Sheffield’s electro-dominance of the early '80s provided much needed escapism for a city gripped by soaring unemployment, recession and the Miner’s Strike, writes Neil Anderson.
And much of it was captured for celebrated Sheffield photographer Pete Hill.
Bands like the Human League, Heaven 17, Cabaret Voltaire and ABC were all borne out of an era of acute political unrest with one venue being pivotal to much of the scene.
Despite being shut over thirty years, the Limit is still regularly hailed as one of Sheffield’s most iconic clubs.
The venue – opened by DJ George Webster and former policeman Kevan Johnson in early 1978 – opened to capitalise on the punk scene that was sweeping the country at the time.
Sheffield’s reaction to the movement that counted the Sex Pistols and the Clash amongst its main flagbearers had hardly been welcoming.
Former Sham 69 roadie Anthony Cronshaw remembers: “There was a lot of hostility towards punk in the city – right from the day it arrived. Before the Limit there was really only the Wapentake [a rock bar] to go to.”
The Limit was at the forefront of a group of regional independent venues that opened in Northern England around the same time and went on to help shape the UK music scene in the eighties. Other venues included the Warehouse in Leeds, Eric’s in Liverpool and the Hacienda in Manchester.
They were all essential stop off points for artists on their ascendency and each had their own particular traits. If cash was king it’s arguable that the Limit won hands down. It was hugely successful and even went on to bankroll the transformation of the then derelict Lyceum Theatre – a massive Victorian structure that was then seriously on its uppers - into a music venue in the early ‘80s.
Many of Pete Hill’s photos appear in the ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1980s Sheffield – Limit Edition’ and you can view a sample here.
1. The Extras
Sheffield Band The Extras, at The Limit nightclub in the late 1970s Photo: Pete Hill/Neil Anderson
