Good afternoon members — and welcome to Thursday’s Tribune. Over the past few days, Victoria has been hitting the clubs of Sheffield. Unlike most of the other revellers, she’s been there in a strictly business-only capacity. She’s been investigating one of the city’s most (perhaps unfairly) maligned sectors: bouncers. Are they all addicted to the rush of telling very drunk people what to do? Or are they, in fact, the secret guardian angels of nightlife?
Editor’s note: Stories like this one take a great deal of time and effort to produce, Victoria finished work at 1am twice after a long night interviewing door staff. If you value the kind of journalism we produce and want The Tribune to continue to grow and thrive, please consider becoming a paying member today. It costs just £7 a month or £70 if you pay upfront for the whole year (£1.34 a week or 23p a day).
Mini-briefing
🌳 A fundraising campaign has been launched to plant trees in deprived parts of Sheffield, the Yorkshire Post reports. Greening the Grey Streets, which was set up in response to the city's tree-felling scandal, has raised more than £2,500 to plant the trees on streets that currently have none, specifically in the Highfield and Lowfield areas. Organiser and former tree campaigner Paul Selby praised both Sheffield City Council and Amey for their support.
💿 The Times reports that the board of troubled Sheffield technology firm WANDisco were unaware that $362,691 had been paid to Sheffield Wednesday FC as part of a sponsorship deal. The 2022 payment made Eyup, a tiny skills company owned by former WANDisco CEO Dave Richards (who is also a Wednesday fan), the club’s main shirt sponsor for the 2023-24 season. However, the firm’s board now says it knew nothing of the transactions.
🌈 A good piece in Now Then about Rainbow Owls, Sheffield Wednesday’s new LGBTQ+ supporters’ group. The new group has been set up by lifelong Wednesdayite Chris Ledger, who says homophobic abuse is still a huge problem in world football. Ambassadors for the new group include Sheffield MP Clive Betts and The Human League founder Martyn Ware. Sheffield United’s LGBTQ+ supporters’ group Rainbow Blades was set up in March 2020.
Things to do
🎭 On Friday, 28 and Saturday 29 July, Sheffield Theatres present Together Too, a two-day “community takeover” of the Crucible (10am-9pm). As well as exhibitions, installations and workshops, there will also be origami in the Crucible Kitchen on both days, plus live music on Saturday. The outdoor Crucible Canopy will be turned into a barbecue from 1pm-8pm on Friday and Saturday from 10am-8pm. All the events will be drop-in and are free to attend.
🧵 Filling Sheffield Cathedral inside and out this Saturday, 29 July is the latest Craft + Flea, bringing together talented, independent makers, designers, producers and collectors, each handpicked for their quality, on-trend products. As well as the best of the city's local produce and makers, the market will also offer street food and flea market stalls offering vintage items and collectables. The market runs from 11am to 5pm and entry is £2.50 (under 12s go free).
🛠️ 100 years ago Portland Works was the birthplace of stainless steel, and is now a thriving hub for artists, craftspeople and makers. On Saturday, 29 July, an open day will offer visitors the chance to have guided tours around the historic building and meet those who currently use it. There will also be a performance by the Untrekked choir at 11.30 and a demonstration of the works’ small forge between midday-2pm. The day is free and will run from 10am-4pm.
The secret world of Sheffield bouncers: fingerprint scanners; profiling and 'badge wankers'
A few years ago, Michael Houghton was on a night out in West Street when he got into a fight. Another man shoved him and, when Michael tried to move past, grabbed him from behind and hit him in the face. “Next thing I knew I was getting attacked by ten people,” he says, although thankfully “they didn’t do a good job”.
Incidents like this aren’t too uncommon on West Street, basically Sheffield’s version of the Magaluf strip. In 2021, a fight between football fans caused “considerable damage” to Bloo 88, a popular bar that closed earlier this year, and saw 24 men charged with violent disorder. The following year, a 13-year-old girl was arrested after a fight at a West Street pub.
What makes the incident involving Michael more unusual is that he’s a bouncer – or a “door supervisor” to use the more current term. So were, according to him, the men who attacked him. It’s difficult to imagine internal disputes in any other industry getting physical like this – staff from different fast food chains don’t scrap in the street – but he says the security industry is “fuelled by toxic masculinity and fragile egos”. It’s part of the reason he set up his own security company, Tri-Point, in a bid to fix it.
Michael, now 27, has worked in security for his entire adult life, after getting his licence at the age of 18. During that time, he has collected a laundry list of “pet hates” about his industry, of which a major one is “badge wankers” – door staff who walk around with their badge on even when they’re not working to look hard. “They’ll be on Facebook in their living room or kitchen with their badge on, what are they protecting? We get it, you work on the doors, well done.”
It’s an assessment many of those who visit Sheffield’s bars and clubs as customers would agree with. When I ask for opinions on the city’s door staff, the term “power-tripping” comes up a lot, as do far ruder words. The alleged misbehaviour of local security ranges from petty, such as tripping people up in the queue “out of boredom”, to outright criminal, like confiscating drugs from customers only to sell them back at an inflated price, a pastime known as “taxing” in the industry.
On the other hand, I wasn’t able to verify any of these individual claims and criticising door staff feels like taking a bit of a cheap shot. “A lot of people instantly see us as a bad guy,” Michael says. It’s not unheard of for passers-by to see a door supervisor fighting someone on the street and instantly join in – against the supervisor. While there are nice aspects of the profession – Michael enjoys “meeting people and watching people have a good time” – the general public often fail to consider how intense it can get. “I’ve been stabbed a few times, bricked, bottled. I’ve seen people get murdered, I’ve seen guns, you just have to switch off.”
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