Offbeat by Pete Mella Sick of the same old indie hits being churned out in the same order week after week? L2SB popped down Offbeat to sample an alternative.   I went to one of Sheffield’s less imaginative indie nights the other week, and played a game with myself to guess the next song to come on. It soon came apparent how easy it was – ‘I Am The Resurrection’ is always followed by ‘Step On’, which is always followed by ‘Size of a Cow’ and so on.    Offbeat, tucked away in Sheffield University’s Raynor Lounge every fortnight, was set up as a reaction against such lame indie DJing. It was founded by Chris Stride and Gill Graham in 1997, and after almost seven years is still going strong.    “It was the fag end of Britpop, every night was Britpop and 60s hits or Madchester,” says Chris. “You couldn’t even get a Pixies song played anywhere, that was unheard of. There was so much music we wanted to hear, and we thought other people wanted to hear, and if they didn’t we wanted to play it anyway!”    “The first term was quiet but still all right,” says Gill, “then it suddenly took off after that.”    The people started coming in droves, for a night of indie pop goodness and free lollies. The club first sold out the 100 capacity room on their first birthday, and now virtually every night is a sell-out before 10pm.      The night is a Mecca for indie kids who are bored of the same routine. Playing indie, punk pop and underground from 1977 to the present day, the club has an uncanny knack for mixing classics like the Buzzcocks, Smiths and Joy Division with the cutting edge of alternative music. Very few clubs still sniff out new music in this way – currently the pair are enthusing about brand new bands including Franz Ferdinand, British Sea Power, Mclusky and Futureheads.    Stone Roses will still get a play, though.    “We do play them about once a term,” says Gill, “but you won’t get ‘I Am The Resurrection’!”    “Yeah it’ll be some obscure track that everyone’s forgotten and we think is really good!,” says Chris.    The city’s local indie pop heroes also get a spin. Floater were number two in the Offbeat Festive 10 a couple of years ago, and the club also plays Beachbuggy, Velodrome 2000 and Chuck.     “If someone gives us something and we like it we’ll play it,” says Gill, “equally if we don’t like it we won’t.”    It’s not just the locals and students who have a bop at Offbeat, people come from all over the country, and there have even been a few famous faces in over the years. Russell Senior’s been known to stop by, The Bluetones tried to gatecrash and have their aftershow party in there, and indie god Steve Lamacq once turned up after a Catatonia gig, and spent the night strutting his stuff on the dancefloor.      The Offbeat specials are the most popular nights. These have included nights dedicated to Belle and Sebastian, The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers and The Pixies. The latter was probably the most popular, with the queue to get in alone much more than the Raynor Lounge’s capacity.    “It’s the worse thing ever when people are queuing up outside and can’t get in,” says Chris, “especially if they’ve travelled, that’s awful.”    But despite its popularity, Chris and Gill have no plans to expand what is primarily a hobby – by day Chris is a statistics lecturer at the university and Gill works for an environmental charity.     “We like being able to run it ourselves,” says Chris “we don’t want to work through a promoter. We want control so we can make it how we want it and play what we want to play.”    “[The Raynor Lounge] is nice because we do sell out,” says Gill, “and there’s nothing really inbetween this and venues that are around 500.”    It’s Offbeat’s 7th birthday in January, and the 100th Offbeat in June. Future plans include a Belle and Sebastian promo night, another Pixies special, and a fancy dress competition (last year’s was won by Mikey from Dangerlust dressing as all of the Osbournes). Chris and Gill also run the occasional Synthetic synthpop night, and the annual Size Of A Cow, which sees a slightly more mainstream playlist in the bigger venue of Fusion.    If you like indie in the true sense of the word, then you’d love Offbeat. Just make sure you get yourself down early.    (Check the Offbeat website for more info [link]) October 1, 2003 0:28pm