IT was 1960, and pop music was on the rise.
Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Elvis Presley were all in the charts.
These teenagers at Baldi’s Cafe on Buchanan Street are faced with a jukebox dilemma - should they go for Perry Como or Max Bygraves, or choose the number one hit at the time - My Old Man’s a Dustman by Glasgow legend Lonnie Donegan?
Whatever they went for on the classic Wurlitzer, some of the other diners seemed to be taking a keen interest.
Technology, of course, is always changing.
M. Jean Foufounis, president of Gerinvex SA in Switzerland disliked listening to 33rpm records (albums, in old money) because he would have to listen to all the tracks including the ones he was not interested in.
So, he invented a compact record playing chassis that could play up to 40 records, but was small enough to be built into a cabinet the size of a home record player.
Just down the road from Baldi’s, and around the same time, these teenagers were excited about the arrival of the Discomatic, the aforementioned portable jukebox, in Paterson’s music shop.
READ MORE: Incredible 'forgotten' photos of Glasgow to be seen in city exhibition
According to discomatic.co.uk, a website devoted to the 60s icon, British radio manufacturer KB brought the Gerinvex kit to the UK.
The KB Discomatic was made famous by the Beatles when John Lennon, George Harrison and manager Brian Epstein owned them.
Lennon filled his with forty singles to accompany him on tour and it was sold at auction for $2500.
Do these images spark musical memories for you?
Share your stories and photos with Times Past.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel