dundee

Dundee has around 150000 people in it - apparently the population is dwindling.It's somewhere between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, on the coast, where Captain Scott's 'Discovery' ship can be found. Also famous for jam, jute and journalism. It's quite a nice place but it's true it could be improved if they played the tourism card better. The music underground is buoyant with a massive number of bands active considering the population. Most of these have recordings available in one form or another thanks to the efforts of a couple of independent record labels.
The sun always shines in Dundee (according to my research).

Quick guide: referring to this map of the city centre, 1=the Doghouse / 2=the West Port / 3=Groucho's Records / 4=Droothy Nee'bors / 5=OnAir East / 6=Fat Sam's / 7=Virgin / 8=Fopp (7&8 in the Overgate Centre). This is in need of updating due to some venue changes so check elsewhere before doing anything daft like walking for miles to a gig.

gig guide.

Media:

radio - Radio on Tayside including Discovery/Wave102 have a terrible reputation among the local music community. however, one beacon is the Weekender show on Tay - contact them at 'Weekender', Radio Tay, P.O.Box 123, Dundee, DD1 9UF.

tv - There's 5 terrestrial channels (well, 4 1/2 really as 5's coverage isn't exactly nationwide). UK-wide music coverage is frankly, negligible, so you can imagine that Scottish-specific stuff is a fraction of that. Digital tv is actually ok - BBC Scotland's Choice (channel 6) has The Beat Room which showcsaes live acts from around the country and beyond as well as looking at the Bowlie weekends and the like. S2 - STV's digital equivalent - tends to have more main stream stuff on, but there are occasional live bands in their S2 Live magazine programme. But whatever happened to Channel 6?

Newspapers - The Courier and the Evening Telegraph both do occasional gig reviews and previews.

Record shops - record shops - Groucho (132 Nethergate, tel: 01382 228496) is the place to shop though there are branches of Virgin around, as is a Fopp in the Overgate Centre (Tel: 01382 227075)

Education: If it's education you're after, Dundee Uni, University of Abertay, and Duncan of Jordanstone Art College are where it's at.

Events - UnScene, Dogfest and Glastonbelly are kind of sporadic annnual events thoughthe Doghouse venue has since closed. Keep your eyes peeled for posters, if the council haven't taken them down.

Fitba - Dundee and Dundee United are both within spitting distance of each other in Tannadice Street. Both are coming out of a kind of footballing recession - Dundee buying their way out (or more accurately, borrowing) while United are determinedly trying to recapture the youth policy of the 80's (which will be tricky as contract law has been loosened off since then). (This was written around 3 years ago but still seems to hold true!)

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