIVERSITY WAIFS

The Waifs was the name of Dundee University's theatre group who formed in the 1960's.
They called themselves this because they didn't have a permanent theatre home-base at the time, having to rehearse and perform at various venues outside the University.
The item at the top is dated November 1965, and is an announcement about The Waifs first full-length production titled "Les Justes". A play by Albert Camus, directed by Brian Clarke, and on at Lochee Rep.
The other items are from another Waifs performance and is the programme to accompany a play called "The Fire Raisers" which they put on at the Rep in 1966.
In amongst the pages you'll be able to spot Robin Soans, who went on to become a well known actor.

Click items to enlarge.

Thanks to Martin Dudley.

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

SWITCHING THE XMAS LIGHTS ON - 1980'S

Aaaaaahhh..!! Affy bonnie. This looks kind of cosy and quaint now, but this is how they went about switching the christmas lights on in Dundee in the early 80's. Just a bit of a sing-song....no pyrotechnics.

SANTA IN THE 70'S

What Santa didn't like about Dundee in the 70's was, having to change his outfit in every housing estate he visited - just to be on the safe side!
Here he is during a trip to Fintry in 1973.

CHRISTMAS CARD FROM PETER GABRIEL

Back in the 70's, when I used to get music papers every week, one of the things that cropped up regularly in the small ads were addresses to Fan Clubs. That said, I didn't really have any notion to join any because I didn't devote myself to any band in particular or even any music genre - I was open to all.

However, I still had the curiosity niggling away at me thinking about what kind of correspondence I would get if I did join one.

So in 1977, I decided to subscribe to a new club on the scene that I spotted called 'Friends Of Peter Gabriel', which sounded a bit more intimate than the usual fan club. In return I got regular newsletters containing tour date info, recording updates, special offers, merchandise, that kind of thing, which I rather liked because much of stuff was way before music papers got hold of it, and so it was fun to be one step ahead of the media!
One item I got which was a nice surprise was a Christmas card from Peter himself.
Here it is above - a rather surreal kind of illustration with "Here Comes The Flood" on it, referring to one of his tracks.
Inside, of course, it has his hand written greeting.
Much of the correspondence I got also came with an ink rubber stamp of the postal address - as on the record sleeve of a single I purchased shown above.
So it was all quite enjoyable at the end of the day, but now that my curiosity had been satisfied, I didn't feel the need to re-subscribe the following year.
It was just a one-off thing.

It's probably a good bet that I was the only one in Dundee who got a card from Peter that year!

TOP OF THE POPS IN THE 70'S

Between the ages of 12 and 15 in the early 70's, the TV programme that we always talked about in Dundee's school playgrounds was Top of The Pops. A show you didn't dare miss. Whether we were playing 2-touch in the culdee or hanging around the chip shop, we would all stop what we were doing and rush home every Thursday evening to catch the latest episode. At Craigie High, like most schools, we all had our favourite groups scrawled all over our jotters and bags. Pure pop fun.
Below are 2 original TOTP intros, for a wee bit of nostalgia. First one is from '71 and the second from'74. As you'll see there was more than Glam Rock bands on offer with there being a fair smattering of Rock and Soul acts in the charts too.

ALP RECORD ADVERTS - 1966

These 3 ads for Andy Lothian's ALP Records were all published around summer / autumn in 1966.
The releases were kind of split into 2 categories - the pop/blues/folk/jazz stuff and the traditional Scottish material.
Some Dundee acts were involved needless to say - The Poor Souls, Peter & Alison, John Huband and Andy Lothian too.
ALP hooked up with Polydor Records and got a good deal with them running the behind the scenes activity - management, promotion, publicity, advertising, distribution etc.
The first record put out on ALP was by The Red Hawks which got to number 1 in Radio Scotland's pop chart, and it also made it into Radio London's top 40.
At the time of the adverts, the latest ALP release was by trendy Glasgow band, Studio Six.

QUEEN - CAIRD HALL - 13th DEC 1975

33 years ago today, Queen were rockin' the Caird Hall... and a gig I was at.

Bohemian Rhapsody was at #1 in the charts at the time and that was the song they opened the show with.

The Caird Hall lights were turned off, and out of the darkness a loud mystery voice was heard announcing..."Ladies & gentleman, welcome to, a night at the opera"... then out blasted the middle operatic sequence from Bohemian Rhapsody. It was still pitch dark as we listened to the familiar song without the band being present, then as the song progressed it eventually reached the famous guitar riff segment, and out burst Queen onto stage, complete with exploding flash bombs. Quite an intro!

Needless to say they kept these kind of theatrics going throughout the rest of the show.

The items above are the original ticket stub and music paper ad from back then.

Below is a recording from this very concert. 2 tracks in fact with Dundee getting a couple of shout-outs during the chat to the audience.

 

THE DUFFLE COAT - EARLY 60'S

Before the more popular quilted Anorak's and Parka's arrived in the mid 60's, the winter coat most often worn by kids in Dundee was the Duffle coat.

I certainly had a navy blue one with tartan lining.

According to this 1962 Milletts advert however, the navy blue Duffle with tartan lining was the cheapest of the range..!!

Oh well, at least I thought they looked better than the more expensive green and grey ones.

Click ad to enlarge

THE INN AT THE QUAY - 1982

Dundee's "floating pub" was a very short lived novelty. In business only for a few months in 1982. The Balmoral (the boats former name) was modified to become The Inn At The Quay around spring 1982 and it sat at Craig Pier, beside the Leisure Centre. It was a good wee pub to visit in the summer months because you could sit out on deck and take in the warm lighty nights. Everytime I was there it was always a young crowd on board and I'm fairly sure it had dj's on at weekends. The funnel had an image of a "key" on it which was a wee bit of visual humour - key/quay. You could say it was an INN joke..!!
I remember in August that year, I arrived back in town after a 4 week tour of France and as soon as I stepped out of the rail station, the Quay was the first place I headed for, then it was straight up to the Deep Sea for some proper food..a puddin' supper!
By winter the floating pub had shut.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

DAVID LOW - COMMERCIAL STREET

A little glimpse inside David Low's Sport shop in June 1972, the golf department being on the upper level.
Apart from all the obvious golfing equipment in the foreground, also on display are items such as (on the shelves above the assistant) boxes of "BIFFIT" sets, a Slazenger sports bag and a "Clock Golf" box, which was a putting game for the garden. Tucked away in the right-hand corner you'll find hats, gloves and golf balls.
My trips to the shop were 9 times out of 10, visits to the ground floor department where they had all the football goodies. Kits, boots, scarves etc. It was also a very handy shop for getting football match tickets. Even when Cup games were advertised in newspapers as being sold out, the shop managed to conjure up tickets from under the counter, which was a real life-saver sometimes!!
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by 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.

BILLY MACKENZIE'S XMAS SONG - 1984

Better get yer hankies oot..!!
As a special wee treat for Christmas, here is Dundonian, Billy Mackenzie singing a weepy festive song called "The little boy that Santa Claus forgot".
Billy was in The Associates, and it was 24 years to the day that the band performed this song at Londons top jazz venue, Ronnie Scott's. This is the actual recording from that session on 9th December 1984, along with general footage from the gig in the video below.
The song itself was composed way back in the early 50's.

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.

THE CRAIGIEBANK SHOPS - 1962

This is a section of the Craigiebank shops located on Arbroath Road near the Kingsway circle. The picture was taken in December 62 and the shops in the image, starting at the far end corner, are :
DPM - Dairy
Patterson - Butcher
Yeaman - Newsagent
Post Office
MacFarlane - Chemist, Optician & Photography.
These are the local shops I went to throughout the 60s & 70s. I remember the Post Office sold wee kids knick-knacks such as plasticine, crayons, magic slates and stuff like that. One of my favourites when aged about 4 was Magic Painting Books. They were just plain white pages with simple illustrations drawn on but when you filled in the illustrations using a brush dipped only in water, the colours would appear on the page, like magic!
The other aspect of the picture is the wee boy with the ball. I used to take a ball along to the shops too. The idea being to skillfully keep the ball on the pavement away from the road. When a pedestrian was coming towards me, I would imagine it was an opposition player and play a 1-2 off the wall as I ran past them, pretending to be Pele!
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

THE WELLGATE WATERFALL - 1986

The Wellgate waterfall was installed in 1978. It was constructed of 2 curtains of plastic wires down which trickled water into a pool below. There were also 3 small fountains shooting water upwards in-between the 2 main curtain cascades, and the whole installation was illuminated by coloured spotlights set in the base of the pool.
As the water feature became the focus of attention, people started to throw coins into the pool like a wishing well, and every so often the pool would be dredged with the money going to charity.
The surrounding plants increased in quantity as time passed by until it eventually took on it's oasis-like appearance above, which was taken on 30th November 1986.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

BUZZCOCKS & JOY DIVISION - DUNDEE - 1979

Not a full house for this gig on 8th October 1979 but it was still quite lively!
Buzzcocks did come up with a few punk-pop classics in their day it has to be said and it was great to hear these gems blasting out live in the Caird Hall.
The crowd at the front of the stage were pogoing and gobbing like it was a punk gig from 1977 but the support band, Joy Division, was proof that alternative music had moved on to the next phase - it being almost 1980 and now time for the post punk/new wave era.
I can remember hearing the awesome electric drum on "She's Lost Control" and thinking how futuristic this Joy Division track sounded. I can still conjure up the image of Ian Curtis doing his agitated dance movements in my mind!
I used to have the Caird Hall poster for this gig on my wall too, printed in maroon & yellow colours. The poster did have Joy Division as the support act on it, whereas the ticket doesn't give them a name-check at all.
Unfortunately, I ended up chucking the poster out when I moved house, so my ticket stub is all I can display on Retro!

THE ODEON - STRATHMARTINE ROAD

The Odeon was a picture house I used to go to occasionally rather than regularly. Main reason being it was at the other end of town to where I lived and it needed 2 buses to reach it. It was probably the plushiest of Dundee's cinemas though, from what I can remember of the 1960s/70s period.
A part of the build up to the main movie features were of course the Pearl & Dean adverts on screen, and here below are a couple of original P&D ads from the late 60s/early 70s era to transport you back in time!