Sheffield Of Dreams: The UK’s Quietly Eclectic Music City

By Eammon Forde

Sheffield, firmly put on the world map by its foundries during the Industrial Revolution, is still known colloquially as Steel City; but heavy industry in the Yorkshire city (population: 556k) went into sharp decline from the 1980s onwards. It has, however, been a major producer and exporter of music since the 1960s, although it does not get the same plaudits that other British cities like Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow do for punching above their music weights. 

“There’s something in this city that’s very ancient. Like the old ‘little mesters’ that used to make the pen knives and bowie knives – they would guard their secrets very closely. And I think that’s rubbed off in the bands and the music. It’s OK to do your own thing and not be part of a scene,” singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Richard Hawley, who was born in Sheffield in 1967, previously told Mojo.

It was Joe Cocker’s cover of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends,” most notably his bravura performance of it at Woodstock in 1968, that gave Sheffield acts one of their first major footholds in the U.S. (Cocker was to later score his first U.S. No. 1 in 1982 with “Up Where We Belong,” his duet with Jennifer Warnes from the classic film “An Officer and a Gentleman.”)

By the late 1970s and 1980s, a new generation of Sheffield acts were making serious inroads into the U.S. Synth pop group the Human League were the first to strike it big in America, with “Don’t You Want Me” going to No. 1 in early 1982 and parent album Dare going top 3. They were the most internationally successful band from a rich electronic and industrial scene in Sheffield at the time, including Heaven 17 (featuring former members of the Human League), ABC, Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA. What all these acts were doing over 40 years ago still echoes through much of the music being created in Sheffield today. 

Through steady touring and enormous FM and MTV hits, Def Leppard (a rock band from Sheffield defiantly swimming against the city’s electronic tide) went multi-platinum in the U.S. with 1983’s massive Pyromania, 1987’s Hysteria and 1992’s Adrenalize. Such is their staying power that they remain a stadium-level act today with universal acclaim for the classic catalog. 

Pulp formed in 1978, but proved to be a slow-burn success, taking until the mid 1990s and emerging as one of the defining acts of Britpop and break through nationally and internationally. Jarvis Cocker’s sneer and disdain on “Common People” from 1995’s critically acclaimed Different Class contained all the social commentary on the stratification of British society anyone ever needed to know. 

The most pioneering and influential label to come out of Sheffield is surely Warp Records, founded in 1989, signing innovative acts such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, LFO and Boards of Canada, which through the ’90s and aughts helped inform the U.S.’s electronic predilections. The label is still going strong today and remains one of the most important independent labels in the UK. While based in London, its Sheffield roots are still proudly displayed. 

On a more unapologetically commercial thrust, the city’s Gatecrasher club started in 1996 and soon became one of the UK’s “superclubs” (alongside the likes of Ministry Of Sound, Godskitchen, Miss Moneypenny’s and Cream), focusing on house, techno and trance. The Gatecrasher brand became so big that it expanded into other UK cities, although its venue in Sheffield was destroyed in a fire in 2007. 

Among the Sheffield acts coming up in the early 2000s were Reverend & The Makers, Little Man Tate, The Long Blondes and Milburn, but it was the phenomenal breakthrough of Arctic Monkeys in 2006 that showed the city was not resting on its laurels and could produce a new generation of acts who had both critical and commercial impact.

Rather than be pinned down to a single genre, Sheffield has been defiantly eclectic in its output. Among the notable names to emerge in recent decades are cover stars Bring Me The Horizon (see page 28), grime act MC Coco, experimental pop act Self Esteem (aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor who started out as one half of indie pop and folk rock act Slow Club) and afrobeats/soul/funk/hip-hop/reggae outfit KOG & The Zongo Brigade.

The city can also boast a mushrooming number of local promoters creating new opportunities for the next generation of Sheffield-based acts across a wide range of styles. Among them are Strange Days (which operates in both Manchester and Sheffield, promoting alternative and indie acts), Flying Donkey Events (folk, jazz, blues), Buds & Spawn (experimental, alternative, progressive), TalkingGigs (world music), Hatch (alternative, DIY) and Gut Level (queer-centric DIY and electronic).

Sheffield’s geographical position has been both a blessing and curse for the city’s music scene. It is an hour away from Leeds (the most populous city in Yorkshire) and Manchester (in rival county Lancashire) is a similar distance away, with Liverpool just two hours away. 

As such, Sheffield sometimes gets overlooked on national tours in favor of nearby (larger) cities, but it has a strong live music infrastructure propped up by a multitude of small, medium-sized and large venues. 

At the grassroots level, these include Sidney & Matilda, Yellow Arch Studios, Corporation, Hope Works and The Grapes. Moving up to the next level, the O2 Academy, the Foundry (primarily a clubbing venue and part of Sheffield Students’ Union), Tank (clubbing) and Sheffield City Hall. At the very top end are Utilita Arena Sheffield and Bramall Lane stadium (home of Sheffield United FC).

The Leadmill is the longest-running live music venue and nightclub in Sheffield, but it has been facing closure for some time. Those operating the venue have been locked in a tenancy dispute with the venue’s owner, Electric Group, after being served an eviction notice in March 2022. A campaign to save the venue and keep it as a central music hub in the city gathered immense public support as well as testimonials from local acts and others who played there as their career was on the ascendancy. 

Every Sheffield band of note will have played there and every aspiring Sheffield band will view playing there as a rite of passage. The Leadmill’s importance to the city’s live music scene cannot be overstated. Its ultimate fate could well be decided at a hearing at Leeds Business & Property Court on Dec. 16-20.

Sheffield has been a proudly independent music city for decades, ploughing its own idiosyncratic furrow and producing not only some of the most acclaimed musical acts of the past half century but also some of the UK’s biggest names. Having venues like The Leadmill remain in operation will be essential in ensuring that Sheffield continues to write its own, fiercely unique, history for the next half century and beyond.