Check out this video of Dublin’s ‘hottest dance club’, Sides DC, back in 1987…
Sides nightclub, or Sides DC to give it its official title (the DC standing for ‘Dance Club’), was a historic venue in the history of Dublin clubbing, from its early days emulating the nightspots of New York, to its later incarnation as a house and techno-infused den of iniquity.
The club opened in 1986. One year on from that, on 29 May 1987 (31 years ago today!), RTE Evening Extra reporter Shay Healy ventured to the Dame Lane venue.
The video can be found by clicking on the image below.
As club owner John Nolan puts it, “We don’t consider ourselves alternative as such. We consider ourselves to be doing our own thing.
“We like to dance, we like to dress in a certain fashion but to us it’s not alternative. It’s just being ourselves.”
Later, Virgin Prunes star (and Bono’s best mate) Gavin Friday chips in to suggest that while Sides is a “great addition” to the city’s nightlife, it’s still not a patch on London or Berlin. To be fair, even more than three decades on, he still has a point.
Remind us to try out Shay’s excellent ‘robot’ dance moves next time we’re on the floor at Berghain…
[Video and screengrabs taken from RTE Archives]
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“Dublin’s a city of a million people and there are only three known altnerative danceclubs” says Gavin. He could be tlaking about Dublin today, over thirty years later.
*sigh