October 1963

Monday is B-Day!

Monday is Dundee autumn holiday, but to the city’s younger set the date has much more significance than freedom from work and study. October 7 in the teen calendar is B-Day – the day the Beatles come to town.

The Beatles, John, George, Paul and Ringo to the uninitiated (but who is these days!), must be regarded as the post-war phenomenon of the entertainment world.

Loved and loathed, mocked and mimicked, the Beatles success just cannot be ignored.

Since the groups big breakthrough at the start of the year “Beatlism” has swiftly taken a firm hold on the country in general.

Hairstyle have gone haywire, the tunic look is predominant in most tailors, laced shoes are now eyed with apprehension and groups are frantically jumping on the Mersey merry-go-round.

The fickle pop legions have taken the Liverpool men to their hearts, the proof being in sales returns of their three single releases, “Please Please Me, “From Me to You” and the current chart topper “She Loves You”.

In a recent popularity poll by a top musical weekly, the group topped their section by a landslide margin, and even gained recognition in the radio ratings for “Pop Go the Beatles”, a late afternoon beat programme.

The Caird Hall stage is now set for the “night of nights”. The artistes’ performances are predictable – unfortunately, the behaviour of the audience is not.

The Beatles have three shows this weekend – every one a complete sell-out. They appear at Glasgow on Saturday, Kirkcaldy on Sunday and Dundee on Monday.

The Scots Guards

Pipe-Major H.S. Roe, B.E.M., and Sgt. Abethall,
Scots Guards, will be in
The Army Information Office
29-31 Bank Street, Dundee,
Between 8 a.m. and 12 noon and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
On October 7, 8 and 9
For the purpose of auditioning potential
Pipers and Side Drummers
Who are interested in joining The Pipe Band of
The Royal Scots Guards.

See and Be Seen

On Monday night a “Dipped Headlights” campaign under the motto “See and Be Seen” starts in the city.

Sponsors are the local Accident Prevention Committee, at the suggestion of Chief Constable John H. Orr.

It aims to encourage dipped headlights rather than side lights in streets where lighting is not of the very high standard. The city police are seeking full co-operation from motorists.

Thirty-eight garages have agreed to test headlight beam angles free of charge next week.

Inspector Herbert Lambert, of the police traffic department, outlining plans for the campaign, said that in Birmingham last winter “darkness” accident figures showed a drop in 138. Nineteen fewer people were killed, and 84 fewer injured that in the previous year.

During the darkness hours of the six winter months last year six people were killed and 162 injured in Dundee. Many of these accidents occurred in streets where the lighting was not of the best.

He and his staff reckoned that four of the fatalities and 90 of the injuries might have been prevented if drivers had been using dipped headlights instead of sidelights.

“We will be using beam testing apparatus from time to time and we will be stopping vehicles and giving them the benefit of this. Where the beam is inaccurate we will advise the motorist to have his lights adjusted”.

Dundee Are Back in Gear Again

By Gordon Gray
Two pointers for the Dark Blues this week – a word of praise and a word of caution.

The good thing first. Their second half performance at Easter Road was not far short of the peak they reached when winning the League Cup.

For the 56th minute, when the Scottish League’s second-deadliest marksman, Alan Gilzean, put them ahead Dundee became a heartless scoring machine.

Free-running, fast-moving, cocksure and stylish. All the things I expect of them but haven’t seen for a long time.

It was certainly a big change from the side I’d watched on the same Easter Road turf a few weeks before when Hibs easily dumped them from the League Cup quarter finals.

I’ll say it cautiously, and with reservations – Dundee has arrived.

It’s what happened in the proceeding 56 minutes that worried me.

I’m told it was a tactical battle when Bobby Cox won the toss and elected to play uphill. The plan was to hold Hibs in the first half and flay them in the second.

But what would have happened if Hibs had done the flaying in the first half? They were well ahead in football, but there wasn’t a soul to finish off. Dundee should have been a couple of goals down.

But they got away with it, and the opening goal from big Alan knocked the stuffing out of a frustrated Hibs.

Alan went on to net another three, including one from the spot. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a better goal than his third. Two of the Hibs defenders had the word for it when I met them after the game – “Brilliant”.

It’s Party Time

Make all Heads Turn by booking an early appointment with
Dorothy Law
Ladies Hairstylist
2 Balmore Street, Dundee
Phone 84163.

Mr Really Good

Ice-cream experts laughed at him when he came to town.
For Philip Sciortino had come to sell a new kind of ice-cream in a new way.

In July last year, Philip, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Alfonso and Giovanni Mordenti, bought his first “Mr Really Good” van and waited for public reaction to his new “soft” ice-cream.

He reckoned that with an assistant making the ice-cream under the most hygienic conditions in the van itself, he could be sure of the highest quality product.

Dundonians young and old agreed with him. So popular was this “Really Good” confection that the Sciortinos – Philip, his wife and two daughters – now run three vans from their depot at 42, Arthurstone Terrace.

Two weeks ago, the Sciortinos entered a van in the Ice-Cream Alliance competition in Rothesay. They beat strong opposition to win first prize in the mobile section.

Philip attributes most of his success to the fact that his is a family concern with his wife and daughters helping out.

They hope to add another diesel-engine van to their three-strong fleet round about spring.

By then they’ll have another problem. To find larger accommodation for their “factories on wheels”.

Palais, Tay Street

Sunday, October 6 –
Pre-Beatles
Holiday Ball
10.30 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Join the preview of some of The Beatles’ Show stars –

* Houston Wells and the Marksmen
* The Overlanders
* Tommy Dene and the Tremors

“Come One and All to the Holiday Ball”
Admission 6/-.
Usual arrangements at 3 a.m.

NOTE – There is no truth in the rumour that
The Beatles will be performing at this ball.

Royal Engineers

237 (Dundee) Field Squadron T.A.
We, were with the Division at St Valery 1940
Now in 1963 we train with
Bridging * Explosives * Bulldozers
Come and see for yourselves at
T.A. Centre, Strathmore Avenue, Dundee.

Bright Tips 1963

Lettuce Tip – To separate the tight heart of a lettuce without tearing the leaves, make a deep cross-wise cut in the stalk. Pull it gently open and hold under fast-running water. Mrs Borland, Glasgow.

Easy Ironing – Rub a hot iron over occasionally with a soft rag sprinkled with talcum powder and it glides on even the silkiest material. Mrs Law, Edinburgh.