retiredmartin

March 2024. Sheffield.

Gig night in Sheffield, a trio of shoegaze (ask your Dad) groups at 200 capacity Yellow Arch. Shoegaze is back; Slowdive are headlining End of the Road and those My Bloody Valentine albums I bought in the death throws of vinyl are worth a fortune (well, £20).

Sheffield thrives on small venues, the sort that use the ultra-tech Dice app that downloads your ticket an hour before doors open.

Except tonight, the tickets section was completely blank, causing a man approaching middle age unnecessary stress as I headed into Kelham frantically trying to find confirmatory e-mails from last year.

Fortunately, young people are both less frantic and more confident than us old codgers, and the lad said “Oh don’t worry, I’ll just check your name off“. Bless you, young folk.

My stress may be apparent from this photo from the Nightbus set, enjoyed over a pint of Gamma Ray.

Yellow Arch‘s beer range (below, from 2022) will be disappointing for the music fan expecting some Kelham Island magic,

but I can assure you it’s a darn sight better than the larger corporate venues in Manchester (go to Leeds to see how it’s done).

Still, with some sizeable gaps between sets and 20 minutes till Bedroom stylised BDRMM I popped in the closest pub with cask, which just happened to be a “social club”.

Now, I’m sure the Neepsend SC & C was keg only last time out, decent keg mind,

so the addition of a Thornbridge house beer has to be a significant campaigning win for Sheffield CAMRA. A cool, foamy, pint too (3+).

Slightly sadly, all the trade was down the end of the room where Quiz Night was in full swing,

so I had the bench seating under the glitter ball all to myself.

Mumsnet often asks “Am I Being Reasonable to go to a gig/cinema/play/pub ALL by myself“, a question a bloke would never ask, but even I felt a bit Billy No Mates now. Mrs RM would have got this question right;

but she wouldn’t have fancied standing at the back of Yellow Arch’s narrow venue,

and might not have seen the appeal of BDRMM as much as the taller blokes.

They were good. Nightbus were even better.