Leeds is the largest city in the county of West Yorkshire with a population of just shy of 1 million. It is an educational hub containing five different universities.
Leeds has endeavoured to retain the original available architecture and even the shopping areas have a pleasing aesthetic to them, they have thus far avoided adopting the Manchester vision of building skyscrapers in the city centre. They have also utilised the existing wharf areas by placing hotels and bars in those districts.
On a good day, you could drive there in an hour from Preston as it is well served by motorways, but because of their reliance on car culture the city council are wrestling with how best to implement greener initiatives going forward. I have traversed through their large extremely busy train station many times, quite often commuting through to Shipley for work purposes.
One of Gill and I first visits there involved a visit to a terrific Indian restaurant called the Darbar, though it is unclear whether the restaurant is still operational.
My old schoolmate and friend Rick Clegg has been one of the key supporters of this blog and he has imbued his commendable musical ethos into his young daughter Charlotte who now resides in Leeds. Charl herself has already built up an impressive catalogue of gigs and venues, her father should be proud!
I have attended two separate Live in Leeds wristband events, which serves to showcase the numerous interesting venues across the city including gigs in churches and cafes. The most recent being in October 21 where we hit the outermost venues and traversed 11 miles that day, is there anything better than a long walk, new venues, good music and a couple of cheeky beers to boot!
My first musical visit was a day trip on the final day of the Leeds Festival in 2001 primarily because it had such a stellar bill.
The festival was held in Temple Newsham Park and was the third year of hosting after the organisers of Reading Festival decided to set up a twin event in the North.
On the main stage, we just missed, And You Will Know Us the Trail of Dead but caught a strong set from Frank Black and the Catholics.
They were followed by Rancid and an enjoyable performance from Feeder and ‘Buck Rogers’ went down a storm. The other main stage band we witnessed were Supergrass and one track from the headliners Manic Street Preachers, the reason for the short span was that we had other preferred headliners to witness.
Lower down the bill on the Evening Session stage we saw Elbow and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci and on the Concrete Jungle Stage I enjoyed a high-octane performance from Dropkick Murphy’s.
That brought us to the three acts that had inspired our attendance, first up were the perennial punks Snuff who as ever inspired moshpit mayhem due to the fine original material and their clever choice of frenetic cover versions.
The penultimate act on the Evening Session Stage were Teenage Fanclub who were in crackling form. The headline act I am sure you won’t be surprised to learn was Mogwai, resulting in the wrench of missing Rocket from the Crypt who I am also a huge fan of, but life is full of these difficult decisions!
They proceeded to play a greatest hits set including ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’, ‘Ithica 27o9’, ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’, ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’ and as they were wont to do at that point in their trajectory ending the set with their 20-minute hymn ‘My Father My King’.
