Think Octagon is still used loads for graduations and uni events and think it takes a bit of effort to turn it into a music venue. Think it’s a decent venue when it’s full but as soon as it’s not completely full it feels very empty. Must be much bigger than Corp too, surely?
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700 in the big room at Corp, 1800 at octagon apparently
Oh yeah - i was at that one. Great show.
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I think Leadmill was/is around 1000 for the main room? As you say The Octagon is too big for some acts, many of which wouldn’t play Corp anyway. Basically, losing a mid size venue like Leadmill is bad news.
Tbh looking at the stuff above if it does stay as a live venue reckon it’s probably a good thing that they’re getting turfed out. Been shit for years so doubt the new people can do worse with it.
Big if, obviously
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Their venue in Newcastle is pretty decent tbf, I think it helps that it has a clear space in the market capacity-wise, but the programming is good too - pretty varied, good focus on current artists, only occasionally resorts to nostalgia cack.
(They do regularly have something called “Steve and Karen’s Charva Choons”, I think they are famous local radio people and it always sells out and they’re usually for charity, so, I dunno, whatever)
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For the first few years I was going to the Leadmill, starting in 1997, there was a carpeted area between the entrance and the dancefloor. I always remember how much that carpet stank to high heaven, it was like getting whacked in the face with a pungent mix of stale beer, sweat and cheesy feet. And then, within half an hour or so, you wouldn’t smell it anymore: we were at one with the stinky carpet.
Them ripping out that carpet is probably my best Leadmill memory.
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I’ve lived in Sheffield for nearly 20 years now and the place has fallen off a cliff in terms of the quality of bookings in the last 10 years or so. You used to regularly get touring bands playing Leadmill, especially ones from overseas, but now pretty much every touring act completely bypasses Sheffield and just plays Manchester and Leeds. The Leadmill has been trading off it’s reputation for years now and mostly just acts as a venue for crap club nights. It’s actually good that a new operator with better connections is taking over the venue since we might actually get some slightly better bands being booked there now.
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Feels like the reaction is split between people who live in Sheffield or have gone to the leadmill in the last decade who think this is broadly a good thing, and everyone else who remembers what it used to be like or has heard of it who thinks it’s bad news
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Yeah, I think the last gig I saw there was Parquet Courts and that must have been around 2017/18 or something - it was definitely pre-covid! The only time i’ve been in recent years was to see Joe Pera doing stand up in 2023, which was fine (although the beer prices were extortionate) but the place looked very worn down and badly in need of renovation - and that was two years ago now!
I’m just adding the Leadmill to my list of closed venues that played a meaningful part at a certain point in my musical life - the others being Newcastle Riverside, Leicester Princess Charlotte, Leeds Duchess of York and Derby Wherehouse. This is on the understanding that the Brudenell outlives me.
Question for other Sheffield adjacent folk. On a related note, I see that the Lemonheads gig at the Foundry in August is billed as a Leadmill event - would it be folly to get an advance ticket?
I would be pretty confident that it’ll be on. Think they just cross promote different venues on the site
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Might be a folly for entirely different reasons of course…
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