The Limit, one of Sheffield's 'most legendary' clubs. The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, Vice Versa (later to become ABC), Def Leppard, Artery and others all played seminal shows at the venue.
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00:00 So this week we're talking about what's probably my favourite club, because I was actually old enough to go to Limit, a legendary Limit on West Street.
00:07 So my name's Neil Anderson and I've got, I've published the Dirtiest Top Hell's Guide series.
00:13 Yeah, well the Limit, it kind of, it was really our kind of contribution to the punk rock music, punk rock explosion, kind of, late '75, 1976.
00:25 And punk wasn't particularly well received in Sheffield, like many places really, and probably the first venues, they were, I think it was Windmill Club,
00:36 it was more kind of rather in Doncaster where a lot of the kind of local punks were having to go.
00:40 And I think one of the places that were quite accepting was a rock bar, The Wapping Tech.
00:46 But, you know, Sheffield never really had its own kind of punk rock club, and one of the former DJs from The Wapping Tech, a guy called George Webster,
00:55 he got together with a former police officer, Kevin, Kevin Johnson, and they came up with the idea for The Limit Club.
01:04 It was going to be a brand new venue and they found a suitable spot on West Street, it was a kind of underground club.
01:12 But, you know, they didn't actually open until 1978 when, you know, punk had moved on quite a bit.
01:18 But I remember George telling me that, well I think licensing, I'm not sure if it was licensing magistrates or one of the licensing counsellors,
01:29 they said the only way, he had to promise that they never ever booked the Sex Pistols.
01:36 So the Sex Pistols, legendary UK punk band, but '77, '78 they were like, you know, the absolute public enemy number one.
01:44 You know, they were like people demonstrating, you know, there were like church movements coming out, everybody, you know, there was a lot of animosity against them.
01:51 So he had to promise that he'd never book them. They didn't book them, you know, I think the Sex Pistols were more or less imploded anyway by 1978.
01:59 But anyway, the Limit Club opened, the first week they had national punk band Suzie and the Banshees perform,
02:08 which really just kind of showed the level that they were operating, intending to operate on.
02:13 You know, they wanted to have big name bands, they had quite a lot of the big, you know, first wave of punk bands, you know, like Suzie and the Banshees, you had them in the Ants.
02:23 So, you know, they were all about live music, you know, they were very much about live music.
02:29 And they had a lot of local acts kind of playing through there in the kind of early kind of weeks and kind of months.
02:38 And, you know, it really kind of hit the ground running from, you know, day one, it was becoming very, very kind of popular.
02:45 And it was all about saying kind of a welcoming place for people that wouldn't probably go anywhere else, you know, lots of kind of punks and rockers.
02:52 And it was a real kind of melting pot for, you know, people that were left of centre.
02:59 I didn't go because I was too young until mid, late 80s.
03:04 And, you know, until I started researching the book, I had no idea about this amazing, you know, live music legacy it got by, you know, 85, 86.
03:13 It was more into kind of club nights. And I was still into kind of punk, goth, alternative.
03:18 And it was still a real kind of melting pot for that movement. And you think, you have to think back to like the 70s and 80s, you know, nightlife.
03:25 It was all about kind of tribes, different tribes, you know, your punks, your goths, your rockers, they were very distinct dividing lines.
03:32 And, you know, if you were very kind of mainstream trend is as we used to call them, you probably down places like Josephine's.
03:38 But anybody left us, you were straight down the limits or, you know, later to become there was the Led Merle and rebels.
03:44 But, you know, there was a really kind of really kind of vibrant scene.
03:49 But, you know, the limit, it was kind of, you know, it got a real lot of, I would say, first, the American new wave band, the B-52s.
03:59 They played the UK debut at the limit, which, you know, I think one of the music papers said was the best gig ever.
04:05 Q magazine, you too. There was a legendary performance. I think they played to either 13 or 14 people when they played down.
04:16 I think I've interviewed at least 100 people that played to have been there. But I've realized a couple of about 13 or 14.
04:24 But in terms of like the punk music movement, Sheffield never really kind of created a band that hit the big time.
04:34 There was like artists like kind of two, three, the extras, but they never really hit kind of a big time.
04:39 The one thing that we that it did kind of help launch was the we did.
04:46 We kind of use the kind of punk DIY ethic in a different way.
04:49 And it helped launch the whole electro movement, which became, you know, really kind of famous for Sheffield in the early 80s.
04:57 You know, bands like, I don't know, you kind of humiliate your cabaret Voltaire's and the limit became a kind of launchpad for that kind of movement.
05:09 A lot of the acts, they all used to kind of frequent the limit.
05:13 A lot of the you know, a lot of these bands played their earliest, earliest gigs down the kind of limit.
05:19 So the limit has a big part in that, you know, the story of the elector.
05:23 When you think back to the charts in the early, you know, early 80s, it was dominated by, you know, Sheffield bands like human leads, your ABCs, like your Heaven 17.
05:32 There was a lot of kind of activity and a lot of that all, you know, was around the limit.
05:38 And I know the former manager, DJ Paul Unwin, you know, he was a big part in that, you know, looking for the new sounds, playing the kind of new sound.
05:47 So, you know, it must have been a fantastic scene, you know, to be around. So I was kind of later.
05:52 But, you know, I've had the privilege to interview, chat to loads and loads of people that were, you know, part of that scene.
06:00 It was so vibrant. I think the one thing about the limit, it was incredibly successful, successful financially.
06:07 It did incredibly, incredibly well.
06:10 You know, you talk about the Hacienda in Manchester was probably, you know, the most well-known club from that area.
06:16 And that was famous because it was always, you know, in a tangle financially.
06:19 The limit was incredibly successful. It was that successful financially.
06:24 The Lyceum Theatre, which is now, you know, a very splendid theatre, it's been had a multi-million pound makeover.
06:32 But in the early 80s, it was, you know, it had gone to rack and ruin, you know, it had gone total rack and ruin.
06:38 The limit made enough money to actually redevelop and transform that venue into a music venue.
06:44 I remember going as a kid and thought, this is an amazing place.
06:47 I still remember the smell of the kind of carpets and everything.
06:50 And I was so thrilled to see, you know, bands like, I don't know, like the Dams, Different Fingers, Killing Joke,
06:56 they're all played in this really resplendent, you know, and this was all, you know, this was run by the limit.
07:02 So it was very successful in that.
07:05 And they also used to hire, they also used to put bands on at the top rank before.
07:11 But again, which is now the O2 Academy, massive, big, what, 2,000 capacity, they had bands on like,
07:17 I think they put the Police on, the Ramones.
07:21 So again, they had their fingers into everything.
07:25 They also had, they had a big, they were a big part of the Def Leppard story.
07:30 Def Leppard played, there was a really kind of legendary fee festival now.
07:35 They used to have these festivals to put on local bands.
07:39 And I think it was the Human League.
07:42 Yeah, I think it was Def Leppard supporting the Human League.
07:45 I think it was free to get in and some of their earliest shows.
07:50 And yeah, so Def Leppard performed down there.
07:52 They were kind of part of it.
07:56 There was a legendary pair of rock DJs called the Bailey Brothers.
08:01 They were famous for me.
08:02 They had, I think they fronted the first ever rock show on MTV.
08:07 These were two former miners from Killermarsh, and they held a rock night.
08:12 I've got some amazing pictures of all these kind of guys with cardboard guitars.
08:15 They more or less invented the air guitar, the Bailey Brothers.
08:19 So there was all sorts of stuff going on there.
08:21 And say by early, mid '80s, they'd moved more into club nights, but hugely, hugely successful.
08:28 I think it was running for four or five nights a week, I think.
08:32 And also they used to have, which you don't get now, when they first started,
08:36 they used to have matinee shows.
08:38 So if you were under 18, you could go and see your favorite punk band or whatever.
08:44 So they had bands like The Undertones, Cockney Rejects, playing on a Saturday afternoon.
08:48 It was absolutely jam-packed.
08:50 And then obviously they'd kind of clear the place out and do the whole thing again in the evening.
08:56 So it was really kind of interesting in that time.
09:00 But say hugely, hugely successful.
09:03 And it ran right until 1991, which was a heck of a long time in clubland years.
09:12 And so it went through, it survived the recession.
09:19 It was not a good time for Sheffield in the early '80s.
09:22 Obviously the laying off of thousands of steel workers.
09:26 Most of that was, the limit was generally untouched.
09:29 People used to, however short of money people were, they'd have enough money to go to the limit.
09:35 Even if people were signing on, they didn't have a job, they'd still find their way to the limit.
09:40 It was just like the most important thing for so many people.
09:45 And so it became a real cornerstone of the goth movement, which started again early, mid '80s.
09:55 So we used to call it, I think, the goth box, where all the goths used to congregate.
10:01 Things probably maybe unsavoury, more unsavoury things.
10:04 It was known for the flooding toilets.
10:07 I remember the flooding toilets. I remember wading through the gents' toilets on many, many occasions.
10:12 Many people said that the beer was terrible.
10:16 There was all sorts. You always throw these things at your local nightclub.
10:20 I remember I was a regular on a Thursday night, it was my night.
10:25 I had some fantastic nights down there. I just remember the fashions.
10:31 I've still got friends from down there, from all those that I still keep in touch with, still see around the town.
10:39 And for me, I've written a couple of books on the limit now.
10:44 And its legacy is incredible. Jarvis Spock and Pulp, they did some of their earliest performances down there.
10:51 Some iconic shots of Jarvis performing in a wheelchair.
10:55 He jumped out of a window, I believe on Division Street, to impress a girl, managed to break his leg.
11:01 Didn't deter him, he was still gigging.
11:04 So the limit had a big part in the Pulp story.
11:08 Towards the end, it was starting to get pioneering, the house movement.
11:16 So obviously to run a nightclub, to a music venue, you've got to stay cutting edge or you're just going to lose your way.
11:24 And the limit did that, it reinvented itself.
11:27 Even when it was, say, towards its twilight years, 1991, it was still cutting edge.
11:35 [music]