These images capture the moment Rod Stewart fought his way through hundreds of youngsters to open a new record shop in Dundee.
It was far from plain sailing.
Rod brought traffic to a standstill.
He was smuggled to safety in disguise after signing autographs and ran up the road to Dens Park to watch his beloved Celtic playing Dundee.
Only a handful of the shots taken by our photographer were used in print following the music legend’s Dundee visit in December 1974.
The rest were boxed up and filed away.
The photographs have been developed from negatives which have lain in DC Thomson’s East Kingsway archives for 50 years.
A mini riot took place on Rod’s last visit
It wasn’t the first time Rod had experienced chaotic scenes in Dundee.
Rod was lead singer of the hard-rocking Faces alongside his blossoming solo career, which started in 1971 with the barnstorming No.1 smash, Maggie May.
A Faces gig at the Caird Hall in December 1972 witnessed a stage invasion, bouncers fighting among themselves and three rows of seats being knocked down.
Stewards struggled to control the 2,300-crowd, with seats and plasterwork damaged, and Red Cross volunteers being scrambled to attend to fainting girls.
The Celtic-daft rocker returned to open Bruce’s at 12pm on December 14 1974.
It was quite the week for star appearances.
Rod’s visit happened the day after Miss UK Helen Morgan and her sparkling crown stopped by the Mecca Bingo Club in Nethergate to meet dabbers.
But that was nothing compared to the carnage surrounding Rod.
Huge crowds built up on each side of the street from 11am.
Most were denied even a glimpse of the singer.
He didn’t arrive until 2.35pm.
Rod was dressed in a brown and fawn checked suit with a matching cap.
As his car pulled up, the fans went wild.
They surrounded the vehicle and completely jammed the entrance.
Rod was given a police escort.
He pushed his way through the crowds outside to get inside the shop.
Teenage girls chanted: “We want Rod!”
What else was on Bruce’s shelves in 1974?
Rod looked every inch the rock star with his trademark spiky hair.
His new album, Smiler, was on sale which could be taken home in the bright red carrier bags stamped with the legendary slogan: “I found it at Bruce’s”.
This was Rod’s fifth solo album recorded while still performing with the Faces.
Smiler was stacked on Bruce’s shelves in December 1974 alongside Somethin’ ‘Bout You Baby I Like by Tom Jones and Cop Yer Whack For This by Billy Connolly.
The Dundee store brought the number of Bruce’s to seven.
Bruce Findlay and his brother Brian set up their first record shop in Falkirk before expanding to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Perth, Kirkcaldy and Leven.
Design of the shop was based on “curves and coves”.
Entrance doors were recessed into a “bronze-effect tunnel”.
Colour scheme was “coffee and cream” with “striking brown tiles on the floor”.
The curved counter took up one side.
The other was fitted with storage boxes full of records.
And there was plenty to choose from.
Bruce’s was the only record shop in Dundee which stocked imports.
Good chunks of the store were dedicated to soul music alongside everything from country, jazz, funk, pop, rock, metal and an expanded classical section.
Free dust covers were given with every record.
Rod Stewart ran from Bruce’s to Dens Park
Rod signed autographs from manager John Preston’s office.
John was no newcomer to the record business, having worked for Decca.
“He’s a good friend of our Edinburgh shops,” said Bruce.
“So we reckoned he was just the man for the Dundee shop.”
It was the calm before the storm.
Rod could hardly make himself heard inside for the screaming and weeping.
He did his best to give everyone autographs, in spite of the chaos, inside and out.
Hundreds of youngsters outside rushed at the glass doors of the shop.
Uniformed police and plain-clothes officers joined ranks to keep them back.
It was mayhem.
The shop was closed after 15 minutes.
Rod was smuggled out in disguise in order to avoid being mobbed by fans.
He then ran up the road with Bruce Findlay from the city centre to Dens Park to watch the Hoops.
Rod took his seat in the directors’ box to watch the league match between Dundee and Celtic and his arrival did not go unnoticed by the stadium announcer.
He announced Rod was among the 15,000 fans watching.
Rod Stewart’s Celtic scored 6 goals at Dens
This was one of Kenny Dalglish’s greatest performances in a Celtic jersey.
He scored a hat-trick.
King Kenny and Jimmy Johnstone produced a masterclass in a 6-0 win.
Rod was all smiles on a chilly afternoon.
He left 15 minutes before the end to avoid being swamped for a second time.
Most people would have been more than happy with the career Rod had between 1971 and 1974, but in 1975 he started to take things to a new level.
He released a string of four supreme albums in as many years.
The first was Atlantic Crossing including, of course, Sailing.
Rod showed himself to be a shrewd judge of material.
The hits never stopped from there on.
Bruce’s stocked them all including I Don’t Want to Talk About It, Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright), The First Cut Is the Deepest and Hot Legs.
Rod Stewart remains a Dundee favourite
Rod stayed at the Angus Hotel with Britt Ekland when he returned to Dundee in January 1977 to perform back-to-back shows at the Caird Hall.
Bruce’s moved to the Wellgate Centre.
The chain of record shops started to suffer from competition.
Bruce’s stopped trading in 1981.
Rod also faced musical challenges.
His album sales went into decline in the 1980s.
He did put out some killer singles, though.
Young Turks, Baby Jane, Some Guys Have All the Luck, Forever Young and Downtown Train were anthems that kept his commercial popularity going in the 1980s.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Rod took more adventurous musical turns.
He surprised everyone by recording an entire album of old jazz standards.
Fans liked what they heard.
They still do.
Rod missed out on making a splash in 1974
A surprising footnote emerged from his visit to Dundee in December 1974.
Menzieshill High was holding a 24-hour swim to break a world record that day.
Swimming coach Frank Jordan wrote to the Evening Telegraph in 2015 and said Rod’s delayed arrival at Bruce’s stopped him from being a splash hit in Menzieshill.
“We knew Rod was going to be in town because one of the boys at the record shop was the boyfriend of a Menzieshill teacher,” he said.
“So we invited Rod up to the school to start the attempt but he ended up besieged in the shop and missed the start!”
Courier readers were hoping he would make a splash at Dundee waterfront when he won a public poll asking who should headline Slessor Gardens in 2018.
Rod may not have returned to perform in the city, but his fans are still hoping he catches a Downtown Train to Dundee one day.
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