History of The Leadmill

The Leadmill is Sheffield’s longest running live music venue and nightclub.  It first opened its doors in 1980 and has been a creative hub in Sheffield for over 40 years.  It has been voted as Sheffield’s best live music venue on numerous occasions and has also won national awards including from the NME and Live UK. Home to live music, club events, theatre, comedy & film screenings.

We’re currently running 100 live gigs, 150 club nights, 50 comedy events and 50 other exciting events such as cinema screenings, quizzes and talks every year, including events in other venues and cities.

The Leadmill is now firmly established as Sheffield’s premier live music venue and as one of the most renowned venues on the live music scene.  Franz Ferdinand once told the Arcade Fire that playing the Leadmill was seen as a “rite of passage” and seasoned acts still recall the time they played the venue and opt to play here when they could be filling much larger venues instead.

Over the years the likes of Pulp, Coldplay, Oasis, Jorja Smith, The Killers, Elliott Smith, Queens Of The Stone Age, Culture Club, The Housemartins, Suede, The Strokes, Lewis Capaldi, The White Stripes, The Stone Roses, Manic Street Preachers, George Ezra, Primal Scream, Manic Street Preachers, Muse, Kate Nash, The Stereophonics, Miles Kane, Annie Mac, Two Door Cinema Club, The Maccabees, Kings of Leon, IDLES, Courteeners, SEA GIRLS, Kasabian, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, Paul Weller, Circa Waves, Royal Blood, Slaves, James, The La’s, Bombay Bicycle Club and Richard Hawley are just a few of the acts to have graced the Leadmill stage!

We also run a monthly comedy club with some of the most exciting, emerging stand-up comedians from the UK’s prestigious comedy circuit! We’ve also had a number of the top touring comedians visit our stage including: Eddie Izzard, Sara Pascoe, James Acaster, Ed Gamble, Jason Manford, Joe Lycett, Shappi Khorsandi, Rachel Parris, Rob Delaney, Nish Kumar, and David O’Doherty.

We run roughly 3-4 club events per week in term times, and have had guest DJs including Pendulum, Joe Goddard (Hot Chip), Big Shaq, Hight Contrast, Super Hans, Bontan, and Michael Bibi. Guest band DJ sets have included Pulp, The Vaccines, Circa Waves, Blossoms, Shikari Sound System, Peace, Rat Boy, and Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6 Music).

If you have any photos, videos or special memories from any of our shows over the years then please send them to us at information@leadmill.co.uk.