Far Caspian 'In the Round'

Thursday 6th November 2025

Leeds City Museum

I love listening to live music in unconventional venues. The Wakefield music scene is notoriously fruitful for this. Whether it’s Mush playing in a 15th century medieval chapel or The Fall playing Balne Lane WMC. Improvising for space is more of a necessity than a choice in Wakefield, mainly owing to its lack of dedicated music venues. Whilst Leeds has lost some cherished institutions in recent years, plenty of independent, creative spaces remain. Far Caspian choosing to play Leeds City Museum for their homecoming show was therefore a unique outing. 

I initially thought the gig may have been in collaboration with Leeds Conservatoire. The museum is currently home to an exhibition celebrating their 60th anniversary and the college is central to Far Caspian’s origin story. Alas, the connection between the band and exhibition was a sheer coincidence. The venue was chosen simply for its grandeur. Specifically, the Broderick Hall – the central room with the large map of Leeds on the floor. Choosing where to stand, as with any gig, was an important decision. I settled for somewhere around Shadwell. If it was good enough for MF Doom, it’s more than good enough for me. The downside to Shadwell was that, when the band took to the stage, I had inadvertently positioned myself directly behind frontman Joel Johnston. For the gig’s duration I therefore had to stare at his back and pucker up to the livestream cameras.

The band were set-up in a circle for a unique ‘in the round’ experience. The last time I attended a similar show was for Thank and Fuzz Lightyear at Belgrave in July 2024. Both bands played down on the floor, worshipping a towering obelisk of strobe lighting. The audience were gifted plastic spectacles and I’m still uncertain whether these were for eye protection or psychedelic effect. The whole experience was an annihilation of the senses and pushed the volume of the two greatest noise-rock bands in Leeds to their limits.

Far Caspian was, needless to say, in complete contrast. Rave lighting had been substituted for cosy lounge lamps, the spectacles were swapped for silent disco headphones and there was a formally announced ban on mosh pits. It was gentle, intimate and warm. The show lasted just 45 minutes with the band playing their most recent album ‘Autofiction’ (2025, Tiny Library Records) in full. There was no encore, no old fan favourites, and no celebrity cameo. 

Without the headphones, the audience could hear only drums and a singular faint guitar amp. Being able to use the headset’s volume wheel as an experimental fader was a fantastic trick for anyone wanting to have the ‘bathroom at a house party’ experience. Gimmicks aside, having the audience plugged directly into the sound desk allowed for a totally immersive experience. The breaks between songs were brief and the only time the spell was briefly broken was for Jacob Andrews (guitar) to ask the room, “Is anyone else fucking wet through? I’m well hot”.

Far Caspian have previously self-described their music as “melanjolly”, in the same sense that The Smiths would sing about children buried on the moors alongside a sparkly guitar riff. Nowadays, Far Caspian have emboldened the jolly. The audience left feeling lighter and happier than then were an hour earlier, which should always be the core purpose of live music.

Words and picture by Magnus Pike (Lucas Blackwell).