Rock Re.United - The Place for Old Sheffield Rock (Page7)

Dove n Rainbow the Wap was never as good as this current rock bar, the beer certainly wasn't	The Buccaneer Bar - Long Lost Rock Bar where Henrys bar was - Alan's web site remembers the 70s	Rock - Links Current other rock links to visit, venues, bands, rock, roll, metal	Main Homepage- The Wookie
The Limit This page writes itself, send your memories	Kay Gee Bee The Home Of Sheffield Rock Before Penthouse was repoened as Rebels	Classic Rock Bar DJ Buffy - Classic rock nights, rock bands and Karaoke	Rebels Page All about the long lost club - Now with reader's comments page too

This Section Is from People who were Wapentake Regulars from around 1980 - 1986

If you have any pictures to contribute please let me know

The Wapentake was a bar which was in the basement of the Grosvenor House Hotel. Although it was open earlier, in the 1960s, The manager for the last 30 years of the 20th century was Olga, who, according to legend, was chiefly responsible for the bar changing into a rock bar, as she was able to convince the management that the rockers were a good natured bunch who didn't cause any trouble. Before the Wapentake she was at the legendary Buccaneer bar which was next door but one, up the road.

The music system in the Wap was a bit wooly to say the least, the loadspeakers looked like a couple of bass guitar speakers, in fact they had wooden rails on them on the bottom, which used to be used to push speakers around before casters became more commonplace, at one time, I remember one speaker going off altogether with a loose connection, and no one noticed.

The Wap (pronounced WOP) in it's last years, always closed at 10.45pm A quarter of an hour earlier than other pubs. This didn't really matter to the punters, as the Yorkshireman's Arms was just around the corner, and the Sportman was very close too, and half of the people in the Wap finished up in Rebels afterwards anyhow. I don't know the real reason for the early close, but the rumour was along the lines of, the management wouldn't pay for the staff to have taxis home, and so the extra 15 minutes of time gave them opportunity to catch the last bus.

The early closure never did anything to stifle the popularity of the Wap, as there was frequently a queue to get in, I was often waiting outside for 15 minutes or more while the doorstaff slowly let us in.

Roy - For a very short time in the mid 80's they tried serving food during the week at lunch times, not a huge success as people brave enough to venture down the stairs usually took one look around and departed, can't imagine why the tables had white table cloths on.

The Wap closed around 2000, and after much fanfare and local newspaper features about "Egyptian style makeovers" was enlarged into the shop units above, the corner unit used to be Northern Rock Building Society. The venue is now called Casbah. The upstairs part has different music from the downstairs part where the Wap used to be. The downstairs usually opens at 10pm, and stays open until the small hours. The sound system is now very modern and loud, (often too loud) and they often have gigs down there. The room itself is bigger as they have knocked down the partition into the kitchen area where the old DJ box used to be. When it re-opened they spared no expence in the fixtures and fittings, the lights and the bar was all modern and impressive, it was a world away from the old Wap.

New sept 2006 ...
Every 30 years the centre of the city of Sheffield tends to undergo massive demolition and rebuilding. The Tower which the Wap/Casbah reside(s) in the basement of, is due to be blown up in the next 2 or 3 years as part of an enormous central retail scheme, the Central Retail Quarter (no doubt destined to be extremely trendy, shiny and whizzy). Who knows where the rock scene is going to be shoved to eventually.

I am not worried however, there are so many of us, that we will finish up occupying premises which are abandoned by trendy bopper clubs and bars, that's how it always was and will always be.

Update 2008.. The new retail centre is going to be called "Sevenstone" in tribute to the mythical seven hills of Sheffield, sounds a bit like a heavy rock band so that's ok..

These pictures are of Avalanche who were a regular local band from the KGB days, they often played in the KGB, although these pics were from a gig at the Broadfield, just across the road

These Wooden Seats Were In The Wapentake

This is DJ Ken who was the resident DJ in the Wap until it closed, after that I found him in Under The Boardwalk, where much of the Wap crowd had relocated

Everyone should remember the Eggboxes and the peace gardens.

........ I don't remember the bullfighting and the Toreodors though

The Dangers of six bottles of Newcastle Brown on the complexion is obvious to everyone

Here is a set of pictures of a character popularly known by the seasonal nickname "Turkey" from approximately 1983, 2001 and 2006. In that order. He recently set a message in to rock reunited.

.....oh boy those were the days

he said..

His real was Jon.

He looks better with age... Well done mate, sorry for delay in posting, computer problems now sorted..

Page 1
Roy's Photos

Page2
Roy's Page 2

Page3
Rebels Display Photos

Page4
Roy's KGB People

Page5
Rebs People 88-92

Page6
Donnington 1990

Page7
Roy's Wap People

Page8
Dom 1990 - 1992