Off The Beaten Track – Sheffield

This blog is all about nights out and gigs that you might not know about. We don’t need to tell you that every Monday night Embrace is filled with the worst music out there, or that Leadmill has got a “great” night on a Wednesday. But you might not know about Club Pony every second Friday or who’s playing at the Green Room. Off The Beaten Track – Sheffield is the place that tells you what’s on, when it’s on and we’ll even give you a sample of the music so you can see if it’s what you fancy.

Fans of Shontelle and Chris Brown should probably look elsewhere though.

Tramlines

Alright guys, it’s been a while since we’ve posted. There’s a whole bunch of excuses, but we can all figure out the real reasons! Anywhoo, before everyone disappears completely for summer to go travelling/working/sign on the dole we want to give you a heads up about what’s going on.

Most of the regular nights are on over the summer and because it’s fairly quiet a lot of them are cheap/free! If you can get a Bunch of people together then it should be a great, and cheap, night out. As for big events, Tuesday 18th July is the TTC BBQ. This is a banging all-dayer, with eats and drinks in the Interval garden during the day and a massive Tuesday Club lineup following it. Friction, Goldie, Youngsta, Break, Sinden and Evil Nine are all on the bill, so there is enough variety to satisfy most. The afternoon is free and the night will set you back £12, which is a bit steep but definately worth it!

The following weekend is Sheffield’s newest big thing, Tramlines. John McClure and Toddla T have had a hand in organising this, so it has managed to get a few big names involved. The whole thing is going to be like a free Camden Crawl type thing, with a buch of different bars putting on the different acts that are playing. And the whole thing is free!

Friday:
Errors, Maps, DJ Zinc, Toddla T, Martelo, Oneman, Slow Club, Rolo Tomassi, Kid Acne, Shake Aletti, Skint & Demoralised, Navvy

Saturday:
Pixie Lott, Little Boots, The Noisettes, The Yeah Yous, Johnny Foreigner, The Chapman Family, Rodney P, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, MPHO, Futurecop!, Matt Helders

Sunday:
Reverend and the Makers, The La’s, Detriot Social Club, The XX

This is just the start of the lineup. Check out their website (http://tramlines.org/) to see details of the other bands and the venues involved. Other than that, enjoy the summer and we’ll see you in September.

May Bank Holiday #2

Alrighty Sheffield Folk, how’s it all going? Last Bank Holiday was siiick… we got up to no good and had a fookin awesome time! The good news is, this one promises to be just as good. We’re just going to give y’all a couple of ideas to do over the next few days…

Tonight you’re spoilt for choice. Bungalows and Bears are putting on a massive night and they’ll be open until three, with the likes of Asbo a Gogo and more importantly Love Foxx from CSS. When you get bored of that head on down to DQ for what promises to be our highlight of the weekend, Suckerpunch. With the likes of Ctrl-Z headlining an evening of Tuesday Club residents doing battle with the Suckerpunch residents. Expect big tings!

Tomorrow is going to be another heavy one, with the famous Jonathon Ulysses gracing the decks at Shuffle. Although we don’t normally give this night a shout out, the kudos this guy has earnt over in one of the biggest clubs in the world means he definitely deserves some words. Resident at Space in Ibiza, if your up for a night of outrageous dancing then this is the ticket. It’s free before 12 and from 12-1 there’s a £1 shot run, so you’ll have no excuse to be sober!

Sunday is all about Bungalows again… They’ve got an epic lineup of live bands, live DJ’s and Sheffield’s prodigal son Toddla T playing. This one is especially big because, as always, it’s free to get in. So get down early, as the party will be starting from about 5 or so.

On Monday nurse your hangover with a trip down to Mentholman’s @ West St Live where they’ve put on a whole day of music for no money whatsoever!

If you haven’t been swayed by all of this then I reckon you need to go and get an iron shot and then come back when you’re feeling better! See y’all out this weekend

Just a quick one

Alright guys, sorry we haven’t been updating stuff this past week or so… The easter holidays coupled with an outrageous workload mean that things are on ice a bit. But don’t worry, we’ll find the time and when we do they’ll be a couple of aural delights for you as our way of saying thank you! We also though you might be interested in knowing that in the month that we’ve been online we’ve had almost 2000 hits. Keep it coming people, and remember to check back whenever you’re stuck for ideas on a free night.

The main point of this one though is to say that The Forum are reopening this Friday after their little refurb. They’ve got a great little line-up of acts past and present and in true Forum stlye it’s free to get in. So if any of you are out and about in Sheffield this week, make the trip down on Friday night. We’ve also heard they’ve got a whole new range of cocktails to rival the Old House…

March Roundup + Extras

So it’s the end of our first month, which means we have been out and sampled as many of these nights out as our poor broken bodies allowed! We’re going to shout out what we did and what we reckon were the best nights. And then we’ll tell you where we’re going to be next month.

Sacha -

I can’t lie… I’ve been working my sorry little tits off this month, but when I’ve not been behind my bar I’ve been hitting DQ. Club Pony this month was ace! Techno, electro and some filthy remixes made this my favourite night of the month. That and the 30 quid worth of booze that i managed to get in me. But if you’re free next time it comes round, get your sorry behind down to DQ and shred it up with the Run Hide Survive bunch! Next month it is all about The Specials at Plug… I cannot recommend this one enough. Seriously! If you have to turn tricks to get a ticket for this one then do it, because it is going to be one of the finest gigs of the next 12 months! The other big night I’m going to shout out is TTC’s first one back after easter… Andy C, Chase & Status and Flying Lotus all in the same room is going to be outrageous. It’s a pricey one, but well worth splashing out on.
As far as the tunes I’m checking out at the moment, it’s definitely all about Quantic in his many disguises (check “not so blue”) and Manu Chao’s album “Clandestino”. Getting in the mood for a proper chilled summer now that the sun’s out, and these songs will get you going.

Bongo Bong by Manu Chao
Je Ne T’aime Plus by Manu Chao
(Check these two out back to back…they run on really nicely)
Not So Blue by Quantic
Tales From Beyond The Groove by The Limp Twins (Quantic)

Jack -

Had a pretty safe month as far as nights out goes, Club Pony with Filthy Dukes was sick (if you want some proof check out their track “tupac robot club rock (Oliver $ Remix)”). Another highlight was the Maccabees at The O2 Academy, they played a strong set with plenty of new songs (have a listen to “no kind words”) and some crowd pleasers off the first album. Suckerpunch at DQ was on the same night so we headed there after the gig… the Bassfire boys put on a great line up as always and a good old messy time was had by all. As for the month ahead, If you’re around over easter and you’re into house, I strongly recommend you get yourself to Plug on April 12th to catch Eric Prydz and Sebastian Leger, guaranteed to be a goodun.

What have i been listening to lately? Um, well, recently rediscovered the debut Black Rebel Motorcyle Album… classic.
Also been giving the newish Yeah Yeah Yeahs album a listen, its definitely something different and worth a squirt (“Hysteric” is personal highlight). I’m off to see them live in Manchester on the 22nd which should be epic.
Another classic I’m loving at the moment is Raekwon’s ‘Only Built for Cuban Linx…’. Absolute fire.

Tupac Robot Club Rock (Oliver $ Remix) by Filthy Dukes

No Kind Words by The Maccabees

Aqualight by Sebastien Leger

Love Burns by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Hysteric by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Knuckleheadz (Feat. Ghostface Killah & U-God) by Raekwon

Random tunes:

In The Morning (Alex Smoke Remix) by Junior Boys Nice vocal minimal glitchy techy stuff…too many adjectives?

War Paint (Claude Von Stroke Remix) by Poxymusic. Minimal techy house.

Run it (Duke Dumont Remix) by EPMD. Hip hop. Fat.

Download, enjoy, buy shit if you like it.

http://www.endless-thelist.blogspot.com/

Alright guys, these lads over at TheList dropped me a note today letting me know about their blog that’s doing the same kind of thing. Check it out for some even less well known nights, venues and shennanigans on a month-by-month basis.

They’ve also got some ace listings for local art exhibitions, radio shows and a list of producers/DJ’s that will make you dribble with excitement. Well worth a minute or two of your spare time!

http://www.boxmusique.com/

Our friends here in Sheffield have been mighty busy! They’ve gone and made a blog all about music and such likes. News, reviews and maybe the odd bit banal conversation fill the pages over at Box Musique and it’s all well worth checking out. So if you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare while you’re pretending to do coursework or trying to figure out how you’re going to pay for food this week, check it out.

Update

All of the venues that we’re going to be listing are up now, although we haven’t had a chance to fill in their listings just yet. Hope to have that done very soon.

If there are any places that you think should be on the list, let us know and if we agree we’ll whack them on. If not, we’ll just mock you in front of everyone and make you feel a little foolish.