Live at Leeds is rooted in history: beginning in 2007 as part of the city’s 800th birthday celebrations, the metropolitan one-day festival presents the best new bands in a diverse range of venues. Previous line-ups have featured Stormzy, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Ed Sheeran and Wolf Alice in the early stages of their careers, and this year it was clear that the festival’s organisers have managed to keep a finger firmly on the pulse of new music, bringing punters a day full of discovery.
Kicking off the day with a sharp 12pm start were SOAPBOX, Glasgow’s punk-rock four-piece fronted by Tom Rowan, who noted that “we’re not used to being up this early” as his band began their set. On the surface, the band’s music seems superfluously, angrily rowdy, but laced within the majority of their songs is a piercing political criticism. This was best exhibited by ‘Private Public Transport’, a song preceded by Rowan asking crowd if Leeds’ public transport is “as shite as Glasgow’s”: this was confirmed by many in attendance.
‘Yer Da’ and ‘Fascist Bob’ closed out SOAPBOX’s set, with the former being introduced as a song “about buying alcohol for minors under the threat of violence”, again demonstrating the band’s aptitude for conjoining witty humour and cutting social commentary. Throughout the performance, drummer Jenna Nimmo’s intense, incessant percussion was combined with Aidan Bowskill’s fiery guitar riffs. Choosing to start the day with chaos, Rowan could be seen bounding around the stage and frequently joining the crowd, leaving him quite literally dripping with sweat once their half-hour had passed. As attested by the sizeable crowd gathered at Leeds Beckett Student Union’s second stage despite the time, SOAPBOX certainly are an act to watch out for, and their feisty punk-rock proved the best way to begin Live at Leeds.
Next up was indie-pop sensations Daydreamers, who treated The Wardrobe crowd to a near-full rendition of viral hit ‘Call Me Up’ as a soundcheck fifteen minutes before their set was due to start. It was seemingly their job to warm up rows and rows of dedicated Alessi Rose fans who were gathered at the barrier and had lined up outside the venue hours before doors opened: many evidently became converted as the performance progressed. Mid-set, the band announced that they would be recording their debut album in December, and debuted the Wallows-esque ‘Saviour’, a song that already sounds prepared to be screamed back by thousands of fans in bigger venues.
Easily the most exciting name on this year’s line-up, Liverpool’s Luvcat followed at The Wardrobe, bringing her enigmatic, romantic alternative rock to Live at Leeds. With only three available tracks, the half-hour set was filled with unreleased cuts offering a glimpse into the gothic world meticulously crafted by frontwoman Sophie Morgan. Wide-ranging influences became clear as Morgan opened with ‘Lipstick’, a song exhibiting her haunting vocals and storytelling power alongside the consistently dark allure of her instrumentation comparable to the likes of Nick Cave and The Cure.
‘Alien’ and ‘Alchemy’ followed, with the former exploring feelings of isolation and the latter telling yet another twisted love tale. The lyrics of ‘Matador’, ‘He’s My Man’ and ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel’ subsequently echoed across the venue, leaving Morgan visibly astonished: in the time since they were released, all three songs have become underground hits of sorts, each amassing millions of streams and receiving their own online moments of popularity. Overall, Luvcat’s set at Live at Leeds provided a taste of things to come, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Morgan tops the bill in just a few years’ time.
Leeds’ own L’Objectif packed out Belgrave Music Hall, prompting the first one-in-one-out notification of the day: not surprising, considering the posters around the venue advertising their next single ‘Goth Kids’ and attesting their popularity as a local act. The brilliancy of live highlight ‘Drive in Mind’ can’t be denied, blending angular guitar riffs with punchy percussion and demonstrating the band’s flair for blurring the boundaries of genre.
A short walk to Oporto brought us into the weird and wonderful world of Dilettante, another Leeds-based act who turned the popular Call Lane bar into a New York jazz joint for the duration of their half-hour set. Dilettante is a collective fronted by Francesca Pidgeon, who is perhaps best known as a multi-instrumentalist in BC Camplight’s live band: her musical dexterity could be seen as she alternated between three microphones, a guitar, saxophone and even a cowbell during her performance. At one point she commented that the experience of having so many instruments on Oporto’s tiny stage was “very stressful”, and the set’s intricacy was evidently difficult to sustain as Pidgeon was forced to motion to sound engineers continuously throughout. Crackling speakers interfered with ‘Keep Time’, the final song of the set, yet Dilettante’s performance was a masterclass in maximalist art-pop nevertheless.
Once Dilettante concluded, leaving a packed-out venue gobsmacked, brother-sister duo Esme Emerson performed a stripped-back acoustic set, providing Oporto with a perfect afternoon reset in a busy day of live music. With English Teacher being the most in-demand act of the day, a rush to Leeds Beckett Student Union once Esme Emerson had finished meant arriving an hour early and catching the end of CASISDEAD: while not as energetic as the house-inflected set he presented at Warehouse Project earlier in the month, the rapper put on an engaging show, and could be spotted chatting to fans at the barrier after his performance.
A late arrival brought a tense start to what should’ve been a triumphant mid-tour homecoming for English Teacher, but the cheers that resounded upon their arrival showed how easily they were forgiven by their audience, who remained attentive and adoring throughout the duration of their 40-minute set. After a year of prestigious prize-winning which has seen them take home the Mercury Prize and Breakthrough Act at the Northern Music Awards, seeing them perform in their hometown was a tremendous experience for all involved.
In a portion of the set taken up by “ballads”, many audience members realised just how impossible it is to hear emotionally-charged songs such as ‘You Blister My Paint’ and ‘Albert Road’ live without fighting back tears. Introducing the latter, frontwoman Lily Fontaine informed the crowd that “when I was eighteen, I jumped out of my window and flew away to Leeds to study music, and that’s what this song is about”. The band are clearly very confident in their own abilities, as Fontaine also asserted that “if you don’t know this song you need to listen to better music” when introducing ‘Nearly Daffodils’: this may seem like gloating, but the band’s debut album and their live performance verifies their claims to greatness.
Once English Teacher had delivered a performance worthy of veneration, it was time for a trip to the Key Club, Leeds’ sweatiest venue known for its sticky floor and the occasional drip of sweat from the ceiling. In this setting, Swim School’s raucous set saw the day’s much-belated first mosh pit, instigated by the band’s frontwoman Alice Johnson, whose impressive vocals and staggering stage presence are clearly made for stardom.
The beauty of Leeds’ beloved boozer Brudenell Social Club, especially on Live at Leeds days, is its three rooms of music: in the hour before Master Peace’s set began, London-based four-piece KEO could be seen delivering their Wunderhorse-esque alternative rock in the Main Room, while American garage rockers Slow Fiction performed a goth-tinged set in the Community Room.
Fresh off two UK tours including appearances at Manchester’s Night & Day Café and Club Academy, Master Peace brought his chaotic, energetic live show to the Brudenell, closing out Live at Leeds in style and proving that he deserves to be the voice of this generation. Inviting his audience to “act like it’s 2006”, Peace raced through highlights from his debut album, only pausing to re-tie his Adidas laces and frequently joining his unruly, frenzied crowd. Once his set had concluded, Peace gratified the unanimous chants demanding an encore, staying to perform an extra two songs which only prompted further chaos, with crowd-surfers being launched into the air and limbs flying and flailing.
Every year, Live at Leeds in the City manages to reassert itself as one of the best days in the north’s forever-busy live music calendar. With a line-up consisting of hundreds of exciting new acts, clashes did necessitate some difficult decisions: the day’s headliners Everything Everything, Alfie Templeman and The K’s were all overlooked in favour of other acts, while missing bands such as Lime Garden truly hurt. Overall, however, discovery flourished throughout the day, and it will certainly be interesting to see which of the festival’s performers will be remembered with the greats that have previously graced Live at Leeds.
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