The Wapentake

[Bikeman]

On 22/05/2020 at 16:52, RockinInTheFreeWorld said:

The Wap - a place of legend, and as I've already stated in The Buccaneer post this was largely due to landlady Olga Marshall, without whom....etc etc. and I started going here after The Bucc closed in 1973.

You went downstairs turning right at the bottom into a kind of vestibule kind of arrangement; the gents were on your right and the ladies were directly ahead. From here you turned left and you were into The Wap itself.

Immediately on the left was the row of booths - already mentioned above - ideal for sitting with friends and shouting at one another in order to be heard above the music, or just having a drink and a 'cuddle' - as also mentioned in an earlier post! Directly across from here was the bar which ran from the DJ booth, then right along and round to the left as you viewed it from the booths or the main floor. To the right of here was an area for standing - I don't recall any seating over in this part but there may've been - I was usually in the main floor area.

The main floor was the standing area which ran from immediately as you entered right along and adjacent to the DJ booth.

Like The Buccaneer and The Nelson the beer was uniformly terrible and if you had any sense, or taste-buds, you bought a bottle of Newcastle Brown which the bar staff always poured into a plastic pint pot. Yes, the floor was sticky, on occasion the loos were beyond belief - you'd need wellies in the gents more often than not - it was dark and dismal BUT the music and the people there were the thing - that's why we all went. It truly was a blast - and it was another great underground bar in Sheffield's illustrious rock history. Let there be rock. And, lo, there was rock.

Remember seeing Kevin Coyne (formerly of Siren & John Peel's Dandelion Records) do a show here - anybody remember this one? -  which although starting fairly well quickly degenerated into some heckling and an explosive and bad-tempered riposte from the artiste. The only time I've seen anyone more bad-tempered and abusive to a member of the audience was John Martyn at the Uni - and man, could he dole it out! 

 

 

 

I think you've more or less described it as I remember, back in 1973-74; the sticky floor is an abiding memory and also the guy in the stinky kaftan who always sat on the right of the bar; he had long shoulder length blonde hair and really looked like a hippie! I met a girl there (she was going out with a mate of mine and I met her for the 1st time) we both fancied each other and 48 years later we're still together!

[kidneystone]

...

[Alastair]