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Live at Leeds, 30 April 2011

After the likes of Wild Beasts, Hadouken! and Hurts had played last year's Live at Leeds we could only expect big things of this years event and that's exactly what we got.

The festival plays host to a number of bands, big and small, across a range of the most well-known intimate venues across the city.

After a lengthy (and very confusing) hunt for the wristband collection point for competition winners, we received our rather flimsy looking electric blue wristbands courtesy of The Fly that would allow us access to any venue for the remainder of the day. One little note for improvement: better wristbands next year please guys!

Anyway, moving on. We found our way to The Cockpit where we happened to stay for pretty much the remainder of the night and saw our first band of the night who were the Irish indie rockers, Mojo Fury.

The lads seemed to make a hell of a lot of noise. So much in fact that my metalhead of a boyfriend admitted to enjoying the set. That's an achievement for one thing! Wouldn't have said it was the best crowd ever but then again you can't go to a festival and expect every single person to know every word to every song played.

It's all about discovering new music and Live at Leeds is the perfect opportunity for that with so many talented acts having the chance to show off their skills.

The sheer amount of people squeezed into Cockpit 3 was unbelievable and Mojo Fury certainly put on an outstanding show. As the crowd left there seemed to be a lot of interest in the flyer being handed out announcing Mojo Fury's latest tour and debut album. This will be one to look out for.

Throughout the day, the festival-goers (including us) got to discover less well-known bands such as Dutch Uncles, Kassidy and Starlings playing on the same stages as Leeds natives, Dinosaur Pile Up, Young Knives at the Brudenell and headliners The Futureheads at Leeds Uni Stylus.

But here comes the big shock. Walking out of the venue after Mojo Fury I noticed a small piece of A4 tacked to the door and the first thing that came to my attention was 'The Pigeon Detectives'.

It took me a couple of blinks and a series of looking away then looking back again but eventually the message finally sunk in and I ended up jumping around like an excited three year old again.

OK, so a sacrifice had to be made. Essex five-piece, Morning Parade happened to be playing at the same time and believe me, they are brilliant live. After seeing them twice I wouldn't have minded a third but there's nothing like seeing a band you haven't seen before. But the point is, check out Morning Parade, I heard good things about their set that night.

6pm came around fairly quickly and we were soon in a rather large queue at The Cockpit to see the mighty Pigeon Detectives. Mainly promoting their new album, Up Guards And At 'Em, yet still throwing in a couple of the classics, The Pigeon Detectives made it a pretty successful gig.

Obviously there was the odd bit of crowd surfing, a few bottles of water flying around here and there, a number of enthusiastic fans and the general atmosphere which significantly added to the whole effect. Not bad really...turning up after paying a mere £17.50 (nothing in my case thanks again to The Fly) and receiving a damn spectacular performance from The Pigeon Detectives as well as numerous other bands that also proved themselves very well.

Overall, it was an outstanding event and my only complaints would have to be the lack of some sort of transport service (a shuttle bus would be great!) for those who don't have a clue where they are when it comes to Leeds and also a better quality wristband.

You can't beat the novelty of a festival wristband that lasts you years no matter how frayed and grimy it gets but those tacky paper things were no match! Will definitely be considering this again next year!
 

Review by Abigail Suter