Pulp and the Arctic Monkeys are perhaps the most famous of the city’s musical exports to reference their native Sheffield, especially in their earlier songs.
From a bus journey to High Green to a seductively seedy tour of Sheffield’s suburbs, via references to The Leadmill nightclub and famous city streets such as The Moor and the Wicker, songwriting maestros Jarvis Cocker and Alex Turner have both mined their Sheffield upbringing extensively when composing lyrics.
But famous London singers and groups, including The Clash, Elton John and Stormzy, have all notably name-checked Sheffield in their music, as have Billy Bragg and Paul Heaton.
We’ve put together a list of some of the best songs paying musical homage to the Steel City, which naturally includes more of Sheffield’s finest in The Human League, Richard Hawley, and Reverend and the Makers.
If you’re wondering why there’s no place for Def Leppard, that’s because we’ve not been able to find any Sheffield references in the band’s extensive back catalogue, despite their fondness for the city in which they were born and raised.
Def Leppard’s lead singer Joe Elliott reportedly once described the city as a ‘great place with great people’ but said 'there’s nothing in Sheffield to write songs about’.
What’s your favourite song about Sheffield, and which band or singer has best captured the city’s unique character on record?
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17. Oyl Int Road - Everly Pregnant Brothers
The Everly Pregnant Brothers are a Sheffield institution and one of their biggest hits is about long-lost city centre landmark the Hole in the Road. Oyl Int Road, sung to the tune of the Waterboys' The Whole of the Moon, takes listeners of a certain age on a trip down memory lane, with lines like: "Well you walk down from Fargate/With the wind in your hair/You come down escalators/Cause they didn't have no stairs." The lyrics also reminisce about the Hole in the Road's famous fish tank, though the band are not too misty eyed, acknowledging 'them fish didn't look nice'. Photo: National World
18. The Dream Synopsis - The Last Shadow Puppets
The Last Shadow Puppets are an English supergroup consisting of the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and Miles Kane, James Ford and Zach Dawes. The Dream Synopsis finds Alex reminiscing about his Sheffield past and looking to the future. It includes the lines 'you’d got a leaning tower of pint pots in your hand/you can carry much more than I can', which is perhaps him looking back to his days working at the lost Boardwalk music venue. The chorus describes how 'a wicked gale came howling up through Sheffield city centre, there was palm tree debris everywhere and a Roman colosseum'. It's unclear whether the palm tree debris and colosseum are merely figments of Alex's imagination or refer to actual memories of his Sheffield days. | Getty Images Photo: Getty Images