For us at the SMA though it started when (equally amazing to imagine!) Sheffield Council helped reopen the venue in 1980, and there was a programme of music from all corners of the musical spectrum, local and national. I managed to look out the poster for the weekend of July 4th and 5th which I saved. We went to see Tony McPhee’s Turbo on the Saturday (they kindly signed the poster for me!) and the Sunday was headlined by Cabaret Voltaire. As one of my favourite local groups The Past Seven Days were on the bill that was also a must see. I did wonder looking at the design if this was an early Martin Bedford poster and sure enough, hidden away in the corner of one of the little cartoons is his signature…

From there, aside from assorted fairs and pop-up events held in the hall, wedding lunches (hello Nick!), etc. various concerts come immediately to mind. Einstürzende Neubauten are one, Eighties German industrial scrap-metal funsters who came close to demolishing the place with angle grinders, pneumatic drills and much else. At the other end of the entertainment spectrum, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers did a fabulous show.
When The Tom Tom Club wanted an intimate venue to break away from the stadia Talking Heads were getting too fond of, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz opted for The Leadmill to give us a night of breathless bass-driven pop funk from their spin-off group.

One utterly idiosyncratic evening was provided by the irreplaceable Viv Stanshall. Ensconced for the evening in a huge leather armchair (with carpets and a standard lamp for decoration) he told tales of his eccentric life and family, read from the immortal Sir Henry scripts, and with his accompanists went through a slew of solo songs and Bonzo Dog classics. That just about the entire audience was word perfect and accompanied him actually brought a bit of a tear to my eye. Fantastic to see an artist so admired and revered.
A superb set from Norweigian funsters Royksopp in 2005 also comes to mind, a duo that has rarely toured since, making the event doubly memorable. It’s quite a shock when I look at the digital photographs from that evening to realise it was twenty flipping years ago (and you try getting a photo CDR that old to read on a recent Macbook!)

On the heavier end of the scale, “voice of rock” (as KLF christened him) Glenn Hughes put on a typically heavy funk / rock show in 1995, as he made his way back to touring from a near twenty year absence after leaving Deep Purple. We were right up against the stage for that and I did manage to grab a few pictures of what proved to be a very powerful performance.
We’ll try and dig out more photos and scour the old memory banks to see what else turns up.