Sheffield!

[Son of Cod]

They really like to burn things down in Sheffield. I have a tape from a rave at an event called Uprising, in Sheffield. At one point someone comes on over the PA and says something along the lines of "has anyone got a blue Escort reg plate K372 URW?? A blue Escort, out in the car park? Come on, move it now your car's on fire!"

You could have gone to the Albert Theatre if you were going pre-1937, but it got burnt down. Or you could have gone to the nightclub, The Republic, which was home to the legendary event Gatecrasher. However it got burnt down. Could have also gone skiing/snowboarding, but yeah...you've guessed it. They managed to somehow burn down their ski village.

 

[T.A]

I don't particularly miss Sheffield, but I imagine there's far worse places to be a student.

I think I just miss being a lazy student tbh.

 

[smat]

enjoy a curry at Aagrah, recently voted best restaurant in the British curry awards.

Is that true?!

 

[smat]

On a more serious note Matthew, some of my favourites haunts were Bungalows and Bears, Devonshire Cat and the Old House. All within a few minutes walk of each other and good selections of proper beers.

The city centre is nice enough for a wander around, you can use the tram service, and the botanical gardens are a pleasant place to go for a walk if the weather's nice.

Thank you, Henderbo.

No, thank you ALL. I feel more than equipped to visit Sheffield, and I'm indebted to you all for that.

I'm really excited. Can't believe I'm going to Massachusetts!

 

[Craig]

Is that true?!

Every word of it.

 

[mnb089mnb]

I'm surprised one of the TFFFFCAAAASMRA real ale society haven't been in touch regarding "The Fat Cat". I believe it to be Sheffield's finest real ale pub.

A woman was sick on my coat when I went to Sheffield. She had her whole family with her and blamed the sickness on the steepness of the Brammal Lane stands, giving her some sort of vertigo-like experience.

Then I got in an argument with Sam Hammam on the train home. That was a horrible day.

 

[mnb089mnb]

I'm very happy to offer my (LIMITED) advice on Sheffield but this is clearly Smat posting a hashtag humblebrag thread. Can spot these a mile off.

 

[smat]

I'm very happy to offer my (LIMITED) advice on Sheffield but this is clearly Smat posting a hashtag humblebrag thread. Can spot these a mile off.

please advise, i really need this

 

[Camborne Gills]

If the 'Fat Cat' is the one by the railway station, I definitely recommend it

 

[Destruction]

You should have a look if the Arctic Monkeys are playing that night, apparently they are from Sheffield.

 

[Alty]

The Sheffield Tap and the Kelham Island are probably the best pubs in the city.

Most people seemed friendly enough but I must confess I didn't find it a particularly inspiring place to visit. Not as nice a place to spend a weekend as comparable cities like Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool or even Leeds.

There is a sort museum/gallery thing attached to the winter gardens where you can easily spend an hour. You can even buy Henderson's Relish t-shirts.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

You wouldn't think it reading this thread but there is so much more to Sheffield than drinking. Take a stroll round the former industrial strongholds where the once proud wheels of British industry grinded out the very best steel this small world has ever seen, neglected relics of empire that make the urban decay of Detroit look like nothing more than an overgrown front lawn. Take in the sites of the city's many listed buildings, including the Lyceum (spiritual home of pantomime), the Abbeydale industrial hamlet (see how shit was crafted back in the day), Sheffield town hall (one of the best seats of local government in the entire country), and bob yourself down the the Park Hill flats, the finest example of a concrete jungle council estate outside the great city of London. You like sports? check in on the Crucible theatre mate, home of world snooker, call in on the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, home to one of only 9 olympic size swimming pools in the UK and Europe's deepest diving pool. If all this is too much then take in a steady evening at Valley Centertainment my friend, go see a Sheffield Steelers ice hockey game at the arena, or a film at the multiplex followed by something to eat at one of the many eateries in the vicinity, unless you're feeling really adventurous, in which case jump in a taxi and head for Leopold Square and enjoy a curry at Aagrah, recently voted best restaurant in the British curry awards.

To this excellent summation I would add only one small corollary: The "urban decay" comment warrants further unpicking. Sheffield was as recently as the ~1980s arguably England's most thrilling cityscape, and all the more appealing since (unlike T Dan Smith era Newcastle, or contemporary Manchester, say) it seemed charmingly unaware of its qualities, or at least uninterested in boasting about them.

It was home to at least one masterpiece (Park Hill, as you mention), but also a number of other fascinating buildings and spaces (Castle Market, Hole in the Road, Hyde Park, the Manpower Services building, etc). Taken together they constituted a case study in a strange and interesting post-war Modernism; rugged, messy, almost Piranesian in places, a built bricolage rightly celebrated by turtleneck wearers worldwide, but of and belonging to the people also - municipal, staunchly socialist, decidedly un-Olympian.

That makes the city's squandering of these architectural and urbanistic riches all the more distressing. That the place is an anamnesis of the scorched earth policies of the Thatcher years is obvious, but (as if that wasn't enough) Sheffield now rivals Manchester as the world capital Blairite dreck too: the risible iQuarter (!), the contemptible Digital Campus, the violations of the unutterably vile, culture criminal, squamous shit-cabal Urban Splash, and so on.

The careworn traces of that once confidently unique metropolis remain discernible (though not to Alty, evidently. Colour me shocked...) beneath the gewgaws heedlessly grafted to it, and whether one reads that as a depressing remnant or an opportunity that might still be salvaged depends on how full one's glass is, I suppose...

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Have a day out in Rotherham. I heard it's called the 'Garden of the North'.

 

[smat]

Thanks Carel, will bear that in mind.

 

[Alty]

Oh Carel. You and your critic's eye. Maybe just accept that it's okay to prefer spending time in Glasgow's West End than Sheffield City Centre? If it's any consolation to you I shan't be going back to Sheffield so you won't have to encounter this particular London-based cultural retard when you next wander round the jewel of South Yorkshire.

 

[Craig]

That makes the city's squandering of these architectural and urbanistic riches all the more distressing. That the place is an anamnesis of the scorched earth policies of the Thatcher years is obvious, but (as if that wasn't enough) Sheffield now rivals Manchester as the world capital Blairite dreck too: the risible iQuarter (!), the contemptible Digital Campus, the violations of the unutterably vile, culture criminal, squamous shit-cabal Urban Splash, and so on.

I take you're as disgusted as I am that they chose to erase Clare Middleton when they decided to illuminate her proposal?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-14444608

I'm not an overly enthusiastic fan of graffiti or street art, but if you're going to keep a piece of it because you reckon it's cool or culturally and historically significant then keep the lot, don't destroy what it is by ignoring the parts you don't deem important, particularly if, as in this case, it is the most important part.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

yeah way to miss the fucking point

 

[Camborne Gills]

Have a day out in Rotherham. I heard it's called the 'Garden of the North'.

I think you misspelled Garden for shitehole

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

I take you're as disgusted as I am that they chose to erase Clare Middleton when they decided to illuminate her proposal?

No, I think it's marvellous, and that we should do this with all extant artworks that make reference to a specific person. Scrub the faces off The Nightwatch, Portrait of Innocent X and The Ambassadors and replace them with sub-Emin neon, all the better to appeal to a class of young professional 'creatives'.

 

[Craig]

I bet you're a fan of this dickhead....

http://www.deveoh.com/thrift-store-paintings

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

I quite like the idea - odd and disquieting interventions into the hackneyed and banal. Unfortunately his interventions are (unintentionally, I fear) hackneyed and banal too, so it all rather evaporates upon contact with air. The little known or appreciated art project Lede Astray (for example) does something somewhat similar, but much better. There the relationship is inverted - banal interventions are made into works that are sublime, ineffable, terrible, beautiful, etc. This evokes a far greater poignancy, and articulates a provocative (though not hectoring) political project.

 

[smat]

I quite like the idea - odd and disquieting interventions into the hackneyed and banal. Unfortunately his interventions are (unintentionally, I fear) hackneyed and banal too, so it all rather evaporates upon contact with air. The little known or appreciated art project Lede Astray (for example) does something somewhat similar, but much better. There the relationship is inverted - banal interventions are made into works that are sublime, ineffable, terrible, beautiful, etc. This evokes a far greater poignancy, and articulates a provocative (though not hectoring) political project.

Sounds interesting, where can I see it?

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Hi, Smat.

You can follow Lede Astray on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ledeastray, or, if you prefer, you can peruse the back catalogue on Tumblr here: http://ledeastray.tumblr.com/.

A soupçon of prime cuts:

 

[Stagat]

Man I LOVE Lede Astray.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

the jesus one is not on. imagine if it was of muhammed. double standards much?

 

[mnb089mnb]

I lived in a town called Llantwit Major for much of my youth. There was some graffiti on some of the garages on my way to school that said:

IFLYINGINCOURTISSUCHACRIMEWHYAINTLLANTWITCOPPERSDOINGTIME

It was interesting as there were no spaces.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Sheffield! would probably be the name of the musical of former Cambridge United and Plymouth Argyle glovesman Jon Sheffield's career.

 

[Craig]

In the American version they'd replace him with Gary Sheffield.

 

[Stevencc]

I lived in a town called Llantwit Major for much of my youth. There was some graffiti on some of the garages on my way to school that said:

IFLYINGINCOURTISSUCHACRIMEWHYAINTLLANTWITCOPPERSDOINGTIME

It was interesting as there were no spaces.

Are you sure that's not just a Welsh town name?

Ooooooooooooo, got him lads.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Are you sure that's not just a Welsh town name?

Ooooooooooooo, got him lads.

You wouldn't make this joke about a Muslim city and you certainly wouldn't use racial slurs!

I think we've all learned something here today.