Dave Fanning on Stepaside

Even though they were to become one of the hottest properties in Dublin never to quite make the big UK breakthrough, even Stepaside took time to find their rhythm, as local boy Dave Fanning reported in Scene magazine in 1977:

“I caught [Stepaside] at my local pub last Sunday, a welcome new rock venue at the Sportsmans Inn (beside the old Stella Cinema) in Mount Merrion. The place is quite big, the crowd was even bigger, but the roof is far too low.

“I could honestly see Paul Ashford's bass notes as they bounced from guitar to wall to floor to ceiling and back again. It's dangerous . . . someone's going to get hit one of these days by a flying bass note.

“I caught Stepaside on an unfair night. They had two stand-ins (guitar and drums) but considering they were without two regulars they delivered with commendable gusto. While Paddy McNichol gave a good account of himself on the skins I'd love to see more prominence given to Dave McAnemy's piano work. I may be spoiled by Jackson Browne and the Eagles, but Stepaside should take their advise (sic) from the title of the song, as regards vocals, and "Take It Easy".

“I've seen the band a few times in the Merrion Inn but they always graced this Sunday tea-time stage with an unbearably high volume. When the full band is back together again and the bass is given a mild tranquiliser before the show, I'll check Stepaside out again. They have something but I feel they kept it to themselves last Sunday. By the way, at both Chessnut and Stepaside, the audience really dug the music, as far as I could gauge.”

Tranquiliser administered (though we can't do anything about that roof).

And yes, people really did say "dug the music".