The outgoing boss of Sheffield venue The Leadmill - Phil Mills - repeatedly threatened that he and his team would gut the building on their way out - and now he has made good on that promise, even going as far as taking the front doors off their hinges.
That has prompted one last round of public feuding between Mills and his landlord, The Electric Group, which is taking over running the venue after Mills and his team were evicted through the courts..
Dominic Madden, CEO of The Electric Group, says it was “devastating” to walk into the empty shell of a building left by the venue’s former management team, who have spent recent weeks dismantling everything they put into the space over the years, including the main stage, sprung dancefloor, bars, lighting and front doors. The venue’s walls have also been stripped back to the brickwork.
It’s no secret that the outgoing Leadmill team were deeply unhappy about having to vacate the building; they pursued a three year PR and legal battle in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to stay. However, beyond the bad blood between tenant and landlord, there was an official justification for gutting the place before exiting: their lease said they should return the building to the way they found it several decades ago.
It could therefore be argued that the outgoing team were obliged to gut the building. That’s not quite how The Electric Group sees it though.
In a statement, the company, which plans to open a new venue in the building next February, says, “The Leadmill, one of Sheffield’s most iconic music venues, has been returned to its owners in a wrecked state - stripped of fixtures, vandalised and left wide open to the elements”.
When arriving at the venue on Wednesday evening, it continues, the company’s team “were met with a scene of destruction, even the front doors had been taken”. And “reusable materials”, it adds, “had been “dumped rather than being recycled, reused or donated to community projects”.
Madden himself says, “It’s devastating to see the building like this”. With the front doors gone, “we’ve had to secure it at huge cost just to stop any further damage”, and - he adds - “repairing what’s left will take months and a massive financial outlay”.
Hitting out at Mills and his team, Madden goes on, “What has happened these last few weeks behind closed doors is devastating, how anybody can do so much damage is beyond belief”. While admitting that “we knew they’d take their belongings”, he says he wasn’t expecting full destruction because “we thought they valued this place”, however “their treatment of it proves otherwise”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ian Lawlor - Mills’ General Manager - has hit back at Madden trying to make his team look like “the bad guys”, stressing that Mills had been “honest and open” about his intent.
And, Lawlor again stresses, the outgoing team were just complying with the terms of their lease. Had Madden read that lease, Lawlor argues, he would not have been shocked by what he found when he got the building back - and his plans and budget for renovating the venue would have factored everything in.
“It’s not added any costs that shouldn't have already been accounted for by Madden”, Lawlor tells the Sheffield Star, adding, “it’s not like we've not had three-and-a-half years of back and forth and multiple court battles that have gone into massive detail on what was going to happen and what it would cost”.
Mills had also intended to demolish a toilet block they added to the venue before leaving, but couldn’t get planning permission from the local council to make that change. There’s also an ongoing dispute about a stone frieze above the venue’s entrance, which the outgoing team began to remove before being told there was legal uncertainty over whether or not they had the right to do so.
The outgoing Leadmill team are continuing to put on shows in Sheffield, but in different venues. Meanwhile, Madden remains committed to reopening the Leadmill building - under the new brand Electric Sheffield - by next February.
Despite how the building has been left, he concludes, “I am now even more determined to do whatever it takes to bring this venue back to life as a state-of-the-art music and club venue opening in February 2026”.