Dancing / Dance Halls
Empress Ballroom
I remember the Empress Ballroom beside the Royal Arch. It was called recory roundabout. I went with my friends and we were still at school as we were aged 14. We paid 1/6 admission and we loved every moment of it.
Scene 1
Does anyone remember the disco that opened up in the Overgate Centre called Scene 1? It was not there very long.
Favourite Dance Halls
I found reading all the memories great but I've checked out on all websites
and have yet never seen nor heard anyone mention my two most favourite dance
venues The Continental which still exists I believe but not as a dance hall
and my favourite the Commie Club which I recall being near each other in
the Wellgate area, also The Tonk. I wonder if anyone has any photos as Dundee
was a wonderful place then.
Albert's Memories
Born 23 Hilltown 1926. The Progie Dance Hall, Norries Pend, the Wellgate Steps, always plenty action. Owned the Silvery Tay. Chipper in Menzieshill before moving to USA. My dad owned a chip shop at 21 Hilltown in 1926. I remember Andy Reekie the seven foot cop and Dirty Joe selling roasted chestnuts at the end of Dudhope Street.
Andy Lothian and his Band
Jean Bruce Pringle - Ballet School
I also went to Jean Pringle at the foot of King Street - I think round about
1960. Linda Penman who lived in Albert Street also went there and a girl
called Ria or Lea who was from Charleston Dundee. I absolutely loved it. Jean
looked every inch a ballet dancer and my weekly lesson couldn't come quick
enough for me. Hopefully I will hear a bit more from some other pupils from
that time.
Happy Days
I was born in DRI in 1950. We lived in Hunter Street till I was 7 then we moved to fintry we felt as if we had won the pools, the house in Fingarth Street seemed like Buckingham Palace after the two rooms of Hunter Street.
Baxter Park concerts, rolling our easter egg at Den of Mains playing in the fields which are now where Whitfield stands, playing outdoors from morning till night, then coming in for tea they are just some of the memories from my childhood which I remember fondly. Read more......
Violet Was Born in Dundee
I was born in 1932 in Dundee Royal Infirmary. My first school was Ancrum Road School but I cannot remember much about it. As my parents were both English we had to live in lodgings until the start of the Second World War. We eventually got an upstairs three roomed house at Pitkerro Drive. There were four houses in the block. I learned to cycle through the leggy as we called [it] on my father's bike. Read more......
Dundee Twist Marathon
The highlight of my teen years was when I took part in the 'Dundee Twist Marathon' held in the JM Ballroom. I twisted for 32 hours then fell asleep on my feet! What a great few days that was - we all had fun and a few weeks later took part in our second marathon held in East Kilbride.
Dundee in the Sixties
So many memories of Dundee in the sixties ... being a teenager at that time was brilliant ... going to the Marryat on a Saturday night was the highlight of the week. Dancing to the likes of the Beatles, The Searchers, Swinging Blue Jeans and many more - then leaving there to stand and blether to your pals before getting the last bus home along the Perth Road because if I wasn't home on the last bus then woe betide me because my father would be waiting for me and I would get a lecture that would last for 15 minutes or more. Even before that I remember my grandma taking me to nearly every picture house in the town. The first one being the Wizard of Oz at the La Scala then going home on the tram. Oh how I loved the journey along past the Seabraes where I could look across the water - great days that stick in your mind forever. Read more......
