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. :D

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!

my friend dropping his kazoo on the floor, picking it up, putting it back in his mouth, then 2 days later, having to have 3 weeks of work because he had a strain of foot and mouth!

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

:)

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.

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!

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

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

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......

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...

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 :P

meeting chumbawamba after a gig there

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

So many memories from there. :) I still go and I've been going since I was 13! (23 years now:o )
I used to have a 3D paper cut out leadmill with cut out barstaff that you could move along the bar.
I miss the cafe with its cheese and chips!
I wish the Beatclub would come back and the nights would be more defined than they are now.
Teen memories
Seeing Hue and Cry and them blowing the sound system and not getting going until nearly 11.
Seeing The Housemartins with my teachers!
Seeing Tanita Tikarum and her going on about Basingstoke.
Seeing Fairground Attraction and thinking wow I must come and see these again.
The toilets when they were downstairs and had all graffiti on the wall

So many memories from there. :) I still go and I've been going since I was 13! (23 years now:o )
I used to have a 3D paper cut out leadmill with cut out barstaff that you could move along the bar.
I miss the cafe with its cheese and chips!
I wish the Beatclub would come back and the nights would be more defined than they are now.
Teen memories
Seeing Hue and Cry and them blowing the sound system and not getting going until nearly 11.
Seeing The Housemartins with my teachers!
Seeing Tanita Tikarum and her going on about Basingstoke.
Seeing Fairground Attraction and thinking wow I must come and see these again.
The toilets when they were downstairs and had all graffiti on the wall


hmmmmm its changed then since i last went :P

the cafe was still there, and the toilets were downstairs :P

Sunday lunchtime jazz in the 80s

Great memories. Used to go to a few jazz-funk nights there.
...

Yep recall hearing Gary Byrd - the crown for the first time there and Herbie Hancocks Rockitt...blew me away!

Also got to shake the hand of Roy Ayers after his gig there...while he was eating his Chill con carne ...LOL not been for a while in fact I think the last time I was there I was playing

passing a UB40 backwards in the queue as you went in so everyone could get in cheaply!

Not getting in for wearing an adidas top :(

i watched cud and spitfire there the leadmill was top bannana

I met my now fiance there. I love the leadmill its class.

The Presidents of the United States of America @ the Leadmill if i ever go to better gig in my life..i just aint been to it yet :hihi:

Was a jolly good time envolving about 10 - 11 good pints :D , Ear licking my m8 :suspect: , followed buy 2 days off work sick :gag:

Best gig, longest Hangover ever :thumbsup:

good times :)

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!

i was there too.

wasn't that the 'official' opening gig? although i seem to remember local bands had been performing there for a while before that.

so many memories, so many gigs, and four very special nights, christmas 1993? or was it 1994, when I was the Leadmill's official Santa Claus :D greeting the crowd, handing out gifts, and generally being molested by drunken people , ah heady days....

best gigs... erm, well I;d have to say my favourite gigs at the leadmill were the ones when my band were on the bill, we supported various vegetables, we were on the bill with salad, fun da mentalz, and Electrafixion. and we played the spud gun club, with speedy headlining :)

as a punter, the best gigs were probably rollins band, black grape, blue aeroplanes, my vitriol, and oasis.

as a club, wednesdays and thursdays were great, saturdays with dj adam morley, it was somewhere we felt we belonged.

long may it stay the Leady!

we used to go there mid/late 80's . we had to q for ages to get in , bad in winter!
the floor was always swamped with beer ,water and other fluids round the entrance to the toilets!
goth night was always a good night .
saw tom robinson there a few times.
best club in sheffield as far as i was concerned.
there was always a dodgy burger van outside which we said we would never go to at the start of the night and always ended up at kicking out time!!:gag:

Eee!! Happy memories.....& I bet I've chucked a few of you 'reprobates' out of the Leadmill if you went in there between 1982 & 90.

Oh i had the most horrible experience at the leadmill..wat do all people rave about that place! Have they yet to experience a decent night club?? Probably...its got the worst customer service ever...the door staff are aggressive and pumped full of steriods no doubt! Being in my early 30s and having only 2 pints to drink all night i was thrown out of the club for saying and doing nothing...the security guard Ed decided to accuse me of swearing and then threatened me by saying " i am going to hammer her head in" sorry but if thats the kind of staff they employ at the leadmill they are going to lose a lot of trade from decent club goers!! It has opened my eyes ..to all the rubbish in the papers and on TV of the state of britain's pub goers being drunk and disorderly and making the door staff and police lifes an ongoing misery!! I wonder how many pub goers are really to blame. From my recent experience its the police and door staff that are the ones who need arresting for disturbance and unruly behaviour. :rant:

Sunday lunchtime jazz in the 80s

I used to go out with a girl whos father was a drummer and often played at the Leadmill Sunday lunches in the early 80s. He was rather good; I think that he also accompanied Dave Berry in the early 70s.

Other than that, I've been to loads of gigs at the Leadmill in the early 80s - Crass, the Last Poets, Nico, Armoury Show supported by BAD; I've some black & whites of Pete Shelley; also remember the Saturday night discos - "How Soon Is Now" - "Respect Yourself" - Divines' "Native Love" - etc etc etc

Think we were there on the first night, either Clock DVA/ I'm so Hollow or Caberet Voltaire or a mixture of these were performing, it was very sparcly populated and was closed down soon afterwards, we also saw the Dead Kennedys, but have never been since it re-opened. Really sorry to have missed joe Strummers last gig.