The Leadmill - not impressed.

[Xtro]

I agree unfortunately mate.

 

All the recent stuff I'm listening to is US based bands and they seem to prefer Rock City in Nottingham or Manchester Academy...failing that Leeds Cockpit.

 

The band I saw at the Leadmill last year were Killing Joke who were excellent as always but they've been going 25 years! Not much new Brit stuff getting me excited to be honest. I managed to see Franz Ferdinand as part of the NME tour at the Uni and they were "ok".

 

Mostly I'm forced to travel for gigs, a shame.

[Carmine]

I think that the best that can be said for the Leadmill is that the place is an average nightclub and a below average venue for a gig. But as people have already pointed out, it's one of the few places you can see a band in South Yorkshire for less than £20.00.

 

In my experience the place has a good atmosphere for a band of middling status, but the capacity just isn't there when it comes to the groups with a larger following. Sardines in a crowded Leadmill is not fun.

 

A year or so back I went to catch a gig by Rival Schools and was treated to the sight of the roof caving in from the rain...when you consider the fact that the place is usually packed each weekend and pulls in a healthy crowd for gigs, is fixing the roof really that much to ask?

[jackthedog]

I do think that, for the amount of money they must rake in every night, club owners seem to put little back in to the place. There are few clubs that are actually nice places to be.

[Carmine]

Seems to me that every year the crowds get bigger and the venue is never increased in capacity. I know it occupies a thin sliver of land, but there must be some way to maximise the space they have available?

[fnkysknky]

Originally posted by jackthedog

I do think that, for the amount of money they must rake in every night, club owners seem to put little back in to the place. There are few clubs that are actually nice places to be.

 

You ask a lot of people though and they're quite happy to go out to a dark, dirty club. Take the Arches, it's disgusting, it's old but great. Take Kingdom, it's been done up, it's modern but it's truly awful

[Carmine]

Might there be a difference between character and grot?

[sheffgeeza]

ive been to the lead mill a few times its ok but you are better off gettin ****** before you go in cause ya can never get to the bar but other than tht i reckon its a top club.

[Holy]

Leadmill was a groundbreaking venue...great bands, cheap, subterranean. Not been for a long time...I can say that Northern cities like Sheffield seem to have been sterilised into bright post modern places.

 

Where once they were understated and produced great bands.

 

Sheffield twenty years ago seemed 40 years ahead of its time...produced bands from the centre like The Longpigs, Pulp, Warp record label, Mercury award winners like Gomez from the drop out students and disaffected creative locals.

 

Now no bands of significance have emerged from the centre for over twenty years...Artic Monkeys though linked with Sheffield are from High Green.

 

The trend in society to 'do up' Nothern cities with glass fronted bars, and a million and one chain stores and coffee chains (Upper Crust, cafe Nero, Costa coffee etc) just produces poseurs.

 

Student drop outs and locals in Sheffield used to be creative hermits now they've been driven out and replaced with postmodern upwardly mobile and dumb down people who parade like clothes horses in the new bright 'done up' cities. And in the course of putting tons of money into Sheffield to 'do it up'

they cloased own and drove out nearly every little record store from Division St, and demolished Psalter lane arts college and other great grassroots centres.

Now sheffield hosts Tramlines (very admirable) and puts on doc festivals to give an impression of creativity while the real creative environment has been ethnically cleansed.

[jake]

L

Now sheffield hosts Tramlines (very admirable) and puts on doc festivals to give an impression of creativity while the real creative environment has been ethnically cleansed.

 

A random thread to dig up from almost a decade ago.. but i'm not sure how you can bemoan the state of sheffield music when tramlines featured mainly sheffield bands on however many stages (40? 50?) over a weekend.

 

I've been going to see bands in Sheffield since the mid 80s and think there is as much, if not more, going on now than there ever has been.

 

Maybe you're just getting old and nostalgic for a time that never was?

[Roger123W]

Hear hear! I went along and ordered a double bacardi and coke in a pint pot, filled to the top. The first price I was charged was £3 (reasonable I thought - my sort of prices), second time I went that evening it was £4.50. (Ouch), on the third time they wanted £6. I argued the toss and the barman told me haughtily that he'd worked there for three months and that six pounds was the right price. I informed him that I have years experience of bar work and landlady work and that the price should not double as the evening progresses. He went to get his supervisor who took AGES to come along, I got bored waiting and walked off. I watched the band finish and then left - no desire to return.

 

A good venue for live music, but expensive on the bar and too few bar staff on so you end up queuing for 20 mins to get served each time.

 

Good on you Classic Rock for walking away that is a real cheeky thing to to do and the more people who strand up to them the better - I dont think me and my dog will be frequenting it ...