Russell Senior, Bath Banker fanzine (Sheffield edition, 1980), live review, The Leadmill, Sheffield, 16th August:
"Teenage Kicks riff on ½ acoustic guitars but different words. They claim to have written "Stepping Stone" - it's the definative version! "Subtlety time, dedicated to Elvis" sounds like "Don't Fear the Reaper" a bit. A dirge. "Message for the Marshians" with a keyboardist who hadn't learnt the other songs. Another dirge. The appearance of the front man is entertaining. A fun band. Tuning up of hopelessly out of tune semi-acc. "Happy House" riff out of tune, different words. "I won't say that this is the penultimate song because that's pretentious. "This is for dancing but I don't suppose anybody's going to dance. Sounds like "Christine" and is a disco spoof! I wonder what Kieth Strong would say. Vast cheering for encore."
Jarvis recalled in Record Collector
Our first Sheffield gig was a "Bouquet of Steel" festival in August 1980, at the Leadmill. We were second-from-bottom of the bill - I turned up and everyone's saying "Where's your gear?" We thought you just plugged in. We tried a version of "Stepping Stone". By this time, we'd got a new drummer called Jimmy Sellers, but he was into drinking. When we got to the middle break, he just stopped, so it only lasted about 30 seconds. The bass player encountered feedback. It was the first time we knew it existed because we'd been playing through the record player at home, and could never play that loud because the neighbours would complain. He walked away from the amp hoping it would stop - he ran out of stage and fell into the audience, which caused a lot of hilarity.
Sources: PulpWiki & Acrylic Afternoons
Russell also mentions the gig & review in his book...
The photo of Russell is his passport photo which may be around 1980.
Colour poster reproduction by original artist is available to buy here.
