Exposed Magazine July 2023

SUPPORTING

We catch up with the iconic cast on their return to the Steel City

TRAMLINES 23 // JULY EVENTS + OPENINGS // DRASTIC AUTOMATIC // BEACHCOMBER // KID BLU3 // JAMES GREEN

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CONTENTS

22:

HOT STUFF

Widely acknowledged as Sheffield’s most famed cinematic export, The Full Monty came home last month to launch a brand new series now available on Disney+. Before the premiere at Showroom Cinema, Exposed caught up with the original cast to reflect on the film's legacy.

10:

VIA HILLSBOROUGH, PLEASE

That rock'n'roll, eh? Relive a memorable weekend with the Arctic Monkeys at Hillsborough Park.

13:

THAT'S A WRAP!

International premieres, groundbreaking documentaries, theatre productions, live Q+As with famous faces, immersive alternate reality exhibitions, and an abundance of parties spread across the city - Mark Perkins reports back from this year's DocFest.

18:

HOPPY DAYS

With a ten-year celebration just around the corner, we caught up with Hop Hideout founder Jules Gray to discuss the evolution of her Steel City craft beer haven.

30:

IT'S PARTY TIME!

It's back, babbeh! The 15th edition of Tramlines Festival takes place from 21st-23rd July and we've rounded up all you need to know about what's going on.

58: DRASTIC TIMES CALL FOR...

Off the back of an electrifying Get Together performance, Exposed’s Ash Birch caught up with Sheffield noise punks Drastic Automatic to talk house fires, nuclear war and Sheffield's DIY scene.

76:

DONKEY NONSENSE

Following the opening of a new exhibition, we spoke to celebrated printmaker James Green about his career and much-loved donkey prints.

Synchronised hip thrusts in the job centre on West Street, Robert Carlyle stranded atop a sinking car in an Attercliffe canal and a risqué finale down at Shiregreen WMC which entered British cult cinema history – all iconic scenes engraved into the minds of Sheffielders across the generations.

Last month, a quarter of a century down the line, the original cast of The Full Monty came back to the city for the premiere of a new eight-part series exploring what happened to the gang after they put their kit back on.

Reader, it was some do. The Showroom rolled out the red carpet for an exclusive screening of the first two episodes, The Leadmill hosted a lively afterparty with the cast and even The Lord Nelson (AKA Fanny’s) got involved as ‘The Full Monty Experience’ hosting brass bands, live events and decorated with an abundance of garden gnomes.

Prior to the screening, I had the pleasure of interviewing the original Full Monty cast – a giant *tick* on the Sheffield journo bucket list – and you can read on pages 22-26 what they had to say about revisiting their respective characters, returning to the Steel City and the depressing similarities of where we find ourselves politically 25 years down the line. Of course, that wasn’t the only homecoming in June worth talking about. High Green’s finest rocked up in Hillsborough Park for two nights, playing their first shows around these parts in over five years. You can have a nosey at my review of the Monkeys in S6 (yes, I’ve been fully dosing up on Sheffield this month) over on pages 10-11, an event captured brilliantly by our snapper Jacob Flannery.

Also back in town was our very own international film festival, Sheffield DocFest, celebrating its 30th edition with cutting-edge documentaries from around the world and welcoming thousands of delegates from more than 60 countries to the five-day event, which, in addition to films, included a theatre production, live podcast events, premieres of TV series and virtual reality exhibitions. Our writer Mark Perkins hasn’t missed a single DocFest in well over a decade, and he certainly wasn’t going to start this year. Find what he got up to on pages 14-16.

It’s certainly been a memorable start to the summer, but we’re just getting warmed up! We’ve got the city’s biggest annual shindig heading our way this month (p30), plus plenty of interesting bits including beer festivals, all-day raves, art exhibitions, innovative theatre, circus-themed live music extravaganzas and much more.

Why not discover it all in this month’s friendly neighbourhood Exposed Mag?

Have a good’un!

JF x

@josephfood

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GI’ US A HAND PLZ

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THE BUSINESS STUFF

Exposed is published monthly by Blind Mice Media Ltd Unit 1b, 2 Kelham square Kelham Riverside Sheffield S3 8SD The

SHOT OF THE MONTH

Arctic Monkeys

Sheffield’s summer of big homecoming gigs continued last month, as Sheffield’s prodigal songs Arctic Monkeys played two sellout dates at Hillsborough Park. Jacob Flannery caught frontman Alex Turner getting into the groove as he delivered a blend of nostalgic classics and tracks taken from the band's latest album, The Car, to 35,000 gigoers in attendance.

Photography: Jacob Flannery

THE HIGH GREENERS COME HOME

Exposed was at Hillsborough Park last month to witness Arctic Monkeys first Sheffield soiree in over five years...

It’s going to be some summer for homecoming gigs in Sheffield. We’ve already seen Def Leppard pack out the Leadmill and Bramall Lane in May, Pulp will be taking to the stage at Sheffield Arena next month and Self Esteem is set to close out the summer with a headline slot at Rock N Roll Circus in Don Valley.

But there was always one show looming head and shoulders above them all – two key dates at Hillsborough Park that have inspired a multitude of column inches, plenty of fevered ticket scrabbling and some serious setlist speculation since their announcement.

The Arctic Monkeys were back in town, and Sheffield turned out en masse in the sunshine to show some love for their prodigal sons.

Of course, a hometown show for a band of their stature wasn’t just going to appeal to South Yorkshire residents. Dedicated fans from across the globe descended on the Steel City to be part of the 70,000 who’d snapped up tickets to catch the High Green icons across two balmy nights in S6.

This was particularly evident upon stepping into The Grapes on Friday, a place renowned for hosting the first Monkeys gig, and hearing the various accents and languages reverberating around the packed pub. The jukebox played the band’s seven albums back to back while, overlooking the assembled throng of pilgrims, a framed shot of Alex Turner with a quote from a 2013 NME interview fittingly proclaimed “We’re a long way from T’Grapes now”.

Exposed had tickets for the Saturday show, arriving just as Liverpudlian alt-rockers Mysterines finished what sounded like a lively set. Even with over two hours to go until the headliners arrived, Hillsborough Park was positively snided with gig-goers looking to make the most of the glorious sunshine, lending a decidedly ‘festival weekend’ feel to proceedings and adding nicely to the building atmosphere.

During a typically brash and hook-laden set, veteran Swedish rockers The Hives helped ramp up the excitement to optimal levels. Kicking off with recently released earworm ‘Bogus Operandi’, the band lent heavily from their back-catalogue of hectic rock and roll ditties including standout crowdpleasers ‘Main Offender’, ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ and ‘Tick Tick Boom’. Ferocious, infectious and with rambunctious frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist displaying the sort of convivial crowd interaction that some would relish from the evening’s headliners, The Hives did what they do best: deliver a faultless live experience that brought big grins to the face of the gathered masses.

By now, the crowd were loosened up nicely, to put it mildly, and the eruption of noise when Messrs

Turner, Cook, Helders and O’Malley arrived could well have travelled five miles up Penistone Road and echoed around the suburban estates and playing fields of High Green, where their friendships were forged and foundations laid for one of the world’s biggest modern-day rock bands.

Prior to the show, setlists were a hot topic of conversation. Word had got out that first album favourite ‘A Certain Romance’ had opened the previous evening, which no doubt would have down a treat once again with a crowd very much seeking to revel in nostalgia just as much as (and arguably a fair bit more than) celebrate the band’s more recent offerings. A customarily laconic opening gambit from Turner and Matt Helders’ thunderous drums led not into the melancholic jangles of ACR but into the frenetic, hell-for-leather riffs of ‘Brianstorm’ – a high-octane assault on the senses which set the bar high indeed.

It rarely dipped below excellent. Now seasoned experts with two decades’ worth of experience in these arenas, Turner effortlessly took the audience on an immersive journey detailing irate ice cream men, metaphorical arcade machines, risky seating arrangements and lairy doormen in Sheffield city centre.

There were some comments on both evenings regarding Turner’s apparent lack of interaction with the crowd. It’s perhaps natural that some may have expected a few heartfelt messages or a steady stream of colloquial banter at a ‘back to their roots’ show, and you could argue that a little goes a long way in that respect. In my opinion, however, the band could’ve halted proceedings and chaired a live Q+A on the legacy of the ‘Ole in the Road’ if they pleased, but the sense of connection that most were seeking is best delivered through the music: snapshots of eras from a band that have grown and matured and experimented and shapeshifted almost continuously, and one that many in the city have held close to their hearts for the best part of two decades.

It’s genuinely difficult to pick standouts across the 21-song set. Whether we were scranning tacos on the moon or back in our kitchens circa-2005 with mardybums, each song was bellowed back towards the stage, into the faces of companions or simply up towards the sky with eyes closed, drinking in what felt like a very special, very Sheffield occasion.

That said, the unbridled scenes of collective joy on show when they saw out the encore with ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ and ‘R U Mine?’ will stay with me for a long time. That’s what these nights are all about, and it certainly put a spring in our step as we joined the crowds sloping back down Penistone Road towards town.

WORDS: JOSEPH FOOD

PHOTOGRAPHY: JACOB FLANNERY (@JACOB_FLANNERY_)

After the 30th edition of Sheffield DocFest 2023 came to a close, this year’s winners were announced during the awards ceremony at Sheffield Theatres.

The popular documentary film festival, which took place 14-19 June, saw international and UK delegate attendance rise by 17% compared to 2022. More than 2,550 delegates from more than 60 countries attended the five-day event, where they could view 37 World Premieres, 20 International Premieres, 10 European Premieres, 47 UK Premieres and 8 retrospective films, from 52 countries of production. It was the festival’s most innovative documentary offering yet, which, in addition to films, included a theatre production, live podcast events, premieres of TV series and virtual reality exhibitions.

More than 190 industry representatives from 93 companies and 19 countries took in-person meetings with selected projects and talents over the course of the festival market days.

Sheffield DocFest, in partnership with Showroom Cinema, will continue to engage with the documentary community in Sheffield with the monthly DocNights screening Programme, which is dedicated to championing the work of documentary filmmakers and bringing documentary cinema to audiences all year round.

Honouring films that best display strong artistic vision and courageous storytelling, The Grand Jury Award for the International Competition was awarded to In the Rearview directed by Maciek Hamela (Poland, France, Ukraine, 2023) – a film documenting the first days

of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

The jury, Kim Longinotto, Rodrigo Reyes and Vinay Shukla said: “As jurors, we are both deeply honored and keenly aware of our privileged position. We would like to take this moment to ask: what is the meaning of the art of non-fiction today? Crafted with intimacy and delicate respect, we as a jury were stunned by the brilliant simplicity of this film – passengers upon a universal odyssey of survival and exodus.”

The coveted Audience Award was presented to Your Fat Friend, directed and produced by Jeanie Finlay (USA and UK, 2023) and producer Suzanne Alizart.

The film had its international premiere at the 30th edition of Sheffield DocFest on the 15th June 2023, and both director Jeanie Finlay and protagonist Aubrey Gordon were in attendance for a special post-screening conversation.

The film follows the rise of Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger (Your Fat Friend) to NY Times best seller, hoping to influence a paradigm shift in the way that we view fat people and the fat on our bodies.

Jeanie Finlay said of the accolade: “To bring a film home to Sheff DocFest, a festival that I have been coming to and showing films at for 20 years, has been incredibly emotional and meaningful. Our international premiere at the Crucible Theatre was an experience I will remember and treasure for the rest of my life. This is my ninth feature film, my most personal yet. I thought I had made a film for myself, so to receive the audience award is so wonderful.”

FULL COMPETITION PROGRAMME AND WINNER INFORMATION:

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Honouring films that best display strong artistic vision and courageous storytelling. This award is Academy Award accredited.

WINNER - In the Rearview - Ukraine, Poland - Maciek Hamela – 2023 (International Premiere)

INTERNATIONAL FIRST FEATURE

COMPETITION (supported by Netflix)

This competition honours the future of non-fiction film and celebrates promising new talent.

WINNER - Q - USA, Lebanon - Jude Chehab – 2023 (International Premiere)

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

This Academy Award, BAFTA and BIFA-accredited award honours the best creative approaches in documentaries under 40 minutes.

WINNER - The Takeover – USA - Anders Hammer – 2023 (World Premiere)

YOUTH JURY AWARD

This award is selected by some of the UK’s most passionate young documentary lovers.

WINNER - Anhell69 - Colombia, Romania, France, Germany - Theo Montoya – 2022 (UK Premiere)

TIM HETHERINGTON AWARD

Photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was committed to humanitarian and social concerns throughout the world. This award recognises films that best reflect his legacy.

WINNER - 20 Days in Mariupol – UkraineMstyslav Chernov – 2023 (UK Premiere)

INTERNATIONAL ALTERNATE REALITIES COMPETITION

This programme combines advances in technology with creativity and imagination to find new ways of exploring non-fiction. The Alternate Realities Award honours the best innovative non-fiction work.

WINNER - The Man Who Couldn’t Leave –Artist: Singing Chen (UK Premiere)

AUDIENCE AWARD

The DocFest audience cast their votes at participating cinemas and venues for their favourite films and works.

WINNER - Your Fat Friend - USA/UKJeanie Finlay (2023)

EXPOSED’S RESIDENT DOCHEAD, MARK PERKINS, ROUNDS UP THE BEST OF THE ACTION FROM THE 30TH EDITION OF SHEFFIELD DOCFEST.

One strand that changes, develops and improves every year is the Alternate Realities exhibition, held in the Site Gallery, which will still be there for a few weeks after the festival closes. Storytelling with media other than film is now a well-established feature of  DocFest. Some installations use immersive VR headsets and headphones, but others just use TV screens or images projected inside a dome. I was most affected by The Man Who Couldn’t Leave, where creator Singing Chen takes us inside Taiwan’s notorious Green Island Prison, to tell a harrowing story of a political detainee who never escaped.

Sky Documentaries were at the festival for their third year of promoting their own films. Two of these were The Good Fight Club, the first of a four-part series, and an ambitious stand-alone film, The Right To Fight. Each fighter in The Good Fight Club has a different reason for taking up ‘cage fighting’ or Mixed Martial Arts, and Jack Retallack does a superb job of drawing out their stories. In The Right To Fight, Georgina Cammalleri expertly tells the almost unknown story of the women who attempted to break into that most macho sport of all: competitive boxing. They had to battle for acceptance in a sport from which they were legally barred, and we hear of the sacrifices they made, both in and outside the ring.

The Body Politic is a portrait of Brandon Scott, Baltimore’s youngest-ever black mayor, who tries a new approach to try to bring change to a city ravaged by over 300 gun deaths every year. Director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough follows him as he endeavours to effect change in the face of the Republican state governor’s ‘lock more of them up for longer’ approach, which clearly isn’t working.

Once upon a time, Documentaries had titles like The History of Paint, or How Liverpool Cathedral Was Built. They were hardly designed to entertain as well as inform, and certainly not to engage a broad audience in a range of contemporary social issues.

But all that has changed.

Documentaries are now mainstream, with big players such as Sky, Prime and Netlifx regularly churning out their own, all designed for prime-time viewing.

I’m never more proud of what this city can achieve than when DocFest hits town. Over the six days of film screenings, live podcasts, alternate reality installations, talks and interviews with filmmakers and producers, the scope and depth of its achievements astonish me year after year. Post-Covid, the event is back to attracting a global audience and is one of

the top documentary film festivals in the world. I feel privileged every time I attend, as I have the chance not just to watch films, some of which are national and international premieres, but it provides the opportunity to meet some of the people who make them. Everything you see and hear comes from life itself. Nothing in the Marvel or DC Cinematic Universe comes close to being as entertaining, moving and engaging as the films showcase here. I was often in tears, sometimes with laughter, but at other times not, as I experienced some harrowing stories which will live with me forever.

Just about everything I mention here was available to everyone, not just DocFest delegates, and if you didn’t manage to get there this year, make it your mission to go in 2024 and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

This being 2023, much of what we see is the product of lockdown and covid; that unique time in all our lives. For some creators, it was the opportunity to edit footage, often unfinished, into a film, and there were several of those. Others saw the pandemic as the catalyst for the film’s creation, and this was never more so than in the film Handle With Extreme Care. Patrick Ginnetty and Bowie Alexander made a revealing and often funny account of life(!) in a New York mortuary, which struggles to cope with the sheer number of deaths at the height of the Covid crisis. One employee even has to prepare his own father for a final farewell. The events they are all dealing with are on an epic scale, and the film manages to capture how they deal with this trauma whilst getting on with their lives.

If you’re looking for charm and beauty told with a ‘direct cinema’ approach➢

➢where the two women in the film are allowed to gently tell their own story, with no narration or explanation, go and see The Castle. Martin Benchimol tells the story of Justina, a domestic worker, who has lived in an Argentine castle since she was 5. The now-deceased owners have left it to her, on condition she doesn’t sell it. She lives there with her teenage daughter, who, understandably, now has ambitions to leave.

Music documentaries are often a sure-fire hit. Wham! was a joyous celebration of their surprisingly short career, with a follow-on Q&A which included Andrew Ridgeley; but Let The Canary Sing, Alison Elwood’s exploration of both the personal and the public life of Cyndi Lauper, topped it for me. Cyndi was - and continues to be - a major campaigner within women’s and LGBTQI+ spheres, not least with her re-purposed song, ‘Girls Just Wanna Have FunDamental Human Rights’. The film features one of my DocFest highlights: when she duets with Patti Labelle on ‘Time After Time’. It’s as powerful of a performance as I have ever seen on film, with two singers reaching almost unbearable heights of both power and quiet subtlety in one song. Astonishing.

David Harewood and Rose Ayling-Ellis were two fascinating interviewees, particularly Rose, as she gave us an insight into her forthcoming film, Signs For Change, a documentary made using British Sign language. It was noticeable how many events at DocFest were made more accessible for hearing-disabled delegates, which is hopefully another step forward towards inclusivity being something that just becomes part of the fabric at all such events.

One aspect that I always like to champion, and never more so than this year, is the Film-Maker Challenge, where six early career filmmakers are given the task to make a film during DocFest. Everything was filmed on one day, in Sheffield, under the guidance of Kevin MacDonald, with all six films screened on the final day. The films themselves were all superb, and from a purely personal point of view, they provided me with an opportunity to see my hometown through the eyes of others. I learned about a hairdresser on Abbeydale Road (not Sabino), took a boat trip on the River Don as it slowly flowed through the centre of town, and in my favourite, by Rosie Baldwin, I watched as an artist sketched volunteers who happened to be shopping on the Moor for free, and saw their reaction to his artwork. I’d love to see these made more widely available, as together they all formed a lovely essay in tribute to the people of Sheffield.

OK, time for my round-up of the best of the festival. All purely personal and not definitive in any way, (I only saw around a fifth of the films on offer!).

THE GULLSPANG MIRACLE

Do whatever it takes to see this remarkable film. If ever a true story could be called stranger-than-fiction, this is it. It begins when two sisters happen upon someone who they are convinced is their older sister, who they were told had taken her own life decades earlier. At this point, the two of them recruit filmmaker Maria Fredriksson to help unravel what on earth is going on. What follows is a strange, often hilarious family drama. There is true crime, deception and loss, with a narrative that never once goes in the direction in which it seems to be heading.

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL

Ukrainian filmmaker and journalist Mstyslav Chernov joined us live from Ukraine at the start of this film, reporting from the war zone, wearing body armour, to urge us to spread the word about the contents of this film. That in itself was remarkable, and what followed was not an easy film to watch. Several people in the audience felt they had to leave. One fainted. Quite simply, it shows the brutal, barbaric and senseless siege and invasion of the city of Mariupol, filmed by a crew who refused to leave with all the other journalists. Sheltering in a hospital, with no idea if they will survive, they continue to film, hoping their witness to this war atrocity will be seen by the world.

YOUR FAT FRIEND

A worthy Audience Prize winner, Jeanie Finlay filmed writer Aubrey Gordon over six years as she finally revealed herself publicly after writing and posting essays about fatness, hate and discrimination directed toward fat people. It is a masterclass in gentle documentary storytelling, which charms and seduces us throughout the film.

THE GREATEST SHOW NEVER MADE

We only got to see part one of this three-part Prime documentary, but I am desperate to see more. In 2002, reality TV was relatively new and incredibly popular. Six young people were recruited to take part in a reality TV show, with £100,000 on offer as the prize. They left jobs, homes and partners, and travelled to film the show, without knowing that it was all a hoax. The show didn’t exist. The participants are still searching for answers, and we can only guess at the reluctance they must have felt to agree to become involved in Ashley Francis-Roy’s film, after being so hurt and deceived previously. What really happened we can only guess for now, until the remaining episodes are streamed on Prime.

HUMMINGBIRDS

This was the first film I saw at this year’s DocFest, and it remained a firm favourite throughout. Two friends hang out over one summer in the border town of Laredo, Texas. They talk as the weeks and months ahead seem aimless and uncertain. In terms of a story, that’s pretty much it. But over the course of the film, we learn about their lives, their fears, their immigration and right-to-work status, sexuality, gender identity - in short, everything that shapes their lives. The film slowly becomes a testament to the power of friendship and the uncertainty of youth.

UPFRONT

HOP HIDEOUT SPOTLIGHT ON:

Now approaching a decade since its formation, there aren’t many independent businesses out there that have left such an indelible mark on the Sheffield beer scene as Hop Hideout. Last month, we caught up with owner Jules Gray to discuss reaching this significant milestone, reflecting on the progress made over ten years and how there are plenty of fresh ideas still left in the (beer) tank!

With craft beer, micropubs and drink-in beer shops being a fairly common sight throughout Sheffield, it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, they weren’t such a ubiquitous amenity. It follows, then, that beer lovers throughout these seven hills owe a mighty hat tip to pioneers like Hop Hideout, a key player in opening the gateway for funky IPAs, rich stouts and tangy sours to flood into the Steel City.

Beginning life as a pop-up in the back of an antiques centre on Abbeydale Road, this “labour of beery love”, as Jules calls it, moved to a nearby café space in 2015, where she opened one of the country’s first drinkin beer shops. Hop Hideout became synonymous with the

city’s growing craft beer scene, showcasing local breweries as well as stocking hundreds of beers from across the UK and indeed the globe, before its popularity necessitated a move to a bigger space at the GradeII listed Kommune food hall in 2019. Today you can pop in and browse 200+ refrigerated beers (rising to 300 if you include the additional downstairs storage) alongside a meticulously curated range of draught beer, farmhouse ciders and natural wines.

“It’s been great to have the support of Sheffield people over the years, and we hope that it continues because it’s really hard for independent businesses out there,” says Jules. “We’ve had fantastic regular support and are always meeting new customers along the way, so I think people really appreciate the commitment to quality and the ethos behind what we do.”

That ethos revolves around taking a conscientious approach to the producers they stock, championing women and minority-owned businesses in the beer industry and creating a genuine sense of community at home through regular events, the latter of which range from regular running and walking

clubs to their standout Sheffield Beer Week event – a citywide beery celebration which has grown to include up to 40 venues and includes a diverse range of activities such as beer festivals, tastings, tap takeovers, brewery tours and educational Q+As with industry experts.

The much-loved annual occasion, which takes place in March each year, is opened up in style by the Indie Beer Feast – a two-day event in a city centre venue which features 19 handpicked breweries, plus a selection of street food, low intervention wine and cider. Pop-up tastings are hosted by renowned beer writers and speakers while attendees mingle, whet their whistles and get into the spirit of things.

“I think what I’ve always hoped for, and worked towards, is being able to help make the beer scene a more approachable, welcoming, diverse space to be,” reflects Jules. “Of course, I want to get across my passion for beer and the quality being produced by independent breweries, cider producers and small wineries. But as well as that, a big part of the drive is ensuring we have a broad appeal to a wider audience. No barriers.”

Always keen to share knowledge, Jules, who is a member of the British Guild of Beer Writers, has been recognised for her informative blogs (some of which have featured in this very magazine, no less!), and Hop Hideout regularly hosts tasting sessions so people can come and learn about the process and tasting profiles of various beer, ciders and low intervention wines. Throw in commercial TV and radio appearances, plus a wide variety of podcast appearances, and you certainly can’t say she doesn’t put the time into spreading the beery word!

With the big 1-0 just around the corner, Jules tells us that she

Photos: Mark Newton

won’t be resting on her laurels. As has been the case since its formation, Hop Hideout will continue to adapt, grow and innovate. A milestone birthday celebration beckons and a special brewing collaboration is on the cards (they hosted a memorable Bill Murray beer-themed bash for their 5th-year soiree), but we’re also told that further expansion is a goal, if and when the right taproom location is found, so don’t be surprised to see a second venue pop up in the not too distant future!

But in the meantime, you can pay homage to a true trailblazer on the Sheffield beer scene by paying a visit in person or ordering a box via their online shop (www.hophideout.co.uk).

Time to raise a glass to another ten years of commitment to community, good causes and superb drinks!

Hop Hideout

Unit 11, Kommune, 1-13 Angel St, S3 8LN

www.hophideout.co.uk

@hophideout

Widely acknowledged as Sheffield’s most famed cinematic export, The Full Monty became a British cult classic after its release in 1997. Following a group of unemployed steelworkers from Sheffield, who, in a desperate bid to earn some cash, decided to form a male stripping troupe, the film touched the hearts of millions and sparked important conversations about masculinity, class and the legacy of Thatcherite politics.

Last month, a quarter of a century later, members of the cast reunited in Sheffield for the launch of an eight-part series which came out on Disney+.

There were plenty of recognisable faces present at the glitzy series premiere at Showroom Cinema, which showed the first two episodes before the cast and invitees headed over to the Leadmill for an exclusive Q+A .

Robert Carlyle, who won a BAFTA for his role in the original instalment, was at the event after reprising his role as loveable rogue Gaz. He was joined on the ‘blue carpet’ by Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp and Steve Huison, who have stepped back into the shoes of their beloved characters – Dave, Jean and Lomper, respectively – for the highly-anticipated reboot that explores what happened to the group after they put their kit back on, as well as highlighting the struggles faced by northern communities following years of austerity and risible attempts at the government initiating a ‘levelling up’ strategy.

Also making a trip back to his roots was Wim Snape, the Sheffield-born actor who first auditioned for the role of Gaz’s son, Nathan, while attending Dobcroft Primary School at the age of 11.

Representing a fresh influx of younger characters entering the storyline is Nathan’s half-sister, Destiny (played by Talitha Wing), a troubled teen navigating a tricky home life and getting into the types of tricky situations her dad would often have to deal with.

Ahead of the exclusive showing earlier this month, Exposed sat down with all of the above to discuss reprising their roles, their characters’ respective storylines and the grim similarities between the political contexts of both the film and series.

First up, Robert Carlyle (Gaz), Wim Snape (Nathan) and Talitha Wing (Destiny) grabbed a pew with Exposed before the film started rolling at the series premiere.

Let’s start with the newest member of the team, Talitha. How’s the experience been in joining a pretty iconic cast and story?

TW: I think it was equal parts nerve-racking and really, really exciting. I think it’s a unique experience to come on to something that has such a legacy and had such a big impact. Whenever I’ve told anyone I’m doing The Full Monty, they’ve been able to tell me when they saw it, what cinema and who with. So, it was quite daunting at first, but as soon as I got to the read-through stage and witnessed everyone seeing each other again, we just kind of fitted into the ‘Monty family’.

RC: You’re a young Monty.

TW: Exactly. We’re bringing the perspective of the younger generation into it, which I think is really exciting and important. Your character, Destiny, brings a fresh dynamic into proceedings and it’s almost a bit like the baton has been passed down from Gaz and now it’s his daughter getting into these crazy scrapes?

TW: Yeah, we meet Destiny at a time when everything in her life is quite chaotic. She’s at that age where you’re leaving school and having to decide what it is that you’re going to do with your life. She has this love for music, but at the same time she’s not very confident, and I don’t think she properly believes that she could make that into a career. There’s a difficult home life with her mum and her mum’s boyfriend, Brian, who she doesn’t get on with at all. And she has two little twin sisters who she looks after; that’s when you first begin to see the softer side of her.

In the first episode, you see her beginning to reconnect with her dad who she hasn’t seen much of growing up. How does that relationship affect the story?

TW: Yeah, Gaz kind of comes back into her life at the beginning of the series, and we begin to see the relationship blossom. I think she sees quite a lot of Gaz in herself, so it’s interesting seeing them learn how to communicate with each other. They’re two characters with tough exteriors, but they both have a softer side and a shared sense of humour. She does get herself into lots of trouble, but I think one of Gaz’s children was always going to turn out that way. It’s a bit like Nathan’s become a copper and gone one way, and Destiny’s gone the other. Probably a good point to bring you in now, Wim. You last played Nathan when you were 11 years old. How did it feel when you got the call to return?

WS: It was just a dream for me. You know, like a literal dream. When I got the phone call saying that we’re getting the band back together, it just blew my mind that this was actually going to happen. That said, it’s such an incredible story and one that needs to be told. When we first met back up and sat down with each other, it was like no time had passed at all. Me and Bobby [Carlyle] hadn’t seen each other for 20 years or something – he didn’t recognise me at first! But once we started rolling on the scenes it was like being transported to being 11 again. It was madness.

RC: It’s a beautiful thing. I mean, who often gets that opportunity to revisit characters after 25 years? It

was a fantastic thing to get together with the gang again. I’d had a similar experience with the second Trainspotting film. So, I suppose it was familiar territory for me in that sense. However, I think the second Trainspotting film was probably always going to happen, but this was never really in the ether. I know that Simon Beaufoy had been asked a few times through the years to write a Full Monty sequel, but he was never interested because the film itself is so complete, you know? Where do you go from that last moment when the hats come off?

If you’re going to bring something back as iconic as The Full Monty, it needs to say something. What do you hope this series will say?

RC: One of the things about Simon Beaufoy’s writing is that he manages to address many issues and the politics are all around The Full Monty; it drives the whole thing. But Simon is great at writing in a way that means you’re not battered over the head with it. The issues that get brought up in the series are hugely important: the state of our schools, the state of our mental health services and the impact of austerity. You see how god knows how many years of austerity have chipped away at the country, its infrastructure and the people. There’s a full-circle aspect to it: so much has changed since we last met these characters, but also some fundamentals have remained the same?

RC: Yeah. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Going back to 1997, it was the end of a Conservative government and things had been really, really tough up until then. I remember it well, and I hope – I really hope – that history might be repeating itself here in terms of the timing of things. Maybe there’s going to be a change? I can see people want it.

What for you is it about The Full Monty that saw it become such a cult classic? What buttons were hit by this story and these characters?

WS: In terms of Sheffield, it’s an industrial city and obviously the Thatcher reign affected a lot of people, a lot of jobs and infrastructure in this region. I think the original film showed people finding a way to survive, and, I’m definitely biased since I’m from here, but the people of Sheffield are some of the funniest, nicest, kindest people you’ll ever come across. They come together when they need each other, and I think that’s why it resonates so well here in particular.

RC: I think from a male perspective, what the original film did – and what this series kind of follows up on – is asking what a man’s place is in society. These guys were used to being breadwinners as steelworkers. Suddenly, that’s not the case anymore, and you see them floundering when you first join the film. I think all the characters in the show are still trying to figure out where they fit into the world. I think that’s something that resonates: where do we belong? I think that is balanced beautifully with the younger characters, and how the baton of struggle is passed on.

TW: Destiny is also asking, “What am I doing? Where do I go next?” She initially sees herself as a bit of a rebel or outsider, but when someone does make an effort to help her, be that her dad or a teacher, you see how that exterior falls away a bit. The stories and characters all kind of link and there’s still a sense of community amongst them all, even though it’s a bit disjointed.

Exposed then spoke with Marc Addy, Lesley Sharp and Steve Huison to get their take on returning to the franchise 25 years on and its relevance today.

How does it feel to be revisiting these characters after such a long time away?

MA: Surprisingly, kind of comfortable even though it has been a long gap. It’s helpful that we have the same writer who has lived with these characters right through to today, so Simon Beaufoy and co-writer Alice Nutter have done a great job of keeping the characters true to themselves and their situation. I found it very easy just slipping back into Dave.

LS: It’s been like hanging out with an old friend, and then literally hanging out with old friends. Some of us have been fortunate enough to bump into one another since the film, and then there are other members of the cast that haven’t seen one another in the intervening years. But it just feels like it’s the right timing, the right time in the world to be revisiting these people in this city.

SH: Yeah, it’s just like putting on a familiar pair of gloves. I don’t think Lomper has ever left me anyway. There’s always been a bit of Lomper following me around, particularly when people are shouting it at me in the street. Of course, nobody’s the same as they were 25 years ago, so I really enjoyed exploring the maturity of the character and looking at the things that have happened to him in that 25 years. Has Lomper found peace? The film obviously followed him through a very life-defining period.

SH: Yeah, well, as much as you can do, I suppose. I think I’ve played it as though he’s had the life-changing part for him [in the film] – the social connections he made, going through the whole stripping process, and that experience gave him confidence. But I’ve also been looking at why he is slightly… odd, I suppose, and trying to maybe explore that. It’s a great opportunity to pick up a character 25 years later and revisit it. Dave and Jean’s story was a key one in the film, with their relationship going through some trials and tribulations before getting back on track at the end. How are they getting on 25 years down the line?

MA: Well, they’re childhood sweethearts, really. They’ve been married for 30-odd years. And you know, it’s not always a bed of roses. Dave is still the same in that he walks away from a lot of difficult conversations and doesn’t really want to confront certain issues which are causing tension between them.

LS: Throughout the film, Jean was Dave’s great cheerleader. She saw he had this amazing spirit and needed➢

➢to bring it to the fore. What we see at the beginning of the series is that Dave has become Jean’s great cheerleader. She’s moved on from working in a supermarket to being a teacher’s assistant and a teacher, to then becoming a deputy head and now running a school. However, in their relationship, they haven’t addressed the pain of not being able to have a family. It’s starting to get to a point where it’s causing the tectonic plates between them to shift to where they either have to address something that is very painful or move in opposite directions. You mentioned the timing was right to revisit these characters. Why is now, 25 years later, a good time to return to Sheffield and pick up the story?

MA: The Full Monty was a political film. It was about what state parts of this country were in at that time. Following 18 years of a Conservative government, I think Simon felt like we’d come full circle. You know, why in 2023 are working nurses having to go and use food banks? It’s crazy. So, it felt like the right time to explore what has changed for these people who were struggling back then, and through that also explore how certain parts of the country are still finding it really tough today.

SH: The first day I was here, we were doing some prep work at Bramall Lane. It’s the first time I’ve been in Sheffield for a long time, and as we drove in through Attercliffe I was really shocked by the number of closed shops. The only thing open was a bookies, and I thought to myself, this hasn’t got much better since we last filmed here. It’s clear that poverty is taking a grip in some areas, especially post-covid, and it’s kicking in all over the country. So, when Simon first called me about this, he told me he was really pissed off with what was going on and he wanted to say something about it using these characters.

LS: I think what Steve and Mark have said absolutely holds true. I would just add that what Simon has also done, which I think is really important, is to show that these communities that have the label of being working-class may well be financially undernourished, but they have each other’s back as a community. They deal with their hardships with wit, endeavour and graft; these are not doom-laden communities but tend to be full of life and really inspiring. And I think that Simon is also at pains to say that in the country we live in there are many who’ve got a lot, and the people who don’t have much are often part of incredible communities doing amazing things with very little. I think that is why the film got so much traction, and hopefully, this series will do the same because these are recognisable communities.

A massive testament to that is how people in Sheffield are still immensely proud of The Full Monty and have gladly sewn it into their cultural fabric. What do you think bringing it back as a TV series allows you to do that a film sequel wouldn’t?

LS: I think 90 minutes to tell a big arc story, a lot of which revolves around whether these guys are going to have the nuts to reveal their nuts is fine. But eight hours of a series gives you the opportunity to explore the psychological ups and downs and truths of the older characters, but at the same time, it allows you to bring in this tranche of fantastic young, vibrant characters who are bringing a whole other side to the story. You can explore much more this way.

The Full Monty is out now on Disney+

TRAMLINES

Heading to Hillsborough Park for this year’s Tramlines Festival are headliners Richard Ashcroft (Friday), Courteeners (Saturday) and Paul Heaton (Sunday), alongside a whole host of genre-spanning acts including DMA’s, Bloc Party, Blossoms, Sugababes, Circa Waves, The Enemy, Reverend & The Makers, Professor Green, The Zutons, Ella Henderson, Kate Nash, Katy B and many more.

Five stages of music, art, performance, comedy,

a family-friendly area and multiple food and drink outlets will be spread across the festival site, all ready to accommodate up to 40,000 people expected to descend upon S6 each day.

Operations Director and a man who has been involved since the very beginning, Timm Cleasby, said of this year’s event: “This year’s lineup is a cracker with some awesome names and, as always, there’s more than just music with loads to do, see and get involved with. My must-sees this ➢

• 2009 - Do you remember the first time?

• People from all over the region flock to Sheffield City Centre for the first Tramlines.

• Artists are announced for the first Tramlines instalment, including Reverend and the Makers, Toddla T, Just Jack, Pixie Lott, Example and Little Boots.

• The XX perform at The Harley a month before their self-titled LP drops to universal acclaim.

• Figures reveal 35,000 people attend the festival over the weekend.

2010

• Tramlines announce they will be expanding the festival to include new venues, including Sheffield University’s Octagon Centre, Tudor Square, The Leadmill, O2 Academy Sheffield and Winter Gardens.

• Acts are announced for the second instalment of Tramlines, including Echo and the Bunnymen, Mystery Jets, Simian Mobile Disco DJ set, Professor Green, Tinchy Stryder, The Hoosiers, Toddla T and Annie Mac.

• In total, 250 artists appear across the festival’s many stages.

• The attendance of the festival almost doubles with 65,000 people attending.

2011

• The hugely popular Folk Forest area is launched.

• Acts announced for the third edition of Tramlines include Ash, Olly Murs, Pixie Lott, The Futureheads, and Heaven 17.

• The festival wins ‘Best Local Event’ at the Exposed Awards and ‘Best Metropolitan Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards.

2012

• Alt-J, already on course for global stardom, play for free in The Bowery.

• The likes of Roots Manuva, We Are Scientists, Ms Dynamite, Julio Bashmore, and Spector all play the festival.

• 95,000 people attend over the weekend.

2013

• Tramlines announce they plan to get over 700 acts for 2013’s festival.

• Catfish and the Bottlemen bring down the house (and a disco ball) at a packed Soyo.

• The Selecter hit the main stage and lead the crowd into a mass skank.

2014

• Hip-hop royalty Public Enemy join fellow headliners Katy B, The Cribs and Annie Mac on the main stage.

• Sister Sledge lead the crowd in a disco singalong on a sunny Saturday evening.

• Tramlines’ first wedding proposal takes place! It’s a yes!

2015

• Tramlines announce that the main stage will move to the much larger Ponderosa Park.

• Wu-Tang Clan, Basement Jaxx, The Charlatans, Buzzcocks and Sugarhill Gang are announced as main acts.

• The Exposed In Session Stage, which showcases the best of local talent, is announced on Devonshire Green.

2016

• Dizzee Rascal tops a diverse line-up including Kelis, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Jurassic 5.

• Funk legend George Clinton brings seamless party groove to the main stage.

• Spanish rockers Hinds play with borrowed instruments after having their gear stolen a few days before the show.

2017

• The official festival becomes an exclusively outdoor event, with the Devonshire Green stage making a return.

• The Libertines, Metronomy and All Saints are announced as festival headliners.

• A petition is launched to make the Monday after Tramlines a bank holiday. It sadly fails.

2018

• Organisers plan a major celebration of the festival’s 10th year.

• The festival moves to Hillsborough Park, moving it out of the city centre for the first time.

• Main acts announced include Stereophonics, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Craig David’s TS5.

2019

• The 11th instalment of the festival returns to Hillsborough Park and expects to welcome 30,000 people a day.

• Nile Rodgers, Courteeners and Johnny Marr are amongst the acts announced.

• The main stage is renamed the Nulty’s Main Stage in tribute to the festival’s late director who passed away prior to the 2018 event.

2021

• After a two hear-hiatus, Tramlines announces its return as part of the Government’s third phase of the Events Research Programme (ERP) pilot scheme.

• 40,000 revellers a day attend the sold-out event, as Tramlines becomes the largest festival to return in Western Europe. Highlights include The Streets, Royal Blood, Little Simz and Dizzee Rascal.

2022

• A blessed return to normality as a sold-out Hillsborough Park bounces, restriction-free, to the likes of James, Sam Fender, Self Esteem, Kasabian and Madness.

➢year are Kate Nash, Rachel Chinouriri, Rumbi Tauro, Sugababes, the very funny Paul Smith, and Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott. To quote our much-missed friend Sarah, ‘I just want to have a massive party with all my friends.’”

The full 2023 comedy lineup which takes over Tramline’s T’Other stage during each day will feature award-winning comedian Omid Djalili, the outrageous spoof news reporter Jonathan Pi and the quick-witted Hot Water Comedy Club compere and Liverpool Comedian Of The Year, Paul Smith. Plenty more laughs are in store with sets from Tom Wrigglesworth, John Hastings, Nina Gilligan, Tamer Kattan, Scott Bennett, Raul Kohli, and many more

As always, there’s plenty of local talent on the bill. You’ll be able to find a good chunk of up-andcoming South Yorkshire acts playing The Library Stage across the weekend; from established names like MC Coco to rising stars like alt-pop Apply to Play winners Harri Larkin, there’s plenty to keep an eye out for.

Guess we’ll see you in the park, yeah?

Day and weekend VIP tickets are still available to purchase. For the latest ticket information, head to tramlines.org.uk.

The Tramlines Trust was born out of the desire to uplift and give back to the surrounding communities and culture at the very heart of Tramlines Festival.

It increases annual fundraising and charitable donations that the festival makes, whilst making it easier for MORE grassroots organisations to apply for funding and receive support from Tramlines Festival.

The trust is part of ‘Tramlines in the Community’, a wider initiative that includes commitments to keeping the festival accessible, continuing to improve Hillsborough Park and supporting the Hillsborough community.

In 2022, Tramlines raised £53,300. £30,100 went to 42 local organisations through the Tramlines Trust Funding Grants, with over £10,000 to Hillsboroughbased organisations including The Burton St Foundation, S6 Foodbank and Hillsborough Hornets Disability Football Clu. The remaining donations were awarded to The Sarah Nulty Power of Music Foundation, Hillsborough Primary School and NSPCC.

The aim is support projects which sit within four key areas: Local Community –projects local to Sheffield which enhance, educate or support the local community; Future Generations – supporting young people who would like to gain insight into the events and creative industries; People and Planet – projects that are involved in improving or raising awareness for issues like homelessness, environment, physical and mental health; and South Yorkshire Art and Culture – projects which promote the music, art and culture of the region

With a 54% rise in charity donations between 2021 and 2022, Tramlines has now tripled the number of charities supported since 2018.

In 2023, Tramlines is working with Tickets for Good – A Sheffield based national organisation that distributes free and discounted event tickets to NHS staff, medical students and charity workers.

Clare Mappin, Managing Director at Burton Street Foundation, explained how the Tramlines Trust initiative helped their organisation: “Burton Street Foundation received a donation from Tramlines Trust in 2022 to purchase some new equipment for our Sensory Room. Burton Street works with adults 18 upwards and children from the age of 7 with learning and physical disabilities. Many of our clients love the time they spend in our Sensory Room. The donation we received last year was used for large bean bags and a big new bubble tube: items that lots of our clients use and enjoy. Thank you to everyone at Tramlines Trust we appreciate your support and the very best of luck with Tramlines 2023.”

More information on Tramlines in the Community can be found here: tramlines.org.uk/tramlines-in-the-community

UPFRONT

SUPPORTED BY SHEFFIELD BID, THE FRINGE AT TRAMLINES PROMISES A PACKED WEEKEND OF ENTERTAINMENT INCLUDING THE FREE OUTDOOR STAGE AT DEVONSHIRE GREEN AND MANY CITY CENTRE VENUES.

After a successful postpandemic comeback in 2022, The Fringe at Tramlines makes its anticipated return to Sheffield from July 21st to 23rd. Supported by Sheffield BID, this much-loved free event promises a jam-packed schedule of activities, as the city centre transforms into a lively celebration fo live music and entertainment.

From the lively outdoor main stage at Devonshire Green to the numerous city venues, bars, pubs, and clubs, a diverse range of live music and DJs will create an extraordinary festive ambiance that extends beyond the city center. Get ready to join the biggest party of the year as Sheffield comes alive with The Fringe at Tramlines.

At Devonshire Green, the main stage of The Fringe at Tramlines will captivate attendees with its range of music and an enticing selection of food and beverages. Under the expert curation of local music promoter, Papa Al, this stage strives to showcase a rich tapestry of musical genres that beautifully reflects Sheffield’s diverse cultural landscape.

Saturday headliners

Jungle Lion an energetic ska ensemble featuring 10 talented musicians with a long history of performances during the Tramlines weekend. Jungle Lion are joined on sat by reggae, funk, soul, ska and more from

supporting acts, Solar Love Society and The Free Radicals. Speed for Lovers will perform their live electronic music inspired by Sheffield’s vibrant clubscene whilst gifted reggae performer, Ripton Lindsey and soul/motown band, Soul Battalion are also appearing on Saturday as are Romano Jilo (Roma dancers) and Blue Street Brass.

The highly acclaimed Beatles Dub Club from Chris Arnold will also feature on Saturday and has been a huge hit on the festival circuit with support from by Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim). Chris remixes and re-edits Beatles classics. Completing the Saturday line-up are Los Vastardos, a new mystery band from Alex del Mango and the Shine Performance Choir with Sista Soul, a vibrant and funky choir including gospel soloists.

Sunday at Devonshire Green is headlined by the magnificent Sheffield Beatles Project who are a super group of local musicians playing music from The Beatles. Also performing are Highway Child (rsoul, funk and blues), Shanghai Treason (folk-tinged punk rock), Tracks Presents (a big group of young performers from Sheffield Music School) and Rogue Siesta with their funky reggae grooves.

Stage Curator, Papa Al, said:” Sheffield is blessed with a huge range music from

many different cultures and it’s brilliant to see this reflected on the main stage at Devonshire Green. We have everything from Beatles hits with the Sheffield Beatles Project to Roma dancers with Romano Jilo. Young musicians will be there in abundance with the Tracks showcase featuring talent from the Sheffield Music School and the fan favourites, Jungle Lion, will be there a ska extravaganza to finish on Saturday. The Fringe at Tramlines is a chance to highlight the best Sheffield has to offer, we can’t wait to see you in July!”

With so much musical entertainment being hosted across the city, Sheffield City Council have partnered with app developers Woov to create a brand-new mobile app that will include a comprehensive guide to everything that’s taking place over the weekend. The free app can be downloaded for both Android and Apple devices using the link woov.to/ tramlinesfringe.

The Welcome to Sheffield webpage also features dedicated ‘The Fringe at Tramlines’ pages and is a great source of general information about Sheffield. It has suggestions for discovering areas around the city to eat, drink and hang out over the whole weekend.

welcometosheffield.co.uk/ thefringe

TOP SHOUTS: 5 VENUES TO CHECK OUT FOR THE FRINGE AT TRAMLINES

PAX IN THE PARK

One of the city’s most popular fringe festivals, Pax in the Park, will be bringing another exciting collection of genre-crossing musicians and plentiful good vibes to Heeley People’s Park this summer. Over the weekend you’ll be able to catch cosmic dross purveyors HENGE, cult rock n roll eccentric John Otway and swing/jazz aficianados the Jazz Hot Six amongst a packed lineup.

YELLOW ARCH STUDIOS

As you might expect, Neepsend’s hub of live music will be bustling away nicely for the Fringe at Tramlines. Friday night headliners will be psychgrunge rockers Femur, joined by Mudd Club, Snakerattlers, Galloping Dick and Hopeful Dream Cult. Saturday is an equally raucous affair, as rabble-rousers Dead Harts head up the bill, before the highly-rated Django Jones and the Mystery Men head up another packed lineup of talent on Sunday. DJs til late on Friday and Saturday, obvs.

WASHINGTON

One of the city’s finest rock boozers will be hosting everything from fast-paced punk on the Friday (see Avalanche Party and Ming City Rockers) and hard-hitting indie on the Saturday (The Rills) before seeing proceedings out with danceable rock n roll funk outfits (Kiziah and the Kings) and David Bowie extravaganzas (The Bowie Contingent).

CLAMLINES

Much-loved DIY hotspot Delicious Clam regularly host some of the best live nights in the city, and they’ll be keeping up appearances from Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd July. Anglo-Welsh noisemakers Sister Wives are joined by bedroom jazz pioneer Rosey PM, garage punk outfit Mock Tudors and Glaswegian post-punk artists Current Affairs. And that’s just a small taste of what they’ve got planned.

SHAKELINES

The Shakey knows how to throw a Fringe at Tramlines. Genre-fusing artist and producer JackieMoonbather has curated an intriguing Friday night lineup, while Saturday sees a smorgasbord of Steel City talent taking to the stage including Exposed top shouts Mickey Nomimono, Minds Idle, Drastic //Automatic, Nervous Pills and more.

FIND OUT WHERE TO GO!

A printed programme is also being produced by your truly and will be distributed across the city in advance of the event with digital version via the Exposed website. www.exposedmagazine. co.uk

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PLUS... in celebration of its 50th anniversary, we present WIGAN CASINO LEGEND,

Russ’ DJ set 5.00pm - meet & greet 6.30pm

FROG & PARROT

AT THE 100% VINYL FREE ENTRY

Division St, Sheffield, S1 4GF

SUNDAY 23rd JULY 2023 2pm – 10pm

Spanning four days from Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th August, the festival promises to bring together the finest breweries from across Sheffield and Yorkshire, offering an unparalleled celebration of craft beer and local talent.

With a lineup that includes esteemed breweries such as Triple Point, SALT, Vocation, Kirkstall, Northern Monk, Abbeydale, North Brewing, Heist, Fuggle Bunny, Thornbridge, and Kelham Island Brewery, attendees can expect an impressive selection of exceptional brews. From hop-forward IPAs to lip-smacking sours and everything in between, there will be a beer to suit every taste.

What sets the Abbeydale Road Beer Festival apart is its unique format. Spread across 12 iconic venues, including The Bear, Dead Donkey, Turner’s Bottle & Tap,

Over the Yardarm, Glass Frog, Abbeydale Tap, Picture House Social, Barrowboy, Two Thirds Beer Co., The Teller, The Gin Bar, and The Broadfield, this festival invites attendees to embark on a beertasting adventure. Pick up a stamp card and collect stamps from all 12 venues, then head to one of the fringe venues, Cole’s Corner or Frippery & Nonsense, where you can exchange the completed card for a limited edition festival poster created by talented artist Tom J Newell. While the focus is undoubtedly on the fantastic brews, the festival offers much more. You can indulge tyour taste buds with quality food offerings along Abbeydale Road, ensuring that you have the perfect accompaniment to your chosen beers. And for those seeking some late-night revelry, Picture House Social

will keep the tunes pumping until the early hours.

The Abbeydale Road Beer Festival also proudly introduces the return of ‘A Pint of Sheffield’, a sold-out beer created through Instagram polls by the people of Sheffield. This exclusive brew will be available in every venue, with 15p from each pint sold going to Roundabout, a local youth homelessness charity. By raising a glass, attendees can contribute to a worthy cause while enjoying a truly community-driven beer.

Adding to the excitement, Roundabout will host a colossal raffle with a range of enticing prizes, including crates of beer and Tramlines tickets for 2024. The raffle offers a chance for attendees to win fantastic rewards while supporting a local charity, changing the lives of people in our community.

We’ll see you there. Your round, yeah?

Follow @abbeydaleroadfestival for the latest updates

Sheffield’s beer enthusiasts are in for a treat as the highly anticipated Abbeydale Road Beer Festival returns this summer.

ART ON TAP

Pete McKee is set to host a three-day Sheffield pub crawl this July, celebrating the importance of the much-loved local.

Renowned artist Pete has teamed up with four of the city’s local drinking establishments, as well as Kelham Island Brewery, to put on the three-day event from Friday 7 July – Sunday 9 July, ahead of his much-anticipated exhibition this November.

Over the three days, visitors to four iconic Sheffield pubs (Fagan’s on Broad Lane – home of McKee’s iconic ‘The Snog’ mural; The Bath Hotel in Broomhall; The Greystones on Greystones Road; and the Brother’s Arms at Heeley) can pick up a free Pete McKee pub crawl card and get it stamped when they purchase a drink at each venue.

Visitors with stamps from all four pubs will then be able to exchange the card in the days after the event for a limited edition ‘The Snog’ beer glass, which will be exchanged at the Pete McKee gallery located at 365 Sharrow Vale Road.

The artist has also joined forces with Kelham Island Brewery to produce a limitededition Frank & Joy beer for the event, which will be available at all four of the venues across the pub crawl weekend.

Pete said: “A major part of the Frank & Joy: A Love Story exhibition later this year will be about the bond local pubs have with their communities – and what better way to celebrate this than a good old fashioned pub crawl?

“I’ve picked four of my favourite pubs here in Sheffield to take part and got the wonderful Kelham Island Brewery involved too. I hope people will get on board and pay each pub

a visit over the event weekend, joining me in supporting our all-important locals and recognising the role they play in bringing people together.”

In addition to the stamp card and limitededition beer, each pub will also have a different Pete McKee beer mat available, all of which can be joined together to reveal a print by the artist.

The exhibition, opening a decade after the original mural was painted, will celebrate Frank and Joy’s life story told through their local, while showcasing the vital role pubs play within our communities.

It will be hosted at Trafalgar Warehouse in Sheffield city centre from 4th-19th November 2023 and tickets are available now to purchase at www. frankandjoy.co.uk

GET DISCOUNTS WITH TRAVELMASTER

Throughout July, TravelMaster are partnering with local businesses around Ecclesall and Sharrow Vale Road to offer exclusive offers when you show a TravelMaster Smartcard or ticket.

Their ExploreSY campaign highlights an area where passengers can explore exciting destinations with their TravelMaster ticket and smartcard, which can then be used to pick up offers in participating venues. This month, they’ve teamed up with a selection of S11 businesses to offer discounts to anyone who shows their TravelMaster card when making a purchase.

Follow #ExploreSY for more details and sign up here for updates: sytravelmaster.com.

WHAT’S ON OFFER THIS MONTH

Simply show your TravelMaster card for the following deals…

White Rose and White Rose

Mens

15% off at the popular sustainable clothing store

Dysh

5% off food and drink (Monday –Friday) at one of Ecclesall Road’s finest cafés

UBX Sheffield

15% off a standard membership at the new boxing and strength training gym

Pom

15% off at Sharrow Vale’s road much-loved coffee shop and vegan paradise

Partners Menswear

15% off menswear store with a carefully chosen range of brands from the UK, Europe, USA and Japan that offer quality and style

Slap & Pickle

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the tuesday club

tuesday 6th june

summer carnival: flowdan|conducta aziza|k.o.g|franz von

£13/15, Doors 4:00pm, 18+

tuesday 13 june 2023

squid

‘o monolith’ album launch

£14.50, Doors 7:00pm

wednesday 14 june 2023

mcfly album launch show

£15.50, Doors 7:30pm

saturday 1 july 2023

mystery jets

£17, Doors 7:30pm

thursday 5 oct 2023 pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs

£17.50, Doors 7:30pm

friday 6 oct 2023

nation of language

£20, Doors 7:30pm

saturday 21 oct 2023

the bluetones

£25, Doors 6:30pm

wednesday 25 oct 2023

the dust coda

£14, Doors 7:00pm

friday 27 oct 2023 from the jam

“all mod cons”

£32.50, Doors 7:00pm

friday 3 nov 2023

flash & the darkniss

£20, Doors 7pm

friday 10 nov 2023

peace

£17.50, Doors 7:00pm

saturday 11 nov 2023

untold orchestra presents a history of beyonce

£12/£14, Doors 7:00pm

saturday 18 nov 2023

the pigeon

Detectives

£20, Doors 6:30pm

sunday 19 nov 2023

skerryvore

£24.00, Doors 7:00pm

saturday 25 nov 2023

smoove & turrell + solar love society

£18, Doors 7:00pm

thursday 30 nov 2023

starsailor

£24.50, Doors 7:00pm

all shows open to the public (14+ unless stated otherwise) tickets available from foundrysu.com box office: 0114 222 8777

friday 1 dec 2023

the view

£24.00, Doors 6:30pm

saturday 2 dec 2023

definitely oasis vs the complete stone roses

£17.50, Doors 7pm

saturday 16 dec 2023

slade

£32.50, Doors 7:00pm

foundry, sheffield students’ union western bank, s10 2tg foundrysu.com - foundry@sheffield.ac.uk

scan for tickets

SHEFFIELD’S BEST ELECTRONIC DAY AND NIGHT FESTIVAL BRINGS THE PARTY AGAIN THIS MONTH! AFTER A HUGELY MEMORABLE EVENT IN MAY WHICH SAW SKYLINE TAKE OVER A HOST OF VENUES AND SPACES ACROSS NEEPSEND, THE TEAM ARE BACK WITH ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM’ – 13 HOURS OF IMMERSIVE RAVING WITH SOME OF THE CITY’S FINEST TALENT BEHIND THE DECKS. EXPOSED CAUGHT UP WITH ORGANISERS PHIL MCCUE AND SIMON TOMLINSON TO DISCUSS HOW THEY’LL ONCE AGAIN BE PUSHING BOUNDARIES FOR THEIR RETURN ON JULY 15TH.

PHOTOGRAPHY: BRAD WOOD

Following on from a hugely successful Skyline event spread across six venues in May, it’s difficult to see how you’re going to top that with your upcoming Midsummer Night’s Dream event! You’ve mentioned even bigger and better production elements, but can you tell us a bit more about what you’ve got planned?

PM: I think I speak for both of us when I say that the last Skyline event was the proudest we’ve ever been of an event we’ve worked on – which is amazing, but it definitely heaps the pressure on for the next one!

Since the very first Skyline we’ve always tried to introduce something new at every event, and it’s no different this time around. We’ve been fortunate enough to bring on board some of the industry’s finest minds to take the production to the next level with coordinated laser shows and festivallevel pyrotechnics, as well as a few surprises we’re keeping under wraps for now!

You always put a big focus on showcasing local talent at your events. Who shall we be looking out for at this one?

PM: When we talk about Sheffield’s musical history, it’s only natural that the first names that come to mind are Pulp and Arctic Monkeys, but our city has always been at the forefront of the electronic scene, with venues like Gatecrasher and Niche acting as an incubator for up-and-coming talent.

Since we launched Skyline in April last year,

we’ve been lucky enough to have over fifty local DJs play for us, and watching their development has been one of the highlights of running the event. We’re really excited to be bringing Tommy Farrow back for the next event – a local lad who’s gone from producing in his Sheffield Hallam uni halls to being named as Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record in the World’ on BBC Radio 1.

What are the advantages of hosting at Southbank Warehouse and FØRGE?

ST: As we come into the summer months, the outside space offered by both Southbank and FØRGE allows us to create two great stages for the daytime part of the festival – and the FØRGE Warehouse really is the perfect arena for us to showcase world-class lighting and production to compliment the incredible music from local artists.

What’s the key to hosting a successful dance music event? What are key targets that need hitting?

PM: There’s a lot that goes into running a big event behind-the-scenes that people don’t see. For us, it’s a case of paying attention to 100 small details and having complete faith in the people you bring on board to help. Whether it be the tech geniuses at RAZE Soundsytem, the team at Trinity Medical who keep everybody safe, or the creative minds at Flawless Entertainment, we’re fortunate to partner with some amazing local businesses that make sure the event runs like clockwork every time.

How would you sum up the Skyline ethos in a nutshell?

ST: Events should all be about being able to relax, be yourself and make incredible memories – we work really hard to ensure everyone is able to do this by focusing on every aspect of what makes a festival great: music, production, safety and inclusivity.

What are your plans for the future of the festival? Do you have any upcoming expansions, collaborations, or changes in mind?

ST: Stay tuned for that!

@skylinesheffield

SCAN THE QR CODE TO SECURE YOUR TICKET FOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM AT SOUTHBANK WAREHOUSE AND FØRGE (TICKETS START FROM £10).

DRASTIC TIMES CALL FOR…

Banging down a pub door ahead of opening time wasn’t quite how we envisaged our meeting with Sheffield three-piece Drastic Automatic, but, as The Closed Shop in Commonside, had err… closed up shop, we hastily relocated round the corner to the Springvale pub, where thankfully there were (faint) signs of life.

In a way it was a fitting start to a meeting with a band who describe their output as “music for people who are always running late” and, once the landlady had begrudgingly let us and the local early boozers in, we settled in the beer garden to catch a glimpse into the world of the dystopian tune merchants.

While they might be fresh on our radar, the current incarnation of the band – Sean Hession (Vocals), Benji Wilson (Drums) and Sissy Green (Bass) – has actually been knocking around since 2020, with Sissy telling us they “had more line-up changes than the Sugababes!” before he joined.

Ever-presents Sean and Benji met while studying at the University of Sheffield, striking up a musical kinship through the uni’s Music Society. The pair then began jamming and eventually writing songs together under various interestingly named guises in 2016.

“It’s the first band I’ve ever had,” says Sean. “It’s not only been me learning how to play live though. Benji didn’t even play drums when we first started jamming; he was a bassist.”

Sissy started uni the year before and wound up living with Sean in halls in 2016. In his possession was the cultural capital of a fully functioning guitar amp and after

borrowing it for a few years Sean and Benji finally asked Sissy to join in 2020, cementing the current line-up.

“I used to be into DJing and clubbing, and I still am,” explains Sissy, “but I had this amp that I didn’t play, and they knew that, so they’d come round and be like, ‘Can I borrow it please? Promise to bring it back.’”

“They were called the Gareth Barry’s at that time and were making the ‘Whale Milk Demos’, and I was like, ‘Please let me be in this band.’ And, eventually, they did.”

Sissy duly borrowed his brother’s bass guitar, started lending pedals, and then “smacked it and whacked it” until he had some riffs and thus, Drastic Automatic was born.

Sissy admits: “I’m not the most technically gifted, but I’ve got the rhythm in me. I like to play bass like a guitar and turn up the high-end.”

Sean expands: “That’s kind of our ethos when it comes to making music together. I don’t know anything about music theory. The only instrument lessons I’ve ever had were on drums when I was a little kid, but I lived in terraced housing in London, so the neighbours got really pissed off.

Their unique sound was cultivated during lockdown, in the abandoned former home of a Sheffield nightlife landmark, The Night Kitchen.

Benji said: “It’d been left to rot. There were holes in the floor and we were risking bronchitis from the mould. It was eerie and creepy, lots of silence –basically, it was just right for us to make music.”

Sean says: “At the time, it was fundamental to how the music sounded. Everyone was struggling

mentally because of the lockdowns, and it became a place we could go once a week and be really fucking loud. It was a release.”

For Sean in particular, it provided some much-needed stability and focus at time when his life had been thrown into chaos.

Sean explains: “I had loads of crazy stuff happening in my life at the time. I was in a fire at my old student house in Broomhill. The equipment was really old, and it just caught fire one day. After that, I had this year of chaos and was living a little bit homeless.

“In a way it kind of incentivised me. I’d never played a gig live and me and Benji had been playing together for years. I was like, I need to actually do this now. I want to make tunes and play them to people.”

Following the lockdowns, they finally got their chance to get up on stage. However, in keeping with Drastic Automatic’s chaotic style, it wasn’t always plain sailing.

“We genuinely thought we were cursed for a while.” Says Sissy.

Sean explains: “We’ve played nearly 20 shows now, but in a good proportion of the early ones something unexpected always happened. My very first show was at The Washington and my guitar just broke on the second to last tune.”

Now, with more gigs under their belt, they’ve begun to hone their stagecraft, displaying this newfound confidence at a recent Get Together performance. For us, they were the unexpected highlight of the day, setting the festival alight (thankfully, not literally) to a packed-out audience, who, by the second half of their set, were moshing amongst the

Off the back of an electrifying Get Together performance, Exposed’s Ash Birch caught up with Sheffield noise punks Drastic Automatic to talk house fires, nuclear war and Sheffield's DIY scene…

Photo: Soph Webb

dartboards of Neepsend Social Club to their almost unrecognisable cover of ‘Where’s Your Head At’ and original stompers like ‘The Cup Final’.

Get Together was easily their biggest show to date in their adopted hometown of Sheffield, a city they fell in love with in the years through uni and beyond.

Sean tells us why: “Sheffield is a great place to be in a band if you just want to make music.”

“It’s always had that spirit,” says Sissy. “The whole DIY scene and everyone helping each other – it’s got a collaborative spirit.”

With momentum steadily building, last year they released the first of four singles, ‘A Smash Hit for the People’, a cheery reminder of the ever-present threat of nuclear war.

Sean tells us: “The first version of that tune was written when there was a lot of tension between Iran and America, and potential nuclear fallout. I was trying to write lyrics based on the headlines and the media sensationalism around it.

“When we eventually released it, Vladimir Putin was arming up Belarus and it was around the time of the war in Ukraine, so it still seemed depressingly relevant.”

Benji added: “We’d always written songs about dystopia and apocalypse, and then COVID happened. We’d walk to the studio and there was just no one anywhere. Like full-on apocalypse Sheffield. The songs made even more sense.”

Between the band members, musical tastes vary wildly, with everything from trap and early noughties rap, to psyche rock and hardcore represented. Some of these influences are overtly reflected in the sound, and they often get compared to Gang of Four, but as a collective, the band they most wanted to emulate was Modest Mouse.

Sean said: “The thing about the bands we get mentioned alongside is that their rhythmically-driven punk bands. We wanted to make music, not necessarily that you can dance to, but that you can move to. You can get lost in it. It’s quite hypnotising at times.”

@drasticautomatic

With a new single and an Exposed Awards nomination recently in the bag, we grabbed five with Nick Hibbert and Liam Sparkes, lead singer and drummer respectively of reverb-soaked, dreamy indie-pop purveyors Beachcomber.

Hello Beachcomber! First of all, for any Exposed readers out there who are as of yet unacquainted, could you tell us what you’re all about?

NH: Hello! We’re a band born out of Sheffield’s very own Kelham Island, combining a mixture of styles to create driving rhythms with dreamy intertwining guitar lines. We’re just doing our thing and hoping people like it!

More importantly, why should they catch a Beachcomber live show at the next possible opportunity?

NH: The combination of our influences makes for a captivating show; we’ve had such a vast array of comparisons, such as The Smiths, DIIV and Sam Fender, to name a few. Our shows oscillate through stages of high energy into floaty dreaminess with plenty of audience participation and interaction throughout. Plus, we’re always writing and recording new music, so a live show is often the first chance to catch an earworm early. Most recently, we’ve been invited to play gigs around the country – London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool etc. – but we’re looking forward to booking in a hometown gig again soon!

As mentioned, you’re based in Kelham Island, which is of course teeming with musical heritage from the bands who’ve practiced and recorded there over the years. Does that influence/inspire you at all?

NH: Well, until recently we were practising in a certain Arctic Monkeys’ first practice space, the one from the cover of the ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ EP. Maybe we’ve been passed some inspiration by some of the old posters they left up. There are some Richard Hawley guitar tones which make their way in every now and again!

Even today, Kelham is a fantastic spot for creatives of all creeds. Being based there, it definitely feels like we’re a part of a vibrant community, and it’s great to feel inspired by all the artwork on display while walking through its postindustrial backdrop. The area’s scenery featured heavily in the music video we released last year to support our track ‘Deep Blue’ from our first EP A Sea Above.

Your new single ‘Flowers’ is out now. What can you tell us about the track?

NH: ‘Flowers’ was released in early June (go listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, etc…). Recorded at Tesla Studios by the incredible David Glover. The track uses vibrant, dizzying colour, haunting synth sounds and expressive, brooding vocal delivery to paint a futile attempt to persuade somebody

who already has contradicting preconceived ideas. It focuses on the emotional position it creates because of the resistance to having your voice heard.

We’ve also got a music video coming out for it, which we worked with James Ayliff from Jayliff Design to shoot across various locations in Sheffield including Parkwood Springs, Grenoside Woods and Kelham Island Museum.

Finally, tell us an interesting fact about the band or one of its members….

NH: I guess an interesting music related fact is that our drummer Liam’s uncle was the original bassist in Dr. Feelgood (John B. Sparkes).

LS: My uncle’s music career had a big influence on me getting into music. As a child, I would always hear stories of the band from my dad who was a roadie for Dr.Feelgood at their peak. I was once given a brass plaque from their original practice room door and still have it to this day.

It’s currently hung up above my drum kit at home as a momento.

@beachcomberband

LISTEN TO THE LATEST SINGLE ‘FLOWERS’

MUSIC

Ahead of an upcoming performance at Tramlines Festival, Iago Castro Charlón catches up with up-and-coming Sheffield rapper and hip-hop artist Kid Blu3.

It’s been a big year for you on the Sheffield music scene. How are you finding things at the moment?

I feel good about my career so far. I’d say it’s a very hungry scene. I guess it’s very, very hard to try and get to the top, but there are those who do succeed, so it’s just really a challenge. It’s like a competition type of thing.

Does being from Sheffield influence your music at all, and could we be expecting a debut album any time soon?

I suppose just hearing the sounds of different upcoming artists and trying to blend different sounds together. I’m very, very excited for people to hear my upcoming Tramlines set. In terms of a debut album, that’s to come!

You’ve had some interesting shows recently, including performing for a TEDx event based in Doncaster. That’s an interesting gig! Can you tell us a bit about that experience?

TEDx was a very interesting event because I met different people from all over the world. And I enjoyed how different it was to perform on a different type of stage because you have to stay within the carpeted area, and the crowd was obviously a bit different as well. But it was very interesting experience and I enjoyed it.

Obviously, Tramlines is the biggie coming up in July, but what else is on the agenda this year?

I’m planning more gigs. I also run my own events as well, which are like a showcase for

LISTEN TO KID

upcoming artists from the ages of 14 to 25, so I’ve working on those recently. I’ve recently been working on an indoor festival for Tramlines; we got given some money, and I worked on that that with some other people, the Element Society here in Sheffield. In terms of gigs, I’m performing in Manchester on 27th June as part of a young artist showcase, and then I’ll be performing in Sheffield on 1st July. There’s another Sheffield show on 15th July at Riverside Sheffield, and then there’s the Library Stage at Tramlines on 22nd July.

Nice and busy! As a last question, feel free leave a message of your choosing for our readers.

If you’re an upcoming artist, or you’re trying to get into the music scene, make sure you keep your circle small and think logically. Think smarter, not harder. And if you want to follow my Instagram, it’s @kid_blu3e.

Catch Kid Blu3 playing The Library Stage at Tramlines Festival on Saturday 22nd July, where the artist will be joined by a plethora of local talent across the weekend.

BLU3 HERE:

Photo: @reel_it_photo

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The global clubbing brand Gatecrasher, made famous by legendary dance music events in Sheffield during the 90s, will return to its spiritual home for a one-off day of iconic classic dance music for this year’s Rock N Roll Circus at Don Valley Bowl.

Building on previous classical events, plans for this allday event on Sunday 3rd September will see legendary Gatecrasher DJs performing alongside a full orchestra, featuring some of the most iconic dance tracks as you’ve never heard them before.

Last month, it was officially announced that globally acclaimed DJ and audio architect Ferry Corsten will join a string of high-profile artists including Ilan Bluestone, Ruben de Ronde, Mark V, Sander van Doorn and the Gatecrasher Classical orchestra.

Speaking ahead of the announcement, a spokesperson for Rock N Roll Circus told Exposed: “Gatecrasher was at the zenith of clubbing culture in this country for so many years and we’re proud to be able to bring it back for this one-off all-day spectacular in its spiritual home of Sheffield.

“The millennium party it hosted 23 years ago is the stuff of legend, and we couldn’t think of a better way to conclude our first Rock N Roll Circus in the city with an all-out Gatecrasher party featuring all of the DJs that helped propel

its brand onto the international stage.

“We’re proud to be bringing our event to South Yorkshire. Sheffield has such a strong tradition for live music, we’re delighted to be able to host our touring concept there.”

The Rock N Roll Circus event combines the best in musical talent with the weird and wonderful world of the circus. Alongside a varied live music bill, guests will also be treated to performances from resident aerialists, stilt walkers, fortune tellers and all manner of circus-themed entertainment.

There will also be a distinct family-friendly element to this event complete with circus workshops, family activities and fun for the kids – details of which will all be announced soon.

Rock N Roll Circus 2023 is scheduled to take place at the Don Valley Bowl across three days, 1st-3rd September.

The Friday will see Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds headline the big top, joined by performances from Happy Mondays, The Cribs, The Joy Formidable and Somebody’s Child.

Saturday will be headlined by South Yorkshire’s finest Self Esteem, preceded by live slots by Confidence Man, Bimini, Arctic Numpties and more.

On Sunday, the party will be signed off in style by the likes of Ferry Corsten, Sander Van Doorn, Ian Bluestone, Marco V, Ruben de Ronde and the Gatecrasher Classical orchestra. All ticket options available at rocknrollcircus.co.uk.

FUN IN THE SUN

The sun is shining in Sheffield, and we have another busy month as Pride season continues. Following on from the success of their busiest event to date last year, LGBT Sheffield’s Pinknic returns on Sat 15 July. The event will commence with their LGBTQ+ Unity March from Barkers Pool to the main event at the Peace Gardens, with stalls from the city’s various LGBTQ+ groups and organisations available to peruse. Joining the spectacle will be an afternoon of performances from Electric Blue, Emma Maezin, Rio, Adam Heyes, Stevie Moore, Ink Dance, Jade and Patricia Lynn. The official afterparty will continue at Revolución de Cuba, hosted by Emma Maezin featuring live performances, guest entertainers, games and shot limbo with a soundtrack of clubland, floorfillers, pride anthems and pure pop excellence.

You can see Emma Maezin around the city at her regular nights including Dragaoke (every Thursday) at Maggie Mays, Drag Karaoke (Fri 7 Jul) at Bagshaw Arms, more Drag Karaoke (Fri

14/Sat 22) at Ball Inn, and Drag Bingo (Wed 12 Jul) and Bottomless Brunch and Drag Show (Sun 23 Jul) at Revolución de Cuba. Emma will also be joining forces with Bipolar Abdul for a Drag Bingo Pride Special (Wed 19 Jul) at Hagglers Corner, coming together for the first time EVER! That’s double the performances, double the glam, double the fun! Non-binary Drag Artist Bipolar Abdul will also be back at The Dorothy Pax ,hosting their new monthly queer friendly indie night Friends of Dorothy [Wed 26 Jul] with great tunes and drag performances, all based around alternative indie music.

This year, we finally see the first Pride event to take place in the city since Covid as organisers of the recent Joy, Power, Protest Trans March are back to host Sheffield Radical Pride (Sat 22 Jul). At the time of writing, final details are to be announced but check out their socials to see what they have planned for the day. CYB3R will be back at DINA venue that evening for CYB3R - Tramlines Fringe Pride Afterparty (Sat 22 Jul) – a collective of queer

LGBTQ+

artists that bring hyperpop/electronic/dance music events to Sheffield providing a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community to party their hardest.

Sheffield’s best, weirdest (and only) drag monster cabaret King Confuza’s Cryptid Queers (Sat 15 Jul) is back at Bal Fashions – bigger and better than ever with special guest co-host Gilly Woo spotlighting rising monster talent from Sheffield and beyond. This time around they are offering club-only entry tickets from midnight, so if drag isn’t your thing, you can still come and dance to their incredible guest DJs once the final floor show ends.

The Funky Beavers’ Miss Cleo will be heading out to Dinnington’s Lyric Theatre with Queen Bingo (Sat 22 Jul) for a night of games. There’s more bingo fun at the OEC’s Summer Big Drag Bingo (Sat 29 Jul) – dress to impress in your best beachwear and summer outfits to win some amazing prizes! And there is, of course, plenty of drag over at the Malin Bridge Inn, whose lineup this month includes The Miss Bella End Show (Sat 1 Jul), Vivian Twist Drag DJ (Sat 15 Jul) and Tanya Minge’s Drag Queen Bingo (Fri 28 Jul).

Sheffield Central Library will be hosting a special Pride Month film screening of Queerama (Wed 19 Jul) – a story traversing a century of gay experiences, encompassing persecution and prosecution, injustice, love, desire, identity, secrets, forbidden encounters, sexual liberation and pride. They will also be joined this month by Kit Heyam talking about their book Before We Were Trans (Mon 10 Jul) – a new and different story of gender, that seeks not to be comprehensive or definitive, but – by blending culture, feminism and politics – to widen the scope of what we think of as trans history by telling the stories of people across the globe whose experience of gender has been transgressive, or not characterised by stability or binary categories.

There will be more opportunity to learn about of queer histories from SAYiT’s Fiona Moorcroft at the lunchtime talk Queer Elders Up North (Tue 4 Jul), uncovering the lives of Northern queer elders in history. You’ll find out about the young men and women who travelled from the north of England to Wales to meet with the Ladies of Llangollen during the Regency era. Fiona will also explore the influence of Edward Carpenter’s lectures on sexuality and gender at the end of the 1800s, and the young people who flocked to hear more.

All of these events happen largely through the dedication of various members of our communities working throughout the year to create a lively and diverse scene. If you would like to be one of them, head to the Queer Fest Planning Meeting [Mon 17 Jul] at Showroom Café, where you can join the team planning the latest festival event to be added to next year’s LGBTQ+ calendar. That’s your lot for this month! Do make sure to check out the latest event announcements at www.facebook.com/ sheffieldlgbtevents.

THE SUN IS SHINING IN SHEFFIELD, AND WE HAVE ANOTHER BUSY MONTH AS PRIDE SEASON CONTINUES

Thursday 13th July

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Meticulous symmetry, vibrant color palettes and charmingly dysfunctional characters (usually played by Bill Murray) – Exposed’s Cal Reid marks the latest addition to the Wes Anderson franchise with his top two films from the quirky director, followed by a frank review of his eleventh feature, Asteroid City.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Considered to be amongst Anderson’s best, if not the best, in his filmography, Grand Budapest represents all the quintessential elements that distinguish his work operating at maximum indulgence but perfectly balanced with excellent performances, beautiful production design, editing and charming humour. If nothing else, Anderson’s films are universally impressive visually, but Grand Budapest’s pre-WWII European pastiche may be the director’s most aesthetically interesting setting. An all-star cast is another common feature, but Grand Budapest utilises that attribute to the fullest, even if its stars only occupy a small amount of the running time.

DID YOU KNOW?

To depict the titular hotel, Wes Anderson and his team created an intricate and detailed miniature model of the entire building. The model was used for exterior shots and allowed for precise control over the visual representation of the hotel, contributing to the film’s whimsical and fantastical atmosphere.

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU

The Wes Anderson film I saw, and although the likes of Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs are objectively more accomplished, this remains a favourite of mine. I’d argue that anyone looking to get into Anderson’s work should probably start here.

The film follows the Moby-Dick-like quest of eccentric oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) as he seeks to hunt down the illusive jaguar shark that ate his former partner. A parody and affectionate tribute to oceanographer Jacques Cousteau –Anderson drew inspiration from Cousteau’s adventurous spirit, unique style and his iconic red beanie – Life Aquatic was a flop upon release, and received mixed reactions from critics, but today is rightly regarded as a strong, intelligent piece of work that balances Anderson’s signature blend of quirky artificialness, emotional maturity and offbeat humour.

DID YOU KNOW?

Wes Anderson is known for his distinctive use of colour in his films, and in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou each character has a specific palette associated with them. Zissou, for instance, often wears a bright red beanie and a blue jumpsuit, while other characters have their own signature hues.

ASTEROID CITY REVIEW

Asteroid City begins as it means to go on, at a detrimentally listless pace. Set in a strikingly artificial desert town circa 1955, Wes Anderson’s latest is awash with shallow references to 50s and 60s film and TV, immediately apparent with Bryan Cranston done up to look like Rod Serling. The opening credits play over a freight train speeding through a Looney Tunes desert landscape, recreating the opening minutes from Bad Day at Black Rock.

The impressive cast sport the costumes of classic stars from movies I’d much rather have been watching. There’s Scarlett Johansson looking like Elizabeth Taylor from Giant, Rupert Friend in Paul Newman’s denim and Stetson combo from Hud, Adrien Brody doing Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, and the black and white scenes inside the Actors Studio sequences feature recreations of iconic poses by the likes of Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.

The packed screening room I was in

remained noticeably quiet throughout. Aside from the odd bout of chuckling from a couple on the back row, whatever humour was present in Asteroid City was met with telling silence. The dialogue exchanges between the numerous familiar faces are utterly inconsequential and so stiffly delivered, I found it almost impossible to keep up for more than a few seconds. Doubtless the delivery, like the ostentatiously artificial mise-en-scène, is deliberate. Still, this doesn’t make the film any good!

This feels more like a parody of a Wes Anderson film, overwhelmingly indulgent to the point of vexing incoherency, and, perhaps most disappointingly of all, lacking in any real heart. There’s plenty of referential style and very little – if any – discernible substance. Big fans of Anderson’s work will likely find enough enjoyably familiar material, however, and perhaps take away a deeper meaning.

1.5/5

THE FLASH

The much-delayed DCEU multiverse adventure has finally arrived. The landscape of the superhero genre has changed exponentially between production and release. Not only is the DCEU now effectively over with James Gunn in creative control of the DC superhero pantheon at Warner Bros., but the multiverse film as a cinematic sub-genre has been extensively explored with varying degrees of success. Coupled with the numerous problems surrounding its star and you get a film with the odds stacked overwhelmingly against it. It’s amazing, really, that The Flash is as good as it is.

The film’s primary issue is also the most obvious – the CGI. Whilst not all terrible, it is frequently, frighteningly ghastly in ways utterly inexcusable for a major studio film. It’s a real shame because the sets, costumes and production design are quite strong. The central performance by Miller in a dual role is highly commendable; the humour

works and is balanced well with the more serious elements. Most importantly, The Flash is about relatable consequences, and it remains anchored to the idea that no matter how powerful you might be, you can’t save everyone, irrespective of how desperately you want to or how hard you try. Hardly original –after all, this is one of SpiderMan’s recurring internal conflicts – but it works well with Barry Allen and justifies Batman’s prominence in the story.

Incidentally, and I’m sure it

comes as no surprise, Keaton is the film’s best attribute. The costumes, fight choreography and dialogue make you firmly believe this is a continuation of Tim Burton’s interpretation of the character. Keaton’s performance, as in Batman and Batman Returns, is so effortlessly enigmatic you can’t help but be immediately enthralled.

I don’t share many criticisms I’ve read of the third act becoming an overwhelming mess of action. In fact, it deliberately robs the audience of the typical giant set piece so common in the genre, instead bringing its central characters harshly back to earth. The only casualty of this is Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, who does an excellent job with very little screen time.

Fun, fast-paced and at times surprisingly touching, The Flash is a long way from a masterpiece, but there’s plenty of heart with strong performances – and a brilliant swan song for one of the most beloved Batman actors of all time. 3/5

IN CINEMAS THIS MONTH

Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny

Harrison Ford returns as the legendary hero archaeologist in the highly anticipated fifth instalment of the iconic franchise.

Oppenheimer

A star-studded cast features in Christopher Nolan’s epic thriller following the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) – the man referred to as “the father of the atomic bomb”.

Insidious: The Red Door

The horror franchise’s original cast returns for the final chapter of the Lambert family’s terrifying saga.

Barbie

Greta Gerwig’s film featuring the iconic doll sees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling on the big screen as Barbie and Ken, who make a detour for the human world in this live-action take on the doll's story.

Elemental

The latest Pixar animation follows an unlikely pair, Ember and Wade, in a city where fire, water, land and air elements live alongside each other.

CULTURE

SANCTUARY ON THE STAGE

John Tomlinson, executive director at Stand and Be Counted Theatre, gives us the lowdown on the Sheffield-based organisation which makes bold, innovative live and digital art for and with people seeking sanctuary.

First of all, can you tell us what Stand and Be Counted Theatre is all about?

SBC is a Theatre Company of Sanctuary, meaning that all of our work is created with and for people seeking sanctuary (refugees, asylum seekers, migrants) in our communities. We use theatre as a tool for inspiring creativity, confidence and skill-building. It can also be a really useful tool for learning English, but more than that, it’s about people feeling safe in an environment and their place. The theatre we make is sometimes in a theatre, sometimes in a park, sometimes it’s not theatre at all – it becomes a film, or a music video or a video game. The work we make is always led by people with lived

experience, and therefore the ideas and form of our work responds to that. Our core team is Rosie MacPherson (Artistic Director, Joint CEO and co-founder), John Tomlinson (Executive Director, Joint CEO and co-founder), Firas Chihi (Community Director) and Smart Banda (Digital Director).

How does SBC Theatre contribute to the local community and support emerging artists?

We run regular, long-term creative empowerment programmes. In Sheffield, we have Young People Together, our young adult group (18-30yrs); and our Youth Theatre of Sanctuary (5-17yrs). In

Bradford and Leeds, we have Soap Box, our adult group (18+). The regularity of our sessions means that we really get to know people and can offer long-term support and development from being a Participant, to becoming an Artist, before emerging as Leaders (PALs, as we call it!).

We make between 8-12 productions a year, at varying scales, which means that we also work with lots of brilliant freelance creatives across our programme. As an indicator, in 2022, we employed 39 artists from our region to work with nearly 1,300 participants. We have a flat company rate, which means that everyone we work with, as core staff or freelance, is paid the same. We think this supports a really collaborative, non-hierarchical way of working, and have definitely recognised this as a key contribution to supporting talented artists to develop. We see the challenges in our sectors, and we are actively looking at how we can make things more equitable for artists, participants and our audiences, who can see any of our work for free (or pay-whatyou-can).

Can you share some notable productions or projects that SBC Theatre has been involved in, and what impact did they have?

We have been lucky to work on so many

productions that we’re proud of, and they all have their beauty – particularly when we know the journeys that people have been on to go from their first introduction to being in front of an audience. We loved making Have Your Passport Ready, which is a virtual experience that puts the audience directly in the world of the UK’s hostile environment. Led by brothers Khaled and Mohammad Aljawad from Syria, now based in Sheffield, it explores an unknown city without an interpreter as audiences become players collecting evidence to prove their right to remain in the UK. The response was really something, with the Guardian likening it to the Netflix/Black Mirror ‘Bandersnatch’ episode.

Our touring theatre production of TANJA will always be close to our hearts, the first project that connected our work as activists and campaigners to our theatre work, and it led to us becoming the UK’s first Theatre Company of Sanctuary. The play was an impassioned call to arms and a campaign to end immigration detention in the UK. We worked with the incredible Emily Ntshangase – a former Yarl’s Wood detainee, and now one of our Trustees. We toured that show twice around the UK, and also did a sharing of it at The Houses of Parliament, as part of a special ‘Sanctuary in Parliament’ event to cross-

party MPs. Secret Summer, an app-based binaural audio adventure, was co-created with our Youth Theatre of Sanctuary and is the first project of its kind to develop the skills of children seeking sanctuary in game and app design.

What steps does SBC Theatre take to promote diversity and inclusivity within the organisation and its productions?

Everything we do – and it’s written in our reason for being – is about promoting the positivity of diversity, sharing and creating space with amazing people from around the globe. We have an experienced board and core team, more than 50% of whom have lived experience of seeking sanctuary/migration. The artists that we work with and the participants we serve have many different backgrounds, cultures, languages, and experiences, so this makes everything we do so much richer. We always work with interpreters but there is a beautiful collaboration and peer support generated in these rooms as we work together to explore all the ways we can communicate and understand each other. Arts and culture are the perfect home for creating that all-important feeling of welcome and we see the difference creativity makes on people’s lives every day.

How does SBC Theatre navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age in terms of production and audience engagement?

We love it. We’ve only been encouraged by the engagement in our work that connects digital and live. We make work in many forms, so if it’s a piece of theatre, the narrative is absolutely focused on that audience experience in that moment. If anyone leaves thinking that work could have been better served in a different way, then we have failed. We made so much work during the pandemic, and maybe we were more prepared than other companies because we work across different geographic places and our team therefore have always had a digital connection to us. There is a big challenge across our society with people’s access to digital: equipment and data is expensive. We used reserves and support from partners o provide for people who wanted to engage with us, and that really matters. Our work is multilingual, so we hope that supports our connection with audiences. We see it as our purpose to make high-quality productions accessible for people in our communities. If we can use digital to enhance our productions, we always will. Where it becomes a barrier, we will do it differently. We talk a lot about theatre being our process but not necessarily the output. We want our participants and artists to explore and pursue all their creative ideas so most of the work tends to result in live, digital and exhibition hybrids.

Can you share any upcoming projects or initiatives that SBC Theatre is currently working on?

We’ve just been part of the brilliant Migration Matters Festival in Sheffield, with our Youth Theatre of Sanctuary group programming work they wanted to see – Mini MigMat. We produced Together for Change with Young People Together group, which is a partnership with The University of Sheffield, and we also presented Secret Summer, an audio adventure for families at Heeley People’s Park.

We’re thrilled to be the Theatre Company in Residence at this year’s Deer Shed Festival at the end of July. We’ll present Secret Summer, Have Your Passport Ready, a range of exhibitions and sound installations, Soap Box Cinema and be part of the Sanctuary Zone to help audiences understand the work of City of Sanctuary.

For more information, head to sbctheatre.co.uk.

Utopia Theatre brings dance and puppetry show to Sheffield

A much-loved children’s book being brought to the stage by a Sheffield-based African theatre company is set to tour community venues across the region to help break down barriers to the arts.

Anna Hibiscus’ Song by Atinuke, co-produced by Utopia Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, will first be performed at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse in Sheffield from 7-15 July.

It will then embark on a run of 11 show dates in Yorkshire community venues from 18-30 July. These performances, seating up to 50 people each, will be ‘pay-as-you-can’ to make sure the theatre performance is accessible and inclusive for as many families as possible.

Told through music, dance, puppetry and traditional African storytelling, Anna Hibiscus’ Song is a theatrical adaptation of Atinuke’s popular children’s book. Suitable for children aged 3+ and their families, the performances will be interactive and colourful throughout to bring the stage and story to life.

Founded by CEO and artistic director Mojisola Kareem-Elufowoju, Utopia Theatre aims to open up access to the arts by empowering and engaging communities, supporting emerging artists and inspiring the next generation.

Kareem-Elufowoju adds: “This performance promises to be an energetic stage adaptation which will light up imaginations and provide fun for families and school groups. Our cast are excited about being able to take the show to smaller venues to delight new and existing audience members after our run at The Playhouse.”

Tickets are on sale now. To reserve seats, visit www. utopiatheatre.co.uk.

MANIC BY RAINA GREIFER

Theatre Deli // 6-7 Jul // £8.50-£10.50

When Raina arrives at her spoken word gig to see her exes in the audience, all the questions she’s had about past sexual experiences begin to surface. Through poetry, comedy, and one very awkward encounter with a cheese string, she begins to explore questions about bad sex, drunk sex and the grey areas of consent. theatredeli.co.uk

MISS SAIGON

Crucible // 8 Jul – 19 Aug // £15-£45

Sheffield Theatres’ new production of the legendary musical. It’s the last days of the Vietnam War, 1975. At the infamous Dreamland night club, Vietnamese bargirl Kim meets American GI Chris and in one fateful night their lives become entwined forever. sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

WATSON: THE FINAL PROBLEM

Playhouse // 22 Jul // £14-£16

The year is 1894. Watson is alone. Sherlock Holmes and his beloved Mary are both gone. London seethes with false reports and rumour. It is time to set the record straight. But as Watson takes us on a journey across Europe to the Reichenbach Falls, is the game really over? sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

TITANIC THE MUSICAL

Lyceum // 18-22 Jul // £15-£55

Based on real people aboard the most legendary ship in the world, Titanic The Musical is a stunning, stirring production focusing on the hopes, dreams and aspirations of her passengers, who each boarded with stories and personal ambitions of their own. sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

EMMA (OPEN-AIR PERFORMANCE)

Botanical Gardens // 19 Jul // £9-£15

Join the critically-acclaimed Pantaloons Theatre Company for a riotous Regency rom-com in the open-air! Meet misguided matchmaker Emma as she tries to play Cupid in this hilarious, fast-paced yet faithful new adaptation of Jane Austen’s satirical story. PS: bring a picnic and something to sit on! tickettailor.com

SHEFFIELD FRINGE PREVIEWS

GETTING CRAFTY!

Crafting Live is heading back to Doncaster on 15th-16th July, the perfect event for anyone interested in making and creating.

Craft expert Stephanie Weightman and her team will be bringing with them a whole host of celebrities, workshops, make and takes, demos, and much more to the event at Doncaster Racecourse, which will be held on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th July 2023.

The show itself is open Saturday 15th (10am5pm) and Sunday 16th July 2023 (10am-4pm).

Throughout both days, you can visit a vast range of exhibitors selling stamps, dies, decoupage, fabric, ribbon, beads and much more. You can stock up on all of your craft essentials, as well as finding inspiration from brand-new products while watching live demonstrations. If you need a break to recharge the batteries, there are plenty of refreshment options on offer and areas to have a much-needed sit down after all that shopping.

Crafting Live is home to a huge and, most importantly, FREE ‘make and take’ area that can be booked on the day. A number of well-known crafters will be running these mini-workshop sessions, which will allow you to take finished projects home with you. The make and take booking point is open from 10am each day – and booking is essential!

Elsewhere, there will be the chance to see Create and Craft shows broadcasting live from the main stage. You could get to be part of the audience and watch some of our crafty celebrities demonstrate

CRAFTING

LIVE

When: Saturday 15th- Sunday 16th

July

Where: Doncaster Racecourse

How much: £5 for a two-day ticket

Where to book: www.craftinglive. co.uk

brand new products live. There may even be a chance to meet some of your favourite presenters after the show!

Parking is free at the venue, and there is a free shuttle bus running between Doncaster railway station and the venue throughout the entire weekend!

Tickets are priced at just £5 for a two-day ticket. Visit www.craftinglive.co.uk to book.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

JAMES GREEN

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER YOUR ARTISTIC SIDE?

I’ve always been into art. When I was a kid, something I really liked was drawing superheroes and footballers and all other sorts of stuff.

WHICH SUPERHEROES AND FOOTBALLERS IN PARTICULAR?

In terms of superheroes, Batman and Spiderman mostly. I’m from Birmingham and my football team was Aston Villa, so I’d draw anything to do with them. This was the 80s when they were quite good, so we’re probably talking about players like Peter Withe and Dennis Mortimer.

AND HOW DID THAT EARLY PASSION DEVELOP?

I loved drawing and art all the way through school. I eventually came to Sheffield in 1992 to study Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam.

A VERY DIFFERENT TYPE OF CITY BACK THEN, I’D IMAGINE? WHAT SORT OF PLACE WAS IT FOR AN ASPIRING ARTIST?

It was fun. I don’t want to sound down on the place, but it was certainly a different city to what is now – a bit more ramshackle, maybe a bit more chaotic. I suppose I didn’t really know what I really wanted to do then. Like a lot of people studying art, you’re just trying different things out.

So, I had a good time. But when I finished, I still didn’t really know what I was doing. I’m not sure I really knew what an artist did. And this is all preinternet, so getting your name out there was a very different thing back then. It was literally having to send slides or photographs to galleries you’d

never heard of before in London. I had one exhibition and then after that, I kind of thought maybe that was it and I should do something else.

WITH YOUR ART CAREER SEEMINGLY SIDELINED, WHAT WAS NEXT FOR YOU?

I bought an Apple Mac and learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. I eventually started to get some freelance work and then for a short while I became a graphic designer. I enjoyed it to an extent, but I still felt rather unfocused and the commercial side of it didn’t excite me. Although I did make some artwork for small record labels, which was interesting and allowed me some creativity.

WHEN DID THE MOVE INTO PRINTMAKING COME ABOUT?

I’d decided to get a “proper job” and worked in admin, first at Leeds University and then Sheffield University. While I was working at the University of Sheffield, someone lent me some linocut tools and equipment and I basically had a go at making a lino print of my cat. It really wasn’t a brilliant print, but I found the process fascinating and wanted to do some more of it. I started to spend more of my spare time making linocuts, not really thinking that anyone else would see them. I think the first one I did for others to see was a Christmas card for family and friends.

WHAT WAS IT THAT APPEALED TO YOU ABOUT THE MEDIUM OF LINO PRINTING?

I suppose in some ways the limitations of linocut I quite liked. You’re generally limited in the amount of colours you can use, especially when you’ve just

Following the opening of a new exhibition at Millennium Gallery, Exposed spoke to celebrated printmaker James Green about his career, creative methods and an enduring fascination with donkeys.

started. I don’t tend to use any more than three or four colours in a print, and usually it’s one or two. It made me think differently about composition. I think you’re also somewhat limited in terms of the level of detail you can get into a print, so you make somewhat bolder work that stands out. I’ve always been drawn towards stark, bold graphic work. I also loved and still love the craft of carving lino. It is immensely therapeutic.

OF COURSE, THE HUMBLE DONKEY HAS BECOME A MAINSTAY OF YOUR WORK OVER THE YEARS, AND

THIS HAS FORMED THE FOUNDATIONS FOR YOUR CURRENT EXHIBITION. WHEN DID DONKEYS FIRST ENTER THE PICTURE AND WHY HAVE THEY REMAINED?

Around 2008 I simply decided to do a print featuring some donkeys, just because I thought they were interesting creatures. I felt like they were a bit undervalued. You know, across the history of art, donkeys have never really been the focus of atention. They’re always in the background, usually carrying something or whatever. And I thought, ‘No, I’m going to

try and change this and celebrate the donkey. I think they’re cool.’

WHAT WAS THE FIRST DONKEY PRINT CALLED?

‘Donkeys Disturbed by Meteor Shower’. It’s a bit of a daft title, but I just tried to imagine what it would be like if some donkeys were in the meteor shower, what they would do. Maybe they would just ignore it and just go, ‘Okay, we’re just going to get on with what we’re doing.’ There’s a certain perceived awkwardness to them, which I quite like. I’m not sure if it’s a real awkwardness and we’re just transferring human emotions to them. But

either way, I quite like that.

So, that just seemed to set a bit of a path. And I thought, well, this is really interesting. I’m going to make some more pictures of donkeys. And the donkey adventures have just seemed to roll on ever since.

AND HERE WE ARE WITH YOUR EXHIBITION, DONKEY NONSENSE, RUNNING AT MILLENNIUM GALLERIES UNTIL OCTOBER. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT THAT?

It’s a mix of old and new work. Part of it is a retrospective from 2008 until

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

now, but I’ve created seven new pieces for the exhibition as well, which are a series of exclusive prints called The Donkey Monoliths. They’re linocuts and screenprints of donkeys exploring these weird landscapes, which I actually made out of plasticine because I’m really into abstract sculpture – you know, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, stuff like that. However, I’m not a sculptor, so I made them out of plasticine. I made the sculptures, photographed them, and then made the prints from there.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ANY ASPIRING ARTISTS OUT THERE?

I’ve always thought that it’s very important to just try and be yourself and not follow a trend. Because if you do follow a trend, you’re just going to get bored, because it’s not really your thing. You’re never going to be completely passionate about something that hasn’t really come from you.

Donkey Nonsense, an exhibition by Sheffieldbased printmaker James Green, is at the Millennium Gallery until October 8. Free entry.

@jamesgreenprintworks