The Leadmill: Feud simmers on two years since landlords of Sheffield venue served eviction notice

It has been two years to the day since team running Sheffield's iconic Leadmill announced the "devastating news" they would be "evicted and forced to close."

At the time, they said they only had one year left. They’re still there now.

The bubbling impasse between the iconic Sheffield venue’s licence holders and landlords Electric Group has now ground on for 24 months, marked along the way with rallies, celebrity endorsements, and promises to strip the club back to the "derelict flour mill" it was before it opened in 1980.

It comes ahead of reports a court case this May that could be the final battleground, when the landlords could repossess the venue and kick the team based there out once and for all.

Here is a recap of the past two years that still hasn’t seen The Leadmill’s fate come to a head.

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The seed of this eventual feud was planted in 2017 when nightclub operators Electric Group purchased The Leadmill venue’s freehold for £600,000 in 2017, becoming its landlord.

In tweets at the time, the team at The Leadmill seemed confident that although their 20-year lease was due to end in March 2023 they would be around as the life of the party for “a long time to come."

But the Electric Group had other plans. They served notice in March 2022 that the team would have to clear out in 12 months.

Electric Group publicised its intent was to invest £1m in the venue, close for a "quick tidy up" and reopen within months.

However, it was on the evening of March 31, 2022, when The Leadmill team drew their battlelines and launched the #WeCantLoseLeadmill campaign.

"Today we have received some devastating news," wrote boss and campaign founder Phil Mills.

"Since 1980 The Leadmill has spent millions of pounds on what was a derelict warehouse, transforming it into one of the U.K’s most respected venues where countless acts from across the globe have performed over the years.

"Please show your support by sharing this news & sharing your best memories that we can gather to help show them reasons why #WeCantLoseLeadmill."

The Leadmill team called on its pedigree as "Sheffield’s longest running live music venue", with a history of staging legendary gigs by the likes of Pulp, the Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Oasis, The Stone Roses and Manic Street Preachers, to name but a few.

Indeed, the announcement was met with national and international attention, with the hashtag reportedly hitting number one on Twitter 39 minutes. Big names in music and comedy lent their support, including the Arctic Monkeys, Eddie Izzard. The Kaiser Chiefs, The Pogues, Joe Lycett, and radio stars like the BBC’s Marc Riley and Steve Lamacq.

Shortly after the announcement, a petition was launched asking for Government intervention and was signed by more than 46,000 people, but the Government responded that it had no intention of doing this.

The Leadmill team’s strong feelings were laid bare in an interview with The Star on April 7, 2022, when general manager Ian Lawlor promised it was the group’s intention to take everything "from the fixtures to the doors" when they go and leave the venue "a derelict flour mill."

"They keep saying The Leadmill will continue, that the Leadmill will be safe," said Mr Lawlor.

"The Leadmill will not continue – The Leadmill is us, the staff and all the fixtures. We'll take everything with us, because we own it - the fixtures, the equipment, the doors.

"When we leave it will be a derelict flour mill, and that’s what they will be left with.

"They'll have to start from scratch, it will take them a year to get it up and running."

Questions were asked why the team didn’t buy the freehold themselves.

The Electric Group’s head of music, Mr Mike Weller, claimed The Leadmill’s operator tried to buy the venue’s freehold in 2015 for £150,000 but was turned down, at which point Electric Group finalised the deal for it in 2017 for £600,000.

When asked about this, Mr Lawlor responded: "This is what I’ve been saying when people ask ‘why didn’t you buy the building? That's a non question. That's not the question. What they are doing is immoral.

"There’s thousands of empty buildings they could have bought but they chose the Leadmill to bank our our name and good will. They’re pulling it from under our noses."

Amidst this, the Electric Group repeatedly said their only intention was to preserve the venue, invest and keep the party going.

These claims were marred in April 2023 when it emerged Electric Group had registered the name 'Electric Sheffield' suggesting a name change was on the cards, but the landlords don’t seem to have ever spoken about a potential name change again, and said in April 2023 they hoped to keep the name. Meanwhile, The Leadmill team seemed prepared to go to court to prevent Electric Group using the name 'Leadmill' in any future branding. How this will be resolved is yet to emerge.

Electric Group operates other music venues across the UK. It grew out of the success of its refurbishment of the Brixton Fridge as Electric Brixton, and is behind the relaunch of the O2 Academy in Newcastle. They reported record profits of £1.98m in 2023.

The deadlock between the venue’s team and their landlords would grind on, until the day came in March 25, 2023, when the operators were meant to leave.

They are still there to this day. In fact, the team confidently has events currently booked in as late as March 2025.

On September 22, 2023, the Electric Group was granted a shadow licence for The Leadmill following a hearing in Sheffield and an application by MVL Properties 2017.

The shadow licence does not affect the current premises licence held by The Leadmill, but with it in place, it allows MVL Properties 2017 to run the venue should that licence be revoked or surrendered.

This day would also see a rally organised by the venue’s team and perhaps the most heated exchange of words surrounding the eviction debacle, when Electric Group CEO Dominic Madden cut at what he felt was The Leadmill team’s reasons behind the furor, while Mr Mills’ and his team stepped up their rhetoric and spoke of saving the very soul of Sheffield.

Mr Madden told The Star ahead of the rally: "I’m not a property developer or a 'shadowy' London investor coming to ruin and destroy an arts institution.

"I suspect behind all the high-minded rhetoric he’s [Mr Mills] angry that his lease is coming to an end, angry that his cash-cow is being stopped and kicking himself that he didn’t buy the Freehold at auction when he had the opportunity.

"Mr Mills' campaign has tried to worry people in Sheffield and Yorkshire, leading to speculation on social media that 'London folk' are going to ignore the roots of The Leadmill and it will be a high street 'nightclub'.

"I have said repeatedly that I have bought the Leadmill to protect it and I will."

A spokesperson for The Leadmill said: "We’re working to Save The Leadmill, protect our city’s heritage, and defend our culture… we need you there — we must show the strength of support for our campaign."

After the licence hearing, Mr Madden added he wanted to "put the hostilities of the Save the Leadmill campaign behind us."

Whether that happens or not will be decided at a court hearing reportedly scheduled in May at which Electric Group will seek to repossess the venue.

There have been few updates in recent months compared to the frequent heated exchanges two years ago.

The team’s 'day of execution' has been put back repeatedly now, at first seeming inevitable come March 2023, only for it come and go without incident.

Now it hinges on the court case in May, which may well result in a final date for the Leadmill’s team. In this case, how long they will be given to “strip it back to a flour mill” remains to be seen.