The Leadmill


Now apart from Diane M and YP, I suspect that not many people here will " get" this blog entry, but it was sparked by a photo Diane took which I have shameless nicked to illustrate this trip down memory lane.
In the 1990s nurses, as I am sure they do today, worked hard and played hard. Unofficially nurses from Lodge Moor Hospital went out en masse on a Thursday night and tanked up would all end up at Sheffield's famous Leadmill nightclub.
Now the leadmill had been going for years before I went to it, and indeed is still flourishing today and I am sure the inside of this former factory and works building situated a stone's throw from The Midland Railway station, has not changed very much from its original industrial form.
On Thursday nights there would be at least five or six young men in wheelchairs at the night club. Each one would be accompanied by a nurse and each one was still an inpatient at the city's Spinal Injury unit. The night club was a kind of rite of passage for many a patient who was physically and more important, psychologically adjusting to their paralysis.
Of course it was a chance to test the boundaries of their condition. Bladders no longer able to function properly were pushed to capacity by too much ale, spasms knocked unfeeling legs out of foot rests and negotiating a thousand or so drunken people all dancing to Abba when you want to get to the bar in a wheelchair is no mean feat.
The Leadmill management quickly Sussed that most of these patients were being accompanied by a nurse " carer" who pretended to push the patient into the club and therefore circumvented the long queue outside.
Only the most disabled ( and by that they ment patients who couldn't push themselves ) could have a nurse they said 
This was an easy rule to break. The patients just pretended to be helpless and the nurse carers pushed them in before a grumbling queue!
Of course there was the odd mishap. One lad, I remember got into a fist fight with  Barnsley thug and ended up on the head injury ward for his sins but most patients survived their late night rehab sessions at Sheffield's premier night spot.
That's more than many a student did.....after all.....students that mineswept drinks ( minesweeping for those that don't know is where you go round stealing drinks left by the dancers) often had a nasty surprise. For when a patient's urine leg bag was overfull of lager looking piss, it was common for the nurses to teach them to empty it into a pint glass which could be then left on the shelves at the side of the club for disposal !
Happy days

43 comments:

  1. Incredibly, some people go to The Leadmill to dig the music. The last time I was there I saw The Pierces - led by Catherine and Alison Pierce - a tight and underrated American folk-rock band. I enjoyed that concert immensely.

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    1. I remember seeing an acoustic concert from EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL there....and vaguely remember seeing Phil Oaky there too

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  2. Hi, the Leadmill is still the same I went to a radio Sheffield do there last year with my husband who was born and bread in Sheffield. Unfortunately my husband passed away in April this year from cancer.

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    1. Sorry for your loss chorky2 but glad your husband got to visit The Leadmill one last time. Take care of yourself. xxx

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    2. Chorky thanks for your comment and I echo YP s comment . Nice to have you here

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  3. I went there back in the 90s when my sister worked as a midwife in Sheffield ....could even have been a night you were in there John !

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    1. Would could have met, mind you, you were probably a floppy haired yourh at the tome

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    2. I was exactly that !!

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  4. Sounds like a good time had by all. Lesson learned, never leave your drink unattended and not for the usual reasons. I laughed at that.

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    1. There would be at least a dozen piss pints at the end of a good night

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  5. Good times, doing good work. I have heard references that you just sort of rent beer - could have been funny to watch.

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  6. Hi John. I wasn't sure how else to get in contact with you, other than commenting on one of your posts. Just came across this article on the BBC website when I was checking out the progress of Hurricane Ophelia and was wondering what your take was on this. Apparently, NHS patients are now going to be asked about their sexuality.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41625402

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    1. Apparently some gay organisations have welcomed this , I think it's just a waste of time

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    2. It is to help to give the correct advice to patients. It is completely voluntary. Nobody has to answer any question on sexuality and never has had to. You can always say "prefer not to say" and this is not changing. The BBC love to stir up controversy where it is not needed. This is the BBC for you.

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    3. If you have a good relationship with your patient whether a doctor or a nurse, you don't really need to ask the question ...it's up to you to answer the question...like all questions health care workers ask......

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    4. "To give the correct advice to patients"

      A very dangerous and presumptive statement

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    5. A good relationship with your GP will have already answered all necessary questions without asking.

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    6. Anonymous3:51 am

      It seems ridiculous. I used to work for an organisation that provided exams. As part of the registration forms we had to ask the candidates to (optionally) supply their ethnicity - as per the government, so statistics could be used to check we the marking wasn't racially biased. Except if we hadn't asked the candidate's ethnicity, we - and then the markers - wouldn't have known it, so racial bias would have been impossible. Therefore, asking actually made bias possible (though it never happened).

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  7. Funnier than hell. Still laughing.I have no idea of the legality, but what a grand, grand thing to do for the patient.

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  8. Great memories! Brings to mind the french movie "The Intouchables" with Omar Sy. Very similar irreverent hilarity and I think you'd love it.
    Jocelyn

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    1. I've never seen that movie I should look it up

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  9. OMG...
    And this is a great entry. You really write well.

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  10. That's the kind of therapy we could all use.

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    1. Not if you are a poor student after a free pint it isnt

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  11. I frequented the Leadmill a lot in my younger days! We were always skint - I bet you any money I actually tasted one of those dodgy pints in drunken desperation!! I now live about 25 miles from Sheffield but don't go to the Leadmill any more.

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    1. Were do you live now mrs?

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    2. Just up the M1 towards Mansfield (not a nice place😢)

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  12. You certainly have lived a colourful life down there!

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    1. It was more colourful than mine is today.....but it was exhausting

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  13. Reminded me of the time I tripped coming down the bank steps and very nearly landed square in the lap of a young man in a wheelchair. It was in my younger prettier dressed to the nines days and gasped Oops thats a hell of a way to get a girl. We always greeted each other after that and I gathered later that it had made his day. Talking of old night clubs never changing a friend used to do stock taking and in one of the posher clubs in Newcastle when the ultra violet lights (the ones that shone your underwear white) were off and daylight struck he said there was no way you would ever sit on any of the seats they were foul.

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  14. Ah, the madness of younger days . . .

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    1. They were mad but normal.....young people's madness days today are very different me thinks

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  15. It was back in the day when girls didnt ask a boy out and I wouldnt have had the courage anyway..but he never asked...and yes he did rather make my day :):)

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  16. I thought it was a great way of helping the patients realise that they could still participate in, and help them start thinking more positively?

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  17. Love this post- thanks!

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  18. I'm sat here shuddering at the thought of the re-purposed pint pots lined up ... and someone taking a swig ....

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  19. Sounds like a great night out. We all went to a pub called the Trowel and Hammer in Norwich renamed by male nurse Trevor as the Bowel and Bladder. Happy days.

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  20. Oh, this is a great story! Integrating into the world a rehab service, eh? Night life matters — not just daytime outings to the store. Surely the Speech-Language Pathologist came along to facilitate communication!

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  21. help them start thinking more positively?


    แตกใน xxx

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