Behind the scenes of Gut Level, Sheffield’s queer-first community project

To celebrate some of the successful shortlisted entrants into a new global music initiative Studio Monkey Shoulder - we headed up to Sheffield with Gilles Peterson to chat with the team behind Gut Level, a queer-first community project bringing the city’s creatives under one roof hosting parties, workshops, and community activities.

Gut Level’s story is a true grassroots tale. From its start in an empty garage under a railway arch in Sheffield, Gut Level has grown in just a short five years to become a full-fledged venue in the heart of the city, with a lot of help from its beloved community. Through a membership scheme, of which more than 2,500 people are now signed up, Gut Level can feasibly run as a non-profit space, feeding back to the community with club nights, workshops, film screenings, and other activities where queer and marginalised communities come first.

“The initial idea behind it was pretty simple, we just wanted a small private space where all our pals can come together for lawless parties, the queer communities we’re part of mixing with the DIY music freaks and party heads in a big sticky mess,” says the team behind Gut Level. “People need spaces like Gut Level for loads of different reasons – to meet friends, discover new music, learn new skills, flirt with strangers, share food, find hot activists to shag, bask in electronic drones, be visibly trans without fear, be visibly horny and proud of it, play daft Italo records, start mosh pits to hyperpop, and imagine new possibilities beyond heteronormativity – our small patch in Sheffield hopes to fill these desires.”

Along with Worldwide FM boss Gilles Peterson, we met the crew behind Sheffield’s non-profit community project to chat about the importance of DIY grassroots spaces, cheeky dancefloor antics, and bringing the city’s queer creatives into a free-from-judgement environment. Check it out below, and listen to a playlist giving a snapshot of the Gut Level community.

How did Gut Level start, and what is the ethos behind it?

We started scheming together in April 2019 and managed to open our first space in August that year in an empty garage under a railway arch. It was a beautiful little spot but had a fair few issues. We fibbed to the landlord and said we were opening a practice space and studio to get the lease, but as soon as they twigged that we were planning to throw parties there, they sent us a threat of legal action, so it was a bit of a bumpy start. We only had around nine months in that space before COVID hit, but in that time managed to throw two secret parties a month, keeping everything word of month and only advertising through a private Facebook group conspicuously named ‘Gleedless Valley Nature Trust’.

Since the early days we’ve grown a lot, and we’re now a lot more conscious of the politics of how spaces can be run, the impact these places can have on local communities, particularly those from marginalised communities who might feel unsafe at your bog standard club event.

You have a community of more than 2,500 members now - how have you seen that grow and change in the past four years? What was it like when you first started?

It’s changed a lot over the years, our activity has shifted from strictly party events to including more community-focused activity. Alongside this, we’ve experimented with the membership model as we’ve moved between different spaces. Five years ago we started with nothing, paying for the first unit out of our own, mostly quite meagre salaries, which was tough going. We now have over 2,500 people who are standard members on a small yearly subscription, mostly of just £2 for the year. We also have around 400 members who very generously contribute on a monthly subscription between £4 to £20 each, which is essentially what has enabled us to open a legit venue in a central spot, something we would never have dreamed of being a possibility when we started.

We think people commit to the membership model as they connect with the vision of creating a community-based party space and understand the graft that’s gone into it. It’s hard not to buy into the idea that music and community can go hand in hand, and see that these spaces can provide many things outside of the usual parameters of a licensed city centre venue.

What is the music community like in Sheffield? And what does that community mean to you?

It’s flippin’ mint. We reckon we’ve got a pretty buzzing scene with places like Delicious Clam, Hatch, Plot 22, Mondo, Grub Records and Lughole, all of which are DIY as fuck and rammed with proper passionate music heads and weirdos. If you do a bit of digging, there are some really great under-the-radar spots too that are some of the best spaces we’ve ever partied in. The really nice thing about the scene here is that everyone is looking out for one another, and there’s not a competitive feel which keeps the vibes positive even when there’s loads of clashes during club season.

In 2022, you were evicted from your former home after landlords decided to turn it into luxury flats. Can you tell us about that experience, and why it’s important to keep DIY, grassroots spaces like Gut Level alive?

Yeah, this was a huge rug pull. We loved our space on Snow Lane and we were picking up a lot of momentum there when, without warning, we were given three months to leave. Lots of DIY spots are in meanwhile-use spaces or spaces with insecure contract agreements, so it’s a frustrating reality as this happens fairly regularly. But it particularly stings when you have a beautiful venue with countless hours of love and labour poured into it. Thankfully, we bounced back and our new spot is our first long-term lease (five years), which feels like a big relief to have a permanent home. Plus, we have the collective support of our membership and supporters to thank for making that a possibility.

You’ve since built a new non-profit space hosting music events, workshops, and community activities. What impact do you hope that space has on the local community?

If the space can contribute a little bit towards making our members’ lives more exciting in Sheffield, then it will have succeeded. People need space for loads of different reasons – to meet friends, discover new music, learn new skills, flirt with strangers, share food, find hot activists to shag, bask in electronic drones, be visibly trans without fear, be visibly horny and proud of it, play daft Italo records, start mosh pits to hyperpop, and imagine new possibilities beyond heteronormativity – our small patch in Sheffield hopes to fill these desires.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?

Evil bloodsucking landlords and property developers!

The build for our most recent space felt like it took it all out of us, taking double the time and double the money (classic). Converting a cafe into a licensed premises on a tight budget with no prior building knowledge threw up an insane amount of challenges. Having shit architects and incredibly unhelpful building control didn’t help! We learned a lot about various legislation and were lucky to have help from builder friends, kind tradespeople in the city and a couple of lovely council workers who did what they could to get us over the finish line.

What does the future hold for Gut Level?

Growing in our beautiful new space! Our community is ever-evolving and we hope more people who are after hedonistic and wholesome times will come through the space and get involved. Gut Level is what it is because of its members and what they contribute. We have loads of events already in the pipeline for the rest of the year. Club events with the best underground DJs and promoters, live music, some weird shit that makes no sense, and some really cute stuff like workshops, film clubs, shared meals and DIY spa days. Past that, who knows? We’re just happy to be surviving and providing a good time for all the angels around us.

Find out more about Studio Monkey Shoulder here, and listen to Gut Level's playlist below.