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You know what’s strange about Jarvis Cocker? I always thought he was younger as he’d been on the scene for so long and looked very young. I remember him and Tim doing loads of strange dances in The Limit, along with wearing oversized clothes.
Perhaps a night to remember in The Limit was when Cabaret Voltaire walked in with Kraftwerk. Some shitty little nightclub with terrible beer and sticky floors. Amazing to watch from a distance, I loved both bands, it took 25yrs before I’d speak to both bands.
Seeing the Cabs around Sheffield was great, I remember seeing them waiting for a bus on West Street. Stuff like this sounds silly now but it gave you hope when you’d just started a band. I collected and loved everything they released.
Being in the Forum watching the Monkey’s you knew something was about to happen. I wasn’t mad keen on the music but they could write a tune and I loved the lyrics, very clever for a bunch of young lads playing in tracksuits.
I also followed the Human League, you’d see Phil loads before Dare. Again, I waiting about 30yrs before I spoke to him, lovely bloke and I still have a soft spot for them after all this time. He was always in the Space Centre buying comics.
Sheffield had so many bands, you really could go out 7 nights a week during the punk days and see a massive wide spectrum of stuff. It was like living in a John Peel show at one point, Adam and The Antz and then Yellow Man, not sure if it’s like that now tho.
Vice Versa (ABC) were a strange watch, Martin seemed to playing just one giant knob type thing but that wasn’t unusual for Sheffield, Human League had a guy who just did slides and talked about sending recordings instead of doing gigs.
The Mau Maus never got the credit they deserved, I’d seen them play local youth clubs and had the Hallamshire loads before they got a single out, best UK hardcore band ever. Thinking back though, even though I knew them, they still made us pay to get in!
Dance music really started at Jive Turkey and was probably born out of rather racist black Wednesday. This was when nightclubs would allow black people in, this sounds outrageous now but that’s how backwards the thinking was back then. I remember all the jazz dancers.
Chakk should have made it much bigger, amazingly powerful life and with a great tribal sound. On a good PA is was just the best wall of sound ever, you could just go nuts to it. I wish the studio had survived, it was important to the city.
Danse Society almost made it, saw many a poor gig by them before someone put a fire under them and they came back much tighter and with better songs, just in time for the start of goth, great timing but often shite vocals killed it. Check the Tube performance.
I was always pissed off that Vision never made it bigger, they had some great tunes and Lucifers Friend got loads AirPlay, they looked great as well. Russel became a friend, also chatting in the clubs when I saw him, along with Maccy, they hooked me up with William Gibson.
B Movie should have also been bigger, I’m not sure why not. They had the tunes and looked great, great band to watch live. It’s odd how some bands just slip through all the cracks, music was and still is everything to me but I guess I’ve never been on the cusp.
Warp was important, everyone was proud of them & the tunes, along with shop. Going in & reading @Chrisduck notes, taking ages to decide what 2 buy because they all sounded good.Rob from Warp was a cracking bloke, I remember him showing me the stock room & saying take anything
Being in a band was hard in Sheffield, you really had to prove yourself, no one would clap. My last punk band didn’t leave gaps between songs because the silence was so fucking crushing after all that practice, brutal. Night, night from Sheffield xxx
The first gig at the Leadmill was the Dead Kennedy’s with UK Decay, what a great night that was and the start of a good venue. Jello hung out and talked to us about the music he liked, he told us to check out Flipper and we did :)
All the clubs would let you in under age back then, they’d just over charge you or make you get yet another membership and tell you to stay away from the bar and get in the crowd. I was in Steeles age 13. I always missed the last bus, it was a 14 mile walk home.
Bunking off school to help bands unload was a great way to get in free if you could manage it. The Clash nearly always let you help, same with The Specials, the donkey work was worth it and it often meant you could rob the odd lead for your band 🙂
Trying to get a local review or national review was almost fucking impossible back then. Like many it was a big dream back then, I’m kinda glad it didn’t happen now. It’s not that we was shite, it was more that we where always just behind the curve and had zero studio chops.
And finally, as young kids, we’d ring record labels pretending to be another record label, asking about our band. Not sure what we were hoping for but we called loads of them. I remember Small Wonder telling us to fuck off.
