{"id":2191410,"date":"2026-10-12T04:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T01:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2191410"},"modified":"2026-10-12T04:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T01:54:19","slug":"sheffields-niche-club-to-return-to-city-dancefloors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2191410","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield’s Niche club to return to city dancefloors"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/9c88\/live\/cff6a120-c3c0-11f1-9798-abffda1e61e7.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"NicheNiche<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Niche originally opened in 1992 on Sidney Street in Sheffield<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A renowned Sheffield nightclub which became synonymous with the birth of ‘bassline’ music is making a comeback.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Niche originally opened in a former cutlery warehouse on Sidney Street in 1992 and grew from an underground spot to become one of the most influential names in UK club culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A number of incidents involving drugs and violence culminated in greater police scrutiny and the original premises closed in 2005 after a large police raid. Despite several relocations across the city, Niche closed permanently in 2018 after more stabbings outside the club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Now under new ownership, Niche is being developed as a contemporary music and cultural brand, with a new club night on 17 October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Steve Baxendale, the former owner of Niche, passed away aged 67 in 2019. His wife Helen has now passed ownership of the brand to a new Sheffield-based team with previous experience in music, DJing and club promotion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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New operations director Drew Garber said they wanted to build the name into “Sheffield super-brand the city can be proud of”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“People care deeply about Niche and we know our responsibility is to keep that legacy in safe hands while giving the residents and artists who built it a home, and the next generation a genuine platform,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A rally took place over the permanent closure of Niche in 2018<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Niche was part of a club scene in Sheffield in the 90s along with Gatecrasher One\/Republic located nearby in a converted former steelworks warehouse, that transformed the city into a powerhouse for electronic music, rave culture, and super clubs drawing visitors from across the UK and abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In its heyday, Niche’s resident DJs like Jamie Duggan played speed garage and house with heavy low-end basslines and shuffling hi-hats , producing a sound that became known as ‘bassline’ or simply Niche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Live sets recorded inside the club, known as the “Niche Tapes” were sold far beyond Sheffield, building a national audience and turning the name from a venue into a wider cultural brand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen: Niche nightclub to return to Sheffield<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The club did however begin to garner a reputation for violence and gang culture. Former manager Michael Baxendale, brother of former owner Steve, died after being stabbed outside the venue. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Four men were later jailed after their involvement in a mass brawl at the club after it moved to Walker Street near the Wicker. The club closed shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking to the BBC in 2014, Assistant Chief Constable Paul Broadbent said: “We needed to take some positive police action on a nightclub where guns had been seen and fired. Class A, serious illegal drugs had been seen, sold, used and supplied. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Criminal gangs from Manchester, Leeds, Leicester and other cities were coming to the Niche to do their business. I’m not allowing that to happen in Sheffield.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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New owner Fraser Rowlin acknowledged the club’s past reputation but said the scene had “come a long way”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Obviously, the history is there and it kind of blew up but we are 30 years on now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We have moved towards making sure clubs and events we put on are as safe as possible using every form of technology we can.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The whole nature of that genre has changed. It’s not as gritty and dark as it used to be. It’s transcended that now.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The return of Niche begins with a night at Network Sheffield, which the owners described as a “homecoming”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to highlights from <\/i>South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest <\/i>episode of Look North<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cm0j0nwpzdgwo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/9c88\/live\/cff6a120-c3c0-11f1-9798-abffda1e61e7.jpg”] Niche Niche originally opened in 1992 on Sidney Street in Sheffield A renowned Sheffield nightclub which became synonymous with the birth of ‘bassline’ music is making a comeback. Niche originally opened in a former cutlery warehouse on Sidney Street in 1992 and grew from an underground spot to become one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2191410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2191410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2191410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2191410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2191410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}