The Leadmill has announced that they will auction off memorabilia and archived merch from artists including Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood, George Ezra, Biffy Clyro, Sarah Pascoe, Miles Kane, Green Day, Goldfrapp, Blossoms and many more in order to stay in business and pay their staff.
The historic venue will have to auction off memorabilia it has saved over the years in order to stay afloat during the uncertainty of COVID-19. In an effort to help get through this hardship, they will be auctioning off an amount of their archive including signed items from Biffy Clyro, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire and even the coffin Royal Blood used for their stage show back in 2014. .
Alternatively, they also have merch on their website and will be updating this with limited edition 40th anniversary items. Keep an eye on that here: leadmill.co.uk/shop.
The Leadmill in Sheffield have just entered their 40th anniversary and were very excited about the year ahead until the pandemic broke. They have been supplying amazing events to the people of Sheffield since 1980 and are a pinnacle part of the city’s history and culture. Although they have seen a lot of live shows reschedule, the venue will be battling on through this difficult time. They released this statement earlier today:
“Hi all,
“This is a very worrying and unprecedented time to be living in, we hope you are all coping as best as you can. We’d like to take this opportunity to highlight the government’s shortcomings in yesterday’s statement. The Prime Minister made a clear choice to throw the UK’s music and hospitality industry under the bus by not setting any concrete restrictions therefore putting the onus on us to decide whether we shut or remain open. This will prevent anyone being able to claim for business interruption through their insurance and could see sweeping closures of the UK’s most beloved grassroots music venues and independent bars.
“Though most of you will see The Leadmill as just its four walls, The Leadmill is made up of over 75 brilliant, hard working members of staff, plus up to 30 regular freelance engineers/crew and not to mention all of our local suppliers who we use on a regular basis. These are all real people with rents, mortgages and bills to pay.
“We held a vote last night where the staff overwhelmingly decided we should stay open until we are forcibly told to close or until we can no longer afford to stay open. Therefore as it stands right now, unless you hear otherwise, we will be remaining open. You can see which events are still on at our website here: www.leadmill.co.uk.
“We will be implementing a series of measures to ensure The Leadmill remains a safe space during the outbreak including:
– Only accepting card payments at the door and on the bars and encouraging contactless payments where possible
– Increased cleaning measures of all surfaces within the building including extra hourly wiping down of all tills/card machines/bar tops/door handles
– Additional soap dispensers in the toilets and staff areas
– Opening all three rooms for all club nights to give space for people to spread out
“In an effort to help get us through this hardship, we will be auctioning off an amount of our archive including signed items from Biffy Clyro, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire and even the coffin Royal Blood used for their stage show here back in 2014. We will post details of this later on.
“We do hope you will support us in this decision. We are an independent business with real people at the heart of it. We will get through this Sheffield, we need our northern grit now more than ever!
“Sending love to all of our loyal customers and fellow independents who are in the same boat as us.
“Team Leadmill xx”
The decision to remain open has been met with praise from the general public, with many wishing them the best of luck and asking how best to support the venue during this time.
Bethany Okogba, promotions manager of The Leadmill said: “This is a very difficult time for the hospitality, events and tourism industries. We did not take the decision lightly to sell our memorabilia but it’s what we must do in order to survive. Every piece we are listing online holds a special memory with at least one member of staff and means a lot to us all as a team. Please support your local independent businesses and your friends who are self employed or may lose their jobs. Many of us indies may not be here after the storm has passed.”
