The Leadmill

The Leadmill is the longest running live music venue and nightclub in Sheffield, England,[1] based on Leadmill Road, lying on the south-east edge of the city centre. It opened in 1980 in what, despite its name, was a former flour mill, originally as a Community Centre.[2] This coincided with the rise of several Sheffield bands, including the Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, and ABC.

For other uses, see Leadmill (disambiguation).

The Leadmill
Capacity250 / 900
Opened1980
Website
www.leadmill.co.uk

The venue has prided itself on the variety of its events over the years hosting live music, comedians, theatre productions, record fairs, cabaret, drag, and talks.[3]

History

The Leadmill first opened in 1980 in the building that previously housed The Esquire, a club during the sixties that saw gigs from Jimi Hendrix and Small Faces. The Esquire was housed in one of the upper floors of The Leadmill building, it is now occupied by the venue's box office.[4]

Originally acting as a community centre, the venue was not granted an alcohol license until 1982 and so initially hosted plays, education and training workshops and live music. The team at The Leadmill in the early 1980s had the mission statement to promote the education of the public in the arts and to promote social welfare by providing recreational and leisure-time facilities. The young and unemployed were the central focus of the venue throughout the 1980s.[5]

Early events at the venue included a 1982 pantomime directed by Jarvis Cocker and The Housemartins deciding to queue for their own 1984 gig, but being turned away by bouncers.[6] The venue also hosted the Festival Against Unemployment in September 1982, promoting local bands; New Model Soldier, Party Day and Agent Orange.[7] Jazz For Lunch, an afternoon live music event was often held on Sundays throughout the 1980s.[8]

In 1988, Prince Charles visited The Leadmill. He described it as "a building well restored" and went on to say "It houses a theatre, live music venue, educational and training centre, not to mention a restaurant, bar, nightclub, and, they say, it makes a profit!".[9]

The Leadmill plays host to bands.

In the 1990s The Leadmill became the Sheffield home of Gatecrasher before launching its own house night RISE.[10]

Sheffield's own Arctic Monkeys sold out the Leadmill in 2005 quicker than any other band.[11]

In 2017, the Leadmill featured in Sheffield made independent video game, Welcome To Hanwell. The survival horror game allowed users to fight zombies beneath the iconic neon sign.[12] This year also saw the venue begin renovation work which included tearing up the original dance floor to make way for a new one. Instead of throwing it away, the venue decided to cut it up into individual engraved pieces for customers to purchase.[13] In addition to the new dancefloor, the venue also revealed a new mezzanine floor in the back right corner of the main room.[14] 2017 also saw the venue host its first comedy festival with 55 acts taking to the stage over the space of a week.[15]

Leadmill Road was closed during Tramlines weekend in 2019 while the venue occupied it for a street party, welcoming over 2,000 festival goers. Additional elements included an outdoor bar, carnival performers and street food.[16]

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, panic buying had become rife and so the venue opted to begin selling toilet roll at cost price, to combat those inflating the price due to the demand. A spokesperson from The Leadmill said: "The shop around the corner from us started selling toilet rolls for £1 each, so we bought 2,000 from our suppliers and are selling them at the same cost, four for £1.83".[17]

Eventually due to government lockdown restrictions during the global pandemic, The Leadmill was forced to temporarily close. The venue auctioned off memorabilia from their holding, including signed items, to raise money to pay staff wages and to ensure the future of the venue.[18]

Also during this period of closure, the venue launched a Crowdfunder to pay essential overheads and to support the nationwide campaign, #SaveOurVenues, which aimed to ensure no music venues closed as a result of the pandemic. This was supported by online gigs promoted by The Leadmill via their Facebook page.[19][20] Billy Bragg's online concert went on to raise over £15,000 for the fund.[21]

2022 eviction

On 31 March 2022, The Leadmill announced that they had been served an eviction notice by landlords Electric Group, ordering them to quit the building in March 2023.[22] Electric Group, who own a portfolio of music venues in London, Bristol and Newcastle, made a statement announcing their intention to continue the site as a refurbished music venue. However, Leadmill management claimed that they owned the brand and that any new venue on the site could not use the Leadmill name. The news drew condemnation from a variety of bands and musicians including Billy Bragg, Kaiser Chiefs, Reverend and the Makers and Manic Street Preachers and saw a joint letter from Sheffield's five Labour MPs to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries asking for an urgent discussion on how to save the venue.[23]

Awards

The venue has been voted favourite live music venue by readers of the NME on several occasions.[24] The Leadmill has won 'Best Live Venue' at the Exposed Awards several times, most recently claiming the prize in 2019.[25] The Leadmill was awarded a Music Heritage Award by PRS for Music in 2015, which was unveiled by Pulp at an event broadcast live from the venue on BBC 6 Music's Steve Lamacq show.[26] They have also won 'Best Venue Teamwork' at the LIVE UK Awards in 2011 and 2015.[27]

External events

The Leadmill has taken events beyond the venue many times including three 7,500 capacity outdoor events at Don Valley Bowl in 2018.[28] This run of events was nominated for 'Best Local Event' at the 2019 Exposed Awards.[29]

The venue also promoted several cinematic events at Sheffield General Cemetery as part of their Halloween events in 2019.[30] When Tramlines Festival made the move from a city centre festival to an all-in-one site at Hillsborough Park, The Leadmill remained part of the festival with a stage named after it, featuring up and coming artist alongside comedians.[31]

Club Tropicana, a club night ran by the venue's team, expanded to a night in Leeds during 2018, taking place at Leeds University Union.

References
  1. Brown, Mark (1 April 2022). "Outcry as future of Sheffield's Leadmill music venue thrown into question". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  2. LEADMILL - History Archived 15 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Information". The Leadmill. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  4. "Leadmill". Sheffield Music Archive. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  5. "History Matters". Historymatters.group.shef.ac.uk.
  6. LEADMILL - History Archived 19 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Lilleker, Martin (September 1982). The Star. Sheffield. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. "Information". The Leadmill. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  9. "Newly unearthed reports and recordings show Prince Charles actually loves Leadmill". University of Sheffield. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  10. Sampson, Stacey (22 September 2016). "The Rise and Fall of Gatecrasher, the UK's Spiritual Home of Trance". Vice. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  11. Monkeys, Arctic (3 April 2022). "Live". Arctic Monkeys. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  12. "Yorkshire breaking news: Latest updates". BBC News. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  13. "Club dancefloor snapped up by music fans". BBC News. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  14. Kempton, Benjamin (1 March 2018). "Exclusive: The Leadmill Announce New Feature". Shef News. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  15. "Leadmill Comedy Festival – Interviews – Last Night I Dreamt Of…". Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  16. "The Leadmill 2019: Our Year In Review". The Leadmill. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  17. Walker, Amy (19 March 2020). "Gig economy: Leadmill flogs memorabilia and loo rolls in Sheffield". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  18. "Guitar raises more than £7,000 for music venue". BBC News. 16 April 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  19. Pearis, Bill. "Watch Billy Bragg's 1-hour livestream benefit for Sheffield club The Leadmill". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  20. "Leadmill Live Stream: George Waite (The Crookes) → Our Favourite Places – Sheffield Culture Guide". Our Favourite Places – Sheffield Culture Guide. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  21. "Billy Bragg live stream concert almost doubles fundraising target for Sheffield's Leadmill". Thestar.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  22. "Sheffield Leadmill: Landlords say venue won't close". BBC News. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  23. "Sheffield Leadmill: Landlords say venue won't close". BBC News. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  24. "Archive-Sponsors | Live Music Awards". Livemusicawards.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  25. "Exposed Awards 2019: The winners!". Exposed Magazine. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  26. "UK Music : Wish You Were here : Annual rEport 2015" (PDF). Ukmusic.org. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  27. "Archive-Sponsors | Live Music Awards". Livemusicawards.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  28. "Leadmill announces George Ezra @ Don Valley". Exposed Magazine. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  29. "Exposed Awards 2019: The winners!". Exposed Magazine. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  30. "The Leadmill Announce Halloween Film Screenings in Sheffield General Cemetery". Exposed Magazine. 23 August 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  31. "Comedy". Tramlines Festival. Retrieved 4 May 2020.

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