Guest blogger and music afficonado Richard Higgins gives us a preview of the exciting line-up for Live At Leeds this weekend.
Anyone seeking an antidote to the inevitable saccharine saturation coverage of a certain wedding the preceding day should consider the merits of the annual Live at Leeds music festival.
Taking place across 29th April to 1st May and now in its 5th year, the event is an established platform for promoting local and national talent and highlighting Leeds as a major venue on the musical map.
An impressive array of over 100 artists encompassing 14 venues from mid-day to midnight and beyond on Saturday 30th lead the main charge of the three day event.
Big name highlights this year include Anna Calvi, fresh from a recent appearance on ‘Later’, Young Knives promoting their newly released 3rd album, the hotly tipped James Blake and Leeds own Pulled Apart By Horses.
Highlighting the rich diversity of the current Leeds musical crop are Cowtown, Maggie 8,Yonderboy, Honour Before Glory, Laboratory Noise and Eureka Machines – all worthy of your time and attention.
Key venues include the Cockpit, the Brudenell, Faversaham, Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds Met, the Uni, Milo’s, The Well and Holy Trinity Church. The wide geographical spread of venues is part of the festival’s appeal and can lead to (a) a bumper day for local taxi drivers and (b) much anguish and military precision planning over deciding who next to see and where. Still, clashing timetables can lead you to discover new acts you might have initially discounted as the pros and cons of constant criss-crossing town in order to catch an act are weighed up against staying put in your current venue of choice. It’s a musical lucky dip. Alternatively you can end up spending most of the day traversing down but never catching the band you intended to – a chilled, go with the flow approach works best. All this for a measly £17.50!!
The Saturday wristband gains you access to all this. Live At Leeds is a musical profusion of riches and the hardest part is deciding who to see and where to head to next! Whilst Saturday is the main focus of the three day event, other highlights include Villagers appearing at the Brudenell on 29th and Glasvegas concluding the festival at Leeds Met on 1st May. Both of these events are not included in the £17.50 Saturday wrist band entry fee.
Also on the Sunday, the Brudenell hosts it’s own mini festival featuring Times New Viking, Wild Palms,Wet Paint, Wonderswan and Sissy. Entry is free to anyone with a Saturday wristband or £6 pounds otherwise.
Live At Leeds…..if it was good enough for The Who..
I’m looking for some information on the best way to promote a friends music? He was in the open mic uk competiton and performed at the O2 arena in london in the finals for it but I’m struggling on which way to help him go now? There’s a few of us trying to help him out so any advice you have would be brilliant?
Thank-you
Phil Pearce