When Lulu had no doubts about opening this store in Glasgow

DOESN’T Lulu look lovely and perky here, although the fumes from the hairspray keeping those elaborate hairstyles of the shop staff in place must have been overwhelming.

The shop no longer exists, in fact I think it might be illegal now. It is the opening of the Kensitas Coupon Redemption Centre in Fleming House at the corner of Renfrew Street and Cambridge Street in Glasgow.

The date was October 1971, and Lulu, born of course in Glasgow, was a real showbiz star, not only because of her own hit records and TV shows, but also due to her marriage to Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb.

Some 3,000 people turned out to see Lulu open the store, and the singer decided on using her Glaswegian persona that day by shouting “Hello rerr” at the crowd as she got out her car, and by singing I Belong To Glasgow from a balcony overlooking the street.

Cigarette coupons were collected religiously by smokers back then, with the Kensitas store allowing folk to come in and chose goods in person. As one Glaswegian recently recalled: “My mother smoked like a beagle in a laboratory to get the 1,000 coupons she needed for a toaster.”

Others would buy bundles of coupons, often from ice cream vans I vaguely recall, to reach their totals quicker.

Everyone around Lulu looks happy, apart from the dead-eyed chap at the back, who perhaps realises the deaths smoking will cause.