Our initial destination en arrival at our first attendance at the Live at Leeds multi venue event in May 2014 was the huge Leeds Arena about 3pm to collect our all-important wristbands. As is my responsibility at these events I checked the timetable and map and swiftly morphed into my ‘sherpa’ role.
The first port of call was the Leeds Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen and what a great inaugural venue it turned out be. It is located in the Northern Quarter and as you know, any aspiring city needs to have a Northern Quarter! It first opened in 1934 as Leeds Children’s Palace, dually serving a function as a recreation hall and nursery school.
The three-storey building fell into repair until it was restored under its current guise in 2013. It is an Aladdin’s cave as it contains two kitchens, two bars and most importantly a 300-capacity multipurpose event space as it hosts comedy, art exhibitions, films alongside live bands. There is also a fine roof terrace which we visited briefly after purchasing a terrific local cask ale from one of the bars.
The venue itself had a good vibe and contained a decent vantage from all angles to the stage. It was about two thirds full even at this early point in the afternoon perhaps due in part to its proximity to the ticket outlet point but also due to the quality of the venue.
We saw half the set of Pet Moon from Oxford. The band is essentially Andrew Mears, a former member of the city bedfellows the Foals and of prog band Youthmovies Soundtrack Strategies. You could discern those clear influences in the math rock derived sounds emanating from the stage.
Prior to attending our next venue, a quick football score check was required as it was the last day of the football reason with my team Preston’s play-off opponents being confirmed as Rotherham United. As any regular subscribers would know by now you don’t need to ask who subsequently won the play-off match!
Still contained within the Quarry Hill district you would find the Leeds College of Music which moved to its current location in 1997.This establishment has had many different names since it was founded in 1965 and it is now listed as Leeds Conservatoire. In 2011, it was awarded All-Steinway School status, becoming uniquely the only conservatoire in England to have 90% of its pianos from the renowned Steinway family.
As with many institutions of this ilk, they have a list of previous alumni including many from the jazz domain but also Badly Drawn Boy and Ryan and Gary Jarman from local combo The Cribs. In a slightly more obscure vein, the members of We Are Domi, who represented the Czech Republic at the recent 2022 Eurovision Song Contest met and formed whilst in attendance at the College of Music.
The Conservatoire hosts an annual programme of concerts in its 350 seated auditorium which has the highly original title of ‘The Venue’. Three years after our attendance in 2017 the performance space was revamped with a rooftop extension.
The band on stage when we arrived were Arc Iris, an indie band from Rhode Island and contain Jocie Adams, a former member of the Low Anthem who was also briefly a NASA technician. To be fair, the music was too loungecore and wonky structure for my tastes, which then presented the conundrum of how to shuffle out politely as there weren’t many attendees and it was not one of those venues where you could watch from the back and head out accordingly.
In those circumstances I always adopt the approach of leaving mid-song whilst the band are in flow and distracted, which is exactly what we did, heading on to the next venue and continuing the gig journey!
