Live at Leeds 2025: A Retrospective

Following Stub’s top-notch interviews at Live at Leeds in the Park (see issue three) we managed to convince the good people of Futuresound that we could be trusted to document what was another mammoth day of music  at Live at Leeds in the City. Natasha Dobson, William Hatfield, and Henry Swales therefore donned their press passes and dived into the music. Henry spent the day in the throngs of the crowd, soaking up the atmosphere while Natasha and William, as you will have seen from our Instagram, managed an astounding 10 interviews with artists performing at the festival. Read more from them below.

Henry Swales 

Honeyglaze began their set with ‘Don’t’, a song that, as the lead single for their new album back in 2024, marked a shift in tone for the band from the beautiful vignettes of their self-titled debut. It has an unapologetic and forthright tone, menacing and lurking bassline, followed by a slightly heavy (for Honeyglaze, at least) breakdown made for an encapsulating start to the set. There were moments of humour as well as bassist Tim Curtis only just managed to unbox a cello string moments before playing in - jesting to the crowd that “we didn’t see anything and the string was ready the whole time”. Their fantastic set was brought to a close by fan favourite ‘Childish Things’, a lyrical masterclass about over-reflection and self-criticism by frontwoman Anouska Sokolow, which was brought to a close with the song's final instrumental featuring an incredible drumming performance by Yuri Shibuichi.

At Stylus, an iconic venue right in the middle of The Student Union of The University of Leeds, was Fat Dog. A band whose sound is as difficult to define as anyone might find around the various stages at Live at Leeds. They combine elements of techno, alternative rock and rave euphoria to form a sound once described by frontman Joe Love as “Screaming into a pillow music”. However, as eclectic as their sound is, it is strangely transcendent, connecting with every soul in the audience-leading to the first occurrence of a liquid crowd in the front centre section of the venue. The crowd flowed amongst each other, moving side to side and in between rows, almost as if they were a pool of water being shaken by the bass reverberating around the room. Not one person in the gig was stationary, and almost everybody could be seen jumping around, transfixed by the band's unbelievably exciting live sound and stage presence.

At The Wardrobe, a venue perfectly sized to capture artists on national tours as they make their breakthrough onto the mainstream, was Adult DVD. Mirroring what had just unfolded at Stylus, a similarly liquid crowd swelled around in the pit in the centre of the venue as the band looked out over the audience with seemingly no regard for what was unfolding beneath them. It was everything you might have come to expect from an Adult DVD set. No filler, all killer, and no messing about - just hit after hit with anyone in the audience barely able to catch their breath between mosh pits. Their closing two tracks, ‘Do Something’ and ‘Bill Murray’ ended the set in an even more explosive fashion than it had begun with the band proving again why they are one of the most revered artists in the Leeds music scene.

The Orchestra (For Now) played in the early evening at an incredibly busy Oporto, where the atmosphere had been building with the expectant crowd. The band have been one of the quickest up-and-coming bands in the post-rock scene. It is easy to see why. The band are unbelievably tight and seem to be on a wavelength with one another. Frontman Joe Scarisbrick’s cathartic screams highlighted a surreal and at times haunting vocal performance. The group appear to be a sure thing to become one of the biggest in the U.K., especially given connections and stylistic similarities to fellow Brixton windmill scene graduates Black Country, New Road, who achieved critical acclaim with their first two studio albums.                         

William Hatfield              

"How many venues would you like?"    

"Yes."    

May very well have been the conversation that took place in the planning meeting for this year's Live at Leeds In The City. Perhaps what's more baffling is that there were still more that went unused. Leeds' music scene is now what Manchester's wishes it could be. It is thriving, it is full to bursting, and it has something truly for everyone.

This year's LALITC (as it shall henceforth be referred to) for me was spent running, often literally, between venues to interview those kind enough to agree to be interviewed for Sixty Seconds With Stub. I only got to see four bands, and of those, only one was a full set. While I don't regret that, what it does mean is my coverage of LALITC is 'vibes' above all.

But my god, what an atmosphere the day held. As we venue-hopped, one thing that remained consistent was the sheer reverence for music that this city holds. Every band we spoke to was ecstatic to be playing. Every fellow press member talked about how much they loved doing LALITC. Every crowd was electric and often packed to the doors. Even Leeds music royalty wasn’t immune to the festivities as Yard Act's James and Ryan slinked into crowds to soak up the day.

Whilst Yard Act are probably top of the list of dream SSWS guests, I would be remiss not to thank those who got involved on the day. DuBlonde, Adult DVD, The Rooks, The Corvids, Fuzz Lightyear, ClitSpit, Glass Frogs, Zoe Cure, No Cameo, and Gravy all gave their time and were incredibly receptive and friendly,  so a huge thank you to them for their time. An extra thank you to DuBlonde who managed to squeeze us in very last minute and to Zoe Cure who had to be interviewed outside Sela Bar's toilet as it was the only quiet space and was under time pressure yet still put in a great performance. And of course, a huge thank you to the Stub team for the questions and video editing. We had several bands say how these interviews were their favourite of the day and all credit for that goes to the Stub team.

The only negative to come out of LALITC is that the event is taking a hiatus in 2026, presumably to allow us to recover. When it returns in 2027, we can only hope that it matches this year's event, but even more so than that, we can look forward to a new crop of artists from Leeds and beyond that will make sure it will.

A big Stub thanks to Natasha, William and Henry.

Second picture: The corvids by Natasha Dobson (@n_j_photography).