I am this week returning to and completing the story of my visit to the Live at Leeds festival in 2021. This is a multi-venue wristband event with venues dotted all around the city and we walked and walked that day, covering around 27k steps.
The next site we visited was Leeds HiFi situated on Century Road. The precursor to this venue was the Underground nightclub as when that club closed its doors for the final time in 2000, the three original promoters moved lock stock and barrel into the new basement venue. They transferred all existing staff and retained all the original club nights in the new building.
Leeds HiFi. Image Credit Ents24.
They hold a suite of DJ and live gig nights and reside mainly in the funk and soul and roots domain. Amongst others Nightmares on Wax, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and 6 music’s Giles Peterson have appeared there. They have also held comedy nights with Alan Carr and Reginald D Hunter having graced the stage, and weddings have also taken place there.
It is a small venue that has a nice vibe about it combining a nightclub feel with a traditional downstairs gig room, and this is reflected in its previous local awards for ‘Best Nightclub’ and ‘Best Live Music Venue’. The band on stage at the time of our visit were a local act called Van Houten and they provided a pleasing slab of slightly wonky dream pop, their sound reminiscent of Swim Deep and Fatal Charm. They released their self-titled debut album in 2019 and have just penned a decent new single titled ‘Coming of Age’.
We then sallied over to Leeds Headrow House which has a long previous history as a former textile mill and latterly an Inland Revenue site and is located in one of the oldest parts of the city. It now encompasses four floors housing an award winning restaurant called the Ox Club, a large beer hall, two roof terraces and a 150 capacity gig room.
Leeds Headrow House. Image Credit inyourpocket.com
There is also reputedly a large and probably spooky Civil Defence bunker located underneath the site. On stage that day was a rhythm and blues artist called Mysie from London who has had support slots with Corrine Bailey Rae.
Situated nearby on Cookridge Street is the Leeds Nation of Shopkeepers. Its current moniker provides a clear clue to its previous heritage as during the 1950’s it was known as Harris Grocers. It then morphed into the Corner Shop and the Courtyard Bar until rebadging under its current name in 2009. It has a locally renowned outdoor courtyard area known as ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ and the establishment went through a major refurbishment in 2017.
‘Garden of Earthly Delights’. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk
They have a regular pub quiz night every Monday and have an all-day ‘foodie’ reputation. They have DJ nights and also live music in the multi-functional 850 capacity arts space. In those early days the likes of Willy Mason, James Blake, Death Grips, Darker My Love (who I sadly never saw) and Two Door Cinema Club played there.
Upon entering I thought it was a tidy eclectic setting, but extremely busy. On stage I could just witness a portion of the set from a London emo band called Sad Boys Club, who last year released their debut album ‘Lullabies From The Lighting Tree’.