Sheffield retro: Looking back at city's Top Rank - Europe's largest nightclub in it's heyday

It features heavily in Neil Anderson’s Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Sheffield book. He takes up the story.

The Arundel Gate venue – which years later became Roxy and was more recently re-born as the Academy – was regularly pulling in anything up to 2,500 punters every Saturday night at its renowned ‘Steely’s’ night in the heady days of the 1970s.

‘Steely’s’ had a hardcore and loyal following from Sheffield and South Yorkshire but disco-goers would regularly travel from much further afield.

Joanna English, then 19 years of age and residing in Mosborough, was one of its biggest fans.

She said at the time: “You can lose yourself here, it’s so big. It’s a fantastic atmosphere.

“At other places they say you can’t do this and you can’t do that. But if you’re having a good time here, just enjoying yourself, other people will join in. Some nights you remember for ages afterwards.”

For the majority it was their first proper foray into nightclub land, with the average age being between 18 and 21 years old.

Redge Cliff: “I deejayed as a part-time job at the Top Rank for two years, early 1977 to April 1979, and did most of the Saturday nights which were billed as ‘Steely's’, together with another DJ, Stewart McEgan.

“I auditioned for the Rank and was told to play three records with introductions and a bit of chat.

“I remember playing Wings' 'Silly Love Songs' and Leo Sayer's 'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing'. I can't remember the other one. I thought I did quite well. I didn't make any gaffes, the patter was short but sweet and I cued the 45s up and segued them pretty well. I got the job.

“The Rank could hold up to 2500 people on a Saturday night and was always sold out at Christmas and New Year's Eve. For sheer numbers, no other club in the area could compete.

“It wasn't just a disco though. We often put on special events such as dance competitions and also PA appearances by pop stars and groups who were in concert somewhere in the area - I remember The Dooleys being with us one Saturday night!”

Unlike the meteoric rise of the DJ during the clubbing explosion of the mid-1990s, Redge Cliff is the first to admit that the DJ of the seventies was often thought of as one notch up from the cleaner in many cases.

Whilst a modern day DJ would rather burn in hell rather than bowing to audience pressure to repeat a tune in any one set, it was common currency at ‘Steely’s’.

Redge Cliff: “Stewart and I would play the most popular records sometimes five or six times in a single evening.”

‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Sheffield’ is available for £14.95 from www.dirtystopouts.com

information supplied by Neil Anderson from Dirty Stops Out Guide.