Our Story...

Monday Meetings: (left to right) Donny Coutts, Jim Ogg, Kevin Murray, Ian Mann, Mick McCluskey, Alan Wilson.

The Beginning...

It all started in a car journey to Blairgowrie. Kevin Murray and Mick McCluskey were reminiscing about some of the large multi-band charity concerts they'd both worked on locally over the decades. Before reaching Blairgowrie, they both agreed they should put on another concert to celebrate the popular bands who played during the 1980s week-in week-out -  in all the clubs and pubs in Dundee, not just for us musicians, but also the people who actually came to see bands in the 1980s, before the original audience got too old to head out to concerts. And the musicians got too old to play.

Meeting up for lunch with lifelong musicians Ian Mann and Jim Ogg, the conversation about concerts carried on. Within an hour they all agreed to pull their resources and music biz contacts together and find a big enough venue.

For the first three months the guys held a Monday meeting in the back room of Doc Ferry's (Broughty Ferry Dundee) every fortnight, and after that it became weekly meetings as things rocked forward and more musicians came on board. Doc Ferries became the first sponsor of the project, thanks to a steady stream of tea, coffee, cake, and biscuits every week.

The Hard Work...

This was never going to be an easy concert to pull off. Navigating between age, illness, capacity, and mortality, it's a small miracle that it all actually worked out perfectly well at the end of the day.

1980 was 45 years before this latest concert, and Dundee's music scene from that era had lost some of our greatest musicians between then and now. But, as the old saying goes... 'the show must go on'. We all knew we had to represent more than just the performers on stage at our 2025 concert. We had to represent our friends who were no longer here. The great ones whose music made us move in the groove and feel like we were timeless. Although Dundee had some brilliant bands making their way through that time, we also realized that settling on which bands to play at our concert, also meant letting some down who were hoping to be part of the show. Democracy at Monday meetings ensured we made the right decisions.

Another difficulty came in the form of venues in the centre of the city. Although there's a multitude of small clubs and pubs catering for 100 - 200 audience, we soon realized the choice of mid-large sized concert halls was pretty much anorexic. Council funded or owned venues covered the two largest, and most expensive. Livehouse was still being built and at that time unsure of an opening date. Only one concert hall left to choose from, and it was managed by Dundee University. We'd all played there a ton of times, and worked on multi-band fund-raisers together, so it was an easy choice. It felt appropriate. The Bonar Hall was the best place for us anyway.

The Reward...

MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS CONCERT A TRUELY MEMORABLE ONE!