MEMORY DANCE (21 Chapel Walk, Sheffield, S1)
R E C O R D S - G A L L E R Y - C I N E M A
Right. It’s happening….
Memory Dance is taking over a refurbished Victorian unit down Chapel Walk in Sheffield city centre and turning it into a record shop, gallery space, and basement cinema.
The space will be rooted in, and be a champion of, Sheffield/Yorkshire/Northern cultural heritage; specifically sound, moving image, design and photography.
Used vinyl. Exhibitions. Artefacts. Happenings. Screenings.
100% DIY.
Opening in June (hopefully).
Summer programme details coming soon.
Tell all your friends.
#sheffield #archive #music #film #photography #design
MUSIC - The All Seeing I - Pickled Eggs & Sherbert (1997)
MEMORY DANCE (21 Chapel Walk, Sheffield, S1)
R E C O R D S - G A L L E R Y - C I N E M A
this video content is called young men in a q for a jungle day dance. surely some lasses were dancing. who knows.
Either way.
Lee Gamble/others on tunes.
Memory Dance is taking over a refurbished Victorian unit down Chapel Walk in Sheffield city centre and turning it into a record shop, gallery space, and basement cinema.
The space will be rooted in, and be a champion of, Sheffield/Yorkshire/Northern cultural heritage; specifically sound, moving image, design and photography.
Used vinyl. Exhibitions. Artefacts. Happenings. Screenings.
100% DIY.
Opening in June (hopefully).
Summer programme details coming soon.
Tell all your friends.
ROSE'S HOUSE (Naomi Abel-Hirsch, 2026)
TEASER VIDEO DROP...
I found a note within one of the Rose's Repartee's magazines advertising a self released VHS called, 'Making Up With Martine Rose.'
We all thought it lost until Martine herself dug it out from the back of a rarely visited cupboard. I digitised the tape. And here we are....
///
Over the last couple years been working the archive for this amazing short film landing and premiering @sheffdocfest in June.
Check...
The story of Martine Rose, who in 1979 bought a rundown terraced house in Sheffield and transformed it into one of the UK's first dedicated safe spaces for trans people.
At a time where there was little support for trans lives, Martine renovated the property herself, creating a place built on care and community. Through previously unseen archival material and warm, engaging interviews, Rose's House uncovers a remarkable and largely forgotten chapter of local queer history. We meet Martine and hear how this one house became a lifeline to many. Moving between past and present, the film traces both what has changed and what endures in the lives of trans people in Britain, painting a vivid portrait of one person's quiet determination to make space for others. Full of warmth and charm, this is a piece of Sheffield history making its premiere on the Sheffield screen.
-
Sat 13 June 12:45 - 14:19
Showroom - Screen 2
Sun 14 June 15:30 - 17:04
Curzon - Screen 1
#sheffield #archive
ROSE'S HOUSE (Naomi Abel-Hirsch, 2026)
Over the last couple years been working the archive for this amazing short film landing and premiering @sheffdocfest in June.
Check...
The story of Martine Rose, who in 1979 bought a rundown terraced house in Sheffield and transformed it into one of the UK's first dedicated safe spaces for trans people.
At a time where there was little support for trans lives, Martine renovated the property herself, creating a place built on care and community. Through previously unseen archival material and warm, engaging interviews, Rose's House uncovers a remarkable and largely forgotten chapter of local queer history. We meet Martine and hear how this one house became a lifeline to many. Moving between past and present, the film traces both what has changed and what endures in the lives of trans people in Britain, painting a vivid portrait of one person's quiet determination to make space for others. Full of warmth and charm, this is a piece of Sheffield history making its premiere on the Sheffield screen.
-
Sat 13 June 12:45 - 14:19
Showroom - Screen 2
Sun 14 June 15:30 - 17:04
Curzon - Screen 1
#sheffield #archive
Shirley and Roland (Unfinished Documentary)
Met up with Shirley Cameron this morning, for the first time in AGES.
I spent a few years with Shirley Cameron and Roland Miller in organising and digitising their archives. They enjoyed a long and celebrated international career of over 40 years in the arts. Their Sheffield home is a living archive of sculptures, posters, photography, artefacts, and sound recordings alongside a hundred hours of video tapes and films.
I started to make a documentary using this archive, but life got in the way. It remains unfinished. Here's a fragment in which Shirley describes coming to Sheffield and deciding to move here. (Editor - Katie Senior)
I really wanna finish this film. One day. It's a wild story. Editors Hit me up!
#sheffield #archive
Various Artists - Somebody's Knocking (MEMDANCE07)
Spring 2026
For the next Memory Dance instalment we move from the profane and wicked (Avril A) to the sacred...
Brewing up a wee comp/mixtape of UK private press and rare (mainly Northern) Christian music: 1963-1987.
Hushed vocals, wonky psych rock, charity shop chorals, and some wobbly synth folk like this from a small Sussex recording studio.
Memory Dance does not actively endorse faith of any shape.
We are a secular organisation.
But we have always enjoyed religious music from all creeds.
And so here we are.
Quiet music for noisy times.
Coming soon.
Various Artists - Somebody's Knocking
(MEMDANCE07)
Spring 2026
For the next Memory Dance instalment we move from the profane and wicked (Avril A) to the sacred...
Brewing up a wee comp/mixtape of UK private press and rare (mainly Northern) Christian music: 1963-1987.
Hushed vocals, wonky psych rock, charity shop chorals, and some wobbly synth folk like this little tease from St.Helens, Merseyside.
Memory Dance does not actively endorse faith of any shape.
We are a secular organisation.
But we have always enjoyed religious music from all creeds.
And so here we are.
Quiet music for noisy times.
Coming soon.
Tuesday Club Archive (2007, 2009)
With Mary Anne Hobbs @maryannehobbs_ recently marking 20 years since the monumental Dubstep Warz show, we're diving into some of the history as captured here in Sheff city.
First up a clip from Skream @skreamizm first set at The Tuesday Club (possible first gig in Sheffield?) in 2007, playing in Room 1 ahead of DJ Zinc @djzinc .
Then Benga @iambenga playing in Room 2 in 2009, also ahead of DJ Zinc, with one of the early plays of his track "On A Mission", which later became a track for Katy B @katyb
Originally filmed on MiniDV tape and from the archives of @reelsteelcinema@tuesdayclubuk #dubstep @skreamandbenga #sheffieldissuper
Peter Davis (1933-2025)
I lost my old mate, and bossman, Peter Davis last week. He passed away peacefully at his home in Vancouver on December the 1st 2025.
An incredible life lived, far too many wild tales here to recount, but it's been a pleasure bringing his work back into consciousness these last few years. He started making films in 1958, and never really stopped (he finished a documentary on Johnny Cash's childhood just this year).
He told stories that covered a wide range of topics, from history, biography, culture, and government, to ecology, health and science. Throughout his career he was arrested and jailed for shining light on oppression and injustice.
In the 1980's, after a visit to South Africa on a project with CARE, he became deeply involved in the anti-apartheid movement. He believed the struggle was above all a propaganda battle and felt a strong sense of responsibility to tell a story on behalf of a people who were being silenced. In recent years he has received messages from Black South Africans saying his films are the only records they have of parts of their history.
His last decades include accounts of the global fight against HIV and for universal access to HIV medicines, and a biography of Canadian Enviromentalist, David Suzuki.
Will share more clips of his work in the coming days. Rest easy, Peter.
Images:
-Peter in Palestine, 1971. Working for the United Nations TV Unit.
-Peter on set of Royal Hospital, 1966. His film about Cheslea Pensioners for Swedish TV.
-Peter with Winnie Mandela, who he interviewed (at great risk) while she was exiled in Transkei in 1985
-Peter in Zululand, 1996, making a documentary about traditional healers and their work in plant conservation and primary health care, including AIDS.
-Peter in the 60s, unknown, looking very handsome.
https://villonfilms.ca/
#archive #villonfilms #peterdavis #film
