Festivals Live & Kicking! The ultimate guide to 2025’s Live at Leeds in the City courtesy of Leeds’ music community

Here, we’ve recruited some of Leeds’ most important music bigwigs and artists to reminisce about Live at Leeds festivals gone by, while also offering up some absolute must-see artists for 2024. Take it away…

It’s hard to pick a memory as I’ve had some involvement in the festival pretty much since the start. It’s hard to look past headlining the Town Hall in 2014 for the last ¡Forward Russia! gig. Past that, I remember in 2007 or 2008 I played in both Duels and Mi Mye in close succession, and had to fight my way through the crowd of Mumford & Sons, who were on before the latter at the Brudenell to be able to get on stage! Away from performing, I have fond memories of watching The Horrors at the much missed Church venue at the end of one night, which seemed to be a perfect marrying of venue, band and time.

A must for 2024!
It feels like English Teacher’s set is going to be one hell of a homecoming. Out of the emerging artists, as ever we have a fantastic stage at Sela Bar of Launchpad-supported artists, and Dilettante playing on the BBC Introducing stage. Finn Forster and KOJ have also been building up some releases recently.

Launchpad will take over the Sela Bar throughout the day at Live at Leeds in the City.

Usually we like a dramatic walk-on moment, but there wasn’t any side-of-stage at the venue… so we had a different kind of memorable entrance, having to push through the crowd to get to the stage. This was last year after we were chosen by the team at BBC Introducing via Live at Leeds’ Apply To Play [scheme] and I’m pretty sure the room was at capacity all day! Especially for Jessica Winter who’s a total rockstar, and we actually played with again earlier this year when we supported Hannah Diamond!

A must for 2024!
We’re just back from Glasgow where we supported Master Peace at King Tut’s! He’s a true party starter, and really knows how to work the crowd, [so we] can’t wait to have him in Leeds. If you don’t catch him you’ll be missing out for sure!

Lucky Iris play the Launchpad Stage at the Sela Bar. Their ‘Something To Believe In’ EP is out now via Launchpad x EMI North.

My favourite Live at Leeds performance was Confidence Man in the Riley Smith Hall at the Uni.

It was a bit of a punt to go up there, risking being a bit off the beaten track, but we were very much rewarded for the trip. Despite a relatively small audience, Con Man gave it 101% and had everyone in the room entranced. I bought tickets for their next show immediately but couldn’t go because we had a Kaiser Chiefs gig obviously.

A must for 2024!
[There are] so many excellent artists from nearby, so everyone playing the Launchpad stage at Sela – go say hello to them. I also want to go see Life Aquatic Band.

Kaiser Chiefs play at Temple Newsam, Leeds on 31st May 2025. “Come and check out some real hot new talent…”

We played Live at Leeds in 2021, for BBC Introducing and packed out Oporto to capacity, which was so fun! Emily Pilbeam hosted the stage, and we are ever grateful for her ongoing support across a region with so much creative goodness. We have a video of the crowd cheering before we played our last song, and it’s so lovely to have that to look back at, and remember how exciting and special this felt, a reminder of the community here and love for music in the city, especially after the lack of live music in the previous year.

In terms of other artists, last year, Amy saw Hohnen Ford for the first time, performing at Mill Hill Chapel, and couldn’t believe how effortlessly magical it was – so calming, so flawless. It’s so great discovering new artists in that way – just by chance, in one of several festival venues you could have chosen to be in at that same time.

A must for 2024!
Lily Lyons! Beautiful beautiful voice.

Sunflower Thieves’ ‘Same Blood’ EP is out now via Kartel Music Group.

Thinking back to something like 2013, I’d imagine, and Paul Thomas Saunders and his band at the peak of their power, playing at Holy Trinity on Boar Lane to a packed room, late-afternoon, his trademark effortless vocals soaring high throughout the stunning, reverberant space.

A must for 2024!
My tips would be a shout-out to a bunch of artists connected to Leeds – Lucky Iris, Dilettante, Nadia Kadek and everyone’s favourite, Spielmann.

I [Grace] remember being 14 years old when I saw Palma Violets at Live at Leeds. They always knew how to put on such a good show. I remember being tipsy in the mosh pit holding onto my older sister. Their song ‘14’ was a personal favourite because I was 14 at the time, even if it was about a bus.

A must for 2024!
Live at Leeds was our introduction to an inner city festival. It’s super important to support grassroots musicians and venues: make sure you check out GIRLBAND! and Lucky Iris on this year’s bill.

VENUS GRRRLS will play The Wardrobe in Leeds on Friday 25th April.

I’m going back to the golden days of Yooooooorkshire indie. In a world dominated by men’s needs and romantic types (IYKYK!), I made sure to seek out indie gals; you can’t be what you can’t see. I saw Sky Larkin in 2009 at The Cockpit, and I remember being absolutely OBSESSED with their album ‘The Golden Spike’, which was on heavy rotation for me for years after its release. I saw Slow Club that same year I think. I was equally obsessed with their album ‘Yeah So’ and wrote all the lyrics to ‘Giving Up On Love’ on a white t-shirt and wore it for my DJing gigs, where I played as much of both of their records as I could get away with in my two hour slots. As it turns out both Katie Harkin and Rebecca Lucy Taylor remain two of my absolute favourite songwriters to this very day, and I’m still so grateful for both of them during those indie sleaze years.

A must for 2024!
If I had to pick one artist to see, it would be Nectar Woode – she’s about to release an EP on Communion, but her last release ’Nothing to Lose’ from February is my favourite EP of 2024. I’ve never seen her live, so that would be the one I’d be down the front for. Also shout out to our Mercury-winning pop star friends English Teacher; the nicest and sweetest band in all of history. If you’ve not seen them live yet, go there!

The fourth volume of Come Play With Me’s compilation album Side By Side is out now. “If you’re looking to find your new favourite northern artists, they are probably somewhere within this series of releases!”

Confidence Man playing at Leeds Uni back in 2019. It was the first time I’d ever heard of them and the live show blew me away.

A must for 2024!
Human Interest – they’re a great band and lovely people, go check them out at Belgrave.

Adult DVD’s latest single ‘Do Something’ is out now.

I have so many memories of Live at Leeds from over the years, it’s an incredible event. I think The Longcut, which was maybe 2008, was special. They’d not played in a while from what I can remember, their music was changing and they’re just such a great band. The Milo lineups were great – that was such a scene, with John Newman working there, Spirit of John playing, Mark Crossley and everyone that was around at the time. I have a feeling we interviewed Richard Burgon for one, just before he became an MP for the first time – maybe that was the Black Swan. But every year you’re surprised by a great performance by somebody you didn’t know before. Then you look back over the years and you can see the great list of people who’ve played developing.

A must for 2024!
I think if you can get in to see English Teacher, it’s got to be them right? Such a good band, and one I think we all feel a bit of pride about here in Leeds. I also think Chloe Slater will be great – really nice hooks. It’s also nice to see bands from Eiger [Studios] playing Live at Leeds: English Teacher, Flat Moon and the Monomyth gang. It’s been a tough few years for people in various ways, but you can really see a great new scene developing in Leeds, and I think, for many of us, that’s what it’s about.

The Cribs at Leeds Town Hall in 2015 was pretty special. I played a Live at Leeds 5-a-side tourney that year too and came dead last. We’ve got a strong 8-a-side weekly game going including members of Treeboy, Bug Teeth and Tulpa so a large Leeds music footy tournament should be on the cards.

A must for 2024!
Lime Garden will be super fun and great if you like a boogie – they’re playing The Wardrobe after us so we’re stoked we will get to see them! Fuzz Lightyear are worth watching too, great bunch of lads who are on the heavier side, and Mynk are great too. We caught them recently when we played at Supersonic in Paris on our recent tour. Some really cool, moody guitar textures there.

The ‘Expanded Edition’ of Van Houten’s debut album ‘The Tallest Room’ is out now via Clue Records / EMI North.

Watching Olivia Dean at Brudenell Community Room a few years ago was just a dream, she’s so captivating. It was magic!

A must for 2024!
I can’t wait for our new Dance To The Radio artists Annie-Dog, Terra Twin and L’objectif to take Belgrave by storm! They’re all in the middle of releasing some ace new music at the moment. Come down for some fresh indie goodness.

Singles from Dance To The Radio artists Terra Twin and Annie-Dog are out now, while L’objectif will share their next single at the end of November.

Live at Leeds in the City takes place on Saturday 16th November - grab one of the final few tickets here! 

Tags: News, English Teacher, From The Magazine, Lime Garden, November 2024