THE BROUGHTY FERRY TRAIN

There doesn't appear to be much of a difference with the view along Douglas Terrace nowadays and when the above photo was taken - the mid 70's.

This is one of my brothers snaps and you should be able to notice he managed to catch the moment a train went whizzing past Royal Tay Yacht Club.

So just for a bit of fun, I thought I'd accompany the image with this piece of film below - the same scene, but from the train drivers viewpoint.

The footage is from inside the drivers cab, and is the full, uninterrupted trip from Dundee Station to Broughty Ferry Station, passing places such as the Docks, Stannergate, Grassy Beach and of course this stretch here in the snap.

Duration? - 4 minutes.

"ALL ABOARD!"

BROUGHTY FERRY STATION - 1980'S

Well I've passed it often enough, but I've never actually had any reason to use Broughty Ferry Station - so for those of you who were Ferry passengers, this batch of photos from the mid 80's will take you back.

Top one is of the level crossing & signal box at Gray Street and was taken in July 1985.

The signal box and footbridge were later dismantled and is currently in storage, perhaps to be reassembled sometime in the future.

Middle shot is a view from the other side of the structure as seen from the platform. Picture is dated February 1984.

The last image is a look inside at the station's ticket office. If you zoom into the large version you'll find plenty of BR paraphernalia to read. This was snapped in September 1984, and then a year later it became unstaffed.

The station is now operated by mission control in Dundee.

Photos by Neale Elder.

RAILWAY RECORDING BOOTHS

Dundee used to have a Recording Booth (like the one above) at the rail station in the 60's and 70's.

Just like a photo booth, you'd plonk your coin in the slot, but instead of posing for some snaps, you'd start speaking.

The idea was that those who were travelling could send a voice message from the location they were visiting - a bit like a sonic postcard!

2/6 (13p) for a 3 minute recording at the standard speed of 45rpm.

Mind you, it was also put to use by the locals from time to time.

Yvonne J (Susan Childe from The Flamingos) was telling me that when she was a young teenager she once popped into the booth and recorded a full song - a bit of a precursor to her later years in proper recording studios.

The booth in the picture isn't the Dundee one, but I'm sure every main town in Britain had one back then.

I guess they must have been phased-out some time in the mid/late 70's.

RAIL STATION & GOODS STATION - 1983

The top photo is a nice reminder of how Tay Bridge Station looked before it became the design it is today. The one on top being a basic shoe box design - functional rather than eye-catching.

This is exactly how I remember the area when I lived in Dundee.

At the time the picture was taken (21st December 1983) the larger building next to it, the goods station, was being demolished, although obviously all the work was being done at the rear.

If you view the large version, you can see the rail station's Christmas tree.

The close-up image of the Dundee West Goods Station sign was taken on 22nd December 1983, and as you can see it was the depot of National Carriers.

Another relic from the past that's in the bottom shot is the guy wearing a Kestrel Marine jacket!

Photos by Neale Elder.

2 OLD LOCHEE RAIL STATIONS

Lochee by rail? Well you could once upon a time.

The top picture is Lochee Station, taken around 1970-ish.

It had been closed down for quite a while by then, but the station itself was saved and converted in 1972 into the Lochee Burns Club.

I really like the patchwork quilt stonework. You'd think Gaudi had paid a visit.

The other one, a bit further along the line, is Lochee West Station.

This outpost was flattened rather than rescued, but just before it disappeared it was filmed for posterity in the late 60's.

The footage below doesn't last long, but it lingers long enough to notice that it had separate waiting rooms for the Gentlemen and the Ladies!

LAW TUNNEL LARKS - 70'S

You're guess is as good as mine as to whether these 2 lads are law-breakers up to no good, or law-abiding citizens doing some research on the Dundee to Newtyle railway line - whichever it is, this image of the pair was taken at the bricked up entrance of the Law tunnel, around the Kinghorne Road area, in the early 70's.
2 ghost train-spotters possibly?!

FUN IN THE OVERGATE - 1973

It's that Overgate sculpture again!

You may recall I put a couple of pictures up on Retro last month of the same piece of work, but because those photos were taken in the mid 80's, the structure was a bit drab looking and the surrounding shops nearing the end of their lives.

Well in comparison, here's what it was like when it was still kinda fresh - the artwork being put to good use by wee Leigh and co back in 1973.

The b & w shot below them was also taken in the mid 70's and shows the whole structure..

Although it's the work of Dundee artist, Iain Eadie, there's a hint of Ben Nicholson about the design!

According to my 1974 Dundee Directory, the name of the shop in the background was Brentford Nylons - but as you can see, it's actually just Brentfords. The company was technically called Brentford Nylons, so not sure why Dundee ended up with a shortened shop name.

Their slogan at the time was "Quality With A Conscience" - which makes it sound like you'd end up feeling guilty if you bought one of their expensive blouses!

Photos from Leigh, via Marky.

THIS IS HUNS LAND - BEWARE

Shifting from yesterday's Urban environment to another urban setting - the Hulltoon.
The scrawl on the wall says it all!
Photo by The Bear.

STAN URBAN AT SESSIONS - 1980'S

Dundonian, Stan Urban, is an old-school rock 'n' roller. He was hooked on the music at a young age - and I mean young - playing in a local band called The Mystery Men when he was only 13 back in the 50's, when rock 'n' roll was as fresh as he was. By the early 60's he had progressed to providing piano backing for Gene Vincent & Chuck Berry and was also part of the bustling Hamburg scene at the time. In the 70's, when he had a residency in Ibiza, he even found himself jamming with Jimmy Page & Robert Plant!

Since the 80's he has released many records as a solo artist - with one of the albums called "Dundee Jivin' "

Performing live is what he likes doing best though and the above picture is him playing a home gig at Sessions in 1989.

He lives in Denmark now and you can find out more about what he's up to from his own website here - http://www.stanurban.dk/ (remember and click the union jack if you don't understand Danish!).

And so as Stan brings the house down - it's time now for Retro to bring the curtain down on the present music theme and head off to pastures new...

Photo by The Bear.

ALAN PRICE GIG AT SESSIONS - 1989

Alan Price had a 2 night stint at Sessions in June 1989.

I can remember when Alan was a regular on the telly in the 60's when he was in The Animals, a band who had some serious chart-busting singles in the hit parade, as it was called back then.

Alan then departed The Animals in the mid 60's to pursue a solo career - he actually played a gig at the Palais (Top Ten Club) in 1966.

Around the early 70's, he kind of became a lightweight all-round entertainer appearing on naff variety shows.

I never saw or heard him again after that.

So obviously, as this picture shows, he went back to doing what he was doing in the mid 60's, playing the pub & club circuit again.

His 2 female backing singers appear to be sharing a joke behind his back rather than providing vocals!

Photo by The Bear.

HAVANA & DEUCHAR AT McGONAGALL'S - 80'S

This top notch image features the guitarists of Dundee jazz outfit, Havana Swing and local legend, Jimmy Deuchar on trumpet.

Havana Swing started off as a guitar trio in 1986 - Alain Legrand, John Whyte and Kevin Murray.

By 1987, the band had added Calum McKenzie on double bass and Walter Smith on clarinet.

However, also around 1986, story has it that during one of Havana Swing's gigs in Dundee, Jimmy was in the audience (he had his trumpet with him) and was so smitten with their performance that he leapt out of the crowd and joined them centre stage for a bit of the action!

After that impromptu introduction, he actually went on to play regularly with them.

Just wondering if this photo was that actual gig's "spontaneous moment" or whether this was taken later when they were all together as a unit?

The venue was that well known pub along Perth Road, McGonagall's.

The pub started jam session twice a week in 1986, and as you can see on this particular advert dated March 1986, Havana Swing were the band leading the jam.

So there could be a connection to the photo.

By the way, in the 50's, Jimmy released an album called "Pub Crawling" - so the Perth Road the perfect place for him to be!

Photo by The Bear.

ARRIVAL PLAY THE CAFE CLUB - 1980'S

Here's Dundee heavy metal merchants, Arrival, blasting out their stuff at Café Club Bar.

I don't know much about these guys and couldn't find anything substantial about them on the net, but when I dipped into past Retro comments, I found out their guitarist was John Curran and their drummer, Kipper, was the son of local jazzman, Jimmy Deuchar.

If anyone else has more Arrival facts, then drop the gen into the comments.

 

Photos by The Bear.

WATERGATE STUDIOS - 1985

The ad at the top dates from March 1983 and gives the lowdown on recording session costs at the Watergate studio in the Seagate.
Later in 1985, Hilary, from Deadbeat mag, popped along to the Watergate studio to have a chat with boss, Phil Ramsay.
He gives a bit of background info into the kind of gear the studio had available, as well as a quick word about the musicians who dropped by to use it.
Click on item to enlarge.

ROCKPILE'S MISSING ITEMS

Rockpile, in Westport, was a popular Record Exchange shop that cropped up on the scene in the early 80's.

In the mid 80's, I used to visit them regularly as one who sold them records when I was gradually offloading the mountain of vinyl I had amassed.

Well now it's confession time - 2 of the albums I passed onto them were missing a couple of items!

The top image is a set of art prints done by Peter Schmidt that were a free gift with an album by Eno called "Before And After Science" which I bought in 1977. The set of four 12 inch prints came in a kind of presentation folder in the record sleeve.

The other photo is of a free bonus album that I got with a record released by Bill Nelson in 1981 called "Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam".

It turned out that the free album "Sounding The Ritual Echo" was one I played more often than the actual official LP it was with, so just as I had decided to hold on to the art prints when I sold the Eno album to Rockpile, I also opted to keep the free Bill Nelson album, considering it too good to sell!

I do remember peeling the "INCLUDES FREE ALBUM" sticker off the record sleeve before innocently handing over the "Quit..." album!

So if anyone can recall buying either of those 2 albums out of Rockpile - well, I still have your stuff!

If you want to claim the missing items, you'll need to show me your receipt as proof of purchase!

Meanwhile, especially for the person who missed out on it, here's a wee taster of one of the tracks from the bonus album, a track called "My Intricate Image". All the "experimental" tracks on the LP were recorded using faulty equipment Bill had at home!

"Sounding The Ritual Echo" was officially released in it's own right on CD later in the 80's, I think I'm right in saying.

 

J.M. BANDS - 1970's

The photo is the JM Ballroom, and a reminder of its location in North Tay Street, later renamed Marketgait.
Hundreds of bands played there throughout the 60's and early 70's, so the 2 ads here are just a tiny example of who was on.
The first advert is dated May 1971 and the bands that were on over this particular period were - PENDULUM, HOROSCOPE and MAXIS TAXI.
Local act, PAT'R FOUR were also doing the biz.
The other ad is dated January 1972.
The 2 main bands in this one seemed to be doing battle with each other to see who could come up with the most macho band name - STALLION and STAG.
Wow, bet they made the lassies go weak at the knees!
The support act on both nights were Dundee based act, FIVE IN A BUSH.
You can also check out the Dundee Gig Time Machine website to view a larger list of JM bands.

UP A CLOSIE WITH GREY APPROACH - 1981

I would normally make an effort to clean up a photo using my computer software - remove scratches & stains and so on - but on this occasion, I reckon the mucky surface looks OK to me. Enhances the image even.
So who are the trio in grey who approach the photographer?
That's right, you managed to suss it out from my wee clue there - it's The Supremes - nah, only kiddin, it is of course Grey Approach, pictured in 1981 up some closie in Westport.
Jim Low, Colin Warden & Gordon Walker, who were once described in Cranked Up as "Dundee darling boys", their position in the local music scene back in 81.
Unfortunately, Fanta (GW) has admitted that the guys chose to mess about as a band rather than work at it, and so cut short any potential they had. Now we'll never know if they could have gone on to greater things, like their idols at the time, Joy Division.
Colin was the one who left grubby paw prints on the synth - Jim & Fanta were the ones who scuffed at the tunes.
They may not have made much of a mark on the alternative music scene at the end of the day, but they sure did leave plenty on their photo!!
Big thanks to Dave.

INTERVIEW WITH THE GRIP - 1982

Roy Terre (Reuters - get it?) from Deadbeat mag, had a chinwag with The Grip down at the Tayside Bar in late '82.
Jim Grieve & Ross Ramsay were the 2 band members who answered the questions.
Lots of info supplied on the band (they started off as Tender Grip) as well as giving an insight into their future plans.
I like the fact that Jim name-drops The Ruts, Misty In Roots and Talisman as influences, rather than UB40.
Although The Grip and UB40 ended up in similar musical territory, if you dig deeper than the superficial parity, you can can see that their backgrounds would have been entirely different.
UB40, Birmingham - a huge black community, reggae record shops in abundance, reggae clubs, established sound systems, pirate stations blasting out reggae & dub all day, all this on their own doorstep.
The Grip, Dundee - ....er....zilch! No black community to set the scene, no clubs, even finding a reggae record was a needle in a haystack job. So all their learning, know-how and enthusiasm would have had to be gleaned from ploughing through the music papers, listening to the odd radio programme (Peely) and travelling to major cities to visit reggae clubs, see bands and grab records.
The Grip's was a much tougher task from the outset in comparison to UB40.
I for one, doff my giant rasta hat to them for giving it a really good go.
Click item to read the large version.

UB40 - MM82

I was amused by this little snippet in an old Melody Maker I have, dated January 1982.

A piece about UB40 playing in Dundee.

It says they were banned from playing in a few cities around Britain because of their political stance on the previous years riots. However, Dundee Council, considered to be the most left-wing in the country at the time, welcomed the reggae rebels to the extent that Lord Provost Gowans laid on a civic reception for them!

It mentions Liverpool as being one of the cities they were banned from, so that must have been just before Derek Hatton's Militant Tendency took control!

Anyway, what I'd like to know is, did any of you get an invite to the Dundee do?

By the way, I only put this photo of the band up because it was the one that accompanied the article in MM. Not sure if it was taken in Dundee. They are standing in front of some Space Invaders machines, so maybe they nipped along to the arcade beside the Caird Hall before they went on stage!

ST ANDREW & THE WOOLLEN MILL - 80'S

Formed in 1979, Saint Andrew & The Woollen Mill were regulars on the Dundee music scene by the time these 3 articles were written about them in the early 80's.

They stood out from your average local band because they specialised in humour, with plenty of well known tunes getting the comedy mash-up treatment in their set, along with their own quirky material.

You may get an idea of their silliness from the list of influences they mention - Kenny Everett, Dolly Parton, Patrick Wayne, Rolf Harris...etc.

I remember them doing their version of "Close Encounters" at the Tayside Bar and The Bothy - one of those hand held Casio mini keyboards was used for the famous UFO encounter tune bit, I think it then burst into a kind of disco groove!

They also had a few songs in oor oary local lingo.

The line-up in 1981 was - Andy "St Andrew" Pelc, vocal - Stewart Ivins, guitar - Eddie (Chris?) Marra, keyboard - Gus Foy, bass and Glen Jones, drums.

The band have released quite a few records over the years and I'm fairly sure St Andrew still performs from time to time.

So, the 2 items above...

Top, is an interview in Deadbeat, which the band did just before their gig at the Tayside Bar on 22nd December 1982 - and also includes a short review of the show.

Below it is a brief, light hearted introduction to the band taken from a 1981 Cranked Up.

Click them to bring up the large versions.

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.