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The Buccaneer, Leopold Street

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I wonder who like me, remembers a delightful little 70s pub called The Bucaneer

 

Hidden beneath the sprawling acres of the Grand Hotel in Barkers Pool, the doorway, like the entrance to a secret little Aladdins cave, was tucked away on Leopold Street, in an area now occupied by a trendy wine bar.

 

The source of many magic moments, it was responsible for introducing much of Sheffield to Progressive Rock and some of the more extraneous bands of the day. Long will I remember a bespectacled, lank haired DJ, hiding inside a plexiglass booth, raving about Rick Wakeman’s keyboard solo on “Roundabout”, or extolling the virtues of Carlos Santana’s “Samba Pa Ti”. He seemed to favour longer tracks, and is still the only DJ I know who has played the full version of “In A Gadda Da Vida” in public. (Come to think of it, hes the only one I know who has played it in private)

 

The clientele were a mixed bunch, varying between ageing hippies, who called for the Grateful Dead to be played at every opportunity, and those Art School sophisticates for whom a Steely Dan “E minor seventh sharp fifth ” was the ultimate chord. Boys outnumbered girls about 5 to 1, but it wasn’t a place for meeting the opposite sex. Its sole itinerary was music. Loud, wall-throbbing, ear-splitting music. Not humble but heavy. The kind of music that came back and haunted you in your dreams. It was John Peel’s Perfumed Garden incarnate – and we lapped it up.

 

Most wore denim, although later the fashionable townies, in their Ben Shermans and two-tone Sta Prest, started to wander in, just as Bowie began blurring the boundaries between rock and pop. Mein-host would pander to these occasionally, by slipping “All The Young Dudes” in between “Communication Breakdown” and “Faith Healer”. However these lapses were rare, and regulars could normally guarantee hearing at least one Velvet Underground track during the course of an evening. Certain records gained a notorious popularity, and there was always a cheer when The Archangel started singing about his wardrobe, or The Ox’s base fed us his arachnic fears. And riots took place whenever those crimson boys told their stories about going to court.

 

The predominant smell was “Brut” for the guys and “Charlie” for the girls, although both genders could get away with Hai Karate on a Friday night, so dense was the ambiance. The sticky carpet was a deposit for any form of detritus, and was I’m sure, the inspiration for the motto “If the floor is full, please use the ashtrays”. Unusually for a Sheffield pub, the beer was of little or no import. It was a generic ‘Red Barrel’ type brew, and came in plastic glasses. Getting served was a life changing experience, as most groups bought three or four rounds in one go, to save having to brave the fourteen deep crowd at the bar more than once. The bar staff comprised students, and fans of “Stone the Crows”. It was compulsory for them to smoke and serve pretty girls first, and they always complained that they didn’t play enough Vinegar Joe.

 

If the atmosphere got too heavy, and occasionally it did, we would carry our beers down Pinstone Street to the wide open spaces of The Nelson and put “See Emily Play” on the juke box - then we'd go back three days later to hear it, such was the backlog. There was a deep groove in the pavement between the two pubs, and on some evenings it was possible to meet the same people three or four times without ever being in the same building.

 

For me, it was the first place in the town centre where I felt like a local, and it changed my musical tastes for life. I shed a genuine tear the night it closed, and wore a black armband for weeks after it was pulled down. For those of us of a certain age, I truly believe that we never saw its like, before or since. The one consolation is that I can revisit The Buc at will, simply by digging out my “Aqualung” vinyl, or “Music from a Doll’s House” CD.

 

Do others have similar memories or did I dream all this?

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you didnt dream it at all every word is true!I had just to be remindered memories,ta!

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Wasnt old enough to get in there, but years later went to Stoke Hall at Grindleford for my birthday (why) and someone told me the furniture and tables with compasses on and some mermaids fastened to the wall had come from the Buccaneer.

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Dragonsoup

 

I can honestly say that, although I went in the Buc regularly for two years, it was never light enough to see the furniture. "Compasses and Mermaids?" Wow, I really missed something didn't I? I don't even remember them having tables

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The Buccaneer, on it's sad passing, had a poem written about it.

 

there is a slight bad language warning....

 

the opening lines are:-

 

"There's many a night I've spent in the buck,

Drunk as a F*rt and couldn't care a F***!"

 

sadly I cannot remember the rest of it. can anyone help?

 

as I understand it, the Buck's crowd sort of migrated round the corner, to the Wapentake.

 

PT

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Nicely written Bushbaby.

 

Not only do I still have my original LPs by Yes, Family, Iron Butterfly, Alex Harvey, Mott The Hoople, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull etc, but in many cases have upgraded them to CD as well.

 

Speaking of Iron Butterfly, when you say the "full version In A Gadda Da Vida", I presume you mean the mammoth live version which runs for the whole of side one of the LP, and not the ten minute studio version which is strictly for lightweights and weekend hippies?

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The long winter evenings must just fly by.

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Originally posted by Tony

The long winter evenings must just fly by.

 

Yes, you must pop 'round sometime. We can listen to all four sides of Tales From Topographic Oceans, before we get stuck into the King Crimson box set.

 

BYO sandalwood incense and 6 pack of Strongbow

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From Mojoworking:

"Speaking of Iron Butterfly, when you say the "full version In A Gadda Da Vida", I presume you mean the mammoth live version"

 

From Bushbayby:

Yes of course I do. I recently found out that the title is a bastardisation of the phrase "In the Garden of Eden". How innocent we all were back then.

I saw "Yes" playing "Topographic Oceans" live at the City Hall. Wow, that was heavy. I loved "Roundabout", "Your's is no Disgrace", and "And You and I", but a musical tribute to the Shastric Scriptures was asking a bit much of even the most devoted hippy. Made the "Mahavishnu Orchestra" seem mainstream by comparison

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Am I wrong or was I hallucinating but I seem to remember there being a parrot in the Bucc. A very large one in a cage somewhere near the bar.

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Thanks for the memories,time spent there was unforgettable. I remember some of the furniture ending up at Stoke Hall where I was also a regular. it also found it's way to the Wapentake as did the legendary landlady, Olga Marshall.

 

Great times -sadly missed.

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Originally posted by PHILIP

Thanks for the memories,time spent there was unforgettable. I remember some of the furniture ending up at Stoke Hall where I was also a regular. it also found it's way to the Wapentake as did the legendary landlady, Olga Marshall

I have to say that the ale in The Bucaneer was 'orrible and indescribable in The Wapentake....how can it taste that bad?

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