Monday, 22 June 2026

Jun 22: Cities and Music #5: Leeds

OK, so we are heading to West Yorkshire next to the city of Leeds: home to the football team I have supported for over 50 years - which has not always been easy... 


Image: My Leeds Subbuteo team from back in the day - Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license.

Leeds has given rise to some popular bands and musicians.

They include: 

Kaiser Chiefs 

Soft Cell

Alt-J (who feature an Old Elean - a former pupil of the school where I teach - in their line-up).

The Wedding Present - who had a moment

This Leeds music website has a great list. The Visit Leeds site also makes much of the current music scene in the city.

Leeds had some well-known venues, including the Brudenell Social Club (follow them on Spotify), and the old Duchess of York pub. It still attracts a good cohort of musicians to play there. Bob Mould stopped by the Leeds Irish Centre on the recent Sugar tour that I blogged about a few weeks ago.

There is a short history of music in Leeds here.

One venue I've been to for larger events is Roundhay Park, which has a good sloped amphitheatre like area.

I saw Genesis there in 1987 on a wet day on the Invisible Touch tour - the year later Michael Jackson played there on the 'Bad' tour. Both of those were to over 80 000 people. In 1992, they both came back: Genesis on the 'I can't dance' tour, and Michael Jackson doing the 'Dangerous' tour. Madonna also played there around that time.

A VHS transfer here to YouTube... can't find much better video...

Looking back at the news media around the Genesis concert, it mentioned that Runrig were the support band. I don't remember that at all.

Leeds and Reading festivals still attract very large audiences.

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