Sheffield blog

Is this the best £50 you could spend in Sheffield?

At the Tramlines festival I saw a stall selling a book of Charity unleashed vouchers but was a bit sceptical. I’ve since seen a bit of online and press coverage about the book, but it is only since speaking to friends that I’ve realised just what a good deal it is.

Full details are on the website, but the basic premise is that you buy a book of vouchers for £50 that are valid for various shops, restaurants, bars and places in and around Sheffield.

You’d be mistaken for thinking that these vouchers are the kind of free vouchers that regularly crop up online. The Sheffield Charity unleashed vouchers are redeemable for loads of free stuff, with a value totalling £1,052. Here are some of the deals that you are entitled to:

• three separate nights in hotels including Losehill house and the Cutlers
• a spa and hair package at Spa 1877
• food and drinks at the Leopold hotel, Cubana, Sakushi, Aroma, Lounge bar, 23, the Aston hotel, the Olive bar, Bar 360, Dosanj and the Milestone
• family tickets for the Steelers, Eagles, Magna and skiing
• a bungee jump, dive session and photography course

There is no catch – although there are some minor restrictions on when you can use some vouchers: for example, one of the hotels is weekends only and another is midweek only. Plus, some offers can’t be used in the same visit and some are proving so popular that you need to book ahead. Most of the vouchers expire on 31 August 2010.

But generally it looks like a great deal, which can pay for itself after you have used just one of the vouchers.

And the best thing is that Weston park charity gets £15 for every book sold, with the remainder going to the businesses involved and to cover costs. A donation of £21,780 has just been made to Weston park charity.

I wouldn’t usually use this blog for obvious promotion of one particular enterprise, and I have no connection with Charity unleashed, but this does seem to be a good deal so have splashed out.

Has anyone else bought a book and already redeemed any of their vouchers?

Charity unleashed Sheffield voucher book

England’s biggest comedy festival (1-31 October 2009)

In a previous post I picked out some of the highlights from this year’s Off the shelf festival of reading and writing. Running during the same month is Grin up north comedy festival, so you are sure to find something to brighten up the autumn evenings as the nights pull in.

Again, I asked a comedy writer friend what they recommend from this year’s festival:

• Rhod Gilbert (Lyceum, Sunday 4 October) is excellent – definitely worth seeing this year’s show (click on the ‘review’ section) as his last one was brilliant
• Alun Cochrane (Lescar, Saturday 31 October, Lescar) is highly recommended (click on the ‘review’ section)
• Lady Garden (City hall Memorial hall, Thursday 8 October) are a entertaining 6-piece female sketch group
• Tom Wrigglesworth (City hall Memorial hall, Thursday 1 October) was nominated for the Edinburgh comedy award and lots of friends who saw him said he was great
• Tim Minchin (City hall Oval hall, Saturday 17 October) is very good musical comedy – a bit Bill Baily-ish
• Also Simon Amstell (City hall Oval hall, Sunday 18 October) and Rich Hall (City hall Memorial hall, Tuesday 13 October) are always very good

From a Sheffield point of view, the legendary John Shuttleworth performing his Southern softies show will be a real treat (Showroom, Wednesday 21 October) and BBC Sheffield’s breakfast show presenter and regular Last laugh/Lescar performer Toby Foster is booked for a show at the City hall Oval hall on Thursday 15 October.

The line-ups for both festivals look good this year and I hope to go to events at each. It did make me wonder whether it would be mutually beneficial to move one of the festivals to November in order to avoid any clash of dates and spread out the entertainment for a full two months?

What should we be known for?

@DarrenBristow from Sheffield design agency Quba tweeted a question yesterday: Sheffield is a rich city , but what is it’s USP? What would you like it to be known for?

I always thought that in terms of money, Sheffield was quite a poor place. But we have plenty of non-monetary wealth. It is hard to avoid the cliches but Sheffield has a strong tradition of creativity and innovation but without being pretentious and unfriendly. We don’t like show offs but most people that live here would agree that there is something special about the place.

Richard Benjamin, the managing director of local creative agency Uber, recently penned a piece for marketing/creative publication The Drum, arguing for Sheffield as one of the most creative cities in the UK. Read a cached version here (you have to register on the site for the original).

It echoes Tom Keeley’s foreward from the Disordered haste Electric works launch booklet.

Whether you have been in the city all your life or just moved here, what do you think? What would you tell Darren in response to his question?

Who is new?

Here are this month’s additions to the list of Sheffield people and organisations of interest on  Twitter. The full directory can be found on the Sheffield Twitter users page.

Notable additions this month include an official feed for Sheffield Wednesday, Football heaven and the Toby Foster show on BBC Sheffield shows and Sheffield forum.

Sheffield Wednesday FC
@Official_SWFC

Sheffield FC, the oldest football club in the world
@Sheffieldfc

Martin Bedford – artist behind the iconic Leadmill poster artwork of the 1980s and 1990s
@martinfbedford

Toby Foster show – BBC Sheffield’s breakfast show
@tobyfostershow

Football heaven BBC Sheffield’s football show
@footballheaven

Sheffield forum
@sheffieldforum

Sheffield Anglican cathedral
@sheffcath

Sheffield Arduino hackers network
@shacknetwork

Jack Scott, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Hallam
@Jack_Scott

The Bohemian cafe on Chesterfield road
@TheBohemianCafe

Remix creative graphic designer
@remixcreative

Sheffield United headline news from aggbot.com
@SUFC_news

University of Sheffield history department
@unishefhistory

Gripple, manufacturer of wire joiners
@Grippleltd

All the damn kids – Sheffield-based band
@AllTheDamnKids

Sheffield teaching hospitals NHS foundation trust
@SheffieldHosp

Sheffield arena hospitality
@SA_Hospitality

Matter magazine – annual fiction anthology from Sheffield Hallam university’s mews press
@Mattermagazine

Royal Victoria hotel
@HI_RoyalVic

School of education at Sheffield university
@EducationSheff

Sheffield ensemble – arts organisation looking for actors and writers
@SCensemble

Super 8 Yorkshire film production team
@Super8Yorkshire

Sheffield university aerospace engineers
@ShefUniAeroSoc

Sheffield Hallam university student officers
@Hallamofficers

Hansley beard weddings and events
@Hansleybeard

University of Sheffield Enterprise
@UShefEnterprise

Sheffield 50+ – the voice of older people in Sheffield
@Sheffield50plus

The design studio – Ecclesall road shop
@DesignStudio_uk

Pillow fight on 26 September 2009
@thepillowfight

Sheffield university student communities
@SU_Communities

Sheffield university student union president Paul Tobin
@TallPaulSheff

Forge Media – paper and website at Sheffield university’s students’ union
@Forge_Media

Evoluted new media – web design
@evolutednm

If you want to be listed on it then follow @sheffieldblog, get in touch or comment below.

Sky coverage to benefit the clubs and football fans – but at what price?

Many readers will be aware that on Friday, the first of this season’s football matches between the two Sheffield clubs takes place at Bramall lane.

Wednesday won both games last year so with United looking for revenge it will hopefully be a decent match. If you haven’t got a ticket then the good news is that the match is live on Sky; this has also meant that kick-off has been moved to 7:45pm on Friday night.

Having the match at this time may not be such good news for businesses in the city. If previous derby days are anything to go by, it is likely that for safety reasons, police will request that many pubs in town stay closed and only pubs in the suburbs will be allowed to show the match. So pubs in town will lose out on their normal Friday night trade and people with no interest in football could potentially be caught out when they find themselves locked out of city centre venues.

This weekend also marks the start of fresher’s week for both Sheffield and Hallam university so as as well as the students returning to the city, some may be arriving here for the first time. Not a great first impression of the city centre.

How much do football clubs get from the broadcast of a match on Sky? It would be interesting to compare this figure to the amount that city centre venues estimate they would lose by being forced to stay shut on a Friday night. Don’t forget, this is also during a recession that is reportedly claiming upto 50 pubs a week.

A Saturday lunchtime kick-off may have been a better idea, with less chance for excessive pre-match drinking and plenty of cooling-down time before the pubs reopened later on. But it looks like this arrangement didn’t suit Sky and United/Wednesday’s business models – which are obviously of more importance than the business models of Sheffield city centre pubs.

The festival of reading and writing (10-31 October 2009)

Two of the city’s biggest cultural festivals return this autumn and by the look of the programmes, the line-ups this year are better than ever.

Off the shelf is 18 years old and features the usual selection of readings, workshops, exhibitions, storytelling, talks, walks and poetry. Looking over the festival programme, I’d defy anyone to find something that wasn’t of interest. Here are my picks:

• Martin Bedford – an illustrated talk from the artist behind the iconic Leadmill poster artwork of the 1980s and 1990s, plus highly-tipped Sheffield band the Crookes are also playing
• Vic Reeves – an insight into the mind of the comedian as he takes you through his latest book, a surreal encyclopaedia called Vic Reeves’ vast book of world knowledge
• Peter Hook – Hooky, whose distinctive basslines were at the heart of both New order and Joy division’s distinctive sound tells the story of infamous Manchester nightclub the Hacienda. He is DJing afterwards too (hopefully not just pretending)
• Stuart Maconie – broadcaster and writer who passed through Sheffield for his Pies and prejudice: in search of the north book and may further expand on his evaluation of the city, which was basically that we produce great pop music but bad pop music museums
• Tony Benn – even if you don’t agree with his politics, you can be sure that the former Chesterfield MP will spark plenty of debate and perhaps offer insight into how Sheffield has changed from the socialist stronghold that it was for so long
• Marina Lewycka – local author and Sheffield Hallam university who shot to fame with her debut novel A short history of tractors in Ukranian and I expect will be reading from her new book, We are all made of glue

The festival website is much improved this year (compared to last year’s token putting the festival programme online as a PDF) and there is a Twitter feed for the event, @otsfestival.

I’ll look at the picks from Grin up north in my next post.