JOCK FERGUSON AKA MAJOR LONGHORN

This candid shot of Jock Ferguson's alter ego, Major Longhorn, was taken in the hi-tech surroundings of the DJ room at Dens in 1979.
He was the DJ for 2 full seasons, but also did the odd stint up to around 1990.
There was a noticeable change in the music blasting out of the tannoy at Dens when the Major took charge, the most obvious one being introducing the sounds of punk & new wave, with bands such as The Clash, The Cure & The Damned, a selection that often lead to complaints for being too loud! There was one occasion when a fan heard The Dead Kennedy's booming from Dens, when he was halfway down the Hilltown!
He would also spin a quirkier set from time to time with the likes of Nellie The Elephant, The Laughing Policeman and Jimmy Shand, an act who always got the crowd in the stand stomping their feet!
We do, however, have the Major to thank for being the chap who revived the Hector Nicol gem from 1962, "The Dundee Song", the scratchy old record played when the team run onto the pitch.
Other Dens duties included reading out the half time scores, and on the occasions when United were losing, he would keep that till last, giving it a big build up!
He also had a go at doing the commentary at Dens when there was an under 16 World Cup tie being played, and was struggling to pronounce impossible Chinese names!!
Other Major output was as contributor to the match day programmes, writing his own columns, accompanied at times with a cartoon or two.
A few years later, Jock helped put together the DFC cd "It's my Dundee", featuring the updated version of "Johnnie Scobie", another tune that still gets belted out at Dens.
Finally, some of you may recall the Dee related tales of Bandy Conacher on the net, well yep, that was also one of Jocks creations.
Anyway, that was just a brief introduction to Jock and the Major, there will be more to follow.
Thanks to Jock.