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Sheffield has a growing cultural reputation. 7.2% ofSheffield's working population are employed in the creative industries, well above the national average of 4%.[1] The music scene has produced many music acts during the last 25 years. It is also home to the largest theatre complex outside London. The council has attempted to build upon these foundations with the creation of theCultural Industries Quarter. Sheffield made the shortlist for the first city to be designatedUK City of Culture, but in July 2010 it was announced thatDerry had been selected.[1]
Sheffield has been the home of several well-known bands and musicians, with an unusually large number ofsynthpop and otherelectronic outfits hailing from there. These includethe Human League,Heaven 17,Thompson Twins,Wavestar and the moreindustrially inclinedCabaret Voltaire. This electronic tradition has continued:techno labelWarp Records was a central pillar of theYorkshire Bleeps and Bass scene of the early 1990s, and has gone on to become one of Britain's oldest and best-loved dance music labels. In the 1990sMoloko andAutechre, one of the leading lights of so-calledelectronic listening music, were also based in Sheffield. The city was also home toGatecrasher andNiche Nightclub, two of the most popularnightclubs in the north of England (although Gatecrasher is currently closed after a fire in 2007 and Niche is closed after a massive police raid in 2005, Niche has since had several ill-fated attempts at reopening, but seems to live on in the new Sheffield nightclub Tank). Sheffield also plays host toMade in Sheffield home to many successful local bands.
Sheffield has also seen the birth ofPulp,Babybird,Def Leppard,Joe Cocker,The Longpigs, and thefree improvisersDerek Bailey andTony Oxley. 1998Mercury Music Prize award winnersGomez are also connected to Sheffield as some of the founding members went toSheffield Hallam University together. The immensely successfulArctic Monkeys are currently Sheffield's biggest musical export, and have helped lead the way for chart hits for fellow Sheffield bandsMilburn,Reverend and the Makers,Little Man Tate andThe Long Blondes. Other successful Sheffield bands includeBring Me the Horizon,math rock band65daysofstatic, glam-punk bandPink Grease, and quirky songsmithStoney. Sheffield was home to the world-renownedLindsay String Quartet, who retired from the stage in June 2005.
The city is home to one of England's largerindiepop communities. Bands such as Velodrome 2000 helped to create an indiepop scene during the late 1990s, which has since found a focal point in the Offbeat clubnight at theUniversity of Sheffield. More recent local indiepop acts include Slow Down Tallahassee, The Parallelograms,Monkey Swallows the Universe and Pete Green.DIY non-profit-making promoters such as DaisyDaisyDoes and Sparklemotion are responsible for bringing UK and international indiepop acts to play live in Sheffield. Andrew Macdonald CEO and founder of primary brit independent labels Go Disc and Indipendiente is also from Sheffield.
Sheffield also has a smallurban music scene. This consists of R'n'B, UK Hiphop/boombap, Grime, Bassline and Speed Garage. It is home to artists such asHoodz Underground, Yeshua,Otis Mensah,DanimaL, The Ruby Kid,Toddla TThe Red Eye Knights andConstant Creation, it is part of theYorkshire Hip Hop scene. The Speed Garage scene has surfaced in Sheffield with a unique modern sound compared to older speed garage. Born from the nightclub Niche, the music has various other terms such as Bassline House or Niche itself, but was born in Sheffield and has now spread out to other cities in the United Kingdom. It varies differently from other cities Soulful Vocal UK Garage, and the beats are not two step.
The city's ties with music were acknowledged in 1999, when theNational Centre for Popular Music, amuseum dedicated to the subject ofpopular music was opened. It was not as successful as was hoped, however, and later evolved to become a live music venue, then in February 2005 the unusual steel-covered building would become thestudents' union forSheffield Hallam University.
The three main music venues[citation needed] are theSheffield Arena, theCity Hall andO2 Academy for smaller acts. Other live music venues in the city include andThe Leadmill,Corporation, theUniversity of Sheffield, The Plug, and the Studio Theatre at theCrucible Theatre. Smaller venues supporting the local scene includeThe Frog and Parrot,Under The Boardwalk, The Grapes,D 'n' R andThe Cricketers,The Harley, The Howard, and the now demolished Classic Rock Bar.
Sheffield is unusual for a city of its size in having no resident professional orchestra, but there are a number of amateur local orchestras including theHallam Sinfonia,Sheffield Symphony Orchestra, theSheffield Chamber Orchestra, theSheffield Philharmonic Orchestra and theCity of Sheffield Youth Orchestra. There are also many choirs within Sheffield; one semi-professional choir attached to the cathedral, and a number of amateur choirs including the Sheffield Oratorio Chorus[2],Chorus UK, The University of Sheffield Singers' Society,Hallam Choral Society, Sheffield Bach Society, The University of Sheffield Chamber Choir andSheffield Philharmonic Chorus. TheLindsay String Quartet were based in Sheffield, and their members continue to be actively involved in the city's musical activities. The Concert PianistMark Gasser was born there, though he now lives in Australia. However he recently returned to perform withCity of Sheffield Youth Orchestra. Music in the Round, which started off as an annual festival of chamber music has grown to be a year-round series of performances and tours with a resident group of professional players, Ensemble 360. The Sheffield Music Academy is an organisation for development of young musical talent across the region. Sheffield Music School provides chamber music coaching to sixty young musicians from across the city.
The Cultural Industries Quarter has been established in the surrounding area of theRed Tape Studios. Other facilities include the National Centre for Popular Music, now used as a student union, the Leadmill nightclub and Sheffield Science Park. TheShowroom Cinema shows independent and foreign films.
Tudor Square is the largest theatre complex outside London. It has two major theatres, theLyceum Theatre and theCrucible Theatre as well as the smallerStudio Theatre. Other theatres include theMontgomery Theatre,Lantern andMerlin Theatres.
There are four majorart galleries, the modernMillennium Galleries,Graves Art Gallery and theSite Gallery which specialises in multimedia. Other art galleries includeSheffield Institute of Arts Gallery,Bloc Projects,35 Chapel Walk andS1 Artspace.
The city has severalmuseums, includingWeston Park Museum (formerly theSheffield City Museum), theKelham Island Museum, theSheffield Fire and Police Museum, theNational Videogame Museum,Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet andShepherd Wheel.
The city also has a number of other attractions such as theSheffield Winter Gardens and thePeace Gardens. TheBotanical Gardens currently undergoing a £6.7 million pound restoration. There is also a city farm atHeeley City Farm and a second animal collection inGraves Park that is open to the public.Victoria Quays is also a popular canalside leisure and office quarter.
The filmsThe Full Monty,Threads, andWhatever Happened to Harold Smith? were based in the city.F.I.S.T. also included several scenes filmed in Sheffield. ActorSean Bean is from Sheffield and starred inWhen Saturday Comes, a film based upon his beloved Sheffield United Football Club. Sheffield's dailynewspaper is theSheffield Star, complemented by the weeklySheffield Telegraph. TheBBC'sRadio Sheffield, and the independentHits Radio South Yorkshire and sister stationGreatest Hits South Yorkshire broadcast to the city. Sheffield is also home to an unusual and original group of filmmakers centering on the well established production studio Sheffield Independent Film. this company previously employing Jarvis Cocker and producing videos for the Arctic Monkeys and Mute Records Xerox Teens as well as BAFTA nominated independent films.Warp Films, producer of films such asFour Lions,Dead Man's Shoes, andThis Is England, are also based in Sheffield.
Magners Grin up North - Sheffield Comedy Festival is a monthlongcomedy festival in October and now the largest[citation needed] comedy festival in England.Open Up Sheffield is an annual event over the first two weekends in May where localvisual artists and finecraft workers invite the public to their studios and other venues. TheSheffield International Documentary Festival, the UK's leading[citation needed] documentary festival, (now known as Doc/Fest) has been run annually since 1994.Summer Sounds is a yearly two-day world music event. Fright Night is a Halloween festival staged in the city centre and is billed as Britain's Biggest[citation needed] Halloween Party with a reported 38,000 people in 2008.Tramlines is an open air and multi-venue music festival which runs over a weekend in July. It began in 2009 and in 2010 attracted around 125,000 visitors to the city.
Sheffield has two universities, theUniversity of Sheffield andSheffield Hallam University. The two combined bring 45,000 students to the city every year, including many from theFar East. As a result of its large student population, Sheffield has many bars, cafes, clubs and shops as well as student housing to accommodate them.
The University of Sheffield, aRed Brick university, has sites over a large area to the west of the city centre. It owns theArts Tower, which was the tallest building in Sheffield from its construction in 1965 up until 2010, when it was surpassed bySt Pauls Tower. It is still, however, the tallest university building in the UK. Sheffield Hallam University, anew university is based on a large campus in the city centre. Both universities have extensive links with local industry and theEnglish Institute for Sport.
