Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Sad to see’ — De Stihl’s demolished
Buildings which played host to a series of Dundee nightclubs and a restaurant are being demolished.
The former warehouses on South Ward Road were converted in the 1980s into De Stihl’s nightclub, which opened in 1988.
The club regularly attracted crowds of up to 800 people while being run by Stakis for more than five years. It later changed hands and hosted clubs including Jumpin Jaks and, more recently, Okupa.
The Tasting Rooms restaurant — which later moved to the waterfront before closing in January this year — was also based there until a fire in 2009.
Eddie Tobin was area manager for Stakis when De Stihl’s opened. He said: “We had the best years, I would like to think, because we were the busiest club in Dundee.
“The first showing of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in Scotland was in that club. We had a 16-television screen and were the first premises to show it outside of London.
“We stored jute in there at one time, and it turned into what I think was the best nightclub Dundee has ever had.
“Murdo Wallace, a well-known Dundee operator who had the Barracuda and lots of things, had the plans for it. We met him in what was the Stakis hotel and he was telling us he had this plan. We bought it before the first brick was laid.” Mr Tobin said he was sad to see it go. He added: “It wasn’t a place where you needed to bring big acts, because the room
‘A lot of Dundonians will be sad to see it go’
was so good — everybody loved it anyway. Many Dundonians, I would imagine, have met and fell in love and married from there.
“When we opened, it was in the new romantics era — Soft Cell, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet. It was a great era for dance music and nightclubs.
“I’ve run nightclubs throughout the country — I must have run 50 clubs; De Stihl’s was the best, if not second. A lot of Dundonians will be sad to see that go.”