Early/Mid 80's Local Bands

Having 'roadied' for several as well as played in Sheffield local rock bands in the early to mid eighties, I would be fascinated to find out who remebers what of them, and what became of any of them.

I particularly remember Haze, Panzer Division, The Lonely Hearts, Haalem, Fixer, Tokyo, Count Dante, Barabas, Asphyxia, Baby Tuckoo, Maison Rouge and the rest will no doubt come to me. (It has been more than 20 years!!)

Everyone seemed to have practice rooms either in the various disused workshops just off Bramall Lane (Hill Street?) or at Ponds Forge. Ponds Forge is obviously now a swimming baths and I heard sometime back that the local residents around the Bramall Lane Practice Rooms had had them shut down.

There was quite a thriving scene back then, did anyone make it anywhere?

I used to enjoy 90s band "Blameless" - still got their album in fact. Bought it after Chris Evans made "Clown Towns" his record of the week.

Wonder what happened to them? Probably all got mortgages now. Let's hope that the Arctic Monkeys are a bit more durable

Blameless would have been after my time unfortunately. I moved from Sheffield in 86 (there being very little work there at that time).

Don't remember them being on Chris Evans. Who was in them? What sort of music were they?

what about slopdosh,bobbar and ivan crump?

they were a local punk band in mid 80's-i know they supported the macc lads?

Some of them played at the Kay Gee Bee and others I saw at the Penguin at Shiregreen.

Haze are still around though I'm not sure what they call themselves nowadays. Panzer Division were loud and pretty naff but a similar band geddes Axe did go on to make a name for themselves.

Avalanche another rock band from the early 80's has disappeared without a trace although I'm in touch with one of the members. Chinawite [sp] did remarkably well in Europe but never seemed to make much of an impact in their home county.

Then of course there was a band called Engine and another called Saracen and a little known band called Mad Donna who came from Rotherham and whose drummer went on to play with saxon.

There were a lot of rock bands around playing in several places, The Hallamshire and the Mailcoach on West Street, the Broadfield on Abbeydale road, George 4th on Infirmary road, The Wap and the Penguin, I think I frequented all of these places listening to a great many bands.

check out my older thread about em here

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=46746&highlight=bands

admittedly its mostly punk cos thats my main thing but feel free to add stuff in there about the rock bands too

i am toying with the idea of a website dedicated to the 80s bands that seem to get forgotten.........it seems to be all def leppard, pulp, human league, clock dva, abc etc

they forget about the trolley dog shag, fcs, slopdosh, ggf and the like

I used to enjoy 90s band "Blameless" - still got their album in fact. Bought it after Chris Evans made "Clown Towns" his record of the week.

Wonder what happened to them? Probably all got mortgages now. Let's hope that the Arctic Monkeys are a bit more durable

I used to live in a shared flat next door to Matt from blameless. They were a great band. Great parties we had too! There album is still great to listen to. I liked town clowns and that one called so debonair.

Last time I saw him (years and years ago) he was teaching kids to play drums at some sort of summer workshop.

I'm off to hunt out the album now

bye bye

Chinawhite!!! how could I have forgotten them!! I had their album even.

We actually supported them at the lower refec at the uni in intro week one year (1984 I think). I met two future girlfriends for the first time at that gig.

Wow, flashback. Good times.

Come on then Till man - what band(s) were you in. I booked rock bands in to the Uni for the rock soc. Haze do still play the occasional gig - but can be more often found in their folk-rock (or "Heavy Wood") guise as Treebeard. Glenn Marples from Panz Division/Lonely Hearts moved out to Ibiza, where (last I heard) he was still entertaining holiday makers with Bryan Adams/Georgia Satellites covers. But the Lonely Hearts bassist - Andy ? - is still in Sheffield and playing the pubs/clubs. Maison Rouge split. Ex members can be found in Magnificent7 and The Unforgiven. One you missed is Cicinnatti, who got to make an album with Music For Nations, but with little success. Couple of them went on to do the clubs as the Brown Bottle Blues band. No doubt other bits will surface in my brain over time. I will add - if anyone is interested.

Cheers

Darren

I can remember all the " Battle of the bands " competitions every year but sadly can't remember many names. One band that stood out were the Mirror Crack'd. A popular band at the time were Cabaret Voltaire, others were the Stunt Kites and the Sharp Cuts. It used to be a good time for bands albeit they never really made it.