Exposed Magazine November 2022

FEATURES

24: RIDIN’ HIGH

It’s back, baby! Kelham Island Brewery (and its famous Pale Rider beer) made its triumphant return to Sheffield bars last month, and we caught up with the Sheffield businessmen and creatives who have resurrected the iconic Sheffield brand Cheers.

47: GEAR CHANGE

The brewery is not the only Sheff icon back this month, either! Aaron Jackson reviews The Car, album number seven from Sheffield’s-own Arctic Monkeys...

49: ELECTRIC DREAMS

Ahead of a hometown appearance at Off the Shelf Festival, Human League and Heaven 17 founding member Martyn Ware discussed his recently released memoir, 'Electronically Yours: Vol. 1', with Joe Food.

70: SKY HIGH

Exposed caught up with Standing at the Sky’s Edge writer, Chris Bush, to discuss the impact of its initial run, the inspiration behind it all and the prospect of taking Park Hill on tour.

72: SITE FOR SORE EYES

We shine a light on a major new art exhibition curated by Site Gallery’s Angelica Sule and Robyn Haddon alongside artist Laura Wilson, exploring the ways in which our bodies encounter and process our environments.

Sampling your first Kelham Island Brewery pint was a genuine rite of passage for many Sheffielders. I remember early forays down to the Fat Cat as a bumfluff-faced teenager, where I’d join friends with equally wispy facial fuzz and we’d proceed to make our way through the handpulls on offer, pretending in vain that our youthful, uncultured tastebuds appreciated a refined real ale option versus the watered-down lagers and ciders we had cut our teeth on.

Amidst all this boyish posturing, which saw us grimacing our way through rich smoky treacle porters and choking down full-bodied malty bitters, was one real ale that we all quickly got onboard with – Pale Rider. This well-balanced, slightly floral ale was swiftly proclaimed as the best thing on offer (with an ABV that belied its quaffability) and over the intervening 12 or 13 years it would become the perfect potted companion on lazy summer afternoons, cosy winter evenings, or any other time we’d find ourselves on a jaunt around Kelham Island.

After Exposed moved next door to Kelham Island Brewery in 2017, we were regularly treated to malty aromas drifting into the office on brew weeks – a scent I can only describe as ‘boozy Horlicks’ – not to mention perfectly placed to sample a fresh batch of Pale Rider on Friday afternoons. So, as you can imagine, we were hugely excited to hear that the brewery had been saved by a local consortium of Sheffield businesspeople following its closure back in May. Head to page 24 for the full story behind the brewery’s welcome resurrection.

Moving to a few other bits, I’ve had a busy but enjoyable month chatting with some intriguing local characters. The impressive Abdi Suleiman talks engagingly about his Steel City story and what inspired him to stand as MP for Sheffield Central over on page 24 Human League and Heaven 17 founder Martyn Ware discusses his intriguing memoir ‘Electronically Yours’ on page 49 – a must-read for any Sheff music heads out there. I also had the pleasure of chatting with Chris Bush (page 70), the immensely talented writer behind the award-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which makes a welcome return to the Crucible next month. Throw in your usual mix of fresh openings, upcoming events and anything else worth getting up to this month, and you’ve got plenty to keep you busy over the next 80-odd pages. Enjoy and we’ll catch up next month!

GAFFERS

Phil Turner (MD) phil@ exposedmagazine. co.uk

Nick Hallam (Sales Director) nick@ exposedmagazine. co.uk

FINANCE

Lis Ellis (Accounts) accounts@ exposedmagazine. co.uk

GRAFTERS

Joe Food (Editor) joe@exposedmagazine. co.uk

Ash Birch (Online Editor) ash@exposedmagazine. co.uk

GI’ US A HAND PLZ

COVER SHOT

THE BUSINESS STUFF

Exposed is published monthly by Blind Mice Media Ltd

Unit 1b, 2 Kelham square Kelham Riverside Sheffield S3 8SD

The views contained herein are not necessarily those of Blind Mice Media Ltd and while every effort is made to ensure information throughout Exposed is correct, changes prior to distribution may take place which can affect the accuracy of copy, therefore Blind Mice Media Ltd cannot take responsibility for contributors’ views or specific entertainment listings.

Leo Burrell, Aisling Bennett, Lucy Jeffs, Heather Paterson, Cal Reid, Mark Perkins, Aaron Jackson, Daniel Inniss

Lilie Eiger

FARGATE CONTAINERS: WHAT’S ON OFFER?

FOOD

Get Wurst - Bringing a taste of Bavaria to the Steel City with proper Currywurst, banging Bratwurst and serious Schnitzels.

Clapping Seoul - An authentic Korean owned vendor specialising in bringing popular street food to the heart of Sheffield. Including Seoul Baos, rice burritos and dumplings!

Fat Mex - Popular established Mexican street food from Steel Yard Kelham offering Burrito / Tacos / Nachos & Churros!

RETAIL

Heist - A pop-up from the team behind Heist Brewery celebrating the finest Sheffield ales, lagers and IPAs. Gift sets with a variety of beers included as perfect birthday or Christmas presents.

JAM Artworks - A unique arts vendor specialising in Shef field-inspired digital prints, including t-shirts, calen dars and beautiful home decorations.

BAR A terrace bar offering a fine selection of beer, wines and spirits, including quality locally produced offerings.

FARGATE BOX PARK (FINALLY) OPENS

After months of construction and numerous setbacks, the fabled Fargate containers finally opened to the public on October 22nd last month.

The 426-square-metre container hub houses cafes, food vendors, shops, a big screen, and much-needed city-centre toilets.

The food and retail units on the lower deck are open now, while the terrace bar on the upper deck opens later this month as they make some finishing touches.

The impact of Covid has been hugely damaging to the high street, but the council hopes its latest development is set to bring a welcomed return of customers and revenue.

Mazher Iqbal, Co-Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said of the opening: “Come have a look around the newly fitted out retail units filled with items from local independent retailers and try out some of the delicious menu options. It will be fantastic to see people of all ages from across Sheffield enjoying everything this exciting desti nation has to offer.

“This new hub of shops, bars and restaurants offers something unique to Fargate and an injec

tion of activity which will attract people back to this area of town again. We have big ambi tions for Fargate, starting with these containers but continuing with Future High Streets Fund investment.”

This investment will see the introduction of a cultural hub, named Event Central, which prom ises to be an opportunity to showcase Sheffield’s artistic talent and is expected to attract more than 110,000 visitors a year. Alongside this work, pocket parks will be introduced through Fargate, using the design skills and knowledge gained through the Grey to Green scheme.”

Sheffield’s Kelham Island has been named one of the ‘Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World’ by Time Out magazine.

It's the first time in the five years since the list was launched that Sheffield has featured, placing Kelham at number 35 in 51 of the best bits of global cities. James Manning, travel editor at Time Out, said Kelham deserved international attention due to its mix of old and new and the ‘friendly community vibe’ that gives it ‘such a vibrant feel’.

The entry for Kelham Island reads: “Once home to derelict warehouses and a few old-school pubs, Kelham Island has undergone a hefty transformation. Those old boozers (thankfully) remain but Kelham’s once-empty spaces are now filled by a glut of independent bars, restaurants, shops, cafés and breweries.

“A manmade island formed in the 1100s when a stream was diverted to power a nearby mill, Kelham Island is now a unique bit of Sheffield thanks to the beautiful waterway that runs through it. Walkable from the city centre, it has all the hallmarks of a hip neighbourhood –including street food markets, microbreweries, Michelin-guide grub and a vegan bar run by screamo frontman Oli Sykes –without being insufferably so.”

SHOW US THE LIGHT

Sheffield Cathedral Illuminated, the spectacular annual light show at Shef field Cathedral, is returning to the historic city centre building for its third year. Entitled ‘The Manger’, this year’s show runs from 29 November to 4 December.

The Cathedral is once again partnering with awardwinning light show specialists Luxmuralis. Previous collabora tions between the two resulted in 2021’s ‘The Beginning’ and 2019’s The Angels are Coming’ – both resounding successes bringing thousands of visitors into the city centre to experience the immersive experience.

The show will involve a full son-et-Lumiere on the facade of the Cathedral and then a second show taking place inside the building. Visi

tors will also be able to enjoy mulled wine and mince pies from the cathedral’s Café 1554, purchase Christmas gifts from the shop and light a candle for loved ones.

Peter Walker, the show creator, said: “We are delighted to return for our third Christmas show at the Cathedral. For many the illuminations have become a tradition for Sheffield, bringing people of all ages and all back grounds together in the heart of the city. The Manger is a beautiful production which we are sure will get people in the mood for Christmas celebra tions this year.”

Tickets for Sheffield Cathedral Illuminated: The Manger can be bought via the Cathedral’s website (sheffieldcathedral.org) or in person from the Cathedral Gift Shop.

I had no real sense of structural inequality until I went to secondary school...

I came to Sheffield from Somalia and grew up in the Exeter Drive flats, just behind the Shell petrol station on Ecclesall Road. My mum was really thrown into the deep end, in terms of trying to get her head around the language and a culture that she didn’t really understand. She’d left a war zone and arrived here, a post-industrial city still recovering from years of Thatcherism and struggling with high levels of unemployment.

However, I grew up in a vibrant community and loved it. It felt like everyone where I lived was in a similar position, so there was no looking over the fence or ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ situations to worry about. Most days as a kid were spent playing in the park, kicking a ball around or finding some sort of way to entertain yourself by seeking out an adventure or two. I’m the oldest of four siblings, which also meant a good chunk of time was spent chasing after them, as well as doing odd bits to help my mum out around the home. There were loads of characters living around the flats, a mix of residents who came from a variety of backgrounds, and the nature of these places would see people coming and

going regularly. I remember people like the friendly old guy from the Caribbean who’d tell you about life on the islands, to individuals who were clearly quite down on life and had some difficult issues to deal with. It was a genuine melting pot.

It may sound like a strange thing to say, but I had no real sense of structural inequality until I went to secondary school at Silverdale. It was the first time I had new concepts to deal with such as pocket money and kids wearing expensive clothes. Another formative experience at secondary was talking to teachers and students who had links to the miners’ strike. I recall these early conversations really shocking me; I struggled to understand that people, here in a major city like Sheffield, were left without any income or support while striking to save their jobs. My driving instructor would tell me how he’d go and drop parcels of food off to support miners’ families in the area (incidentally, that was the first time I’d ever heard of something called a “food bank”; I remember being appalled that these things had to exist even back then).

BY ABDI SULEIMAN

IT WAS A POLITICAL AWAKENING: I REALISED THAT SOMETIMES THE GOVERNMENT IN THIS COUNTRY DECIDES TO GO TO WAR WITH COMMUNITIES, DISMANTLING WAYS OF LIFE AND NOT CARING ABOUT THE OUTCOME.

It was a political awakening: I realised that sometimes the government in this country decides to go to war with communities, dismantling ways of life and not caring about the outcome. Up until then, I had naively associated the government with free healthcare, free education, free school transport – an overall benevolent organization. The penny dropped in my mind that it counted on who the government was when it came to how people were treated. My mum has always been interested in politics; I specifically remember her taking me along when going to vote in the 1997 election, and to this day she calls me on election days asking if I’ve voted. I think having lived much of her life under a dictatorship, being able to have a say at the ballot box meant a huge amount.

As I grew older, I started to see that many talented and smart people who I’d grown up with weren’t getting opportunities. It struck me that there was something wrong with the system if you could have all these brilliant kids – witty, sharp and capable – but only one or two make it through to the sixth form or get into a red-brick university. I wanted to understand more, so after that, I just started reading any sort of engaging literature I could get my hands on.

I found myself asking questions – and sometimes asking questions about those questions – so it made sense for me to study philosophy at the University of Sheffield. The government increased tuition fees while I was there, so I joined the protests and marches against that decision and quickly found that one cause led to another cause. One minute we were marching against tuition fees, the next against the EDL, and after that we were protesting austerity cuts. Off the back of those experiences, I ended up running and being elected as Sheffield Students’ Union President.

While I was at university one of my favourite things to do was hang out at Falafel King on Glossop Road. I’d sit there with my friend, Kev, and we’d just talk for hours, catching up like two old men. We’d be there so often that if the owner had to leave, he’d trust us to run the shop until

THERE’S NOT A STREET IN CENTRAL SHEFFIELD WHERE I DON’T HAVE A MEMORY. THE ROOTS RUN VERY DEEP FOR ME...

Tenaya Wine is a wine shop where you can also have a glass of wine from a small, ever-changing chalkboard menu. Any bottle from the shop, or beer/ soft drink is available to drink in-store with a small corkage fee, so there’s a huge range to choose from. The weekly changing menu by the glass means you’ll always have something new to try. There’s also a selection of cheeses, patés, olives selected by Porter Brook Deli, for a table picnic.

UPDATE:

In spite of the popularity of the campaign - gaining over 300,000 video views on Twitter alone and attracting support from Sheffield legends from Jon McClure to Martyn Ware and Pete McKee - Abdi was the only candidate with a public campaign not to be longlisted. He was not given a reason by the selection panel.

he got back. People we knew would walk past and sometimes others would join us for a bit; we’d spend a lot of time watching the world go by in Broomhall, just chilling and drinking fragrant Egyptian teas. Another big passion was and still is poetry, something really valued in Somali culture. I’ve always been fascinated by the magic of words and how they can be constructed together to matter so much to us. Philosophy, poetry, art – it has all fed my political understanding in some way.

After going back to university to finish my philosophy degree, I helped launch a campaign called We Are International – a focused movement to fight back against the demonization of international students. It was hugely successful, and the university took the campaign and pitched it to Downing Street, the Home Office and Foreign Office. It eventually helped to play a part in the government changing its rules on post-study international visas.

My journey went from working in outreach for the university to the European Parliament, then to working in parliamentary affairs and trying to help the good guys do a bit of lobbying in parliament. Almost every line and paragraph of my life has been written here in Sheffield, so when Paul Blomfield said he was retiring, I took some advice and decided to run for his seat as Labour’s Sheffield Central MP. Our launch video had an incredible response and we’re now waiting to hear if our campaign will be longlisted by a regional panel.

Apart from my time at Silverdale school, which was situated in Sheffield Hallam, most of my life has taken place in and around the Sheffield Central constituency. My first school was Springfield Primary behind West Street and even my first job, as a waiter in the Platinum Suite at Sheffield United, was within the boundaries of that area (I was useless at that, by the way). Another influential job was at a call centre just off the Parkway, which a friend described to me as a modern-day workhouse, and that taught me another very valuable life lesson about how people could be exploited. But I’m digressing here slightly…

There’s not a street in central Sheffield where I don’t have a memory. The roots run very deep for me; I think that’s how it should be when looking to represent the people living in an area. Aspiring politicians are very good at coming to a city and giving it the “What an incredible place this is” shtick. I don’t think I could do that, as I’m not sure what story I could tell people when I’m asking for their votes. My story is here, it always has been, and I’ll be representing us, together, as people from Sheffield Central. It’s my home and always will be.

CHAKRA LOUNGE

Tucked away in Fitzalan Square, this cosy lounge café opened towards the end of 2020 and offers irresistible Indian cuisine with a modern British twist.

Chakra Lounge prides itself on being 90 per cent veggie and vegan, serving up a unique take on Indian and British cuisines from a quirky menu including breakfast items like ‘Grandma’s special turmeric porridge’ and other twists on Western breakfasts.

Elsewhere on the menu are popular Indian snacks like maggi noodles and samosa chaat, heartier portions of curry and rice bowls, as well as authentic Indian coffee, and delicious cakes, many of which are vegan and gluten free. Founder Sam moved to the UK from India in

2008 as a student. “When you come here from India, you have a culture shock. Trying to live on a budget as a student and trying to find things which are available in this country to mix with our own spices was difficult and is how the idea for The Chakra Lounge originally came about all those years ago.”

The Sheffield site is one of four Chakra Lounge venues, with thriving ventures already established in Buxton, Bakewell, and India. The flagship Sheffield site also recently had a bit of a spruce up, expanding downstairs to offer customers a new cosy space to kick back with one of their blueberry

hidden gem

iced mochas, or a delicious Punjabi vegan thali.

Sam’s younger brother was a chef in Hyatt until he moved to the UK in 2021 and has now taken over the ‘cheffing side’ of the business in Sheffield. It wasn’t until Sam got into reiki and spiritualism that he opened the first Chakra Lounge. “The idea was to make an experience where people can come and relax, somewhere they’re not on edge. It’s not about being quick and high table turnover. It’s a place where people can come and balance their thoughts and mind.”

THINGS YOU ONLY KNOW IF YOU’RE A...

DIGITAL FILMMAKER

it’s very physically demanding

Filmmakers spend a lot of time carrying heavy camera equipment, setting up screens and backgrounds and shifting various equipment around.

it’s always a collaboration

Having clients who give you leeway and believe in your work is important, it’s always a collaboration to make something everyone is happy with. Prep is so important, there’s a lot of time spent in pre-production talking about the script and content. Find clients who trust you to make the best film possible that suits them and their audience and campaign, and is true to the subject.

it's about learning the process

Although studying at university helps and was a way to get access to equipment and learn the craft, it’s important to also get as much work on film sets as possible and meet like-minded people. Learning the process is key - from lighting, to camera movement, as well as blocking a scene and how to bring a story to life.

knowledge is key Study and research your favourite director's/ cinematographer's work. Go to seminars, Q&A’s, learn their process. Read Conversations with Cinematographers by David A Ellis. Some interesting directors/ cinematographers are; Roger Deakins, Guy Ritchie, Ron Howard, Milos Forman. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of my favourite films, which is why I named the company Cuckoo Films.

it's extremely varied

One day I can be filming a highlights video featuring HRH King Charles, the next I’ll be making a music video with Sean Lennon, and then it'll be a short campaign video for Childline. Each production can be set over days, weeks or months with actors, shooting on various locations. This can involve long hours prepping, working with actors, filming & then weeks/months spent editing.

It’s about running and managing a business so there’s everything that comes with that too.

Childline Anti-bullying Campaign, I Got You: https://youtu.be/ JKOa86HXyY0

The Moonlandingz Music Video feat. Sean Lennon https:// youtu.be/VIE_mG7BWE4

Cuckoo Films is an award-winning digital video production company located in South Yorkshire. We offer digital video production to public and private sector businesses and organisations across the UK. Our videos range from narrative to factual, from single steadicam to multi-cam set ups. www.cuckoofilm.co.uk

Photo: Amy Eftekhari

THE PLACE

Situated at the top of Queens Road, independent haven Hagglers Corner has estab lished itself as one of the vibiest spots in town when it comes to food, drink and evening shenanigans. The cosy court yard space plays host to a series of vibrant businesses, covering everything from cocktails and late-night DJ sets to tattoos and craft workshops. A recent change in food vendors saw the outgoing Bhaji Shop replaced with Corner Jammers, a new kitchen from the team behind much-loved Meersbrook establishments Create Coffee and sub sand wich aficionados Two Doors

Down. Serving up a whole host of feelgood flavours from early ‘til late, they’ve quickly estab lished themselves as a popular addition to the venue, and we decided to put that hype to the test by checking out their new evening menu last month.

THE FOOD

So, as mentioned, the Corner Jammers crew have got you covered for brekkie (10am2pm) with burritos, muffins and sandwiches. Lunchtime (10am-5pm) is all about their pièce de résistance – stacked subs – served alongside salads, sausage rolls and a rotating selection of savoury pasties and sweet bakes. Their evening menu balanced evenly between

meat and vegan/veggie options, is all about the good times: burgers, burritos, loaded nachos and fries, buffalo wings, rice bowls, homemade dips, plus a kids menu to keep the little’uns happy.

Our group of four ordered an impressive feast. A deli cious double cheeseburger combined two juicy smashed patties with pickles, a generous portion of American cheese and a delicious tangy home made burger sauce. Carnitas rice bowls packed in flavour some rice, crispy pulled pork, refried beans, orange and lime slaw, pico de gallo, crunchy fried onions and jalapenos –all topped with spicy salsa and moreish chipotle mayo. The sides of cauli wings were coated in a rich buffalo sauce and the loaded nachos came covered with crunchy slaw and a delec table Jalapeno cheese sauce. It was all comfort food at its very best, but the accolades had to go to the menu special: the Reuben sandwich. This stun ning creation is very much a labour of love, everything from

the homemade whirly marble rye bread to the home-cured beef, and the result is surely one of the most wholesome, satisfying sarnies you’ll find among these seven hills. Yep, it was that good.

THE VERDICT

The Bhaji Shop left some big shoes to fill down at Hagglers, but Corner Jammers have slipped in to those size 12s

perfectly with a menu of indul gent crowd-pleasers served in a welcoming, upbeat atmosphere. Pro tip: complement your meal with a few expertly made cock tails from TAKK next door and really let your hair down.

@corner_jammers

Hagglers Corner, 586 Queens Road

Weds-Sat: 10am-9pm Sun: 10am-8pm

RAISE

A GLASS!

Beer-lovers throughout the Steel City, rejoice! It’s no longer last orders down at the iconic Kelham Island Brewery as Sheffield’s oldest independent brewer was saved from closure last month by a group of local business owners and creatives.

The brewery’s rescue is a collaboration between Tramlines co-founder and Sheffield venue owner James O’Hara, his brother and financial analyst Tom O’Hara, Simon Webster and Jim Harrison of renowned Thornbridge Brewery, Peter Donohoe of Kelham-based creative studio Peter and Paul, and Ben Rymer from beer festival organisers We Are Beer.

James O’Hara, who put the group together after hearing about the brewery’s closure, told Exposed: “Kelham Island Brewery and its flagship beer Pale Rider are known and revered beyond Sheffield. It’s a heritage that we, as a city, should be really proud of. We couldn’t let that just disappear, it means too much within the city and to the UK’s beer culture for it to become another Wikipedia entry.”

When asked whether we could expect some exciting fresh brews on the imminent horizon, James told us: “We have the ability and recipes to brew any of the catalogue of the Kelham Island Brewery range but to start with our focus is all about the legendary Pale Rider. We hope that if things go well people will see some of our favourites return, so keep your eyes peeled.”

A pioneer for the UK’s craft beer scene, Kelham Island Brewery has played a significant role

in Sheffield’s decorated brewing history. The brewery was founded in 1990 by Dave Wickett and became the first new independent brewery in the city for over 100 years. From humble beginnings in the garden of the Fat Cat pub in Kelham Island it flourished, with many of its brewing talent going on to set up and work for the likes of Abbeydale, Thornbridge, Magic Rock, Bradfield and BrewDog.

Simon Webster from Thornbridge Brewery told Exposed: “Kelham Island Brewery has always been linked with Thornbridge. They were the reason we started the business. Theirs were the first beers we brewed and Dave Wickett was a guiding hand in the early days of Thornbridge. “When I first heard about the closure, I immediately thought, how can we help? How can we save the heritage that the Wickett Family had built? I chatted passionately about what we could do with James and we formulated a plan to try to save those great beers. I’m so pleased we have been successful. We’re looking forward to brewing the beers and keeping Kelham Island Brewery alive in Sheffield and beyond.”

Pale Rider, the brewery’s flagship beer, won the Champion Beer of Britain in 2004; it was the first winner to use hops from the USA and is still the only beer in South Yorkshire to have ever received the accolade.

"IT’S A HERITAGE THAT WE, AS A CITY, SHOULD BE REALLY PROUD OF.

Ben Rymer, who works for beer festival organisers

We Are Beer, a celebration of all things in modern beer culture, spoke of the brewery’s influence: “American hops form the backbone of the modern craft beer scene, but what Dave was doing was really revolutionary. He really went out on a limb at the time and was a true visionary.

“No one was setting up breweries back then and the craft beer industry as we know it now simply didn’t exist. The fact that Dave had to sell the beer he made in his own pub wasn’t about creating a scene, it was a necessity. Most pubs at the time were all owned by big pub companies.”

Jim Harrison from Thornbridge Brewery added: “Dave was a good friend and really understood beer and its regional variations. He understood that to be successful you needed to get your beer to people outside of the area. He was years ahead of his time and I’m so proud that we have been able to save these beers from being lost forever.”

Ed Wickett, former Kelham Island Brewery owner and son of founder Dave Wickett said: “I’m really pleased the brewery is in such safe hands. It’ll be great to serve Pale Rider in the Fat Cat again.” The first pour of Pale Rider took place in the Fat Cat at lunchtime on 19th October. It was then poured to the masses at CAMRA’s Steel City Beer Festival which took place, fittingly, at Kelham Island Museum on 19th October for four days. The beer has now been delivered to the wider on-trade pubs, so you’ll be able to grab a fresh pint at most selfrespecting real ale boozers across the city.

See what else the future holds for the newly revitalised brewery by following @kelham_island_brewery.

• Kelham Island Brewery started in 1990, in the beer garden of The Fat Cat on Alma Street. It was the first new and independent brewery in 100 years.

• The first brewing kit was 5BBL and purchased second-hand from the closed Oxford Brewery.

• Dave Wickett was the original brewer, among many other jobs around the site, and many well-known Sheffield beers can be traced back to him.

• ‘Fat Cat Bitter’ was the first beer, which was first sold in September 1990.

• Patrick Morton joined as part of the early brewing team, before going on to found Abbeydale Brewery (also in Sheffield).

• In 1993, the first batch of Pale Rider was brewed and went on to be a great success for Kelham Island.

• The increasing popularity of Kelham Island beers led to an expansion in 1999.

• The brewery moved just down the street from The Fat Cat, but was now able to produce five times as much beer.

• In 2004 the iconic Pale Rider won the Champion Beer of Britain, this batch was brewed by Paul Ward who went on to consult at Thornbridge before becoming the Bradfield Head Brewer.

IN FOCUS

The orders were flying in, and Pale Rider cemented itself into UK brewing lore.

• In 2004, Dave Wickett was integral in the beginning of Thornbridge Brewery, helping hire the two original brewers, one of whom went on to found BrewDog.

• In 2012, Dave sadly passed away, having helped to pave the way for numerous influential figures within today’s brewing landscape

• Dave’s son, Ed, took over the running of Kelham Island Brewery, continuing the innovative streak with lots of exciting new beers.

• The brewery continued to be known around the UK and in selected international markets for its dedication to craft and quality beer.

• In May 2022, Kelham Island Brewery announced its imminent closure citing impacts of the global pandemic on trade as a major influence on the decision.

• Five months later it was announced the famed brewery would be saved by a group of local business owners who wanted to preserve the brand and its heritage.

A

KELHAM ISLAND

SNAP HAPPY

The family-run London Road store was first opened by founder Ron Harrison in 1972.

After quickly building up a loyal customer base, Ron called on his family to assist in the day-to-day running of the store, which saw his wife, parents and son, Glyn Harrison, mucking in and becoming part of the furniture at the store.

After leaving school at 18, Glyn was made a director of the company and continued to work in the store helping his father grow the business. They moved premises a couple of times but always remained on the same stretch of London Road, arriving at their current address of 112-114 London Road in 2001.

With the drive of Glyn, Alison and Michael Beckingham (who recently took over from Glyn as managing director) the company continued to thrive. Dedicated staff and a commitment to customer service has seen the company get through the last few years while continuing to develop and grow despite difficult chal lenges facing independent retail businesses. They celebrated reaching the half-century milestone by hosting a series of in-store events, competitions, talks and workshops, including

q+a with glyn harrison

a photowalk with renowned photographer Sean Tucker. And what of the future?

Despite retirement Glyn still has a keen interest in the family business and believes that the current team will continue to drive the company forward into the future.

“It is quite incredible to think that the company thrives in 2022, especially given the challenges of the last few years. Without doubt, our

early commitment to online sales driven by Alison and Michael was one of the best decisions made to date. Online sales will become an ever more important arm of the business. However, there will always be demand for personal service, the ability to handle and inspect equipment and receive excellent unbiased advice face to face. I foresee the shop playing an important role in the future, although the

What has been the secret to reaching 50?

50 years in the retail industry is a great achievement. Independence and dedication to customer service has been the main driving force. Setting up the website early and transferring our high level of customer service online is something I’m proud of.

What sort of photography trends have you seen come and go over the years?

The rapid transfer to digital imaging has been the greatest shift. Something that surprises and pleases me has been the gradual upsurge in interest for traditional film-based photography. I see the same analogue products being sold in volume that were being sold 50 years ago!

retailing experience is bound to change in the coming years, and the company will certainly adapt to meet these challenges.”

Harrison Cameras is home to South Yorkshire’s largest secondhand selection and film developing lab. Find them at: harrisoncameras.co.uk 112-114 London Road 0114 2859854

@harrisoncameras

What tips would you give to any aspiring photographers out there?

Aspiring photographers should plug away and have confidence in their abilities. So my advice is be patient, and don’t give up.

What’s the best piece of photography advice you’ve personally received?

Buy the best equipment you can afford and decent secondhand equipment that can be upcycled.

What's your favourite product in store?

High-quality compact binoculars. They are the best compromise for nature viewing, with no excuse for not slipping them in your pocket while on the go – be it a walk in the countryside or even on safari!

A huge shoutout to the team at Harrison Cameras, Sheffield’s one-shop-stop for all your photog raphy needs, who celebrated hitting 50 years of business last month.

SPREAD THE GOOD BREWS

Arriving soon in Shef field will be Brewski, the Manchester-based North American comfort food specialists, who will be taking over the former OHM Food Hall at West One Plaza. The menu’s shaping up to be a winner. Punters can expect indulgent deep dish pizza pies, big ol' burgers and stacked sharing boards - plus a rotating craft beer and cocktail selection.

The ‘home of the mate date’ is set to open its latest venue in late November and will boast a 120-cover restaurant, open from midday to 10.30pm, seven days a week. A spokesman for Brewski said: “We serve up comfort food of all varieties, with everything from sauces to desserts made in house. Our menu changes every two months centred around sharing platters, aka ‘the mate date’.

“We noticed we had devel oped a large following of people from the South York shire area with many visiting our Manchester restaurant and thought we had to open somewhere more conven ient for them!”

For more details, head over to the restaurant’s socials: @brewskirestaurants

NACHO AVERAGE MEXICAN STREET FOOD

Mexican street food specialists Taco Mex opened their first site on London Road back in December 2017. Since then, the business has gone from strength to strength, opening two new sites in Rust lings Road and Abbeydale Road South.

From the off, Taco Mex owner Shahzad has constantly strived for innovation. Realising quickly that demand was high, he expanded the business into the upstairs of their London Road site in order to give them more seating space.

Over the past year, they have ramped things up again, opening two new sites to help cope with the demand for takeaway, all while continuing to provide top notch Mexican fodder. “We were very busy in the London Road branch,” explains Shahzad, “so we decided to take on the other two sites and acquire a bigger, three-mile takeaway radius. The different branches now cover more areas, giving our customers better service and better-quality food.

“We have many customers around Abbey dale Road and there’s a link to Dronfield so the Abbeydale Road site now covers those, and then the Ecclesall Road site can take us up to Dore and Totley, which is difficult to get to from our London Road site, while keeping the quality of the food high.

“Since opening the new sites, we’ve had great customer reviews and they’re receiving much quicker deliveries now. I’m really proud of what we’re doing and it’s really working out how I’d hoped. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll open more,

but for now we're just sticking with the three.” Shahzad has worked in hospitality for a number of years and explained to Exposed where this passion for food comes from. Shahzad said: “First of all, I love food! The idea for this place came from working for another popular Mexican restaurant in the city. I was head chef, but when they started, they were small, so I helped create the menu. I’ve been working in restaurants for a long time, so I thought about starting my own.”

The owner and chef also has experience managing a busy fast food chain, but he told Exposed that he originally trained in the classics. He said: “I started my career in a French restaurant and I was moti vated in that cuisine, but I think it is easier to teach people Mexican cuisine, and we are committed to giving good quality here.

“My love of food comes from watching the guy who owned that first restaurant I worked in. He was so motivated, he inspired me to start creating my own dishes and it grew from there.”

Taco Mex covers all your Mexican favourites from tacos, burritos, and fajitas, to nachos, enchi ladas and chimichangas, as well as Mexican-sytle pizza tostadas and sweet and fluffy churros. They have all the bases covered with halal, vegan, and gluten free options, with everything made fresh from scratch on site.

“I try to give the best quality, the best ingredients and the best packaging.” Says Shahzad, “People need to try the food.”

@tacomex_street_chef

Owners of the formerly closed Michelinrecommended Sheffield restaurant Juke & Loe are set to reopen in the former home of The Milestone on Ball Street, Kelham Island. The announcement was made via a cryptic Instagram post offering a free meal for two to anyone who can correctly guess the location of their new restaurant, accompanied by a picture of the Ball Street sign and a slightly less than cryptic image of The Milestone’s window.

The Milestone has stood empty since restrictions were lifted last year, while Juke & Loe have been searching for a new home for the restaurant since May, when they were forced to move out of their celebrated Ecclesall Road venue after failing to agree on a new lease with their landlord.

Not long before their initial closure, the restaurant received a glowing review from Guardian food critic Jay Rayner. They will now join the ever-growing selection of popular foodie hangouts in the area such as Joro, VorV, Domo, Cutlery Works and Pina. Tipped to be an exciting return for a well-established gem, you’ll soon be able to enjoy their seasonal set lunches and contemporary à la carte menus. We’ll have an opening date for you soon, but in the meantime give them a follow on socials: @jukeandloe.

THE RUM DIARIES

It has taken Cubana four years of research, tips the scales at over 21,000 words and now boasts 305 hand-picked varieties (and that’s before you factor in the odd sore head), but a brand-new rum menu has now confirmed the Shef field venue as a world leader in the spirit, according to global rum ambassador Ian. A. V. Burrell.

The acclaimed rum connoisseur and founder of the world’s first festival dedicated to the spirit said Leopold Square’s Cubana now has 'one of the world’s best rum menus and rum lists'.

Cubana has been flying the flag for rum since they unveiled their first rum menu in 2016 and, in 2019, they hit the national headlines for selling the most expensive tipple of its kind in the country – the £250 per shot Havana Club 1519.

But its brand new menu has now taken things to another level and turned the venue into a true UK leader.

Researching and writing the menu has been headed up by Cubana managers Ricardo Correia and Ethan Fellows. They tested a stag gering 600 varieties – just 305 made the final cut.

Ricardo said: “There’s no doubt putting together our latest Rum collection has been a mammoth undertaking but rum is now such a big part of Cubana’s DNA we had to ensure we produced the very best. To be hailed the most extensive in the UK is a great honour for us. We already attract visitors from right around the country and that’s only set to increase as we unveil our latest collection.”

Cubana’s first rum menu was voted the UK’s best by the industry in 2016.

The bar’s extensive rum collection has been sourced from right around the globe –from Cuba and all over the Carib bean to more surprising places such as Japan and Germany.

Some of the rarer bottles have been bought at private auction.

Cubana co-owner Adrian Bagnoli said: “It’s such fantastic news to finally unveil our new menu. I have to give special thanks to the team that have put their heart and soul into producing something that’s already the talk of the industry.”

Cubana Tapas Bar is situated at Unit 4 Leopold Square. Bookings can be made on 0114 276 0475. More info from www.cubanatapasbar. co.uk.

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SING

IT BACK

State-of-the-art private karaoke rooms launched in popular Crookes pub

The Old Grindstone, part of True North Brew Co., recently launched their brand-new private karaoke rooms, one of which is decked out with 80s memorabilia, and the other with 90s relics.

A joint project between Kane Yeardley and Ella Greyson of True North Brew Co, Nick Bax of Human, and Tracy Neal of MRP Architects, the design of their karaoke pods attempts to reflect bars, pubs, and flats of the 1980s and 1990s.

Adam Nur, General Manager at The Old Grindstone told Exposed: “The Old Grindstone is renowned by local music lovers, and we’re known for our popular monthly karaoke nights, so creating a space for private karaoke pods upstairs seemed like a no-brainer.”

Nick Bax, Director of Human Studio, worked on a special exhibition for the space titled ‘A Musical Snapshot: 1970 –1999’ to show how important the visual representation of music was before it took an increasingly digital form.

Nick said: “In my work as an artist, designer, and creative director, I have been involved with the music industry for over 30 years and witnessed how the packaging of recorded music has evolved from vinyl sleeves, cassette boxes, compact disc cases, and minidiscs to postage stamp sized digital covers.

“Regardless of the canvas – from

cardboard, to plastic, to screen – the image remains and becomes inseparable with the music that it represents.”

Kane Yeardley, Managing Director at True North Brew Co., has plastered the toilet walls in brilliant images from cuttings of original music magazines from the 1970’s – 1990’s including NME, Face, ID, and Smash Hits. Kane said: “The magazine clippings in the toilets are inspired by the nostalgia of cutting out features about our favourite bands and sticking them on our bedroom walls.

“Many people remember Crookes for the fantastic drinking spot it was back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The Old Grindstone is a great pub full of personality and we’ve taken it to the next level with the attention to detail involved in creating our karaoke with character.”

The private karaoke rooms are available to book seven days a week and feature a state-of-the-art karaoke system for belting your heart out to karaoke classics, whilst admiring ‘A Musical Snapshot: 1970 – 1999’. Each pod holds up to 15 people, with food and drink packages available –perfect for your Christmas parties! The Old Grindstone also has a 70s-themed function room for hire and recently enjoyed a spruce-up of the bar and seating areas following its reopening.

As well as being your one-stop karaoke shop, it ticks the boxes as somewhere to enjoy a traditional pub lunch or a vibrant hangout to immerse yourself in for after-work drinks and weekend escapades. Warm up the vocal cords and we’ll see you there!

Book your next night out at The Old Grindstone here: oldgrindstone.co.uk

Stone the Crows Heads up that over the festive period The Old Grindstone have got you covered for all Xmas party needs...

Festive Buffets

They've put together a festive platter menu that celebrates all things smokehouse, from hot links in blankets to pomegranate molasses spare ribs! The menu launches on the 16th November, but if you don't fancy a festive feast, you can always pre-order from their core menu for all your OG favourites!

World Cup

Join The Old Grindstone for all the action, live from Qatar. Limited tables are available to book for a viewing package including a couple of drinks and a food platter for £20. Want your own space? Rent out a private viewing room with your own screen for that front row experience. Living room vibes, but with pints and banging food!

NYE

See off the year with a bang at the OG! There’ll be karaoke (obvs), a DJ and some good vibes to see you through to the new year.

Other Events

Keeping it Christmas, they’ve also got their big Christmas quiz, as well as jazz nights and much more…

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ION FESTIVAL

Exposed took the stunning journey down from Albania’s capital of Tirana to Dhërmi and checked out LWE’s latest festival, ION, which launched this September after a two-year COVID delay. The country’s rapidly growing reputation as an exciting spot for abroad festivals got us very excited to see what all the fuss was about in the ‘Albanian Riviera’.

THE LOCATION

Until about five years ago, Dhërmi was a quaint little village where Tony Blair took his holidays. Now, it’s a bustling town of hotels, restaurants and intimate beaches that play host to a brand new house and techno festival, ION, whose musical identity sits somewhere between Dimensions, Houghton and Junction 2 festivals. The main festival site’s four stages are comfortably sprawled along the coast. It’s a couple of minutes' walk from one end to the other, with restaurants, hotels and toilet facilities scattered throughout, a detail that made the whole experience feel like being on holiday rather than at a festival, in a good way. This also meant there was zero sound bleed between the stages –each one felt like a destination rather than one collective party zone. Modern, sleek sound systems reached every corner of every dancefloor with ease.

A VARIED LINE-UP

The programming at ION was a well-curated mix of all things house and techno. There was usually something for everyone across the four stages on the main festival site. There were tons of minimal house, a big chunk of pummelling techno, a fair amount of experimental bassy DJs

Why ION is one of Europe’s best new dance festivals... Words: Leo Burrell

like Hessle Audio and Madam X and finally Balearic goodness in the shape of Dan Shake, Maribou State and Chaos in the CBD. Highlights included a fiery b2b from Batu and Bambounou, the latter played his new Britney edit four times over the week, twice with Batu and once in his solo set before Ben UFO. Bristol-born DJ Otik played an eclectic set full of left-field remixes, closing on his 2020 track, Zero-Sum Game. Helena Hauff tore up the Deck before DJ Stingray, throwing electro and techno punches left, right and centre.

INCREDIBLE OFF-SITE STAGES

The much-heralded Gjipe stage from Kala Festival is renamed the Canyon here – an idyllic spot only reachable by boat. We jumped onboard for the SNO, Jason Wynters and Dan Shake affair taking place in the sweltering heat; luckily, the beach wasn’t far from the dance, and there was even a shower in the nearby hippy-ish campsite that rumour claimed was actually a commune, which really added to the loose vibe. On Sunday, Batu played an extended set after KT, and the Timedance boss revelled in the heat, taking the crowd on a trippy, hypnotic and almost laid-back journey. We also heard great things about the new Fort Stage, an old Roman building which hosted Marcel Dettman, a Dax J jungle set and Helena Hauff.

THE ACCOMMODATION AND RESTAURANTS

We stayed in the resplendent Empire Hotel and resort, just a stone’s throw from the Main Stage, which was luxurious, to say the least. ION festival’s system of booking accommodation with your ticket was refreshingly easy, a real relief from overpriced Airbnbs and cramped campsites. There were plenty of restaurants to choose from, on any budget, most of which were good value for money and a nice change from the usual festival street food.

RESTORATIVE WELLNESS PROGRAMMES

Yoga classes in a muddy field in Hertfordshire when you’re hungover don’t make much sense. But when we saw the breathtaking location of the wellness program, we couldn’t say no to trying something new. We joined a Kundalini session, a rare Eastern practice which really put us through our paces and left the attendees fully restored for Monday night in the Bunker.

THE BUNKER

Monday night saw the Main Stage soundsystem moved into the nearby underground carpark of Empire Hotel, which made for an incredibly imposing venue. Jeff Mills, Dax J and Hector Oaks brought the heat, turning the place into an absolute sweatbox – a novel affair after a week of dancing outdoors. Special mention goes to Nina Kraviz, who set hearts racing with a 200bpm track by Manchester’s Space Afrika, Blackhaine and aya.

SUSTAINABILITY

As the environmental and cultural concerns of attending festivals abroad grow in the wake of Ibiza and Croatia’s impending doom as party destinations, it’s hard not to question whether this is all ok in 2022. But festival producers Mainstage and ION have gone above and beyond on the Dhërmi site to make sure that everything is done responsibly. For every non-local person hired, they are committed to hiring one local resident. Water is sold in cardboard tetrapaks – plastic cups are 1€ from the bar – and eating in actual restaurants with real cutlery certainly felt more sustainable than all those plastic forks. Locals are given discounted tickets and encouraged to come and join the party, too. ION ran a party in the capital, Tirana, making sure dance music fans in Albania were aware the festival was happening and could be included. This is the norm in the UK now, but it really isn’t in Albania. A decent amount of credit should be given to the organisers for doing what is expected of them, and we can only hope that this has the intended impact.

ION will return in 2023, 6th-13th September. Tickets are on sale now at ionalbania.com.

RAVING AND INNOVATING

Aisling Bennett reviews the latest instalment of No Bounds Festival – a celebration of music, art, technology and dancing in the heart of the Steel City.

Words: Aisling

Photos: Franie

Now in its sixth year, No Bounds continues to extend its tendrils into the depths of Sheffield culture, with installations and performances curated perfectly among the city’s industrial spaces and historic venues.

The opening concert took place in Sheffield Cathedral, with a live AV performance from Blawan and Bernard Holaschke rounding things off. Hundreds of small paper doves hung down from the cavernous ceiling, creating the perfect backdrop for blasting modular techno and mind-melting images that blended into an extra-terrestrial acid trip. It was then time to head over to Hope Works for the opening rave, with a killer early set from DJ Fart In The Club at the Kupier Belt and Saoirse providing her usual on-point selections of squelchy house and techno in the main room.

The High Density Energy Chamber (AKA “rave cave” to regular patrons) once again lived up to both of its monikers. Sheffield’s own Gracie T took the roof off with her signature multi-genre acceleration up the bpms, followed by one of the

UK’s hottest junglists right now, Tim Reaper, delivering a fast, heavy and uncompromising mix of the genre’s finest oldschool and modern sounds.

Then it was back to the main room for a brain-pulverising b2b from Batu and Skee Mask.

The styles of the two selec tors complemented each other perfectly, Batu’s percussive and bass-heavy grooves cutting through Skee Mask’s relenting techno, spinning heads and moving feet well into the early hours.

The stakes were indeed high for Saturday, but the full-throttle energy was maintained with ease and once again we were blown away by the expertly crafted programming. Nia Archives brought the heat to a packed-out main room, peppering the set with her own tracks and angelic live vocals, as heavy hitters ‘Mash up the Dance’ and ‘Forbidden Feelings’ sent the crowd into a frenzy.

A somewhat surprising b2b from Calibre and Craig Rich ards was next, but the pair shelled out an impeccable selection of bassy rollers that kept up the momentum. Over in the Courtyard, I. JORDAN tore the place up with a fero

cious set that brimmed with energy and emotion, weaving seamlessly through house and techno slammers with a touch of donk, trance and even a bit of Kylie.

This laid the perfect ground work for LCY and Diessa to close the courtyard with a b2b for the ages. A cacophony of hard, wonky, bass-heavy, percussive sounds saturated the air as the pair flawlessly demonstrated how to put a good sound system to use.

After two weighty nights, the gentler daytime programme provided some much-needed space for the mind. The festival has continued to expand its platform for visual artists while shining a light on lesser-known or overlooked spaces around the city.

The Moore Street Electricity Substation was home to Noemi Soula’s exhibition ‘Mythical Living Data’, which explored how pollution is interacting with our DNA through unset tling visuals of the human body mutating. The African-

Caribbean community centre SADACCA, tucked away north of the city centre, housed David Cotterell’s ‘God’s Eye View IV’. A black dome in a dark room may sound unassuming, but

the mesmeric digital projec tion, ambient drone and oppor tunity for interacting with the piece with your own voice made for a gratifying Saturday afternoon immersion.

No Bounds has once again managed to unite the best in musical and visual innovation as it bridges the gap between those heady end-of-summer festivals and the descent into winter club night season. This year, the event has stood out by showcasing talent from underrepresented and marginalised groups, which, despite the recent emphasis and reitera tion of this fact, we all too often forget is where dance music and sound system culture started. Now a well-established fixture on the festival scene, it still feels like an event from the future, continuing to weave innovation and creativity with the culture and heritage of Sheffield via the many threads of electronic music.

We can’t wait to see what path it takes next.

STILL FEELS LIKE AN EVENT FROM THE FUTURE, CONTINUING TO WEAVE INNOVATION & CREATIVITY WITH THE CULTURE AND

OF

BACK IN THE DRIVING SEAT

The Car is, ultimately, the sound of pennies collectively dropping – or if it isn’t, it should be. That if there was to be any career it would always be one of shape-shifting, doubling back, hopping across and testing the limits and boundaries was signalled from the very first: Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not.

The clue really was in the title. This is why five years after we went to the moon and back, we’re being teaser trailered again and encouraged to work out just what the scamps are up to now they’re all grown up and we are too.

So, the overview: The Car is tactile. Tears are cried in tanning booths. Body paint is worn. Photo shoots happen. It’s retrostyled. We expect this now. Pop music was once about discovering a new sound. Now it’s about playing dress up in the expectation that people get the references. The work still has to have inner integrity, however, or it’s just pastiche. Thankfully, The Car does. There are elements of soul

in it – all types, not just musically; and a kind of sultry honeyed ambience whose sweetness could give way at any moment to a sugar rush headache or the dark sourness lurking beneath the gloss.

This is a contemporary album for the contemporary moment: there’s a growl to the opening of ‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’ that nods to the fact that the promise of the title also extracts a price; ‘Body Paint’ lopes and grooves – people forget that the Arctics were always a rhythmically elastic band: it’s what made the poetry and the melodies so damned addictively exciting in the first place; and ‘Jet Skis on the Moat’ indicates that the sense of humour is still there: the wah-wah guitars contrasting nicely with Turner

asking if we/he are happy to sit and watch ‘the paint job dry.’

Material that references how hard it is to be wildly successful can be a tough sell – and the central theme of the album is, essentially, the idea that behind the glamour, the mirrorballs, the Riviera, the photoshoots, disco strobes, marble, champagne and international travel something is desperately, quietly wrong. Hey, this is the business we call show, we’re told, and it’s all singing in “Spanish on Italian TV”, a dusty apartment and a heavy heart.

But the riding tension between anticipation and reality was there even when the songs were about sprawling nights out, anticipation, dancefloors, drama, taxi rides home, the cold light of morning. So too was negotiating expectations – something anyone who grows up in a Northern town caught between its industrial past and possible futures is familiar with – regardless of whether you then go on to become international pop stars. And if you do manage to, how does the journey look now that there's enough distance under the wheel to allow reflection? ‘I’ve snorkelled on the beaches fruitlessly,’ Turner sings on ‘Hello You’. ‘Why not rewind to Rawborough Snooker Club? / I could pass for seventeen if I just get a shave and catch some Zs.’

The songs aren’t indie bangers anymore because the protagonists aren’t indie bangers anymore and nor are their audiences. They’re songs for now, not then. And they’re damned good ones. If the first three albums secured the legacy, AM paid off any mortgages still outstanding on any properties still waiting and Tranquility Base was a phone call from a group with nothing left to prove …

The Car is the album where they prove it all again, again.

Aaron Jackson reviews The Car, album number seven from Arctic Monkeys.

ELECTRONICALLY YOURS

Last month, ahead of a hometown appearance at Off the Shelf Festival, Human League and Heaven

17 founding member Martyn Ware discussed his recently released memoir, 'Electronically Yours: Vol. 1', which charts the artist's life from growing up in Sheffield to playing a seminal role in two of the city's most loved musical exports.

Interview: Joseph Food

What inspired you to pen your memoirs?

Covid and lockdowns, really. I’d been thinking about it for a couple of years, but finding the time to do it properly was difficult. I didn’t want to use a ghost writer. I’ve always tried to run my life in a way that when adversity comes along, I’ll try to make advantage out of it. On and off, it took about a year and a half. The book begins with your childhood, a largely happy one though not without its challenges, and you speak warmly of your parents throughout. Was it emotional revisiting those times?

It was only as I got older, and met many more people, I realised that I had a special upbringing in that my family loved each other and really enjoyed each other’s company. There were the usual arguments that parents have, which were always about money, and that was tricky because there was no other way my dad, the breadwinner, could earn any more money. He was working every hour that God sent anyway. So, it was tough in one sense; but in terms of the emotional

elements of family, we were quite rich. School-wise, you went from Pye Bank to King Ted’s, which you describe in the book as a bit of a culture shock, none more so than when you bumped into Phil Oakey for the first time. You write about disliking school and finding it all a bit restrictive.

I’d never really mixed in those types of circles, and what occurred to me in the first and second form at King Ted’s was how many people at a young age were already fixed on becoming a dentist or an accountant or a lawyer, as that’s what their parents wanted. That just struck me as a depressing prospect, having your life mapped out for you in that way, and I almost had an allergic reaction to that predetermination of fate. I didn’t know I was going to be a musician, but I was motivated by anything creative and learning new things. And ironically, the place to learn wasn’t school.

It was a case of taking it upon yourself, and you started expanding your horizons in a creative and cultural sense through your

friendship with Phil. Yes, Phil was more worldly than me. He’d grown up in a more middleclass environment and had access to a lot of books and materials that I didn’t have. It meant I learned a lot from Phil, who was not only my best friend but, in a sense, a type of mentor even though we were the same age. Together we learned a lot about various experiences: growing up, girls, drugs and the broader world out there. Then another big influence was the Meatwhistle, a council-funded youth drama venue which changed my life. I met a lot of kindred spirits there – Glenn Gregory, Ian Marsh, Ian Reddington, Paul Bower – and it provided a safe space for creativity. That’s where we started off forming daft bands like Underpants, VDK and the Studs, Dick Velcro and the Astronettes. The metaphor I’d use for those early bands is like seasoning the wok before it’s ready to cook. Another epiphany was reading Brian Eno in the NME saying that rock‘n’roll was dead, how all you needed was a tape recorder, a microphone and

a synthesiser.

There’s a bit of a ‘Power of Grayskull’ moment when you describe getting your first synth, followed by creating ‘Being Boiled’ and later auditioning Phil as lead singer. That’s when things started moving up a notch.

Yeah, it was Paul Bower who encouraged us to send a demo off to Bob Last who was running the Fast Product label. To my surprise, he said he wanted to put it out, which led to a Jon Peel session and a few early gigs in Sheffield.

I believe there’s still a blue plaque at Psalter Lane Art College commemorating that first gig. What do you recall about it?

Well, I can tell you now, people weren’t coming because they’d heard that we were great live. We had no idea what we were doing live. That gig we did with a backing tape, me and Ian stuck behind these synthesisers and Phil with no stagecraft at all.

To jazz it up a bit, we got some televisions showing static in the background because that looked arty. But yeah, it was hardly an electrifying performance. Another early gig was at The Limit with none other than Def Leppard on the bill. Was that a more memorable performance?

Another interesting one. I recall we’d recently seen Devo at City Hall, so we copied the white boiler

suits on stage (Phil didn’t). I’d say that was our first proper gig and we were well received. I remember Def Leppard coming on, lead singer stripped to the waist with a black wooden cross around his neck, and I’m thinking, ‘Fucking hell. This is why we’re fighting the synth wars, to get rid of this stuff.’

Of course, the book goes into the break-up of The Human League. Was it cathartic to get it down in detail?

Well, I’ve spoken about it a lot, but this is the most detail I’ve gone into. Of course, the book had to go through the lawyers, and during the editing process I was asked if I wanted to go into so much detail about the day of the split. But I was resolute about how I was there, knew precisely what happened and have witnesses to back it up. So, if anyone out there wants to discuss or dispute it, come at me. That, of course, eventually led towards the iconic Monumental Studios face-off. Where in a small former vets off West Bar Human League recorded Dare during the day and Heaven 17 were recording Penthouse and Pavement during the night shift.

That needs a blue plaque! I think it’s just a bit of derelict land at the moment. They were doing 10am to 10pm, and we were doing 10pm to 10am. We were fuelled by white-hot anger and a burning desire for revenge. It was a powerful thing – we wrote ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’

within a week of being together! Ironically, after being forced out of your original band, you formed Heaven 17 with Glenn Gregory and seemed to be in a much happier place. When you look back on your journey since, is there anything that you’re particularly proud of?

Absolutely. I mean, I wasn’t unhappy in The Human League, but Heaven 17 gave us a lot more freedom to explore stuff. Glenn is one of my oldest friends – this year it’ll be 50 years since we met – and we’ve achieved some great things: Temptation, Let Me Go, Penthouse and Pavement as an album. I always wanted to do something with longevity and we’re still selling just as many tickets now as were decades ago. Long may it continue!

Electronically Yours: Vol. 1 is out now

Picture: Andrew D Hurley

BUT

THE BEAT GOES ON

The former rehearsal spaces of Def Leppard and home of 2Fly, the recording studio owned by Alan Smyth where the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Reverend and the Makers cut their chops on early demos, has welcomed a new live music space and bar.

Words: Ash Birch

Photography: Rachel Rae Photography @raewithphotos

Zephyr’s can be found in Stag Works on John Street, a former cutlery works which remain home to recording studios and band rehearsal spaces, as well as a hive of businesses including clothing brands Mamnick and Nyoo Store, Steve Roche Stonemasons and Lovely Rita’s Bakehouse.

The new venue is the work of two friends, Tom Grindle and Ross Holliman, who are both passionate music lovers and gig goers. At a loss of what to do through lockdown, they made the ambitious decision to combine their respective skillsets (by day Tom is a joiner, and Ross an electrician) to create a cracking new gig and bar space. As you can see, the results of their graft have been well worth the effort, and they are now looking to invite bands, DJs and pretty much anyone who wants to hire the space out for a good time to get involved. They recently hosted a well-received metal karaoke night and, being one of the closest bars to Bramall Lane, the space is also open on matchdays, serving United fans preand post-match bevs.

“At the moment, we’ve only really been

open on matchdays because we’ve still got a bit of work to do,” explains Ross. “But the next step is to open every Friday and Saturday night with live music. Because of where we are, we’re not expecting people to just walk by and come in when we open the doors, so we want to give people a reason to come. Obviously, through lockdown we couldn’t watch any live music, so when we saw this place it was kind of a perfect little space for it.”

Tom, who has his own memories of recording at 2Fly, added: “We just popped our heads in one day and thought, ‘that’s a perfect space.’ Two months later it was ours and it’s taken two years, chipping away on evenings and weekends to get it to this stage.

“It’s very music-orientated down here. We’re absolutely surrounded by music. There are bands coming out of every orifice of this building and you can usually hear a band screaming from somewhere, so we want to compliment and add to that. We’re more interested in having a purpose and a function each time that we open, and that will predominantly be gigs.

Even the venue’s name is taken from a

different – but no less intriguing – chapter of the building’s history. While attending an infamous rave called ‘Bongo Berts’ that regularly took place at the venue in the early noughties, Tom met an old hippie. Tom’s new acquaintance explained that he lived and worked at the site, fixing cars and motorbikes. As a result, he was nicknamed Zephyr, after the classic Ford car and famous Kawasaki bike of the same name. Rumour has it that he still has the top floor of the building, but we’re told no one has seen him for years.

Once the name was in place, they started to think about what they would want from a venue and another driving force behind the pair’s vision was the idea of being able to get a decent beer at a gig. Tom said: “One thing we’ve always noticed while watching bands, is that you always get a rubbish warm beer in a plastic cup. Why can’t you have a good quality drink in a venue?”

With that in mind, they are offering a range of drinks options – from lagers and spirits to premium craft beers across their six lines, all at varying but reasonable prices.

It’s fair to say that it’s been a long road to get to where they are today. Doing bits on weekends and evenings, recycling materials from other jobs and drafting in the odd bit of help from mates has got them to a stage

where they are now very optimistic about the future.

“I’m loving it.” says Ross “I’m really enjoying chatting with people across the bar. Getting to meet new people. I’m really optimistic about it now. The pressure is off… a bit.”

“We wanted something to do,” adds Tom, “and what’s better than watching live music?”

Zephyr’s will be open throughout the World Cup, showing games on the big screen and the lads are now looking for promoters, bands and anyone who wants to put on a party or event, to get in touch and start filling the venue calendar with an exciting array of gigs and events. Get in touch via email zephyrsvenue@ gmail.com and chuck them a like on socials (@ zephyrsvenue) to get involved.

CHARLOTTE BRANSON

How long have you been singing and/ or songwriting?

I have been singing since I was 15.

I started songwriting shortly after. However, I started off as a dancer, and my main goal was to become a triple threat (singer, dancer and actor). This changed slightly to acting, singing and songwriting. One of the first songs I sang was At Last by Etta James. It was artists such as Etta James, along with Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone, who inspired me to perform and write soulful music. I wrote a lot about what was happening in my teens and then recorded them with producers in Sheffield.

Where do you draw your inspirations from?

Over the past nine years, I have developed my own writing style and love to use my personal situations as inspiration for my music. I like my songs to be relatable, but some of my most recent songs have been more fictional. I enjoy writing a story that takes you away from reality and into a fantasy. Artists like Lana Del Rey and Amy Winehouse have been some of my lyrical and musical influences. What can we expect from your latest work, ‘Paradise’, ‘Next Chapter’ and

‘Hypnotised’?

‘Paradise’ is my summer single. With its Latin style backing and romantic lyrics, it offers a romantic summer feel. ‘Next Chapter’ has a lot more of an R&B and Hip-Hop vibe. ‘Hypnotised’ will be my next release and will be out November 2022!

It’s an edgy, upbeat, mystical song that is very different to my other singles. ‘Next Chapter’ is about a time recently where I was looking at a picture that took me back to the person I was. In that moment, I saw how far I have come and the lessons I have learnt up until that point. I felt ready to take all the lessons I have learnt and use them in the next chapter of my life

What are you looking to work on in the near future?

My new single and its music video which will be filmed and released this month. I am also organising more gig dates and songs for 2023, so stay tuned!

@charlottebranson

REVIEW: PORRIDGE

“This might be a good time to start a pit,” mutters Dana Margolin, with a knowing look in her eye. It’s almost as if the Porridge Radio lead singer knows exactly what her fans are thinking.

The band have a connection with their fans that feels different to other groups. For their current UK tour they set aside discounted tickets for those struggling to afford one due to the cost of living crisis. Tonight at Foundry they were also raising money for the Trussell Trust foodbanks

- a gesture which was announced to the sound of a few derogatory chants towards our ruling political party. This writer will remain politically neutral, of course.

Porridge Radio’s setlist tonight drew heavily from 2022’s Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky; an album full of sharp tales of love and loss, despair and joy, anguish and hope, set to driving postpunk and slacker indie guitars. It’s full of earworm one-liners and close-to-the-bone lyrics that clearly struck a chord with crowds like this one.

Interaction with the Sheffield audience was pretty muted throughout, with Margolin and the rest of the band seemingly pouring all of their energy into the live performance instead. That energy within the group, however, was matched in the near-capacity crowd.

The slow-burning ‘Birthday

Party’ and pleading vocals of ‘Give Take’ both draw big reactions from the audience, and the set slowly gains in momentum as they draw on more material from 2020’s Mercury Prize-nominated Every Bad. The close bond Porridge Radio have with their fans is even more evident in an intimate venue like Foundry, with a committed bunch at the front screaming back every word with every bit as much anguish as Margolis herself.

By the time set closer ‘Sweet’ comes around and Margolin’s polite request for a mosh pit has been gleefully accepted, it feels as if the distance between band and audience has disappeared entirely. And in a year where the cost of living and our reliance on foodbanks has only increased, that personal connection feels more valuable than ever.

Picture: Paul Hudson

KELHAM ISLAND MUSEUM, ALMA ST, S3 7RY

FREE TABLE TENNIS

Nick Harland reviews Porridge Radio at The Foundry

stand -up guy

Local comedian and promoter Daniel Inniss is back with another column talking all things funny in the Steel City.

Hello everyone and thank you for reading this month’s comedy column.

As well as performing stand-up, I love it when good friends from the circuit start a brilliant night in our wonderful city. The Great Escape Room Game is a totally left-field venue, but it works! It’s quirky and positively different to anything else on offer. Dan Lythe and Alfie Darlin have got a good city centre vibe going there and it was an honour to perform at the venue a few weeks back. Both gentlemen provide great energy and it’s a fun night every Tuesday. Bravo guys!

It goes to show the pull of Sheffield when we’ve had the likes of Jon Richardson and Matt Forde recently perform at Yellow Arch, which leads me to my major announcement for Thursday 8th December: the one and only Angelos Epithemou will be headlining our night at Yellow Arch Comedy Club!

What makes this even more special is the fact that we also have as support acts the

fantastically talented Ricky Balshaw, a jaw-droppingly funny dude who will be joined by the hilariously unpredictable Kellii Taylor. To get these names at our brilliant venues is down to the hard work a lot of great promoters and comics have put into giving Sheffield such great comedic variety.

Last week, I sat behind the stage having some great banter with four or five comics. We got onto the subject of Elvis Presley having only ever been to Britain once, where he stopped off at Prestwick Airport for a brief spell. Well, that set the floodgates going for us comedians to let loose!

Before going on stage, it was suggested that one comic shouldn’t get ALL SHOOK UP!

Another emphasised that he was going to deliver on stage tonight as IT’S NOW OR NEVER!

I mentioned that there needed to be A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, A LITTLE MORE ACTION!

Then the line of thought was about how comedians always have SUSPICIOUS MINDS when it comes to whether the material will actually work or not.

I’m sure you’ve all got your own Elvis pun, the point being it was great to have that banter as it was great for all before going on stage. Even Usain Bolt had to warm up before a big performance!

Can I just take this opportunity to thank all those that have contacted me or gone up to me to say how much they enjoy reading this column. It means the world as I enjoy writing it. All I ask is that you all carry on supporting Sheffield comedy, Sheffield comics and all comics wherever you can – we can’t do this without you!

By Daniel Inniss Comedian & promoter

CELLULOID SCREAMS 2022

WATCHER

A gripping and gorgeous-looking slow burn starring the fabulous horror icon of It Follows and The Guest, Maika Monroe. Julia moves into a Bucharest apartment with her husband for his thriving career whilst she takes a break from hers. Immediately, Julia feels isolated due to the language barrier, exacerbated by the fact her husband and his friends speak in their native tongues persistently in her presence. With little to do during the day, Julia begins to suspect she is being watched by an ominous figure in the opposite building.

The cinematography in Watcher is what really elevates the film above that of your conventional stalker thriller. Reminiscent at times of Fellini and especially Kubrick’s The Shining, given how many symmetrically framed shots there are throughout, particularly with the interiors. Director Chloe Okuno understands the inherent menace in wide spartan spaces, with Monroe being framed centrally down tall corridors, against wide beige curtains and alone at a seemingly deserted metro station. Visual signifiers are used to great effect to enhance the sense of growing emotional and physical isolation Julia undergoes; several early scenes feature her in bright red dresses against bland, pale-coloured buildings and hallways.

Another standout performance is that of Burn Gorman, whose chiselled features and subdued physical mannerisms create an ambiguous aura of menace. This is not just style over substance, however, and all the characters, even the minor ones, react and engage as real people would in such a scenario. For most of its running time, it is unclear whether Julia is merely succumbing to the mental strain of her situation.

Whilst breaking no new ground, Watcher executes simplicity with real excellence, subtlety and style. 4/5

EVIL EYE

coming soon...

THE MENU

Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes star in this black comedy about a lavish spread served on a remote island with some startling surprises in store.

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

The highly-anticipated sequel to 2018’s smash hit sees the African nation square off against the underwater forces of Marvel anti-hero Namor.

LIVING

Bill Nighy portrays a civil servant who receives a grim medical diagnosis, inspiring him to move to the south coast for his remaining days.

A gruesome and mostly engaging Mexican fantasy horror, Evil Eye owes a great deal to the work of Guillermo del Toro and Mario Bava.

A mother and father move their children, Nala and the sickly Luna, out to a remote mansion in rural Mexico to stay with their grandmother whilst the parents leave to seek alternative medical treatment for Luna. Things quickly turn sinister, with the grandmother slowly becoming more and more abusive towards Nala. After a creepy and rather long-winded fairy tale relayed to them by the maid, Nala begins to suspect her grandmother is a blood-sucking witch!

Director Isaac Ezban keeps the thing rattling along at a solid pace, despite getting slowed down now and again by several hefty exposition dumps. The overreliance on dream scares, sometimes several in a row, eventually numbs the audience’s susceptibility to further scares. At times, the exposition becomes so convoluted with too many participants that one could easily be forgiven for tuning out. When the threads just about come together at the end, it is effectively surprising and horrifying.

The practical special effects are to be commended, never over-relied upon and always used at the appropriate times.

It’s a perfectly decent if slightly uneven creature feature, which may not challenge horror aficionados but will certainly satisfy.

3/5

A big thank you to Robert Nevitt for organising the screenings at the Celluloid Screams (@celluloidscreams) for Exposed.

MY POLICEMAN

We meet director Michael Grandage, who made a splash here a few years ago as artistic director of Sheffield

A story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, it follows policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin) and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) as they find love in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee) and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are coming to terms with what happened in their past. I caught up with director Michael Grandage, who made a splash here a few years ago as artistic director of Sheffield Theatres, to find out more about the film.

How did you become involved with this project?

Well, my first involvement was when the screenplay was brought to me, not through the novel. Two of the producers who had commissioned the screenplay approached me and I decided immediately I wanted to be involved. I thought it was a story I could bring something to.

Has it changed much from the novel?

There are three characters in

the story: Tom the policeman, Marion his wife and Patrick his friend. The novel tells the story solely from Marion and Patrick's point of view. They each see a different side of Tom; each of them believes that he is 'My Policeman' and that they are both in love with him. The story appeals to me because of the way it deals with time and memory – all of the things that, now that I'm older, I look back at.

The film is set in two distinct time periods. How did the actors deal with this?

We started filming with the young actors, then filmed the scenes with the older actors. There was a very wonderful and generous thing that happened during filming. All three of the older actors said they wanted to see footage of what the younger actors were doing, so they could lean into their performances and take a bit of it on. This might sound obvious, but it's a very generous thing for three senior actors to do. The casting process was a joy from start to finish, and I was involved in it all. Normally you have to convince an actor why they want to be in a film, and how great it will be to do the part, but in the case of all the actors, everyone of them wanted

REVIEW

to be in this film. I didn't have to convince anybody.

Have you thought about how this will be seen by younger audiences who didn't live through this period when homosexuality was illegal? That was part of the reason I wanted to make the film, and Harry Styles was a very impor tant piece of casting, not just because I think he's right for the part. People like Harry and Emma Corrin both come with a very large group of followers and their demographic is particularly young. I'm thrilled with the huge advances we've made over the last 40-odd years, but I feel that we're at a very fragile moment just now. After the recent Roe v Wade ruling in America, one of the Supreme Court Judges said, “Now, let's turn our attention to gay marriage.” The Church of England were thinking about discussing it, at their recent synod, so I feel there's some thing in the air that needs to be addressed. I think it's important to make this film and ensure that a massive part of the audience is going to be young. I'm encour

aged, though, that the younger generation at the moment is the least prejudiced generation ever born. If they become ambassa dors for what we want to retain and what the world would be like if we went backwards, they will be a very powerful voice.

How did you find moving from theatre to film directing I loved it. It's always good to be out of your comfort zone. I've spent years in the theatre, and I'm still learning how to do that, but also going into another medium has been a bril liant thing for me; it keeps me very much alive. I love the idea of being able to take the story outside and create and tell a story with just images. There are lots of non-dialogue scenes, where I could paint images and emotions visually. The theatre is more about abstraction; film is about realism.

My Policeman was released in cinemas last month and is avail able to be streamed on Prime Video from 4th November.

REVIEW: BLACK ADAM

The long-awaited DCEU extravaganza from the self-proclaimed franchise Viagra himself, Dwayne Johnson. It’s a description which is incredibly apt in this case, implying that the DCEU (and by extension Black Adam) is a withered over-the-hill phallus whose only chance of some action lies in a method of last resort. And like the little blue pill, the effect is neither guaranteed nor satisfactory.

Black Adam or, as I prefer to call it, Conan the Barbarically Boring, is a far cry from the much-needed franchise boost. And let’s be clear, The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker have already seen to this from a creative perspective. Beginning with a laboriously long and convoluted exposition dump, the film quickly descends into a caffeine-laced cocktail of naff early-noughties superhero tropes. The CGI is often noticeably subpar, but the film constantly hurls it in your face with tiresome aggression. A great deal of the dialogue wouldn’t even be acceptable in a Saturday morning cartoon. Johnson mistakes woodenness for stoicism, and conse quently his performance comes across as utterly disconnected. The Justice Society of America, despite being one of the earliest superhero teams, come across as nothing more than paper-thin copies of better-developed Marvel characters living out of what appears to be the X-Men’s mansion. Even the natural charm of Pierce Brosnan is lost in the chaos. Not one of the team members is given adequate time for us to feel any sort of connection, and this issue extends to their onscreen chemistry – of which there is extremely little.

Many moments are troublingly reminiscent of blockbuster monstrosities like Gods of Egypt and 2019’s Hellboy. The final third is basically just a shameless amalgamation of the aforemen tioned. What is perhaps most frustrating is the incredible lack of self-awareness, convinced about how devastatingly awesome it is, whilst having the audacity to showcase numerous skateboarding sequences – and Kanye West.

The only thing I’ll give Black Adam is that it’s relatively harmless. If I can be permitted to have a brief, nerdy rant now, let’s address the question which has needlessly been put out there by Johnson: here goes… *clears throat*… Black Adam cannot and should not beat Superman in a fight, not a bloody chance!

Black Adam is the cinematic equivalent of an intoxicated hook-up screaming: “It’s so big, isn’t it! You’ve never seen anything so big!” It’s exactly the kind of shambolic seen-it-before-but-worse heap of garbage the genre really doesn’t need any more of.

1.5/5

KARMODE'S KORNER

OLD PEOPLE

South Yorkshire’s foremost cinemagoer and West Street Live Annual Short Film Competition runner-up (2008), Matt Karmode casts his critical eye on the month’s new and noteworthy films.

What’s the only thing worse than being old? That’s right – being old and German. In Old People, one of Netflix’s latest emissions, the plight of the common Germanic gerriatric is documented with startling accuracy.

When I blew out the candles on my 10th birthday cake (I was 9 but had had two cakes the year before) I wished to one day manage my very own cinema. These days we all have our own cinemas; with high quality screens and high-speed internet capability built into TV’s, phones, computers, and tablets, we can stream the movies of our choosing whenever and wherever we want. What a waste of a wish. Although there is no real substitute for the authentic in-person IMAX cinema experience, occasionally there are legitimate reasons we cannot attend our local movie theatre; a pandemic, for example. Or financial troubles,

issues with transport, fire, agoraphobia, angoraphobia, Al-Gore-aphobia, flooding, terrorism, sex, work commitments, sex work commitments, temporary blindness, state funerals, estate funerals, magistrate funerals, barrister weddings, barista weddings, coffee shop waitress cremations, belated bar worker bar mitzvahs, sleep, pet emergencies, a fatal allergy to popcorn… you get the idea. With so many things keeping us from the cinema, it’s no wonder the films produced by and for streaming services are of an increasingly high standard.

Written, directed, and edited by Andy Fetsher – a man so well-known his IMDb page does not need a picture – Old People is just such a film. Taking inspiration from George A. Romero’s Night of The Living Dead, Fetsher (not to be confused with the late Andy Fletcher of Jopesci Mode) uses the language of horror films to highlight prejudices in modern society, not tackling matters of race as in Romero’s case but matters of age, specifically our mistreatment of European OAPs – or EurOAPS.

The film follows Ella (Melika Foroutan) as she travels back to her eerily remote German hometown for a family wedding. When, on the night of the wedding, residents of a local retirement home go on a killing spree, it’s up to Ella, her family, and the wedding guests to

survive and escape. It’s impossible to get into the mind of any old person, let alone a German one; however, Old People does a fantastic job at portraying the pains, frailties, and frustrations of a contemporary Germanic senior citizen. Take retirement home resident Reincke (Adolfo Assor) for example. When he wanders into a marital bedroom and interrupts the bride and groom consummating their marriage by bludgeoning both parties to death with a metallic orb in a sock, then stuffing the murder weapon in the bride’s exanimate mouth and placing her into the disfigured arms of her newly butchered husband, you can’t help but think, ‘Yes, that is exactly what an old German person would do.’

4 pairs of 3D glasses out of 5.

MK

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

The cold, dark nights are starting to draw in, but we’re kicking off the month with some glitz and glamour: Karma Leon’s Kabaret (Fri 4 Nov) returns with Gay Forks at Picture House Social – an LGBTQIA+ bonfire celebration of Guy Fawkes featuring drag, circus, comedy, burlesque and more weird and wacky acts for your fiendish delight.

Later in the month, Sheffield’s only drag monster cabaret, King Confuza’s Cryptid Queers (Fri 18 Nov), heads to Bal Fashions for Party Like It’s 2004!, a brand-new club night blending some of your favourite floorfillers from the cyber goth scene of the noughties with some of the most exciting perfomers the UK has to offer.

Expect killer drag performances by King Confuza, Glitterhawk, The BollyWitch, Maria Moans and Marvy Mucus with DJs Greyskull, Irregular Joe and your host King Confuza.

It’s almost that time of year… so you better watch out, you better not cry, because “The Queens of Christmas” are coming back to Sheffield, bringing with them their wildly successful, internationallyacclaimed Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show! (Fri 18 Nov) at City Hall featuring BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon – now with the full cast of dancers!

Also hailing the festive season, we have Tanya Minge’s Pre Xmas Special (Fri 11 Nov) at Malin Bridge Inn, a special drag bingo extravaganza with Christmas present prizes, shot games and dance-offs.

DJ Brooke will also be back at the Malin for her monthly residency Fireball Friday (Fri 4 Nov) with non-stop bops, hilarious comedy and special offers on Fireball Bombs.

Emma Maezin takes her Drag Karaoke (Sat 19 Nov) to The Bagshawe Arms at Norton and is hosting Drag Race UK Watch Parties every Thursday at Maggie Mays. There are also Drag Race UK Watch Parties on the same day at Spirit of Sheffield, who have also just launched their new weekly cabaret night, Friday Night Spectacular, with tricks, karaoke and banter from Ben West. For the final weekend of the month, Drag Hostess Anna Kissed returns for KINK (Sat 26 Nov) – an all-gender queer-focused fetish social.

If you’re looking for something more low-key, check out Queering the Collection: Creative Writing Workshop (Sat 5 Nov) at Graves Art

Gallery, an innovative writing workshop that explores the Sheffield Museums collections to bring LGBT+ material out of the archive into public spaces. Writers and facilitators, Seni Seneviratne and Nicky Hallett, have specially selected objects spanning art, archaeology and social history that will serve as inspiration for the workshop. You’ll find new ways of looking at the material through LGBT+ eyes and write about it with fresh perspectives. After the event, the selected work will form part of an online exhibition and contribute to the long-term interpretation of the objects at the museums.

That’s your lot for this month. As always, keep an eye on the Sheffield LGBT+ events page on Facebook (facebook. com/sheffieldlgbtevents) for updates and announcements on the latest events and news.

After proudly calling Sheffield home for over six years, Brazilian journalist Livia Barreira has published a book showcasing the stories of eight female migrants from across the world who’ve also made the journey to the Steel City. Last month, Lucy Jeffs caught up with the author of Living in Shef field: Our Journeys as Migrant Women to hear about the influences behind the project and gain a small insight into Livia’s personal journey.

What first attracted you to Sheffield?

I was travelling and I met a guy who is my husband now. He is from Sheffield, but he was in Prague at the time. We had a long-distance relationship for four years. There’s a love story behind everything but I am also creating my own path here. Also, it’s in the middle of the UK and has good transport connections to the rest of the country, but the best thing about Sheffield for me – genu inely – the welcoming people and the strong community spirit we can find here. I’ve always felt very welcome in the city.

How did the idea for the book first develop?

I have been making this brand called Living in Sheffield, using my Instagram to welcome people and encourage them to explore the city. I love to put people from different backgrounds together, it’s my passion in life. The Instagram was growing, and I discovered that a lot of my followers are women from other countries who would then go out to see the places. It was nice getting this feedback and then I thought about how we should put a few together in a book featuring stories from multi-ethnic voices.

How did the process develop from there?

Before I started to write the book, I started saving messages from 2018. All from people I had met in different stages of my life in Sheffield. I had the idea, but I was not ready or maybe not finding the time as well. When lockdown happened, I started to think now is the right time, so I went to the notes and started to prepare questions for a basic question naire. With just nine questions about personal and professional connection with Sheffield. Then,

from the questionnaires that came back to me I was making notes and thinking about inter view questions to go deeper.

What were the key aims behind the project?

My aim in the book is to promote diversity and make a positive impact here in Sheffield and the UK. The people featured are from eight different countries and at the end of each chapter the readers can find out about the connections between each of the women and myself. Also, the last page of the book is literally a space for all the migrant women to reflect and think about their lives in this new country and make notes about their own achievements. Compare yourself with you five years ago, ten years ago, against now and see how much you have improved. Another idea is also to present the foreigner perspective in Sheffield, their memories and places they like to go in the city.

Find out about how you can get a copy by following @livingonsheffield on Instagram

SKY’S THE LIMIT

It’s back. Following a celebrated opening in March 2019, the award-winning Standing at the Sky’s Edge makes a highly anticipated return to the Crucible stage this Christmas ahead of its transfer to Olivier Theatres in 2023.

Set to the music of local icon Richard Hawley, this Sheffield tale follows the fortunes of several Park Hill residents from different eras and explores the building’s social and cultural impact on the city across 50-plus years. Last month, Exposed caught up with the show’s writer, Chris Bush, to discuss the impact of its initial run, the inspiration behind it all and the prospect of taking Park Hill on tour.

Tell me a bit about the genesis of Sky’s Edge. Where did it all come from?

It began with our producer, Rupert Lord, who tracked Richard [Hawley] down to a hotel room while he was touring in Europe and banged on his door. Or at least that’s how Richard tells it. I think Richard was initially apprehensive about getting involved with musical theatre, but he was eventually persuaded and, if you fast forward to when I came onboard a few years later, it was decided it’d be Richard’s music and the story of Park Hill.

What is it for you that makes Park Hill such fertile ground for storytelling?

I’ve told a lot of Sheffield stories over the years. I think with Park Hill you can find the universal in the specifics: it could be one story based in one flat, but it’s also telling the story of postwar Britain. There’s something quite interesting about the evolution of Park Hill from this socialist utopian estate which lifted people out of slums through to its degradation as industry declined in Sheffield and across the north, then later becoming a desirable, slightly boujee place to live following its redevelopment.

As a building so intertwined in Sheffield culture and history, are there any worries about it not connecting with audiences in London?

I suppose there is always a voice in your head asking that question. I suppose it goes back to the earlier point of finding the universal in the specific, and in these very detailed stories regarding specific points in time, there will be something

in there that speaks to everyone.

On that note, could you provide us with a brief overview of the stories we’re introduced to in the play?

We begin with Harry and Rose, a Sheffield couple who are among the first arrivals in the 60s. They’re young and idealistic and represent a hopeful future for themselves and Park Hill as a whole. We’re also introduced to Joy and her cousins in the 80s, who are a Liberian family fleeing civil war, arriving when Park Hill is at its lowest ebb; it’s a home they didn’t want or expect but it offers refuge and a new start of sorts. The final story follows Poppy, who is a queer southern woman that sort of represents the friendly face of gentrification, someone looking for a bit of friendly northern hospitality. What feels exciting is how the stories aren’t told chronologically, we continually move through the three timelines and they’re layered up on top of each other.

Bringing it all together, of course, are these iconic Richard Hawley songs. Why do they fit so perfectly?

I mean, he’s a genius… not that I’d say that to his face. Of course, we’re not short of iconic musical artists in Sheffield, but I think what’s so special about Richard’s music is that there’s an emotional truth to his writing that translates really beautifully to the stage. His writing creates full, rich characters; it can be achingly romantic if it wants to be; there’s plenty of beautiful lyricism in his songs. He knows the story, the people in the story, and it feels like this show exists within his bones.

Have you changed much to the script since it last ran?

There’s been a lot of small surgical tweaks, a bit of fine-tuning, but nothing really major. We’ve brought the final timeline forward slightly, to early 2020, but not fully to the present because I didn’t to become a pandemic piece. That would have been restrictive and, let’s be honest, nobody wants to see a pandemic play right now!

After the opening night at Crucible in 2019, I recall walking out into the foyer and seeing a large number of Sheffielders genuinely moved

to tears. Why do you think this play resonated so strongly?

If we’ve done our job right, which I hope we have, I think it’s about seeing yourself and people you know on stage. This show exists in our audience’s blood. It is them; it is their parents; it is their grandparents and their wider family and friends. We’ve all seen the bad ‘flat cap and whippet’ versions of what other people think a northern story looks like, but we got the right team together to tell something that felt very authentic and spoke from a place of emotional truth. We see it as a gift to the city and we want the audience to feel like they are seen and have true ownership of the material.

Standing at the Sky’s Edge runs from 10th Dec – 21st Jan. Tickets are available at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.

top picks

STREET ART SHEFFIELD CIQ TOUR

Sun, 6 Nov 2022, 11:00, Pinball Park Brown Street S1 2BF

The Cultural Industries Quarter has seen some of the most exciting street art and large scale murals Sheffield has to offer. Join Andy, founder of Street Art Sheffield, on a guided tour of the area. Discover the murals and hidden gems to be found here, and learn the story of past artworks. £7.50

THE COMMUNE: POP-UP BLACK CINEMA!

12 Nov 2022 11:45 - 23:00

The Abbeydale Picture House Odd Child Productions presents a day of pop-up Black Cinema in the historic Fly Tower at The Abbeydale Picturehouse. Join us as we screen four films throughout the day with a special evening screening of Passing the Baton: The Legacy of the Windrush Pioneers a documentary film exploring the legacy of the Windrush pioneers and their impact on Sheffield’s cultural landscape. £5-£10

THIS SHOW EXISTS IN OUR AUDIENCE’S BLOOD. IT IS THEM; IT IS THEIR PARENTS; IT IS THEIR GRANDPARENTS AND THEIR WIDER FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

A major art exhibition exploring the ways in which our bodies encounter and process our environments is well underway at Site Gallery, running until 22nd December 2022.

Curated by Site Gallery’s Angelica Sule and Robyn Haddon alongside artist Laura Wilson, IN-SIDEOUT-SIDE-IN takes a look at digestive systems on a micro and macro level, from the interior of the body to the systems of a city or the ecologies of a landscape, to understanding histories of food and formations of land and architecture, the programme is structured around Laura Wilson’s sculpture Ladybower.

Bringing to life digestive processes, the work takes the idea of the hole as both an entry and exit point, a barrier between the inside and outside, it can be a portal between worlds – it consumes, and it vomits. Expanding upon these themes, the exhibition includes works by internationally renowned artists alongside archival material. Circles and systems are depicted in Phoebe Collings-James’ ceramic work Don’t Despair (infinity loop) and Helen Chadwick’s Loop My Loop, a lightbox photograph featuring golden locks of hair intertwined with a pig’s intestine.

Elsewhere, sculptural works and drawings by Eva Fàbregas and Tai Shani echo bodily forms, slumped on the floor and suspended from the ceiling, portals to the inside. Ideas around health and wellness run through Shana Moulton’s Mindplace Thoughtstream, in which Moulton’s alter-ego explores ways to selfmedicate her IBS through holistic practices. Poppy Nash’s large textile Art of Dying 2.0 references medieval and contemporary attitudes to illness. Nash’s work acts as a Vomitorium in the exhibition, a tube connecting the softer internal space to the more architectural external space. Work by Charles and Ray Eames sits alongside archival material from Picture Sheffield and the University of Nottingham, manuscripts and special collections to show the loops and systems of the city.

IN-SIDE-OUTSIDE-IN

@ SITE GALLERY

WHERE TO SEE IT

Site Gallery, 1Brown Street, Sheffield City Centre, S1 2BS

Opening Hours

Tuesday - Saturday: 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 4pm

To find out what else is going at Sheffield’s international contemporary art space, head to sitegallery.org.

Peter Walker Sculptor

SENSORIA REVIEW

The fifteenth incarnation of the Sensoria Festival has been another successful celebration of all things digital, visual and musical with films, live music, exhibitions and – for the first time ever – food! I always try to attend as many of their events as I can during the weeklong festival, safe in the knowledge that the phrase 'unique event' might well have been invented by Jo Wingate and her team.

Stroboscopic was the title of a photographic exhibition on Fargate, based in the newly opened Access Space. Photos taken using the stroboscopic process manage to freeze fast-moving subjects using multiple images to maintain a sense of movement. Images created in this way were first exhibited in the 1940s, pioneered by Gjon Miln. In this exhibition, Tracey Welsh has updated the idea to involve Sheffield musicians, both as subjects and collaborators. Added to all this was a specially created sequence of film images and a bespoke musical soundtrack. Watching a film in the University Drama Studio is a regular feature of Sensoria and Tuesday night featured a film I was very excited to see, Patti Smith: Electric Poet. Anna Cutaia and Sophie Peyrard's film shows how creative and innovative Patti was – and still is. Her music has drifted in and out of my life over the years, and I did see her when she played Sheffield a few years ago, but I had no real appreciation of how far back her career stretched. A contemporary of Andy Warhol, she made an impact on the creative hotbed that was the New York art scene in the early 60s, and she continues to create music, art and poetry in her own uncompromising style to this day. It’s a perfectly structured, fascinating film.

Innovators from the worlds of music, film and digital arts came together in the Sensoria ProDay. The final event, as usual, was the much-anticipated soundtracking competition, where composers put their own music and soundscapes to a short piece of film provided in advance. It always demonstrates perfectly how adding a soundtrack to images has an enormous influence, the ways it can subtly alter what we experience in a cinema or on TV. This year's winner was Helen Papaioannou, who perfectly scored a short piece of film, Western Works, about people working in Sheffield's cutlery industry during the 1920s.

SynthFest has become synonymous with the closing day of Sensoria. It's held in the Octagon and the Sheffield University Students’ Union and seemed bigger than ever this year, possibly because it has not been held since 2019. There is always the thrill of entering the Octagon and finding it filled with dozens of stands showing off, and possibly even selling, their latest synthesisers, drum machines and pieces of electronic kit, most of which I don't really understand but love to ogle at. There are even vintage synthesisers to thrill the more knowledgeable fans. Added to this is the chance to get up close, put on some headphones and have a go.

One of the main draws of this festival are the fascinating talks and demonstrations from a range of 'synth celebrities'. My top event this year was a talk by Paul Wiffen, who has worked closely with just about everyone you care to name in this field, from the likes of Stevie Wonder to Vangelis

and Jean Michel Jarre. His talk was far too short, as we could all have listened to his anecdotes and stories all day long.

To round off a day steeped in synthesisers, I migrated across the road to the Drama Studio for a film followed by a very special live music event. It told the story of an electronic instrument developed in communist East Germany, which was an early sound generator, way ahead of its time, and created in complete isolation from the synthesisers being developed in the UK and the USA in the middle of the last century. Ina Pillat's film, entitled The Subharchord - A Future That Never Happened, traced the evolution of this longforgotten instrument, and her detective work led to Norway, where one of the few surviving models was smuggled in the 60s.

The festival finale was Quadros, the world premiere of a set of eight short electronic music pieces performed on a selection of vintage synthesisers (some of which even got a cheer when they were introduced) by four renowned synth players. All of this was curated by the master of ceremonies, Dimitri. What made it so unusual was that, with some help from the audience, Dimitri allocated the instruments randomly to the players. To demonstrate the uniqueness of each performance, they performed one track again as an encore, on a selection of different keyboards over a new rhythm track, and it sounded noticeably different.

Another triumph and an example of the sort of thing Sheffield does best.

THAT’S NOT ALL, FOLKS!

One postscript to the 2022 event will be the staging of the now traditional Three Ring Circus, curated and hosted by Richard Hawley. This wasn't part of the main event week this year, but rest assured it is still happening. Keep an eye on @sensoriafest for details .

Mark Perkins reflects on another intriguing instalment...

christmas@kelu

EXCEPTIONAL REFRESHMENTS

A small but perfectly formed cocktail menu, featuring mixes from near & far. New tastes, colours and ingredients discovered, mastered & served to you.

ARTFUL COMBINATIONS

Cleverly formed dishes & appetisers, designed to transport you to a warm evening on a Sardinian terrace.Join us every day (except Saturday) between 5pm & 7pm for aperitivo, where cocktails are 2 for £12 and Sardinian nibbles are on the house.

THE PERFECT GIFT

We all have that one friend or family member who is a bit tricky to buy a gift for, so look no further, our vouchers make for a great way to treat someone to a unique night out. Vouchers can be used for drinks & food up to a value of your choosing & can be either purchased online digitally or physical vouchers can be bought from the bar – just ask your friendly server for more information.

Mon - Tues: Closed Weds - Thurs: 5pm - 11pm Fri - Sat: 12pm - 1am Sunday: 12pm - 11pm

KELU

Shalesmoor, Sheffield S3 8UL

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