IT’S 8.45 on a typically crisp Friday evening in Sheffield. The queue is already beginning to lengthen, even though the doors to the City Hall ballroom don’t open until 9.30. Once a month, this smart ballroom relaxes its restricted policy of big band swing and ballroom dancing to invite an enthusiastic cross-section of local youth into the neo-classical 1930s splendour of the city’s municipal showpiece.

Inside, local dance entrepreneurs Jive Turkey offer the perfect antidote to Sheffield’s brusque and rough nightlife. With the co-operation of the socialist city council, the trio of Matt, John and Parrot provide a relentless pulse of funk, jazz and House rhythms finely attuned to Sheffield’s black-music-loving, fashion conscious coterie.

It is the city’s obsession with contemporary dance styles, especially House, that creates such a heady ambience at the monthly Jive Turkey night. Records like ‘Check This Out’ by Hard House, ‘Voodoo Ray’ by A Guy Called Gerald and ‘Hip Hop Salsa’ by Bad Boy Orchestra – the latest nom-de-danse of House guru Todd Terry – produce a mesmeric weave over and around the dance floor.

The crowd is mixed, with local blacks in flying jackets and Davy Crockett caps dancing next to young whites’ in Levis and short razored hair. This month, however, the influence of Acid House is inescapable. The whole style kit is here: knotted hankies, shorts, polka-dot shirts, and a smile inane enough to frighten even the most zealous moonie.

So successful has this mixture been that the coachloads now descend upon the City Hall every month from as far afield as Leeds, Nottingham and even Gloucester.

Deno Thompson, a regular, has good reason to be grateful for these evenings. ‘Being black, I’ve encountered racism at most clubs in Sheffield,’ he says. ‘Not that I think- Sheffield is much different to any other city; it’s just part of the club scene. The nice thing about coming here is that you get no hassle; the mix of types creates a more relaxed atmosphere.’

This marriage of dancefloor entrepreneurialism and bureaucratic, municipal socialism isn’t free from problems, however. For safety reasons, the council are restricting entry numbers to well below those targeted by Jive Turkey for financial and atmospheric reasons. But although the nights are being held on a trial basis for the next six months, Jive Turkey seems set to continue: with such a stigma-free door policy and their innovative musical approach, they have shown the way beyond the Ladies free, half-price-drinks’ sensibility of Sheffield’s aggressively competitive, randomly violent club life.

© Jon Savage

Originally published in The Observer, Nov 13, 1988

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