Post your Leadmill memories!!

[SarahD]

Ok I'm hoping this thread hasn't been started before. But does anyone have any special Leadmill memories?

 

Mine was probably my 21st birthday, when the lights came on everyone sang heppy birthday and pulled party poppers!! It was great. I love the Leadmill and its atmosphere and cheap drinks.

[taylorhall]

I have many fond Leadmill memories but mainly remember spending most of 1999 getting over a broken heart by snogging any bloke that had a passing resemblance to Tim Burgess -there were a lot of them around at the time (or maybe I was just very drunk). I'm a few years older and wiser now but a man with a floppy fringe and a pout still turns my head!

[JohnM]

There was a thread over on the Shef history page about Leadmill gigs. I havent been for years (I think Jimmy Cliff was last time I was there) but I've seen some classic gigs there over the years and used to spend a lot of time there in the mid80s-mid90s . In fact one of best gigs I've ever seen was probably Janes Addiction there in 1989 - they were on top form and the place was rammed. Quite a few folk I've talked to reckon that was also one of their best gigs - so it must have been special

 

[Throngor]

I think my fondest Leadmill memory must have been when I worked there on Boxing Day 2000. We were doing Rise so the place was filled with elderly dancing sorts, who were a really good crowd. However, clearly one punter wasn't too impressed, because he left what could only be described as a dirty protest in the gents which was discovered at the end of the night

 

Get this, some guy had taken an empty pint glass into a cubicle, left what can only be described politely as a big Mr Whippy in it and then plonked it next to the perfectly clean toilet?!? Now, that must have taken a lot of effort to do, he must have been extremely annoyed at something,maybe it was a protest at the inflated bank holiday bar prices? Maybe it was a protest against the dodgy beer? Who knows!

 

Anyway, we made one of the new glass collectors bin the thing, the poor lad threw-up in the toilet whilst trying to put the pint glass into a bag. Hahah.

[Roger_B]

I remember going to one of the earliest gigs at The Leadmill - the Dead Kennedeys, as I recall.

 

The place looked really rough and ready - a bus garage with a stage. The band nearly drowned in a hail of gob!

[simone1975]

So many great memories ... Joe Strummer was a highlight.

[scoop]

My husband asked me out in the Leadmill, I'd loved him from afar for a year and were out for his sisters birthday.

 

Whenever I go to the leadmill I always go and stand there for a bit and remember it. Probably one of the happiest moments of my life

[s.p.o.t.]

i saw dead kennedys there in the early 80's....think it had just opened up for gigs????....remember the first one was....999 and major accident..think the meteors played that gig aswell.....

one that stands out in my mind is joe strummer 2 weeks before he passed away......

[Biscuit]

Great memories. Used to go to a few jazz-funk nights there. Met up with some nice people (The O'Rouke sisters , where are you girls? ).

 

Also took part in a summer music school held at the Leadmill in 1983 which culminated in a gig at the end with the winners getting a free day a recording studio based at the Wicker. Brilliant experience. A tape machine, some live synths (me), three rappers (mates from school) and a performance later we actually won and got the recording.

 

So thanks Leadmill for giving some of us a chance to play the venue...

[melthebell]

my mate at the front when jah shaka came on, as soon as the bass kicked in he threw up over the barrier due to excessive drink and ganja intake

 

meeting chumbawamba after a gig there

 

getting searched while going in once, when everybody else wasnt getting searched