NorthBound Magazine September 2021

#26 Sept 21

Manor Boy

Sheff Artist Conor Rogers takes centre stage

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contents

FEATURES

TOP BRASS

22

Phil Turner (MD)

phil@exposedmagazine.co.uk

Nick Hallam (Sales director)

nick@exposedmagazine.co.uk

ADVERTISING Nick Hallam

nick@exposedmagazine.co.uk

FINANCE

Michael Johnson (Accounts)

michael@exposedmagazine.co.uk

editorial

Ashley Birch (Editor) Ash@exposedmagazine.co.uk

conor rogers

“I think the obsession in our society with labelling each other is damaging; it encourages people to subscribe to these pre-existing ideas and beliefs, rather than ask deeper questions and learn about each other.”

NorthBound grabs a post-show pint with Sheffield artist Conor Rogers to peel back the layers on ‘Manor Boy’, an exhibition inspired by his childhood on the city’s Manor Estate.

Paul Stimpson (Design)

paul@exposedmagazine.co.uk

the business stuff NorthBound Magazine is published monthly by Blind Mice Media Ltd Unit 1b, 2 Kelham Square Kelham Riverside Sheffield, s3 8sd

38

all as one

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

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16 rose to the occasion

Three businesswomen of highly reputable Sheffield independent fashion brands have united in the name of empowerment as ‘Fresh as a Vintage Rose’, a new collective bringing together a wide community of creatives on a range of inspiring photohshoots and projects. We spoke to the inspiring trio last month and got the full scoop.

From the ashes of The Night Kitchen rises a new nightlife destination, FewerThan One, bringing a rejuvenated look to the famed venue. NB nipped down to get the inside track.

regulars 5 NEWS 14 home + garden 20 pangolin 36 MUSIC 52 heritage sheffield 48 shot of the month 50 food + Drink

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 5

news

TALKING JAMIE

jamie in numbers Sheffield is set to welcome Jamie home with a very special premiere of the film adaptation of hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie on 17 September – the same day it launches on Amazon Prime Video around the world.

In recognition of the central role Sheffield has played in the film, a red carpet premiere will be held at the Crucible and Tudor Square on the evening of Friday 17 with the stars of the show paying homage to Sheffield Theatres, who originally commissioned and staged the musical. There will also be special fan area with spaces for a lucky 96 members of the public on the day.

5

6 the number of awards the hit musical has won

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17TH

115 the new film’s run time in mins

2011 The year the TV documentary that inspired the musical aired

the film’s scheduled release date on amazon prime video

news

SWEET VALLEY ON A HIGH Sheffield City Council has won its case against Patrick Properties who wanted to develop the former Loxley Works on Storrs Bridge Lane (in the Green Belt) for 300 dwellings.

The original application was submitted by the developer in April 2020 but it was declined by the council’s planning committee, who said it would harm the Green Belt, was unsustainable and a threat to wildlife and biodiversity.

The home of Tramlines, Farmers Blonde and some of Yorkshire’s most beautiful scenery, there’s more to North Sheffield than meets the eye.

Have you got an interesting historical fact that NorthBound readers need to know? Email ash@ exposedmagazine.co.uk

The developer appealed against the decision under a formal planning inquiry. The Planning Inspector yesterday agreed with the Council, that the development would cause substantial harm to the openness of the Green Belt and have an adverse impact on the character and appearance of the site due to the urbanising effect of the proposed development and increased levels of activity.

Dave Godin Graduate of Sheffield University, and resident of our fair city, Dave Godin was an integral figure in championing African-American music in the UK. He’s also renowned for coining the term ‘Northern Soul’.

As a young lad, he collected American R&B and soul records, and his love for these genres soon turned into a passion. He became a journalist, record company advisor, record shop owner, record

label owner and a relentless campaigner for soul music and the historical context to which it belongs.

As well as founding the Tamla Motown Appreciation society, he wrote a popular column in magazine House of Blues which led to him being handpicked by Berry Gordy to be the head Tamla Motown consultant in the UK. On top of his devotion to American soul music and African-American culture, Godin’s strong sense of morals also led him to campaign for animal rights and civil rights. In the 1970s, Godin moved to Sheffield and took a degree in film studies at Sheffield University – later becoming the first director of the Anvil Civic Cinema on Charter Square. Dave Godin, for having so much soul, we honourably salute you.

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 7

news

Wheely Good News Sheffield Hallam backed £250,000 bike park development appoints contractor and announces when work is set to begin.

A year ago, plans were announced for an exciting £250,000 all wheeled bike park in Hillsborough Park with work set to be completed by spring 2021.

Sadly, due to ‘some delays in awarding the contract, avoiding clashes with a well-known local festival, and ironing out drainage design details’ the works is now not likely to begin until early November 2021, but some progress has been made with announcement that Velosolutions have been appointed as the contractor to deliver the bike park facility.

The project has been developed and funding secured by Sheffield City Council in partnership with Access Sport, Move More and Sheffield Hallam University.

The facility, which was granted planning permission in August

2020, will provide a progressive, inclusive, and accessible community asset for the park and further contribute to Sheffield’s plans to promote and encourage cycling in the city.

Access Sport is an awardwinning national charity that specialises in delivering facilities and programmes which normalise youth, inclusion and diversity in cycling, supporting people from typically underrepresented groups to kick-start a lifelong love of cycling, leading to cycling for sport, recreation and travel.

The project at Hillsborough Park aims to help energise youth and inclusive cycling in Sheffield through building a brand-new community cycling facility that will be open to all ages and all abilities.

As well as the facility itself

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Access Sport will provide equipment such as bikes and helmets, storage facilities for equipment, and regular coaching sessions. Importantly the facility will act as a base for a new community cycling club run by local people. It will also provide the hub for a community outreach programme connecting with local schools and community groups to make sure that all members of society benefit, such as individuals who wouldn’t attend on their own and young people that don’t have access to a bike, can’t ride a bike or aren’t active in in any way.

Councillor Mary Lea, Cabinet Member for Culture, Parks and Leisure at Sheffield City Council, said: “This exciting new bike park will provide excellent modern cycling facilities for all. It’s a fantastic example of partnership working, drawing on expertise and national initiatives

in response to the needs of our communities.

“Not only will it be a great attraction for visitors to Hillsborough Park, but it will enable those with barriers to cycling, such as disabilities, affordability and access, to develop their skills and a love for travelling on wheels.

Through the partnership with Access Sport the facility is backed

by Sport England and the London Marathon Charitable Trust, and is the first investment the Trust have made in a cycling facility outside of London.

Further funding towards the project is being provided by Sheffield City Council’s Parks & Countryside Service public health funded programme of improvements. In total the partnership has secured more than £250,000 towards delivering the bike park, as well as support from British Cycling.

The bike track development comes after it was announced that Depot Bakery will operate the new £1m community café in the Grade II Listed Old Coach House building.

news

MATERIAL TREASURES

Teapots, cups, plates, and saucers fill a dresser, meanwhile the circus is in town; animals move among the trees and rabbits lie in bed.

Story telling sits at the heart of Karen Shapley’s work and her new exhibition, which runs at Cupola Gallery from 4 September – 9 October, uses textiles and ceramics to weave stories, traditions, and her past into fabulous creations.

Cupola director Karen Sherwood calls it: “A ceramic and textile exhibition of anthropomorphic animal characters in domestic and fantastical settings revealing and hiding stories in their silent splendour.”

The work at face value appears simple and innocent but a closer inspection made by investigating the layers of meaning concealed in the adornment of her creations, reveals deeper stories, confronting family life, relationships and even death.

Karen Shapley explains: “I discovered a true love of making ‘characters’ which developed

into animals. I am a nature lover at heart and as a child my father would frequently take me out for nature walks. These involved moments standing still and quiet whilst my father ‘spotted’ birds.

“Life in the countryside was a little brutal at that time and I often saw trophy dead crows, moles, rooks etc dangling from farmers fences. I knew then that nature, and life, wasn’t all plain sailing and cosy, it had a harsh reality that I freely accepted.

“In my work to date I have added historic found badges, tokens and textiles to make reference to the history of our culture.

The characters take the form of mostly British animals with a few exotic species, but all relate to my culture and background.”

After studying Contemporary Crafts at Manchester Metropolitan University Karen Shapley began her career looking at ceramic domestic wear, transforming them from functional to decorative items.

This was where her use of textiles and ceramics began.

Subsequent solo shows allowed her the opportunity to develop the story element in her work.

She began making characters using various fabric, clothing, and accessories to ‘write’ stories for each piece.

This latest exhibition gathers work from her entire career which spans 15 years to show not only where she has come from but the new direction her work is taking. Having parted with her ceramics studio last year Karen found liberation through her use of found materials. cupolagallery.com

SPOTLIGHT ON CUPOLA Established in 1991, Cupola recently celebrated its 30th birthday, an anniversary which must have seemed a near impossibility back when Director Karen Sherwood took a punt and opened a gallery between a laundrette and a bookies on a stretch of Middlewood Road, just up the road from Hillsborough Stadium.

After three decades which have at times been far from plain sailing, the gallery continues to impress as one of the most respected contemporary galleries for the sale and exhibition of fine art and fine craft in the north of England, displaying over 300 artists works, across a broad range of disciplines.

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 9

news

bringing plans to the yard A planning application to transform the historic Leah’s Yard on Cambridge Street into a creative hub for independent businesses has been submitted today.

Earlier this year, Sheffield City Council selected Tom Wolfenden, CEO of SSPCo, which manages the Cooper Buildings on Arundel Street, and James O’Hara of the Rockingham Group, which runs bars such as Public and Picture House Social, to operate the venue.

Realising a longstanding ambition to combine their extensive experience, the duo plan to breathe new life into the building by transforming it into a new destination for local independent businesses and retailers, socialising and enterprise.

Tom Wolfenden, CEO of SSPCo, said: “Sheffield is full of extremely talented people who develop incredible products.

Leah’s Yard will aim to bring these people and small businesses together and provide them with a route into the city centre. We are also aiming to create a truly memorable visitor experience, both in terms of the products you can buy and the atmosphere of the venue.

“With the plans now submitted, we are really keen to hear from the public and local businesses about what blend of retailers and ‘makers’ they would like to see at Leah’s Yard and what type of events we can host there.”

If approved, plans will see the existing Leah’s Yard complex, which sits between Cambridge Street and Backfields, refurbished largely in its current form.

one in the tank Dead Parrott Beer Company owner Mark Simmonite has launched his latest venture Perch Brewhouse, Kitchen, and Bottleshop, at 44 Garden Street.

Perch claims to be the first in the UK to serve Stella from the tank and without added CO2, and also promises breweryfresh beer from its ten casks, ten kegs and one tank on the premises.

Mark will be curating a full range of beers with Belgian and Cider taps and will also be serving beers from his own onsite brewery, Dead Parrott Beer Company.

Announcing the bar on Facebook, Mark said:

“Welcome to Perch Brewhouse, Kitchen & Bottle shop. Opening Aug 27th at 44 Garden St Sheffield, just up the Rd from Butlers Balti House.

“Perch will be unique in many ways; for instance, you will taste beer like you’ve never tasted it before, brewery-fresh!”

The new bar also serves pizza straight from their authentic pizza oven, as well as burgers, which are both available to eat in and takeaway.

Perch has a large rear courtyard, which will be used for seasonal beer festivals, and events including St. Patrick’s Day, and owner Mark already has a wedding reception booked in. facebookcom/ PerchBrewhouseSheffield

10 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

cutting hedge stuff Hedgerow Market, a creatively vibrant street market supplying the people of Sheffield with a curated pick of artisans and makers, live music and a dash of street food, enjoyed its inaugural event on Division Street last month.

The market is a part of the Summer in the Outdoor City programme of events taking place across the city this year, designed to support the staycation and celebrate all that’s right here on our doorstep.

Hedgerow Market founder, Heather Gilberthorpe Pell said: “This is all about giving people even more reason to visit our city centre and creating ways for people – customers and traders – to hustle and bustle in a safe way.

Photography: Matt Crowder

news

“Division Street has a rightfully proud heritage, synonymous with independent retail and the legacy of Tramlines. We want to celebrate Division Street and showcase what Sheffield has to offer – while giving people a good time in town. I’m so excited to work with a wonderful team and amongst the amazing businesses based along the Street.”

Free to attend, the first Hedgerow Market (pictured) took place 12-8pm Saturday 21st August, along Division Street and next to Devonshire Green. The following instalments will take place at the same time on 18th September, 9th October and 6th November.

If you’d like to take part as a market trader, you’ll find application forms on the website at hedgerowmarket. com. www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 11

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The Famous Sheffield Shop 475 Ecclesall Rd, S11 8PP

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Original photo courtesy of Richard Jackson; forevercreativephotography.co.uk

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home and garden

GARDEN HYGGE As the nightsget slightly cooler, take a leafout ofthe Hyggebook and keep cosy this month

Gaming Bean Bag Recliner Indoor-Outdoor £69.99 Get out in the garden and enjoy comfort to the fullest with this Bean Bag Armchair. Designed to be versatile you can grab this lightweight chair by its stylish handle and go with the flow – take it indoors and outdoors. beanbagbazaar.co.uk

Tall plant stand

£48 This vintage chic planter in turquoise and gold is a fabulous way to show of fancy foliage ideal for real and artificial plants and flowers. Intended for indoor use but looks ace in the garden. notonthehighstreet.co.uk

14 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

home and garden

Amazonas’ Barbados cappuccino hammock £95

A hammock for up to two people with a perfect price-performance ratio, this is idea for relaxing on those cool September nights.

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Garden Trading Barrington fire pit

Festoon light bundle £160 A 25m bundle of fabulous festoon lights to give your garden a warm ambient glow.

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Crafted in raw metal, sold in two sizes, they have ample room for holding an abundance of logs for use all evening. The industrial metal strapping has been curved and expertly welded providing you with a strong, sturdy and durable piece for the garden. gardentrading.co.uk

Fintan Stove £899 The Fintan comes with two detachable wings either side of the stove top plate giving you plenty of space for cooking. The lid can be lifted to cook directly on the flames so you can boil your kettle in minutes. Cracking bit of kit for conservatories or sheds.

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www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 15

FASHION

Fresh is More

Fresh as a Vintage Rose is an exciting new collective formed by a trio of Sheffield businesswomen, friends and Exposed Awards winners who came together and found solace in each other during the difficult days of lockdown. Sam (Miss Samantha’s Vintage), Niamh (Gypsy Rose Hair Salon) and Louisa (Freshmans) decided to pool their considerable experience in the fashion industry, uniting in the name of empowerment to work on a series of creative projects and photoshoots.

Their inaugural venture took place inside Orchis Floral Design at Hagglers Corner, with clothing from Freshmans/Miss Samantha’s and hair styling by Gypsy Rose. Bringing together a wider community of talented female creatives – Lou White and Emily Burkett provided photography and Laura Jessica provided makeup – the experience and results were so powerful that they now want to help others enjoy that self-expression, working on a range of fashion shoots that promote diversity and ‘being real’.

We caught up with FAAVR over a coffee last month to discuss the group’s inspirations and plans for the future…

First of all, how did you three come together?

N: Sam pestered me for an appointment, and after about a year I got to meet her.

S: Then I just followed her around and asked her to be my friend. *Laughs* N: Then I met Lou at the vintage fairs. She’d have her stall, and I’d have mine, then I’d come and nick all her dresses.

S: After the Exposed Awards, I messaged Louisa to say congratulations as I didn’t want there to be any ‘us vs them’ mentality. She got straight back to me, which was lovely, and we didn’t really speak again until we started talking about this collaboration.

Niamh put us back in touch.

N: When all three of us won at the last Exposed Awards, we thought it made sense for us to do something together, put aside any sort of ego and do something really positive.

L: This is the spin-off from that night! We found that we were all very much on the same page on a personal level. We’d talk to each other very openly about our businesses and the struggles that came with it. We found that really helped us.

More so than ever with the difficulties faced by independent businesses over the past two years, I’d imagine?

S: Yeah, I think when you’re running your own business it can feel quite insular. This became a small network to go to for advice and support, and that was really helpful for me.

N: Being in business on your own is hard. When

Photography: Lou White

you’re the person that makes all the decisions, especially with the last 18 months, you just think, ‘Who can I talk to?’

L: And also, how can you talk about business worries – something that might seem quite trivial when you’ve got people dying from covid? So having this connection has been important.

How did the first photoshoot collab come about?

N: I’ve loved working on the Exposed fashion shoots, where Sam and Lou provided clothes, and I thought, ‘I wear their clothes!’ so we started talking about coming together and doing our own thing, in our own image.

S: It was really about having the balls to do it. For me, I always wanted to be able to say to other women, “If you have something you want to do, just do it.”

L: That’s what we want to inspire other women to do. When we put together the first shoot, it felt so empowering: the stories behind the faces, the background to it all and getting these beautiful photographs from it, too. The high went on for a while, and we decided we wanted to carry this on, to really make something out of it.

N: It’s not just about us. The potential for what this could actually be is massive. We want to able to put other vendors in touch with each other, and help them to do what we did.

We had a second photographer working with us on the shoot, who was initially quite nervous about getting out there. But following that, she’s got back to us and told us that she feels more than capable of doing this moving forward. The make-up artist from the shoot has left her teaching job and is now going to be a full-time make-up artist!

Wow. Off the back of the first shoot?

N: Yeah! It’s fantastic. A model from the shoot, Katie, that’s her first shoot she’s done in a long time, and now she’s gone straight into back into it, doing and trying new things.

Irrelevant of gender, we all need those sorts of opportunities.

L: During the shoot we asked the make-up artist if she’d like to get in front of the camera, and at first she was a bit shocked, she’d never been in front of camera in that sense before, but she went for it and ended up loving it. She was buzzing afterwards.

S: I didn’t go with any intent to have my photograph taken. But when I saw the girls having theirs taken, I got a little bit jealous and went for it.

And that’s a big thing Fresh as a Vintage Rose offers – a space to make those first steps?

N: It’s about giving space for other people to shine. We want to start something that’s inclusive and very Sheffield-centric. It’s a special place, it’s a very diverse city, and we’re very proud of that diversity and our ability as independent thinkers to come together as a community.

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FASHION

“When all three of us won at the last Exposed Awards, we thought it made sense for us to do something together, put aside any sort of ego and do something really positive.”

FASHION

What ideas are in the pipeline?

N: We’ve got a few different ideas, particularly ones which promote the diversity of our communities. More will be revealed soon. But one thing we’d really like to say to the Exposed community of readers who pick this up is this: if you’d like to be part of something that’s non-comformist, integrated and open-minded, then that’s the community of people we’re wanting to build – people using their skills to create something, whatever that is.

L: We’ve got a few ideas we’d like to work on, but we also plan for it to grow organically; we’re hoping for certain projects to come alive through the people and businesses we speak to. Fundamentally, we want to use our experience of breaking away from the stereotypical expectations of what we should be doing at our age and funnel that into others.

S: We’re not looking at this to make any money, none of us got paid for that shoot.

We did it because we wanted to see what would happen.

L: Everybody’s got stories to tell, and we’re wanting to tap into that, hoping to help people express themselves and feel better if they’ve lost their way. We want to provide the empowerment that we felt on that first shoot. We want to give that to someone else.

How can people contact Fresh as a Vintage Rose with any ideas, or just to make a connection?

L: We’ve got an Instagram page (@fresh_ as_a_vintage_rose), which we’d point people towards initially. But we’ll have organised the rest of the admin stuff by the time this issue is out. We come across lots of people and stories in our day to day working lives, so we’re hoping for projects to grow out of conversations in our day jobs too.

N: When you’re an independent retailer, you build a real relationship with your customers.

S: You go on a real journey with them. Sheffield, as a city, is a very supportive of its independent businesses and the people behind them. The people will come to you because they want to buy from you, not a chain. We’re wanting to build on that trust.

L: More than ever, people want a more personalised experience. I’ve got customers that call me ‘The Vintage Momma’. I’ve got a customer that’s actually going to have that tattooed on his arse cheek – true story! It shows that it’s more than just a shop to people, or more than just a hair salon.

It’s the independent businesses such as yours that truly define a city, right?

S: Yeah, you might look at a fancy new shopping centre in Leeds, but at the end of the day, it’s bricks and mortar. It’s all about people. Being based out in Walkley, I get a lot of students that chose to stay in Sheffield to do masters degrees or put down roots, and independent businesses are an important choice to have. It’s interesting how many people who 18 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

“Everybody’s got stories to tell, and we’re wanting to tap into that, hoping to help people express themselves and feel better if they’ve lost their way.

We want to provide the empowerment that we felt on that first shoot.

We want to give that to someone else.”

move away from Sheffield come back to see us.

N: My aunt works for a big corporate billboard advertising company, and she’s worked on getting her billboards in Sheffield. She’s often said that people in that big cheese corporate world say the same thing, that Sheffield is a special place and it’s like there’s a dome over it. I really agree with that – and that’s not a bad thing. It’s down to that pride.

S: I’ve always said, if you had two piles of horse manure and one was for free and one cost a pound, a Sheffielder would buy the one that cost a pound – because nowt’s for free!

On that superb note, I feel like we should start wrapping up the interview. Anything else to add?

L: Just to really say again that something that might seem silly, like doing a photoshoot with your friends, what you can get out of that is incredible.

It can be a huge boost and we’re really passionate about making this work. We’ve all been behind closed doors for a long time and if someone needs help getting back out there, get in touch!

Give ‘em a follow and look out for upcoming projects @fresh_as_a_vintage_rose

Beer

pangolin beer column In his column this month, Pangolin Craft Beer and Bottle Shop owner Nick Davy (bottom right) helps us get over those pose summer blues with a few top tipples perfect for Autumn So Summer is over and at Pangolin Craft Beer we’re looking ahead to planning exciting tasting and Christmas events. In the meantime though, we’ve got some fantastic beers to enjoy in the Autumnal days ahead.

UNITY BREWING – Preserva #3 Sour Cherry Gose Unity Brewing are based in Southampton have been producing excellent beer for some time.

As well as wonderfully hoppy pales and fullbodied stouts their Sour beers have also been extremely enjoyable. This particular beer is Number 3 in their Preserva range. Channelling the traditional methods of preserving they use salt and coriander to give this Sour beer a savoury salinity in keeping with the German roots of this style. The addition of Sour Cherries gives a jammy mouth feel reminiscent of your grandma’s jam tarts.

QUEER BREWING Flowers A relatively new brewery Queer Brewing were set up to brew fantastic beer and to raise the visibility and representation of LBGTQ+ people in craft beer. A modern twist on a classic Belgian wheat beer, Flowers uses curaçao orange peel to compliment the citrus and clove flavours resulting in a wonderful bouquet that smells and tastes beautiful. Also the perfect beer to pair

with light or medium curries to compliment the spices.

BOON – OUDE GEUZE An absolutely world class beer from one of the worlds best Lambic breweries. Brewed exclusively in Belgium Lambic beer is spontaneously fermented in the open air enabling it to take on the flavours of its environment. Unfortunately due to climate change the opportunity for the perfect Brewing temperature is becoming shorter in each brewing window. Through blending young and aged beers the expert Brewers are able to affect the classic zingy slight sourness of a lambic sometimes described as cider-like.

ABBEYDALE – I N D UL G E N C E Chocolate Cake Stout An absolute Sheffield institution renowned throughout the UK, Abbeydale are celebrating their 25th birthday! And you can’t have a birthday without a cake right?

Extravagant and indulgent this Stout definitely delivers on the chocolatey sweetness promised in the name. Rich and decadent with plenty of cacao, molasses and a slight hint of vanilla this is a dessert in its own right. Here’s to another 25 years guys!

COVER

MADE IN THE MANOR Local lad Conor Rogers graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2014. In 2019, he won first prize at the UK Young Artist of year award held at Saatchi Gallery, London. He works primarily in painting though his work also translates into sculpture and poetry, as seen in his latest solo exhibition Manor Boy, which debuted at the Yorkshire Artspace last month.

Joe Food went along to see the show in August and caught up with the artist, settling down for a post-meet pint at The Rutland and peeling back the layers on an exhibition inspired by his childhood on Sheffield’s Manor Estate.

Could you tell me, in your own words, what Manor Boy is about?

Manor Boy is a narrative I’ve compiled of the Manor Estate in Sheffield, where I lived. I’ve drawn inspiration from all the events that occurred and the cultural identities we carried through that time. In a way, it’s like a homage but also an investigation into my own identity, into the relationship with the spaces I was in back then.

The first thing that stands out is the prevalence of paddling pools, either in the centre of the exhibition or framing the paintings. Can you speak about the symbolism of that?

The whole series was essentially a response to seeing my mate, Mike, in a paddling pool with some tinnies. I’m very much inspired by momentary events. I wanted to use the paddling pools as a sort of badge, an emblem of the estate, which came to represent certain aspects of council estate culture: a sense of momentary joy and abandonment, discarded after being used once, then left to fill up with trash and leaves. There was a connection between that and how we felt abandoned and demonised on council estates – I felt that particularly strongly coming into the arts sphere as a student.

I imagine that’d have been a formative experience for your work. Did it stoke that fire creatively?

Yeah, it brought up a lot of questions about identity and class, which I’ve been investigating through art since. I applied for a fine arts course but ended up on a course called Creative Arts Practice, which was not quite as conceptual and a bit more craft-based. However, I found myself being more academic and conceptual in my approach to that course, and through that I started understanding my relationship to painting. I went on a painting workshop and saw that people were painting on canvases, but I didn’t feel like that was genuine to my work. So I started painting on crisp packets, and through that saw my relationship to materiality, to things, to objects. A lot of these paintings are selfportraits as well as portraits of society.

Speaking of your route into art, the government recently announced a 50% funding cut to arts subjects at university level. How does that make you feel?

It bothers me. There’s just a lack of care, concern or awareness there – it will be a decision made by a person, or a group of people, that’s never been involved with the arts industry. It’s people making decisions on other people’s livelihoods, and it comes down to 22 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

other people judging that someone’s path or life doesn’t have much worth to it. It does fuck me off. So much value comes from our industry, it has such a huge impact on society. History will show you that throughout time artists and creatives are remembered by the people, not bankers or businessmen. Look down through history and its poets, writers, painters, inventors creators, actors – they’re remembered.

And that’s before you even get into the argument of how important art can be for people’s mental health.

It’s massive. It can be meditative, enable self-exploration, and help people to uncover more about themself. I use art as personal navigation tool and it’s incredibly important.

Is there a worry that you can become a bit too pigeonholed or fetishised producing art exploring the working class in what is pre-dominantly a middle-class arts sphere?

I wanted to break through that, to tackle what people associate with being working class. I wanted to give a perspective on the reality of what my upbringing and the reality of class divide. The way I do it is through a combination of objects, image and symbolic language.

The thing is: we are very insecure people, whether you come from a poor background or a wealthy one. I try to ask people what their understanding of class is. I’m not criticising, just trying to start a conversation. I think the obsession in our society with labelling each other is damaging; it encourages people to subscribe to these pre-existing ideas and beliefs, rather than ask deeper questions and learn about each other. Manor Boy isn’t a big ‘fuck you’ to the elites, though. It’s more about trying to understand eachother.

“Your stripped mopeds look like a fleet from Mad Max Are you still pouring petrol on Tampax?

Stil dreaming about frontline attacks, Then creaming over your mate’s new Blades tats” - Taken from These Kindred Spirits

COVER

COVER

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There’s a playfulness to my work, a humour. But there’s also an undertone of societal issues at play. It presents questions for people to engage with. I’m not judging; I use a lot of my work to gather an understanding of who I am. The idea of class, to me, is quite a naïve way of trying to categorise people, to understand better who they are.

There’s a lot of that present, I feel, in the arts industry, and people will refer to me as a ‘working-class artist’ as I think it helps them feel like they’ve got a bit of ownership over you, like they understand who you are. Whenever someone will introduce like, “This is Conor Rogers, a working-class artist…” – I’ll stop them at that point because once people hear you’re a working-class artist, that’s all they assume you are. There’s a nuance to it and I’m trying to flip it, asking people about their relationships to these objects, images and language.

linking these personal narratives into wider metaphors about the estate, our culture as a whole, and the poetry opens up new ideas for further artworks.

A lot of the language surrounding the Manor is quite isolating in a way – people often refer to it as ‘up on the manor’; it’s almost built up as an area separate to the city itself. It’s similar to the way some would use similar discourse to create a sense of other between the city and Park Hill estate during its worst days.

That’s why Manor Boy is essentially me taking ownership of a demonised name or what could be seen as a slur. It’s not about denying it, the fact that people do see it as a negative environment, a place of crime. But I experienced the good stuff too, like a sense of community and humanity that taught me to humble.

So climb the fence to your freedom The greatest escape, Or a hop, skip and a jump.

I love this dump.

There are some powerful poems which you wrote for Manor Boy, your first foray into poetry for an exhibition.

How did you find that experience?

Good, quite uplifting actually. I wanted to expand my own understanding of my practice. I had a really integral process of viewing the world and translating it into artwork, but I felt I could take it further than just painting, so I started looking at language itself, how I described things, and stripped it back into telling stories in a written form. I felt like that the poetry started feeding into the painting and vice versa. ‘Manor Boy’ is a literal retelling of the time I escaped a community centre to visit my mate’s pool. I slid down the slide into it and cut my food on a kitchen knife at the bottom. It’s 26 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

“You cut your foot on a kitchen knife While avoiding the mid-afternoon Shackles of community centres Mike’s got a pool!

Where are we going?

Mike’s got a pool!

Mike’s handing out destiny Mike will grow from a substance That has been banned.

Time will show that we’re Just dust from this land.

This is our Manor.

Sponge baths in sinks, Rottweilers that stink, And dad’s on the brink.”

-Taken from Manor Boys

cover

What provides the source material for the portraits? Is it done mostly from memory or images?

I often use candid photography as source material – capturing the everyday moments are really important to me, as it reflects who we truly are. I might move a few things about, of course, but the moments are what triggers everything, and then I give myself the freedom to run with it from there.

A lot of my work is about transforming the throwaway, the abandoned, the renegade, and turning them into precious and beautiful things.

A Rizla paper, for example – something that’s often thrown away and discarded being used to display poetry. The miniatures painted on betting slips play with that dynamic, too. I don’t really like the idea of paintings being flat images on square canvasses.

Betting slips, too, link into those aforementioned themes of momentary hope/joy, things that are then quickly discarded and left to one side.

The idea came from childhood memories with my grandad. He used to take me to all the betting offices. It was a ritual: get up, go to bookies, go to boozers, go back to bookies, then home to bed.

The poem ‘What are the Odds?’ is about those dreams of a better life, but I’m also playing with the idea of the betting office being like a holy place, something like a pilgrimage. It’s a place where people were looking for hope, for something more; but there’s also themes of mourning and loss, dealing with what they haven’t got, all taking place at the same time. While waiting in the bookies with my grandad I’d take pictures on my phone of certain images that interested me, and then I’ve got my source material to start working on the piece.

Speaking of childhood, how did you first start flexing those creative muscles? I read that some of your first drawings were on the back of beer mats and betting slips.

Yeah, I used to draw on the back of betting slips when I was younger, and obviously that now been recycled in practice as I’ve got older. I’d get hold of those little blue pens you get in bookies, take them to the boozer with me and start drawing people playing snooker or the barmaids or whatever. It’s that subconscious thing of seeing the narratives playing out, even at a young age, and trying to capture them. It’s something I’ve done for a long time and will always do, I think.

You can view more of Conor’s work at conorrogers.co.uk @conorrogers_art // @rogersconor // facebook/com/conorrogersart

“History will show you that throughout time artists and creatives are remembered by the people, not bankers or businessmen. Look down through history and its poets, writers, painters, inventors creators, actors – they’re remembered.”

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 27

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anna paxton

FIVE things you only know if you’re...

ER

a Mere mortals don’t run up hills Mountain running is all about heading up and down the steepest hills around.

Since there isn’t an actual mountain near Sheffield, I look for routes with the maximum amount of ascent. I don’t leap up the hills like a mountain goat – almost no one does. Mountain ‘running’ involves a lot of speed hiking. Stopping to look at the view, taking photos and eating are all great opportunities to sneak in a bit of a rest.

Food is your friend Mountain routes are often long and strenuous. To keep moving I need to fuel my body and that means a lot of snacks! At 30 miles or more with at least 2000 metres of climbing, ‘ultra’ races are also known as long-distance eating competitions. I’ve been known to eat burritos, sushi, cake and crisps .

The hills are alive Solitude is part of the appeal, and on a quiet run there’s a good chance of seeing

30 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

M

N I TA OUN

RUNN

anna paxton

rare and beautiful wildlife. In the Peak District I know where to find mountain hares, mighty stags, adders, lizards, kingfishers, owls and kestrels. Some of them even live with the boundaries of Sheffield.

Your kit can save your life Whether I’m running for a few hours or a few days, the ultimate goal is to be self-sufficient in the mountains. That does mean carrying a fair bit of kit, including map and compass, warm layers, headtorch and waterproofs. The weather can be totally different in a valley compared to the top of the mountain, and help could be several hours away. It’s taken a few cold and wet experiences to learn what gear will keep me comfortable and safe in wind, rain, snow and ice.

Your head needs to be as strong as your legs.

When I take on a long-distance run,

I know there are going to be highs and lows along the way – and at some point it’s going to get painful. A certain level of fitness helps, but determination, positivity and a sense of humour are more likely to get you to the finish line than a few extra squats in the gym.

Pushing on and overcoming challenges has given me confidence. I know that in tough times I can always dig a bit deeper, and this has carried over into other areas of my life.

Anna Paxton is an ultrarunner from Sheffield, now living in the Peak District and currently training for the Spine Sprint – a 48-mile winter race along the first section of the Pennine Way. Anna is also co-director for Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (SHAFF), Producer at Salt Street Productions and guide book author for Vertebrate Publishing. @anna_paxton_

Have some interesting tales from your trade or know someone who does? Drop a line to joe@exposedmagazine.co.uk and we’ll feature them in an upcoming issue.

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 31

heritage sheffield

In this month’s column, Heritage Sheffield’s founder Richard Phipps talks us through the history behind some of the city’s most influential women.

When the Women of Steel statue was unveiled in 2016 to celebrate the contribution of women in the city’s factories during both world wars, it brought to the forefront the desire to learn about the icons of Sheffield’s past. Whether it’s the wives, sisters and mothers who filled the void left by the enlisted steelworkers or the pioneering scientists, businesswomen or those who fought for humanitarian changes, the women of the Steel City have undoubtedly helped forge a future that the current generation can be proud of. This article will hopefully give you a snapshot of the impact Sheffield’s women and those whose stories are intertwined with the city have had.

There have been many strong willed women whose paths have led them to Sheffield. Maud de Lovetot, through marriage, witnessed the passing of the lordship from the de Lovetots to the de Furnivals which resulted in the building of Sheffield’s stone castle, it brought a charter to hold a market and it gave the tenants freehold over their property.

Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in the

KNOW YOUR HISTORY

township, predominantly in Sheffield Castle and Manor Lodge between 1570 and 1584, an event poorly publicised today but one that must have excited the townsfolk in the 16th century. This period also brought Bess of Hardwick to Sheffield whose ambitious building projects have created some of the UK’s greatest Elizabethan treasures. She was married, for the fourth time, to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the unlucky soul tasked with guarding the Scottish Queen. Bess’ houses included the forerunner to what is now Chatsworth House and both Hardwick Old and ‘new’ Hall. These women, all of high standing, gave Sheffield women through the ages a glimpse of female power and drive, characteristics that would be adopted by those closer to our time.

Perhaps the most significant event to affect the lives of women in the UK was the passing of the Representation of the People Act

32 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

1918 which permitted women the right to vote. Sheffield played its part in this historic event for in 1851 Anne Kent and Anne Knight, a well-known abolitionist, along with a fervent backing from the local female populous, founded the Sheffield Women’s Political Association (SWPA), the first official organisation in the country dedicated to the suffrage movement. This momentous gathering took place at the Temperance Hotel on Queen Street but many other venues have provided the arena for the suffragettes’ struggles. Norfolk Barracks on Edmund Road and the Albert Hall which stood on the present day site of John Lewis attracted large protesting crowds. The former saw 10,000 women descend on the venue which was to host Prime Minister Asquith in 1909 and the latter brought Lady Harberton to the city, a founding member of the Rational Dress Society. Perhaps the most publicised activists to come to Sheffield were the Pankhursts’.

Adela, the youngest daughter of the Women’s Social & Political Union’s (WSPU) founder Emmeline, resided here for a short time and certainly stamped here mark. She chaired the Yorkshire branch of the WSPU, opened a suffragette shop at Chapel Walk and continued the fight for women’s rights.

She even infiltrated the 285th Cutler’s Feast dressed as kitchen maid with the intention of causing a ruckus before being swiftly escorted out by the police. More than a century on and the city still remembers these inspirational figureheads. Adela is immortalised with plaques at 45 Marlborough Road, her Broomhill home, and 26 Chapel Walk. A new student complex close to the University Square roundabout recognizes the founder

Credit: Santiago Arias Franco (@arias.arch.ph)

heritage sheffield

Ella Gasking

Sharman Court Credit: Santiago Arias Franco (@arias.arch.ph)

Anne Knight

of the SWPA’s contribution and is affectionately named ‘Knight House’.

Five years prior to the Representation of the People Act you’d be right to assume that the upper echelons of higher management were dominated by men.

However, it was also the year that Ella Gasking was made managing director of the family business on the passing of her father. At only 22 years old, with her brothers at war and her mother unable to work, the Brightside born Ella seized the opportunity and made Batchelor’s Foods a household British name.

She inherited a company of 50 employees that had grown steadily throughout the years but upon the return of her two brothers she was able to travel to the United States to research canning production.

She brought back a method that would ultimately make Batchelor’s famous. Her canned mushy peas were a hit and she opened a new processing factory above what had previously been Henry Bryars’ stables beside Lady’s Bridge in 1930. It wasn’t long before production had outgrown the Castlegate site and a larger state of the art factory was opened at Wadsley Bridge only 7 years later. Production at this point was booming. Turnover was just under £1 million and they were canning more peas that any other company on the planet. The Wadsley Bridge factory was the UK’s largest, Batchelor’s had branched out to produce other tinned items such as soups, vegetables and fruits and was employing 1,000 workers at the onset of the Second World War. The war would ultimately lead to an OBE for Ella as her company was one of the principal providers of food to the British legions. When Ella retired in 1948, Batchelor’s were employing close to 3,500 workers. She had taken a modest family business and created a food giant and she was recognised as one of Britain’s leading businesswomen but above all she was known for her kind nature and hard work, a true Sheffield trait.

One name that should inspire the current generation is Helen Sharman. The space age is still in its infancy but with recent commercial flights to the limits of our atmosphere eagerly broadcast it’s picking up pace. It seems apt then to remember that the first Briton (not just women) in space was from Grenoside. Helen was selected from 13,000 applicants following rigorous trials to test not only her medical and psychological wellbeing but also

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 33

her ability to withstand a high G-force and motion sickness, her practical and logical abilities and her language skills. She would embark on a joint BritishSoviet mission that would see her undergo 18 months of intensive training in Star City, the Moscow base for cosmonauts, before launching in to space for 8 days. She would dock on Mir, the Soviet space station on the 18th May 1991, where she was tasked with carrying out experiments in her temporary otherworldly home. As a graduate of chemistry at the University of Sheffield, Helen trialed chemical, medicinal, agricultural and material tests, as well as documenting her observations of Earth during her eight days in space. There were also regular live TV interviews and a personal correspondence with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. Upon her return she was presented with an OBE, she is a Chartered Chemist & Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in 2018 amongst many more accolades, both British and Russian. Helen continues to work for Imperial College London as a UK Outreach Ambassador. Here in Sheffield she was awarded a plaque in 2006 outside the Town Hall and another recent student development on Broad Lane is named in her honour.

Another momentous event in British history was the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833. Similarly to the suffragette movement, Sheffield had its part to play and its lead campaigner was Mary Anne Rawson.

Mary was born on Green Lane, Kelham Island but is most associated with Wincobank where she lived most of her life and founded the district’s first school, now the Upper Wincobank Chapel. Mary was the chair of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society and tirelessly championed her cause. She distributed pamphlets, spent hours talking of the immorality and horrors of the trade and persuaded many Sheffielders to boycott sugar based products.

Even with the passing of the Act in 1833, Mary was unsatisfied and soon formed the Sheffield Ladies Society for the Universal Abolition of Slavery. She penned many anti-slavery letters and schools on the globe. Mary is buried in the Zion graveyard in Attercliffe, a chapel her family had attended since she was a young girl. Outside the Cutlery Works there is a mural dedicated to Mary Anne Rawson and the visit of Frederick Douglass, a former slave and campaigner, who met Mary in her Wincobank home following at the old Quaker Meeting House.

As we have discovered the First World War came at a time when women were in a nationwide fight for the same rights as their male counterparts. The Great War would prove, although it was not acknowledged until decades later, that for the British to triumph the factories had to keep producing and the lack of ‘manpower’ was counterbalanced by recruiting local girls and women to fill their boots. Between 4-5 million soldiers were recruited to the British Army over the duration of the war and consequently 2 million women filled their roles at home. The hours were grueling, the work was dangerous but the output was vital to the war effort. In Sheffield

Credit: Santiago Arias Franco (@arias.arch.ph)

heritage sheffield

“She was recognised as one of Britain’s leading businesswomen but above all she was known for her kind nature and hard work, a true Sheffield trait.”

34 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

the factories produced Spitfire crankshafts, artillery shells, tank treads and munitions for the front line. Yet women were often resented by their male colleagues despite being paid a mere pittance for their graft.

When the returning soldiers returned from overseas the working female population were simply given their final paychecks and told of their redundancy. This was set to repeat itself once more a few decades later.

A campaign launched by Nancy Fielding in 2009, a reporter for The Sheffield Star, to have a statue erected to remember those who kept the forges burning during the Second World War was realized in 2016 when it was unveiled in Barker’s Pool. With the help of public subscriptions more than £150,000 was raised to depict two steel workers, one carrying a pair of riveter tongs and the second holding welders gauntlets adorned in a boiler suit. 400 commemorative medallions were also made and hallmarked by the Sheffield Assay Office and given to the surviving Women of Steel or their families. These were the ordinary Sheffield people making an extraordinary difference. @heritagesheffield

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Normal Service Resumed

Words: Mark Perkins It goes without saying that musicians have had a tough time over the last year and a half. No live gigs and almost no opportunities to record, unless it’s in your bedroom, so it’s good to see bands releasing music again and getting back out there again on tour. We’re longstanding pals of Public Service Broadcasting here at Exposed, going all the way back to a live session we filmed with the corduroy-clad duo in 2013, and they have a new album, Bright Magic, coming out this month. But it almost never happened, as their main man J Willgoose Esq recently told me over a brew back in early August.

Thanks for having a chat. This is actually the first music interview I’ve done since all this madness hit. Fill me in on what’s been happening over the last 18 months. I imagine it’s not been an easy time.

Yes, it’s been very odd. It’s a hard time to be releasing a record and thinking about a tour. I moved to Berlin in spring 2019, so we weren’t taking on much work. We played the BBC Proms, but other than that we had only played 12 gigs that whole year. We were gearing up for other stuff, but our last gig was September 2019, so we haven’t played for almost two years, which is heartbreaking. At the start of the first lockdown, most of the new album was written, but there were key bits missing and we hadn’t started recording at all. The biggest problem was that all our equipment was in Germany; I was paying for a studio and an apartment that I couldn’t even get into the country to get access to. It was very stressful, and I was starting to think it wasn’t ever going to happen at all, that we’d have to abandon the project completely. To make things worse, my equipment was marooned there. My guitar was untouched for 8 months. Thankfully things calmed down briefly in the summer last year, so we got back over there in September and recorded the album.

But then another massive problem was Brexit. We needed to get all our equipment out of Europe before we had to declare it at customs. Even though it was mine, I’d obviously imported it to Berlin in 2019, when we were in the EU, with no problems, but it meant I had no customs forms.

If I turn up now at Dover, with a vanload of equipment, they’re going to ask questions.

36 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

How was that time in Berlin?

It didn’t seem as alien and weird as our summer [in the UK] felt. They seemed to handle it all better than we did at that time. It was nice to be over there.

How did you arrive at the decision to make an album in Berlin, about living in Berlin?

Er, well, I don’t really know. I didn’t know at the time. It’s just what the album became. It became about me interrogating that motivation. I asked myself, ‘Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to move to a city you’ve visited several times, and loved, to make an album? What is it about this place that’s drawn you in?’

You wouldn’t be the first though. There’s a long history of UK artists going to Berlin to record.

Yeah, it’s kind of echoed down the ages with other artists like Bowie, Depeche Mode and U2. I wanted to discover what has made Berlin this creative magnet. I absolutely love Bowie’s ‘Berlin period’ and Low is possibly my all-time favourite album. It’s interesting: when you look below the surface, as is the case with much of Bowie’s stuff, at the stories that surround the albums – not all of it is true. Two of the ‘Berlin albums’ were not recorded in Berlin at all. You get these interesting legends connecting Berlin to people like Bowie, or going right back to someone like Marlene Dietrich. It’s a unique place, and has a strong attraction for creative people. I suppose everyone has their own version of the city.

It still has an edge to it. I know I’m not in my twenties, like Bowie was when he moved there. I’m more fond of a nice walk and a museum than

Music

what he was getting up to, but it was a really eye-opening experience to spend so much time in another European capital. It enabled me to see how things could be different when money is not the biggest motivating factor, which it kind of is in London.

So, tell me about the record itself.

I wanted it to be different from the previous three. I never see the point in just releasing more of the same; I like to move on. I think some people know us as a sample-based band, doing records about Spitfires, or space, or Welsh miners, and now we’ve come out with a record that’s mostly in German and has no samples on it! I knew there was no point moving somewhere as creative as Berlin, and then making something similar to the albums before. I ‘d already got the title in my head, it came before anything else: it was going to be Bright Magic. I wanted it to be about illumination and inspiration and imagination and magic. The record came from those thoughts, reading a lot and seeing what emerged.

Gradually it started to piece itself together. I had discovered the work of Walter Ruttmann, through a happy accident, on a day off at an exhibition in Berlin. With the title in my head, it just seemed as though everything fell into place. His film, Wochenende (which translates as Weekend), was made in 1928 and was a huge influence. I read more about him, and how he made the world’s first audio collage, sampling everyday sounds of Berlin, which was so far ahead of his time. I wanted to do the same thing, with a modern spin. A lot of the field recordings on the record are my recordings of just walking round the streets. I used the original Wochenende sounds, but also added some of my own.

There was a point where you were going to quote some Bowie on the album, but it never happened. What went off there?

We had discussions with the people who we needed to, to make that happen, but it ended up that the quote we wanted was being used somewhere else, so it never happened. Perhaps it would have been too on the nose, too obvious, so maybe it’s best that that didn’t come about. His presence is more in the background. Bowie very much took influences and incorporated them, and brought obscure things into the mainstream that he had discovered, often making them mainstream.

Similar to the way David Byrne did.

How are the rehearsals going for the live shows? We’d love to see you back in the Steel City soon!

We haven’t started yet! We start tomorrow. It’s going to be different from previous live shows though. The last few records have been archive footage, screened behind the band, but this is a more conceptual, abstract, modernist album, but we know what we want to do, and hopefully the finances will enable us to do it. We’re not scheduled to be in Sheffield this tour, but we’ve played Sheffield multiple times, from Tramlines to the Leadmill, DocFest and a live session for Exposed.

We’ve always loved it. Rest assured we will be back to Sheffield soon – promise.

Bright Magic is released 24th September

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 37

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Music

All As one

From the ashes of The Night Kitchen rises a new nightlife destination, Fewer Than One, bringing a rejuvenated look to the famed venue along with a diverse events programme to provide a safe, welcoming space for all.

Music

In 2017, the news that iconic underground clubbing destination The Night Kitchen would be closing its doors for good was met with widespread dismay from the city’s arts and nightlife community.

Originally operating under the name Dirty Little Secret (DLS), the venue, situated at a former cutlery works in Shalesmoor, became synonymous with the Steel City’s most legendary nights and regularly hosted some of the hottest names in electronic music behind the decks.

The venture served as a joint-project between DLS and CADS (Creative Arts Development Space), which saw onsite studios rented out to a vibrant mix of artists and musicians, developing and nurturing the building’s potential as a hub of local innovation while continuing to host some of the country’s best warehouse parties.

DLS was replaced by The Night Kitchen in 2014, and for the following five years continued to welcome thousands of partygoers through its doors, establishing itself in its final years as a firm favourite with the city’s student population before a preexisting landlord agreement saw TNK brought to the end of an era, hosting a final hurrah on NYE 2019.

It then seemed like that was that for the historic Smithfield site; its labyrinthine corridors, multiple rooms and studio spaces which held so many memories looked set for some bland redevelopment while the Sheffield nightlife scene reeled from a hefty blow.

But, as it turns out, there’s life in the old dog yet and an exciting new lease of life is very much underway at the venue. Dirty Little Secret event manager Stevie Day has taken it over under new management as Fewer Than One (<1) and following a gruelling but impressive refurbishment, the regenerated space celebrated its opening with an August bank holiday bash running from 4pm-5am on Saturday 28th August.

“We’ll be showcasing a range of styles across the building to create a festivaltype atmosphere; the daytime stuff will feature live music, laidback 4x4, hiphop and street food before the nighttime goes into drum & bass in Room Pictures: Matt Crowder

1, then all things chunky and acid in Room 2.”

Take a stroll through the refurbed venue and you’ll see a significant transformation. The main courtyard has been cleared out, replaced with upcycled seating, plants, and a new mural decorating the far wall with the words ‘FAIL WE SAY SAIL WE MUST’ – a tribute to Stevie’s musical hero, the late DJ, musician and producer Andy Weatherall. The bottom courtyard looks particularly resplendent, decorated with hanging baskets and blooming flowers, and is shared space with The Gut Collective – a DIY event space and collective focusing on music and club culture who give a platform to underrepresented groups in the industry.

“It’s been a real effort getting things back up to scratch,” says Stevie, “but we’ve really started to see the progress now. The studios have filled up nicely and you can hear and see all the different artists, bands and producers milling around; the community vibe has returned and it’s great to see.”

Just a few of the occupants currently residing among the 30 studio spaces include diverse audio/visual platform Mondo Radio, Afro-psychedelia group ONIPA, recording studio Neighbourhood Studios, bassline artist K:Dot, hip-hop artist Franz Von, and digital production agency Madbox Creative. It’s all part of the vision to turn Fewer Than One into a multi-purpose venue, or, as Stevie puts it, “nurture a place for a wide range of clientele, one where as many people as possible can come in and make something out of the space.”

Feeding into this philosophy, <1 have made a commitment to promoting wider representation with their events. This means moving away from the largely white, male-dominated lineups all too often associated with electronic music, working with the resident artists and local promoters in favour of promoting a wider range of genres, hosting a diverse programme of events, and fundamentally creating a venue where people of all ages and groups can feel safe and represented.

Definitely watch this space, Sheffield.

Fewer Than One hosted their inaugural event August bank holiday weekend on Saturday 28th August, 4pm-5am.

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 41

Music

Rockin The Bowl

Rockin the Bowl Festival returns to the Don Valley Bowl this September for three days of open air headbanging and Exposed caught up with co-founder Steve Hughes to find out all about the event that showcases the future of hard, heavy and classic rock through its line-up of more than 25 artists and bands...

Firstly, fill us in about Rockin the Bowl festival…

Rockin the Bowl is an annual three-day open air rock and metal festival held in September at Don Valley Bowl, in Sheffield. It attracts bands and fans from across the UK, as well as from abroad. We have a main stage for national and international acts and a local ‘Steel Stage’ that showcases the best of the local talent. We think it is very important to introduce people to the wealth of quality musicians this city has to offer.

We’re also adding camping for the first time this year, so even though it is in the city it will have that proper festival feel. Ticket prices are kept low so that anyone can afford to go, at just £35 for the three days and £45 including camping.

What can people expect from this year’s event?

We have the ‘Queen of Metal’ from Germany coming to headline the Saturday. Doro Pesch may not ring a bell with non metal heads but she commands audiences of 50 to 60,000 in Europe so we really do have a proper rock star on our stage.

The Friday party have a band who have a great 70s Queen/ELO feel to them and are great musicians, Cats In Space.

The whole thing will be wrapped up by Massive Wagons, a band that are getting bigger and bigger by the day with a UK top 10 album under their belt and some of the catchiest hooks to be found since the heyday of Status Quo. There will be a finale that will be talked about for a long time but unfortunately I cannot talk about it just yet, don’t want to spoil the surprise now.

What are you particularly looking forward to this year?

After the year and a half that the music industry has been through, I’m looking forward to those gates opening on the Friday and seeing people walking into the Bowl. It will be an emotional moment for all the team at RTB. How did you become involved with the event?

My wife Zhany and I started the festival. The idea for Rockin the Bowl came about in late 2018. We

noticed that the city of Sheffield was starting to get by-passed by a huge amount of bands from the rock and metal genre and started to wonder why this was happening. Sheffield has an enviable pedigree for music which includes one of the bestselling rock bands out there in Def Leppard, so why weren’t bands coming? We have the fans, we have the culture, but we don’t have the venues for heavy rock and metal. City Hall doesn’t really do rock anymore, Corp is fantastic, but it is a small capacity venue, The Arena only attracts the really big names and The O2 isn’t keen on the genre either. While talking about these things we thought back to the time when Def Leppard played their legendary Don Valley Stadium gig and it suddenly struck us; let’s try and put another open air live gig together. The location was obvious -Don Valley Bowl!

It was as close to Don Valley Stadium as is possible today.

Rockin the Bowl takes place at Don Valley Bowl on 10 – 12 September 2021. Tickets available at rockinthebowl.co.uk www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 43

THROUGH THE LENS

FRASER HAVENHAND

After lockdown provided an opportunity to spend more time outdoors on local walks, Sheffield-based photographer Fraser Havenhand started to notice cars that would have previously been overlooked.

Sometimes abandoned, left to the mercy of overgrown gardens; sometimes prized possessions, gleaming ahead of a drive to keep them functioning during the long period of confinement bestowed upon its owner.

Sensing a connection between these machines and their owners, the lives they shepherd around and the homes they sit outside, Fraser decided to document his findings in Parked, a self-published photobook that he spoke to Exposed about last month.

Hi Fraser. First of all, could you tell us a bit about your yourself and how you first got into photography?

I’m a freelance photographer living in Sheffield but working all over the UK. I started taking photos at school, where I was offered to study photography as a new option for my GCSEs. I’d always felt like I was better suited to the creative subjects than the academic ones, so straightaway something about photography just clicked for me, even though I had no idea what I was doing. I continued to study it at A-level and subsequently got my degree in photography from Sheffield Hallam. After leaving university and getting my first full time office job, I always had this nagging in the back on my mind that said I should see what it was like working in the creative industry, so I contacted a photographer

whose work I love and went and met him at his studio in Sheffield city centre and, as luck would have it, he was looking for new assistant. I assisted for about four years and had an amazing time learning the ins and outs of what commercial photography and working in the creative industry was like. Roughly three years ago I started working with my own clients up and down the UK. What are your main sources of creative motivation?

My mum has always been a really creative person, and even though she would never admit it, she is an incredible painter. So, I think it’s part of my personality to want to have fun making things. I think being creative in any capacity is good for your mental wellbeing, and I know I’m definitely happiest when I have a camera in my hand, even if I’m just taking a stroll around Sheffield with my girlfriend. I think it’s the mindfulness that photography offers that motivates me to keep doing it. It helps you to take a step back from whatever is going on elsewhere in your life and just look at your surroundings in a different way – I’ve always found that part of the process really enjoyable and rewarding.

That leads onto the Parked photobook, which you began working on during lockdown. Could you give us a bit more background to the project?

In the beginning I never planned to make Parked, it sort of just made itself through circumstance.

When the pandemic hit and changed how

44 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

tales from a hard city

THROUGH THE LENS

Image from Parked collection

we all lived and worked, I wanted to keep busy and try to find a way to continue photographing cars. Because I’m used to taking photos of beautiful polished cars in a controlled environment, through work I was out looking at ways to shoot cars from a fresh perspective. Early on in lockdown, I remember looking through some old work and finding a few images of parked cars that I’d stumbled across on my photo walks; I remembered thinking how enjoyable it was to discover these things left on peoples drives or at the side of the road. I always wondered what the story behind them was: what was the connection between them and their owners?

How does this home have this car? How does this car warrant that kind of care? I kept asking myself these questions and it motivated me to try and find new cars for the project, turning it into something bigger than a few photos I had on an old hard drive.

What is key to producing engaging documentary photography?

For me, I think it’s finding a project or subject matter that you are really passionate about, however obscure that → www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 45

THROUGH THE LENS

“I think it’s part of my personality to want to have fun making things. I think being creative in any capacity is good for your mental wellbeing, and I know I’m definitely happiest when I have a camera in my hand, even if I’m just taking a stroll around Sheffield with my girlfriend.”

→ might be. It’s so much easier to make images that are engaging when you have a deeper understanding of what it is you’re actually making photos about, even if that’s just the city you live in, your friends or your family. Images that have genuine authenticity are the ones that are the most engaging and tell the best stories in my opinion. I think, too, that the simple ideas are often the ones that translate best into great photography; when I’m out on a walk taking photos, I have a small digital camera with me, one lens, and that’s it. I think over-complicating things with different focal lengths or bits of kit can distract from the story being told.

If you could photograph one event or subject, what or who would it be?

This might not sound as glamorous as some answers, but I would really love to shoot an event like the Goodwood Festival of Speed – doing coverage for somebody like Lotus would be really something else. From what I’ve seen online, the cars that attend the event look incredible and I think being in that melting pot of people and having access to shoot some of the big personalities in the UK car scene would be absolutely fantastic.

What do you hope to turn your attention to next?

I’m not sure what’s on the cards next in terms of a personal project, but I would like to make another book at some point.

But like Parked, I’d like it to be something that comes naturally rather than something I have to force. I know it’s been done to death but one thing I would like to explore is a project on all the really talented makers and artists that we have in Sheffield; I follow a fair few on Instagram and Twitter and would love to make some portraits of people in their spaces working on the things they love.

Parked is out and available fraserhavenhand.co.uk @fraserhav

46 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

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SHOT OF THE MONTH

FRASER HAVENHAND We’ve fallen in love with a tree! This beautiful snap was taken by our featured photographer, Fraser Havenhand, and it’s sucha vibe, we decided it deserved its own space in this month’s mag. It’s got a proper mood, don’t you agree?

A budding snapper yourself? Send your Shot of the Month over to paul@northboundmagazine. co.uk and you might just be next month’s featured photographer!

Food + Drink

That’s the Spirit After hosting distillery and tasting nights every couple of weeks (with great success) the next logical step for The Commercial Inn – a specialist real ale and spirits pub located in Chapeltown, Sheffield, was to set up their own distillery.

Sheffield Distillery was built in the beer garden of the Station Road pub, registered as an independent business in 2017, and began distilling in September 2018. We spoke to co-founder and head distiller Paul Harrison about the journey so far.

How did the journey first start for Sheffield Distillery?

Well, we’re based at The Commercial Inn, in Chapeltown, which is still a real ale pub but we offer a lot of back bar too. There’s around 400 different spirits behind the bar – 100+ of which are gins, so it seemed like the right sort of progression to start doing our own gin.

Cutlers Hall. Once that was sorted we registered as an independent business and began distilling in September 2018.

Tell us a bit about the distilling process itself. How does that work in layman’s terms?

All the distilling is done using a water-heated copper pot still, which we imported from Portugal, and it helps to give our spirits their texture and purity.

The copper reacts with the sulphur in the alcohol vapour, basically helping to provide a

Who initially set up the company?

The three directors are myself, Gary Sheriff and Paul Menzies – we finally registered the company in March 2017. Because we wanted Sheffield in the name, we had to get permission from 50 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

cleaner alcohol; the more copper contact you get, the better the alcohol will be at the end. With the copper equipment we’ve manage to create a really clean, syrupy alcohol that our customers love.

We’ve got one of the best vodkas in the world at the moment.

That’s quite a claim!

Yeah, the Assay Vodka has one two gold medals – one in the International Spirits Challenge and one in the International Wine and Spirits Competition, so I think we can make officially that claim now.

It’s not all been a rosy ride though. There was a fire in 2020 at the distillery?

Yeah, there was a blockage in the still which ended up spraying 85 degrees ethanol all over me.

That then ignited and, long story short, I ended up in the Burns Unit at Pinderfields Hospital for ten weeks, spending two weeks in an induced coma with second and third degree burns to forty percent of my body. I’m okay now – have a had couple operations and am slowly on the mend. We’ve now moved onto the big still and started working on a water bath, which means we can distil at a cooler temperature than before, allowing for a purer alcohol, which shows with the awards we’ve picked up the year.

Glad to hear you’re on the mend. Looking forward, what’s on the horizon for Sheffield Distillery?

Well, we’re always looking to improve things, tweaking bits here and there. At the minute we’re focusing on trying to get our navy strength range out before Christmas. We’ve got a couple of seasonal limited editions to bring out – a crab apple and rosehip gin for Autumn and a cranberry gin for Christmas, using proper base ingredients and botanicals.

There’s also our favourites to keep working on such as the rhubarb and custard gin and the St Clement’s gin. It’s a labour of love but word is spreading nicely and there’s plenty more to come from us.

Find out more and browse the full range at sheffielddistillery. co.uk

The

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food + Drink

Hot

Stuff Malaysian chilli sauce and paste company add some spice to Sheff Sheffield-based, Malaysian chilli sauce and paste company Mak Tok has gone from strength to strength since its founder’s successful appearance on BBC’s Dragon’s Den. Will Chew, the Malaysian-born owner of Mak Tok, which is Malay for grandmother, spent the first couple of months of the pandemic running the business with his cousin, Shang, and both of them packed the orders themselves, promoted the products online, and generally took care of the company’s day-to-day business.

The turning point for the company cam when Will, the company’s founder, appeared on Dragon’s Den, and secured an investment of £50,000 from one of the show’s presenters, Sara Davies, and since that appearance, the money has been used to promote the business online through various food delivery services and social media sites.

Will told Exposed: “The pandemic has given us the opportunity to explore the creative side of our marketing and discover new ways to stay connected with our consumers,” Mak Tok’s chilli paste recipes are part of the company’s success, too. The recipes, which are based on ones created by Will’s Malaysian grandmother, have proven very successful.

Two kinds of products are currently available from Mak Tok: a selection of chilli pastes and chilli sauces which cater to all dietary restrictions; most of their products are vegan, and all of them include natural ingredients.

But stay tuned – in the future, Mak Tok may unveil some new products… maktok.com www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 53

food + Drink RECIPE OF THE MONTH

Taken from the Vegan Cook Book, available on Amazon and mezepublishing.co.uk now.

DANA’S MEXICAN BREAKFAST Ingredients

Prep time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Serves: 6

250g quinoa 1 pack of tortillas For the black bean stew 1 tbsp vegetable oil ½ onion, finely sliced 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 250g tinned black beans 5g salt For the spicy tomato scrambled tofu 1 tbsp vegetable oil ½ onion, finely sliced 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped ½ tsp chilli flakes 6 tomatoes, roughly chopped 250g firm tofu ½ tsp salt For the guacamole 2 ripe avocadoes 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 fresh lemon, juiced

On this plate, I’ve brought together the flavours I love the most from my native Mexico. The recipe that follows is written down as my mother would have made it. For the salsa, you can use the chillies of your choice and add more or less depending on your heat tolerance.

Method Put the quinoa and 500ml of water into a pan and cook on a medium heat for 25 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water and is lovely and fluffy.

For the black bean stew In a separate pan, cook the onions in the oil for 5 minutes on a medium heat or until they turn light brown, then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the black beans and salt then cook on a low heat for 10 minutes.

For the spicy tomato scrambled tofu In another pan, cook the onions in the oil for 5 minutes on a medium heat or until they turn light brown, then add the garlic and the chilli flakes and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat. Crush the tofu by hand or with a fork to create a ‘scrambled’ effect, then add to the pan with the salt. Cook for 10 minutes.

For the guacamole Scoop the flesh out of the avocados and transfer it to a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mash them with a fork or purée with a hand blender. It is more traditional to have your guacamole quite textured rather than a smooth paste.

For the salsa

For the salsa:

Remove the stems from the chillies, and place the tomatoes and chillies in a pan.

Add water until the tomatoes are covered. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain the water.

Place the tomatoes, chillies, onion and garlic into a blender (or into a bowl if using hand blender) and blend until smooth. Add the salt.

4 red chillies

To serve

3 tomatoes

Warm the tortillas in the oven at 200°c for 1 minute and then plate everything together.

½ tsp salt

¼ white onion 1 clove of garlic ½ tsp salt

54 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

food + Drink

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 55

food + Drink

After launching their selection of 100% sugarfree flavoured drinks earlier this year, LUXLO are serving up a new alternative in the fastgrowing lower alcohol category aimed at the more mindful drinkers as they head back to bars and restaurants feeling more conscious than ever of health, wellbeing and consuming empty calories.

At just 20% ABV per 25ml measure, these beautifullypresented sups can provide a more considered option when letting your hair down.

Steve Adams, Founder of LUXLO, told Exposed: “When the idea for LUXLO first began to take shape, there weren’t many products available in the low and no category, never mind a lower ABV alternative to a fullstrength gin. Now, the sector is growing fast to keep up with consumer demand and it’s so encouraging for us to see so many others joining the party.

“LUXLO is a sugar-free, lower ABV and low-calorie spirit but packed with flavour thanks to the juniper base and nine carefully selected botanicals that are all individually distilled. The challenge for us was developing a great tasting product without adding sugar while maintaining a lower ABV.” Health and wellness are a hugely important combo these days, especially following the anxiety and stress caused by a worldwide pandemic, so giving consumers transparency on what is in their drink in terms of sugar and calories is a key message for the LUXLO team – particularly as the debate continues over hospitality venues being bound by government to display the calorie content of drinks on menus. LUXLO is also veganfriendly and gluten-free.

Head distiller Matt Servini tells us, “It isn’t about compromise – it’s about choice”, which is why he’s worked hard with the team to develop an inviting range of flavoured lower ABV spirits. The flavoured gin market has boomed over the last few years but if you are actively looking to consume less alcohol, then the choice of lower

LUXLO

Getting the LO-down

ABV flavoured spirits is limited.

“Seeing how the low and no category is emerging really shows that brands are listening to consumers, and we’re excited to be a part of this trend. While many Millennials and Gen Z are mindful drinkers, they still want to enjoy themselves. With LUXLO they can drink less and drink better,” says Matt.

LUXLO currently comes in four flavours: the original Ginny for those who love the juniper tastes of some spirits, Blood Orange for citrus lovers, Passion Fruit if you are looking for something exotic, or Pomegranate & Raspberry for that popular taste of pink berries.

All four varieties are available in attractively packaged 70cl bottles at £30.

Perfect for gifting, the large bottles are also available as a miniature discovery gift pack featuring all four varieties for £16.

Time for a guilt-free tipple we reckon!

Need some GINsparation?

Lunch with a pal? Have a LUXLO and tonic with a slice of fresh fruit.

Dinner with the fam? A LUXLO over ice is perfect to sip before the meal.

Catching up the group? Whip up a jug of LUXLO and lemonade over ice with chopped fruit.

Would you like to win one of ten Luxlo Taster sets? Simply drop us a message on socials with the phrase LUXLO PLEASE, and you could Available on Amazon, Drinkwell, Master pretending of Malt and www.luxlospirits.com be sipping on a LUXLO and tonic, it’s still summer! or for trade enquiries contact hello@luxlospirits.com

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 57

festive fun at The OEC

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FOOD REVIEW: A SAFE BET AT NAPS

Blending tradition with innovation, Owlerton’s Napoleons Casino has stood tall in its spot overlooking Penistone Road since 1996. You don’t enjoy longevity like that without moving with the times.

Looking the part is one thing, which it certainly does, but as with all reputable entertainment venues these days it’s crucial to ensure the food and drink offering is up to scratch. It’s here where ‘Naps’ truly excels, offering a ridiculously good value slice of modern dining and casino fun with its Dine in Style menu: that’s a drink on arrival, 3-course meal and £5 bet – all covered by a mere £25pp. Yup, not only would we be suitably wined and dined on the cheap, but you can also enjoy a quick flutter once you’ve finished.

Arriving at the venue on a Thursday evening, we were directed to the right of the casino area and towards the snazzy, glass-fronted restaurant. After being greeted warmly, we took our seats overlooking the casino floor action.

Feeling rather Robbie de Niro, we ordered drinks and olives for the table before settling down to browse the menu – a surprisingly eclectic mix of meat, fish and veggie dishes ranging from steak to seabass to baked peppers and curried cauliflower pasties!

First though: the starters. My partner chose the thai spiced fishcakes (my original choice), leaving me to plump for the garlic mushroom and spinach tartlet. Both arrived in good time, and being a considerate duo, we shared the spoils. The fishcakes were the highlight: flaky salmon with a spicy kick from the Asian flavours, complemented by drizzles of sweet chilli sauce providing the perfect dipping accompaniment. Our second dish, the garlic mushroom and spinach

tartlet, was a true savoury delight: fluffy pastry topped with feta cheese, crumbly on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Just as it should be.

The mains we chose couldn’t have been more contrasting. My choice, the Moroccan braised lamb shank, was a true sight to behold – a monolithic leg of meltingly tender lamb, served with red pepper couscous, harissa yoghurt and warm pitta. Combine the lot and you’ve got some delicious flavoursome wraps to have fun with – traditional comfort food with a twist. My partner opted for the baked pepper stuffed with chickpea and bean jambalaya, which might not have looked as impressive as my lamb at first glance, but it was bursting with satisfying cajun and paprika flavours from the jambalaya beans.

For dessert, we again found ourselves diverging. I enjoyed a refreshing sign-off via the passionfruit cheesecake, brandy snap and mango compote – beautifully presented and providing a nice tangy hit; whereas my partner, now in full indulgence mode, tucked into a truly decadent, old-school classic: chocolate and black cherry roly poly with vanilla ice cream and chocolate custard. She described it as Christmas coming early, and it certainly looked and smelled that way (no sharing on this one!). Time to settle up and take our stuffed bellies to the casino floor with our tokens…

Alas! We didn’t do fare too well with our post-meal bets, but we still left the venue perfectly satisfied, convinced that we’d just enjoyed one of the best-priced meals out in the city. Make sure you check out their latest menu (website below) when you next fancy treating yourself.

Napoleons Casino 15 Livesey St, Sheffield S6 2BL, 0114 281 6191 napoleons-casinos.co.uk

food + Drink

food + Drink

Heist Brewery After well over a year’s delay, thanks in part to the various lockdowns and some well documented roof issues, Heist Brew Co’s brand-new brewery tap finally opened its doors last month..

The Neepsend Lane venue looks the business and provides a perfect hangout boasting shuffleboard tables, an arcade complete with 2p machines and grabbers, TV screens showing alternative sports and a projector screen for some Tony Hawk’s action on the Playstation.

If that wasn’t enough, top burger joint Slap and Pickle have made the venue their new permanent home and the bar offers a massive 30 different lines of beer, giving them the most lines and biggest selection of draught beer in Sheffield.

For those with a sweet tooth, you’ll also find Sheff-based doughnut merchants Ritual onsite and serving up some truly sumptuous offerings with flavours ranging from peanut butter and jelly to chill and mango.

The space has been split into three areas: a self-contained brewery, allowing them to expand their award-winning beer operation; an events space and overspill area, where they will hold a range of events including Meet the Brewer and Homebrew nights as well as private hire events; and the main bar area, also home to the arcade and kitchen offerings.

Opens Tuesday to Sunday. For full opening hours head over to @heistbrewco Heist Brewery 107 Neepsend Lane Neepsend, S3 8AT heistbrewco.com 60 | www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk

food + Drink

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Comedy

free spirit

Top Picks Rob Auton *rescheduled show* The Leadmill // Sept 13 // £12 ‘The Time Show’ is the latest comedy/theatre/spoken word show by writer and performer of some of what he writes Rob Auton. Following on from his critically acclaimed shows about talking, hair, sleep, water, faces, the sky and the colour yellow, ‘the Fringe’s comedian laureate’ (British Comedy Guide) now turns his attention to time. He will be asking questions such as ‘What time is it?’ and ‘What is it time?’ theleadmill.com

Words: James Mottram “I’ve never felt more excited about a tour in my life,” says Simon Amstell. The British comedian and filmmaker is talking up his return to the world of stand-up, as he prepares to bring his new show Spirit Hole to audiences this autumn. “A blissful, spiritual, sensational exploration of love, sex, shame, mushrooms and more”, this 39-gig odyssey looks set to be on a par with his 2019 Netflix special Set Free, which took viewers on a surreal meander through Amstell’s fertile mind.

After months of lockdown left him contemplating life, the universe, and his stand-up, Amstell is more than ready to go back out on the road. “The show’s better now as a result of all this,” he says. “If there’s a silver lining, I may be funnier!” Certainly, fans of his acute observational humour won’t be disappointed.

Right back to his early forays at the Edinburgh Fringe and shows like 2010’s Do Nothing, Amstell has proved himself a master at skewering his own social embarrassment. Like a self-help guru, but a thousand times funnier.

Take shame, an emotion he tackles in this new show.

“I feel like I clear away a lot of shame by saying the stuff out loud that I’m worried about saying,” he says.

“What I’m really scared of is not saying everything [but] leaving something out and then it remains this little demon in my head that’s making me feel like there’s something wrong with me. But the second I say the thing out loud that I feel embarrassed or ashamed to say and realise that nothing happened, nobody walked out the room, it’s incredible freeing.”

While many have fallen prey during lockdown to dark thoughts, Amstell seems to be flourishing. “I think I really learned to surrender. Finally. We’re all under the illusion that we’re in control of our lives. And this was pretty strong evidence that we’re definitely not.”

Ageing – another thing we can’t control – is also a big theme. “A lot of the show is about getting older,” he says. He turned 40 in November 2019, a milestone he struggled with. “We’re in a culture where we’re told there are options and we’re sold anti-ageing products, whereas really the advert should say: ‘Hi. Nothing can be done. Maybe get a hobby.’”

Amstell has honed his style of confessional comedy, not just in stand-up but also on the BBC2 sitcom Grandma’s House, which he wrote and starred in. He continued this semi-autobiographical

Image: David Levene streak with 2018’s feature film Benjamin, which he wrote and directed. Dubbed “funny, charming and overpoweringly personal” by The Guardian, it told the story of a filmmaker, played by Colin Morgan, preparing to premiere his second movie as he falls in love with a French music student named Noah. “I really loved directing,” Amstell reflects. “I had an idea that I would love to do it. But then when I was actually doing it… every day it was just such a joy working with actors and hearing and seeing what you’ve written come to life.”

He feels “optimistic” – a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel feeling – after the year that the world has endured.

“This is a planet we’re not treating very well,” he says, “and my hope is that we have been challenged enough to change in some way.” Rest assured, though: Spirit Hole won’t be one long gig about Coronavirus. “I feel like not mentioning would be a bit peculiar, but then going on about it would be slightly unbearable. I’ll only be discussing it through the prism of my own weird emotions.”

Simon Amstell’s Spirit Hole heads to the Leadmill on 12th September. Tickets and more info available at leadmill.co.uk

Sheffield Improv Comedy Jam DINA // Sept 19 // FREE The Sheffield Improv Jam is a great place for new and experienced improvisers to come and play. For those who haven’t been to a jam before, you stick your name in a hat and as it’s pulled out you get to do either a scene or a game and will be joined on stage by other names from the hat.

All welcome, regardless of experience Facebook.com/ sheffieldimprovjam Jason Byrne: Audience Precipitation *rescheduled show* City Hall // Sept 30 // £22.95 Jason Byrne is back for more comedy chaos! He has learnt over the past few years that we all need to “play” a bit more in our lives. With this in mind, he will do what he does best, connecting with the audience in a way no other comic can. Whether it’s inviting or dragging (as it has been known) people up onto stage and making a “holy show of them” as they say in Ireland.

Jason’s Audience Precipitation, will be a laugh out loud, must see show, with a light drizzle of audience participation… sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

www.NorthBoundmagazine.co.uk | 63

Highbank Require an experienced motor technician/MOT tester Must have NVQ level 3 in automotive repairs and be able to Repair and service vehicles- Complete diagnostic checks - Provide excellent customer service.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent Salary: £26,000.00-£29,000.00 per year

KEEP IT LOCAL Six great reasons why you should take your car to High Bank Service Station 1.

Fully guaranteed servicing, repairs and diagnostics on all vehicle makes and models using the very latest diagnostic and test equipment

2.

MOT testing for all cars, Class 7 vans and campervans

3.

Main dealer level support which does not affect

“I’m Carl from High Bank Service Station and I know that when you need an MOT, Service or Repair to your vehicle, you have a choice – the main dealer, a big garage group or your local garage”.

your vehicle’s warranty

4.

All the convenience of using a garage close to where you live…. and at prices below those of main dealers

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We are a family-run business offering an honest,

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Do what our customers do... bring your car to us. All our six garages offer the same quality service.

reliable, high quality service… and free advice on all aspects of motoring

6.

Customers have the comfort of knowing that every

Wisewood Lane,

job is supported by the strength and resources of

Sheffield, S6 4WA

the Tavern Group

Tel: 0114 2348879

To book a service or MOT call us on 0114 2348879 or you can book online at www.taverngaragegroup.co.uk