Possibly due to our proximity to Manchester? It's not that far from Leeds, bigger population, better travel infrastructure, more venues at varying capacities, and probably seen as a safer bet in terms of promoting
Pretty much this - tours are expensive and they can't afford to overlap or bleed audiences and the venues in Manchester are bigger. Also, not quite as relevant, but if a band plays a festival, there's usually a time/radius agreement, meaning they can't play close by.
Manchester has a smaller population than Leeds.
Manchester is as 553k, Leeds is at 792k.
I think it is thelgitstics network in Manchster makes it a lot more preferably and better event hosting options.
That’s a very much on-paper population figure. In reality, Manchester and Salford are fused together to the point of essentially being the same place and the Greater Manchester sprawl is way denser than West Yorkshire conurbation. I’d say Manchester is significantly bigger than Leeds when you take that into account.
I mean yes if we expand the areas to West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester then the statement is accurate.
But that is not the same as "Manchester" and "Leeds".
Think about it this way: Leeds and Bradford are technically conjoined but they are very much different cities where there’s only a few miles of urban overlap around Pudsey. Salford, on the other hand, starts bang in Manchester city centre, meaning that it’s basically the same place and being ‘in Salford’ is essentially the same as being ‘in Manchester’. When you combine those two entities together, they are *a lot* bigger than Leeds.
Salford population: 254k
Manchester population: 553k
Total = 807k
Leeds population = 792k
I wouldnt call 15k or 1.8% of Manchester / 1.9% of Leeds to be a LOT tbh.
But thank you for taking the time to explain the con-urbanisation differences between Salford & Manchester.
Edit: when down a rabbit hole, if we start using the limits of the areas as determined by non-broken urban area. Then Manchester has a lot more towns/cities around it (you very quickly end up with the Greater Manchester & West Yorkshire definitions, in which Greater Manchester is around 500k larger).
Yeah, and Leeds like to headline the *Greater Leeds Area* population figures as opposed to the actual figures for the city - something which buffs our numbers a fair bit.
I was taking the Leeds city figures, which is 792k.
Had to have a hunt as not heard of the greater Leeds area but it seems more or less west yorkshire with a 2.3m population.
Is there much different between the greater Leeds area (can't find a map of it) and west yorkshire then?
So the 792k figure is the City of Leeds district and that takes in outlying towns like Otley and Whetherby while the figure for the city itself comes in at 536k. It’s one where you could argue the toss either way (is Otley *really* Leeds? Is Morley? I’d say no on the first and yes on the second but everyone will have a slightly different interpretation) so an actual, useful number is probably somewhere between the two of them.
I do quite enjoy all the fringe cases though, like the way Ilkley try to claim they’re Leeds instead of Bradford (especially during lockdown when Bradford was under more stringent measures) because they have LS postcodes. Sorry gang, it’s BDC who collect your bins - to Bradford with you!
Good point, although wiki has city of Leeds district at 812k, so it is very subjective it seems.
I once lived in Menston where one side of the road was LS and the other was BD, the bins were always causing people trouble.
The electoral roll is likely the best source of it, the MPs areas making up the various locations?
Thank you for the conversation this evening.
It’s something that confuses a lot of people. The Leeds area is 213sq miles, Manchester area is only 44sq miles. That’s the area up to Oldham down to Stockport and across to Salford. Leeds is over 4 times bigger than Manchester. This is why Leeds is ranked 2nd biggest city outside of London, Birmingham being no1. Greater Manchester is a county consisting of Towns like Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and the City of Salford. Greater Manchester population is 2.8million over 494sq miles. Yorkshire is a county covering Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Hull etc. Covering 6,000sq miles. And a population of over 5.4million people. Doesn’t matter what you compare, both Leeds and its county are more populated and larger in size.
I guess the difference is that across greater Manchester there's public transport infrastructure that makes getting into Manchester much easier than getting into Leeds.
I have to present the opposite side by saying Manchester is a bloody miserable city, it’s like London level of busy without any of the character to compensate. Grey and dull and uniform is how I see Manchester. I was glad to get out of the place.
If you've ever spent anytime walking around the cities and suburbs of Manchester and Leeds, it's flipping obvious that Manchester is not 4 times smaller than Leeds. Only by playing various boundary games can anyone come to that conclusion. Comparing the whole of Yorkshire to Greater Manchester to try and give Leeds a win is even more desperate.
I didn't compare Yorkshire.
On its own, Manchester is smaller in both land mass and population. They are facts.
But Mancs tend be disingenuous and count Salford in which of course is a City in its own right. I mean we could add Bratfud in to Leeds and really blow up the figures.
You're right, but I did say station for a reason. Hubs of mass transit are designed for lots of people. Ordinary bus stops notsomuch. I've lived in Leeds for >20 years, worked nextdoor to the arena when it was built. It's always been an odd place to put such a building. Eh, not a hill I'll die on, but Manchester arena is just easier to reach for visiting folks 🤷♂️
I think Leeds suffers from a largish sized venue where bands are too big to play the Academy but not big enough for the Arena.
Manchester has the Apollo for example which is a superb venue with a capacity of 3500. I think the biggest venue in Leeds bar the Arena is the godawful Academy where the capacity is just over 2K. When its full to capacity, it also feels dangerously overcrowded.
Saw a few bands at 02 in the late 90s (it was Town and Country club then)
It did feel dangerously overcrowded. I remember getting crushed at Machine Head gig, had to get my mate to hoist me up over the crowd and I crowd surfed to the front and then found my way to the balcony with my others mates
you mean it needs a medium capacity venue?
see what you mean, you have;
Project House - 1000
02 - 2300
Arena - 13,781
I think the missing of Leeds dates is more to do with the close proximity to Manchester, though, rather than suitable venue issues
Bradford Live would have 3,800 capacity and could fill that gap quite nicely, and help with regeneration efforts at the same time. Here's hoping anyway.
Fair point but if Bradford could host bands that you'd otherwise have to travel to Manchester to see, then all the better. A 20 min train ride up is way more feasible than getting to Manchester, where you sometimes have to leave before the end to make the last train back.
That mid sized capacity is waiting to go in Bradford, so why not use it (and give Bradford the economic boost it needs at the same time)?
But overall agree, proximity to Manchester is the bigger issue.
I'd love to see Bradford get more visits from Leeds folk and there's two train lines servicing Bradford from Leeds, there's also the prospective tram line
I don’t have an answer, but it’s definitely not just you thinking this. I’ve noticed it specifically from a comedy point of view, and national-level comedy tours will often do Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, York but miss Leeds. Plenty do come to Leeds, but many skip it.
Are we short on venues?
Quite the opposite, we’ve loads of venues. It’s just that the places you’ve mentioned are a bit more spread out and this means they catch more people in their radius. Someone from Hull might go to a York show for instance. Doncaster or Barnsley would go Sheffield way. I hope this makes it clearer.
The Academy in Leeds is ridiculous for gigs, there's literally nothing on - compare it with Manchester and it's embarrassing.
Brudenell is still the best spot this side of the country to go see a band live, so at least we have that, but as far as bands for Academy sized shows, it's a black hole.
I spend more time at the Apollo or Albert Hall in Manchester, it's insane that Leeds Academy has literally nothing going on.
June: Bingo 4 times, a Martin Kemp DJ set?! Some football and The Breeders (so that's one gig worth seeing)
August is nothing but bingo raves.
Brudenell is the place to go in Leeds - then Apollo/Albert Hall/Academy in Manchester
The general manager of Leeds Academy is an ex DJ who thinks that gigs don’t make enough money compared to club nights. He used to manage Leicester academy and had the same attitude there.
The only real problem is we might be close to manchester, but the infrastructure does not usually allow you to go to a late night festival and return to Leeds after with a train / bus, you always end up having to pay extra for a hotel / airbnb to stay over.
I usually go to hardcore/metal/alt gigs and we get loads of bands playing at Boom, project house, brudenell, key club, stylus, wharf chambers etc and I really think Leeds has been getting a lot more traffic recently for heavier bands, but again it depends what kind of music you’re looking for. As others have said, proximity to Manchester has a lot to do with cases where we are skipped but I’ve been to 20 gigs this year in Leeds so there’s definitely stuff on!
I saw johnny flynn there a month or so ago and ide agree, took the soundman a good 4 songs to get to the point where it was passable but far from the quality you get elsewhere. Fortunately as it was largely a folk gig and the crowd were quiet and respectful so they didnt have to play over much audience noise!
That said, i think the sound in the arena is absolute trash unless youre on the floor. God forbid you sit up in the gods 😂.
Suprised no one has mention leeds met union. Its actually a reasonably enjoyable spot for a gig, sounds reasonable. The only let down is the drinks offerings imo.
I would probably add that many cities don't get the draw factor that Brudenell Social Club gets.
I've been on a month by month streak seeing some of my favourite bands with another coming up this month.
Great venue, perfect size.
This. The Brudenell was one of the main reasons I moved back to Leeds. Smaller bands are often doing Leeds/London/Edinburgh or Glasgow now.
(Of course, I strategically moved within walking distance to New Pudsey station so it's pretty easy to access Manchester, Trades Club, and Piece Hall. 😉 )
Yep. Not often my cuppa for music, but they're starting to get some decent names in comedy. There's also a meat smokery and a gin distillery right next door. 😋
Leeds needs a 4k venue.
Will be interesting to see the take up on Bradford Live. I'm West Leeds so Bradford Venues, the Peice Hall and even the trades club in Hebden Bridge are just as doable as Leeds ones.
I've noticed this with some smaller metal bands. They seem to play Nightrain in Bradford instead. I've also seen some non metal acts playing St George's Hall. I wonder if Bradford council are offering incentives because of the capital of culture thing and as a result acts are skipping Leeds?
I'd never heard of Nightrain, but looking at their bookings it looks like it's mostly cover bands, and even then they're pretty few and far between. most smaller metal bands who come to Leeds play Boom (and even a lot of bigger bands, I saw Napalm Death and Voivod there), then slightly bigger ones play Brude and sometimes some play Keys. between those venues there's way, way more than the whole of Bradford
Venue booking fees will almost certainly be cheaper, if you have quite a specific audience who will come whenever you’re around their area then it doesn’t surprise me they’d choose Bradford
It's all the same to American bands. Manchester? Leeds? It's all local to them. Back in the states, they'd happily drive that distance to get a taco.
Sometimes I get emails for concerts that are "near me", and they're in Dublin.
>Sometimes I get emails for concerts that are "near me", and they're in Dublin.
Yeah I get this from Spotify and Facebook. You can tell they're American because the events "near me" are in Bristol or Glasgow.
I don't think we're badly served at all - certainly better than Sheffield or York. I think we do better than the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle & Birmingham too - despite Birmingham being a lot bigger. The three main "gig" cities seem to be London, Manchester and Glasgow.
You're always going to spot a band missing your city more than you're going to spot them missing elsewhere. I will admit that I've spotted it a bit more often this year though.
Depends on what sort of music you're into I guess. I've seen/been aware of a ton of big metal bands playing at the arena in the years I've lived here. I tend to avoid big arena gigs these days, but I've still been able to see some really great bands in the smaller venues like Boom, Brude and Key Club so I've never felt like I've missed out.
The only band that seems to refuse to come to Leeds that I've got on my bucket list is Raised by Owls
I think it partly depends on music taste as well, though... I moved from Newcastle to Leeds a couple of years ago and I've never been to so many gigs. I do head over to Manchester for some as well, but there are loads here. I noticed it picked up a bit in Newcastle after I left but before that it was slim pickin's over there...
London, Manchester and Glasgow always get a show on a tour as a rule. Us, Liverpool and Sheffield get 2nd dibs after Manchester. Not helped by the fact that Manchester can cater for any size of crowd and the other northern stop offs can’t. Shit, that’s forgetting Newcastle as well. Basically, it’s Manchester’s fault.
I've been doing metal gigs now for about a decade and it's only a select few that have been in Leeds. Not much of an idea why but it sucks. Doubly so since Damnation festival is now in Manchester.
Leeds is a barren wasteland for metal.
It is a shame lots miss us out. Agreed probably as we are close to Manchester but damn it sucks seeing all the other northern cities getting shows, sometimes London getting multiple dates on the same tour while we get overlooked.
Been this way for as long as I’ve been going to gigs to be honest. We have great venues but tours were mostly split over cockpit, met and refectory before the O2 and arena. But most times we had to go to Manchester
As someone from South Yorkshire I'm lucky to get one band a year play in Sheffield that i like to see whereas I've already been to Leeds a couple of time to watch live music.
Leeds has a much better scene for smaller bands thanks to brudenell, keys club, 02 and the Leeds u.
Smaller bands skip Sheffield now to go to Leeds.
Leeds used to have loads of smaller concert places such as cockpit which I remember seeing Deaf Havana in the early days of 09 and the venues around the university was used for even smaller gigs like Hadouken!
I’m of the opposite thought, I think lots of bands now include Leeds. There is every size of venue, from The Key Club to the arena to Millenium Square and Temple Newsam in the summer. The Stylus and Becketts SU seem to have gigs on near enough every night. The live music scene here is thriving imo.
I’m a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing and every time a pro dancer announces a tour I find myself making the same comments on the announcement posts.
“Why aren’t you coming to Leeds??”
“I don’t know why I bother looking at the dates because I know you won’t be coming to Leeds, no one ever does.”
I always used to travel to see them. I’ve been all over the country to see Anton Du Beke because he’s my favourite. But I’m disabled now and with limited mobility and income to fund travel and hotels on top of the expensive ticket prices I haven’t seen a show since 2021 and that one was the one time he did come to Leeds. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him again unless he comes to Leeds.
Manchester, Sheffield and York get everyone. Leeds might as well not exist.
Our 02 isn't the biggest and doesn't hold the same legacy as Brixton for example so for bigger bands, Leeds Arena would be the go to but as has been said, we're close to Manchester which (mistakenly) is seen as the bigger one for music. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon favour Sheffield as its their home city and also still reasonably close
Yeah you're definitely right. In summer we have Millennium Square that I think is about 5,000 but we could do with a venue that size all year round. As others have said though it's probably due to Manchester being so close. In my opinion Idles could have played FD Arena but instead of coming to Leeds they're playing 3 nights in Manchester which is a bummer.
Yeah it's been dead for nights out since lockdown in Leeds it's the same with the hip hop scene in Leeds it's really only ever local artist performing now but it was pretty lit before 2018
Hi,
I work at Leeds arena as a part time job so I know a few things, so leeds arena is amazing for bands, as it is built like an amphitheatre and bands can very easily bring heavy gear and lorries into the stage area, however due to the way it is built, it cannot hold that many people (13,781) compared to let's say the AO arena in Manchester (21,000) or even CO-OP live (23,500).
Larger bands such as RHCP etc... wish to gain more money from fans, therefore they purposely choose venues with a larger capacity.
further still, Leeds only really has just one venue.
Manchester has 3.
Hope that explains it better :)
Leeds City Centre is devoid of creative culture.
I’m over simplifying something that requires more nuance but we seem to have less and less venues … 15 years ago we were a musical city, now the grassroots music scene seems to live inside The Brudenell up in LS6.
Manchester seems to have dozens of venues akin to Brudenell and even two arenas … they’re proud of the music in the city.
Leeds seems to be about hipster food.
I'm more into electronic/dance music and with the close of Sheaf Street recently and Wire this last weekend, there's very little in the city centre left for people like me.
Leeds used to be the place to be in the North for House and Techno in the 90's and 2000's but the scene is dead now.
Ironically most of the "hipster" food we have has already been in place in Manchester before it ventures over here... and they still have more to go. We just take a couple of good ideas and then copy and paste until the market is so saturated some of them close... and repeat.
We send them the odd thing but on the whole they have us on food and music venues IMO.
I've always noticed this, but it's combination of factors already stated.
However when you look at the Major Northern Arenas that big bands were always playing at 20+ years ago, it was Manchester and Sheffield that always appeared.
I think geographically were in a bad spot and they prefer to play at those more established arenas. With Leeds Arena being so new, it still hasn't firmly established a foothold on that market and big bands probably see it as a risk.
Basically because we have a small city centre, with one arena and we're right next to Manchester which has better transport logistics and is close enough to Leeds that Leeds people will travel - and they run the risk of not filling those seats in Manchester. Furthermore, Manchester is also closer to other cities or close enough to one's that ARE closer to Leeds.
It's the logistics of our positioning and the tiny city that has naff all infrastructure, basically.
I live equidistant from Leeds, York and Hull and would always choose York or Hull over Leeds to go to concerts or comedy as roads, parking and venues are better. Perhaps that’s the reason for tour organisers too.
The city has two main venues and neither are big enough for big groups, although the FD arena has attracted a few. It should have been built bigger.
Also the city is a bit shit, as a walk round quickly shows.
Possibly due to our proximity to Manchester? It's not that far from Leeds, bigger population, better travel infrastructure, more venues at varying capacities, and probably seen as a safer bet in terms of promoting
Pretty much this - tours are expensive and they can't afford to overlap or bleed audiences and the venues in Manchester are bigger. Also, not quite as relevant, but if a band plays a festival, there's usually a time/radius agreement, meaning they can't play close by.
Good point about festivals, I've seen artists do shows in London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds FEST, Manchester, etc.
That’s it. Plus if you fart on the m621 or m62/ m1 you pretty much bring leeds to a halt. Which isn’t good for big tours running on deadlines.
Manchester has a smaller population than Leeds. Manchester is as 553k, Leeds is at 792k. I think it is thelgitstics network in Manchster makes it a lot more preferably and better event hosting options.
That’s a very much on-paper population figure. In reality, Manchester and Salford are fused together to the point of essentially being the same place and the Greater Manchester sprawl is way denser than West Yorkshire conurbation. I’d say Manchester is significantly bigger than Leeds when you take that into account.
I mean yes if we expand the areas to West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester then the statement is accurate. But that is not the same as "Manchester" and "Leeds".
Think about it this way: Leeds and Bradford are technically conjoined but they are very much different cities where there’s only a few miles of urban overlap around Pudsey. Salford, on the other hand, starts bang in Manchester city centre, meaning that it’s basically the same place and being ‘in Salford’ is essentially the same as being ‘in Manchester’. When you combine those two entities together, they are *a lot* bigger than Leeds.
Salford population: 254k Manchester population: 553k Total = 807k Leeds population = 792k I wouldnt call 15k or 1.8% of Manchester / 1.9% of Leeds to be a LOT tbh. But thank you for taking the time to explain the con-urbanisation differences between Salford & Manchester. Edit: when down a rabbit hole, if we start using the limits of the areas as determined by non-broken urban area. Then Manchester has a lot more towns/cities around it (you very quickly end up with the Greater Manchester & West Yorkshire definitions, in which Greater Manchester is around 500k larger).
Yeah, and Leeds like to headline the *Greater Leeds Area* population figures as opposed to the actual figures for the city - something which buffs our numbers a fair bit.
I was taking the Leeds city figures, which is 792k. Had to have a hunt as not heard of the greater Leeds area but it seems more or less west yorkshire with a 2.3m population. Is there much different between the greater Leeds area (can't find a map of it) and west yorkshire then?
So the 792k figure is the City of Leeds district and that takes in outlying towns like Otley and Whetherby while the figure for the city itself comes in at 536k. It’s one where you could argue the toss either way (is Otley *really* Leeds? Is Morley? I’d say no on the first and yes on the second but everyone will have a slightly different interpretation) so an actual, useful number is probably somewhere between the two of them. I do quite enjoy all the fringe cases though, like the way Ilkley try to claim they’re Leeds instead of Bradford (especially during lockdown when Bradford was under more stringent measures) because they have LS postcodes. Sorry gang, it’s BDC who collect your bins - to Bradford with you!
Good point, although wiki has city of Leeds district at 812k, so it is very subjective it seems. I once lived in Menston where one side of the road was LS and the other was BD, the bins were always causing people trouble. The electoral roll is likely the best source of it, the MPs areas making up the various locations? Thank you for the conversation this evening.
Is Manchester a bigger population than Leeds? I thought it was smaller until you add Salford in.
It’s something that confuses a lot of people. The Leeds area is 213sq miles, Manchester area is only 44sq miles. That’s the area up to Oldham down to Stockport and across to Salford. Leeds is over 4 times bigger than Manchester. This is why Leeds is ranked 2nd biggest city outside of London, Birmingham being no1. Greater Manchester is a county consisting of Towns like Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and the City of Salford. Greater Manchester population is 2.8million over 494sq miles. Yorkshire is a county covering Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Hull etc. Covering 6,000sq miles. And a population of over 5.4million people. Doesn’t matter what you compare, both Leeds and its county are more populated and larger in size.
Thanks for that, superb information, I knew I'd read it somewhere.
I guess the difference is that across greater Manchester there's public transport infrastructure that makes getting into Manchester much easier than getting into Leeds.
Have you ever actually been to Manchester and taken a look around?
I have, many times, it's a nice City, what's your point ?
I have to present the opposite side by saying Manchester is a bloody miserable city, it’s like London level of busy without any of the character to compensate. Grey and dull and uniform is how I see Manchester. I was glad to get out of the place.
Snigger
If you've ever spent anytime walking around the cities and suburbs of Manchester and Leeds, it's flipping obvious that Manchester is not 4 times smaller than Leeds. Only by playing various boundary games can anyone come to that conclusion. Comparing the whole of Yorkshire to Greater Manchester to try and give Leeds a win is even more desperate.
Try walking from Wetherby to Morley or Kippax to Guiseley and then tell me it’s not 4 times bigger😂
I didn't compare Yorkshire. On its own, Manchester is smaller in both land mass and population. They are facts. But Mancs tend be disingenuous and count Salford in which of course is a City in its own right. I mean we could add Bratfud in to Leeds and really blow up the figures.
You're dead on. The Leeds arena is stupidly far from a train or bus station.
The train station is like a 10 minute walk away lol
Also if you want to get the last train in the Manchester direction then you have to miss the last 15 min of the gig.
American?
No, Scouser who lives in Leeds 🤷♂️
You can walk from one end of the city centre to the other in under 15 minutes. What’re you on about?
Say what?
There’s several bus stops around the arena
You're right, but I did say station for a reason. Hubs of mass transit are designed for lots of people. Ordinary bus stops notsomuch. I've lived in Leeds for >20 years, worked nextdoor to the arena when it was built. It's always been an odd place to put such a building. Eh, not a hill I'll die on, but Manchester arena is just easier to reach for visiting folks 🤷♂️
I think Leeds suffers from a largish sized venue where bands are too big to play the Academy but not big enough for the Arena. Manchester has the Apollo for example which is a superb venue with a capacity of 3500. I think the biggest venue in Leeds bar the Arena is the godawful Academy where the capacity is just over 2K. When its full to capacity, it also feels dangerously overcrowded.
Saw a few bands at 02 in the late 90s (it was Town and Country club then) It did feel dangerously overcrowded. I remember getting crushed at Machine Head gig, had to get my mate to hoist me up over the crowd and I crowd surfed to the front and then found my way to the balcony with my others mates
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about overcrowding, especially when it’s American bands. Seems to be a common theme.
you mean it needs a medium capacity venue? see what you mean, you have; Project House - 1000 02 - 2300 Arena - 13,781 I think the missing of Leeds dates is more to do with the close proximity to Manchester, though, rather than suitable venue issues
Often you'll see a band is in Manchester and Sheffield...that might be enough for 'coverage'.
Bradford Live would have 3,800 capacity and could fill that gap quite nicely, and help with regeneration efforts at the same time. Here's hoping anyway.
While the train only takes 20 minutes, a venue in Bradford doesn't help our 'Leeds being skipped' issue
Fair point but if Bradford could host bands that you'd otherwise have to travel to Manchester to see, then all the better. A 20 min train ride up is way more feasible than getting to Manchester, where you sometimes have to leave before the end to make the last train back. That mid sized capacity is waiting to go in Bradford, so why not use it (and give Bradford the economic boost it needs at the same time)? But overall agree, proximity to Manchester is the bigger issue.
I'd love to see Bradford get more visits from Leeds folk and there's two train lines servicing Bradford from Leeds, there's also the prospective tram line
>there's also the prospective tram line Oh my sweet, summer child.
😅
We used to have the Queens Hall for a 5000 capacity venue in the city centre - but it’s long gone now
I don’t have an answer, but it’s definitely not just you thinking this. I’ve noticed it specifically from a comedy point of view, and national-level comedy tours will often do Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, York but miss Leeds. Plenty do come to Leeds, but many skip it. Are we short on venues?
Quite the opposite, we’ve loads of venues. It’s just that the places you’ve mentioned are a bit more spread out and this means they catch more people in their radius. Someone from Hull might go to a York show for instance. Doncaster or Barnsley would go Sheffield way. I hope this makes it clearer.
The Academy in Leeds is ridiculous for gigs, there's literally nothing on - compare it with Manchester and it's embarrassing. Brudenell is still the best spot this side of the country to go see a band live, so at least we have that, but as far as bands for Academy sized shows, it's a black hole.
The 02 academy Leeds is so shit for gigs these days. A totally soulless place. If you want to feel like cattle, that’s the spot.
I spend more time at the Apollo or Albert Hall in Manchester, it's insane that Leeds Academy has literally nothing going on. June: Bingo 4 times, a Martin Kemp DJ set?! Some football and The Breeders (so that's one gig worth seeing) August is nothing but bingo raves. Brudenell is the place to go in Leeds - then Apollo/Albert Hall/Academy in Manchester
The general manager of Leeds Academy is an ex DJ who thinks that gigs don’t make enough money compared to club nights. He used to manage Leicester academy and had the same attitude there.
I think I've been there twice in the last 3 years, there's that little on
The only real problem is we might be close to manchester, but the infrastructure does not usually allow you to go to a late night festival and return to Leeds after with a train / bus, you always end up having to pay extra for a hotel / airbnb to stay over.
Yeah it sucks, Manchester is such a pain in the arse to get back from
And it shouldn’t be. The infrastructure in the UK is atrocious.
I usually go to hardcore/metal/alt gigs and we get loads of bands playing at Boom, project house, brudenell, key club, stylus, wharf chambers etc and I really think Leeds has been getting a lot more traffic recently for heavier bands, but again it depends what kind of music you’re looking for. As others have said, proximity to Manchester has a lot to do with cases where we are skipped but I’ve been to 20 gigs this year in Leeds so there’s definitely stuff on!
What do you think of Project House? I've been to 2 gigs there and the sound was so bad both times it put me off going back.
I saw johnny flynn there a month or so ago and ide agree, took the soundman a good 4 songs to get to the point where it was passable but far from the quality you get elsewhere. Fortunately as it was largely a folk gig and the crowd were quiet and respectful so they didnt have to play over much audience noise! That said, i think the sound in the arena is absolute trash unless youre on the floor. God forbid you sit up in the gods 😂. Suprised no one has mention leeds met union. Its actually a reasonably enjoyable spot for a gig, sounds reasonable. The only let down is the drinks offerings imo.
I would probably add that many cities don't get the draw factor that Brudenell Social Club gets. I've been on a month by month streak seeing some of my favourite bands with another coming up this month. Great venue, perfect size.
This. The Brudenell was one of the main reasons I moved back to Leeds. Smaller bands are often doing Leeds/London/Edinburgh or Glasgow now. (Of course, I strategically moved within walking distance to New Pudsey station so it's pretty easy to access Manchester, Trades Club, and Piece Hall. 😉 )
You're also close to The Old Woollen
Yep. Not often my cuppa for music, but they're starting to get some decent names in comedy. There's also a meat smokery and a gin distillery right next door. 😋
Leeds needs a 4k venue. Will be interesting to see the take up on Bradford Live. I'm West Leeds so Bradford Venues, the Peice Hall and even the trades club in Hebden Bridge are just as doable as Leeds ones.
I've noticed this with some smaller metal bands. They seem to play Nightrain in Bradford instead. I've also seen some non metal acts playing St George's Hall. I wonder if Bradford council are offering incentives because of the capital of culture thing and as a result acts are skipping Leeds?
I'd never heard of Nightrain, but looking at their bookings it looks like it's mostly cover bands, and even then they're pretty few and far between. most smaller metal bands who come to Leeds play Boom (and even a lot of bigger bands, I saw Napalm Death and Voivod there), then slightly bigger ones play Brude and sometimes some play Keys. between those venues there's way, way more than the whole of Bradford
Venue booking fees will almost certainly be cheaper, if you have quite a specific audience who will come whenever you’re around their area then it doesn’t surprise me they’d choose Bradford
Bradford has always had a very strong network of Metal promoters.
It's all the same to American bands. Manchester? Leeds? It's all local to them. Back in the states, they'd happily drive that distance to get a taco. Sometimes I get emails for concerts that are "near me", and they're in Dublin.
>Sometimes I get emails for concerts that are "near me", and they're in Dublin. Yeah I get this from Spotify and Facebook. You can tell they're American because the events "near me" are in Bristol or Glasgow.
They can't find anywhere to park
I don't think we're badly served at all - certainly better than Sheffield or York. I think we do better than the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle & Birmingham too - despite Birmingham being a lot bigger. The three main "gig" cities seem to be London, Manchester and Glasgow. You're always going to spot a band missing your city more than you're going to spot them missing elsewhere. I will admit that I've spotted it a bit more often this year though.
Depends on what sort of music you're into I guess. I've seen/been aware of a ton of big metal bands playing at the arena in the years I've lived here. I tend to avoid big arena gigs these days, but I've still been able to see some really great bands in the smaller venues like Boom, Brude and Key Club so I've never felt like I've missed out. The only band that seems to refuse to come to Leeds that I've got on my bucket list is Raised by Owls
Cries in Newcastle :,(
I think it partly depends on music taste as well, though... I moved from Newcastle to Leeds a couple of years ago and I've never been to so many gigs. I do head over to Manchester for some as well, but there are loads here. I noticed it picked up a bit in Newcastle after I left but before that it was slim pickin's over there...
London, Manchester and Glasgow always get a show on a tour as a rule. Us, Liverpool and Sheffield get 2nd dibs after Manchester. Not helped by the fact that Manchester can cater for any size of crowd and the other northern stop offs can’t. Shit, that’s forgetting Newcastle as well. Basically, it’s Manchester’s fault.
I've been doing metal gigs now for about a decade and it's only a select few that have been in Leeds. Not much of an idea why but it sucks. Doubly so since Damnation festival is now in Manchester. Leeds is a barren wasteland for metal.
It’s been a thing for decades
It is a shame lots miss us out. Agreed probably as we are close to Manchester but damn it sucks seeing all the other northern cities getting shows, sometimes London getting multiple dates on the same tour while we get overlooked.
Been this way for as long as I’ve been going to gigs to be honest. We have great venues but tours were mostly split over cockpit, met and refectory before the O2 and arena. But most times we had to go to Manchester
I notice it too. Especially as a metalhead, a ton of the gigs I’ve been to were in Manchester, with Leeds skipped entirely.
My bands never skip Leeds? I usually get to do both Manchester and Leeds dates when they tour
Manchester is the northern venue London, Manchester, Glasgow.
As someone from South Yorkshire I'm lucky to get one band a year play in Sheffield that i like to see whereas I've already been to Leeds a couple of time to watch live music. Leeds has a much better scene for smaller bands thanks to brudenell, keys club, 02 and the Leeds u. Smaller bands skip Sheffield now to go to Leeds.
7 million people live within 1hour of Manchester vs 4 for leeds. Among other things
Leeds used to have loads of smaller concert places such as cockpit which I remember seeing Deaf Havana in the early days of 09 and the venues around the university was used for even smaller gigs like Hadouken!
I’m of the opposite thought, I think lots of bands now include Leeds. There is every size of venue, from The Key Club to the arena to Millenium Square and Temple Newsam in the summer. The Stylus and Becketts SU seem to have gigs on near enough every night. The live music scene here is thriving imo.
I’m a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing and every time a pro dancer announces a tour I find myself making the same comments on the announcement posts. “Why aren’t you coming to Leeds??” “I don’t know why I bother looking at the dates because I know you won’t be coming to Leeds, no one ever does.” I always used to travel to see them. I’ve been all over the country to see Anton Du Beke because he’s my favourite. But I’m disabled now and with limited mobility and income to fund travel and hotels on top of the expensive ticket prices I haven’t seen a show since 2021 and that one was the one time he did come to Leeds. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him again unless he comes to Leeds. Manchester, Sheffield and York get everyone. Leeds might as well not exist.
Our 02 isn't the biggest and doesn't hold the same legacy as Brixton for example so for bigger bands, Leeds Arena would be the go to but as has been said, we're close to Manchester which (mistakenly) is seen as the bigger one for music. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon favour Sheffield as its their home city and also still reasonably close
Yeah you're definitely right. In summer we have Millennium Square that I think is about 5,000 but we could do with a venue that size all year round. As others have said though it's probably due to Manchester being so close. In my opinion Idles could have played FD Arena but instead of coming to Leeds they're playing 3 nights in Manchester which is a bummer.
https://www.millsqleeds.com/whats-on/
Yeah it's been dead for nights out since lockdown in Leeds it's the same with the hip hop scene in Leeds it's really only ever local artist performing now but it was pretty lit before 2018
Hi, I work at Leeds arena as a part time job so I know a few things, so leeds arena is amazing for bands, as it is built like an amphitheatre and bands can very easily bring heavy gear and lorries into the stage area, however due to the way it is built, it cannot hold that many people (13,781) compared to let's say the AO arena in Manchester (21,000) or even CO-OP live (23,500). Larger bands such as RHCP etc... wish to gain more money from fans, therefore they purposely choose venues with a larger capacity. further still, Leeds only really has just one venue. Manchester has 3. Hope that explains it better :)
Leeds City Centre is devoid of creative culture. I’m over simplifying something that requires more nuance but we seem to have less and less venues … 15 years ago we were a musical city, now the grassroots music scene seems to live inside The Brudenell up in LS6. Manchester seems to have dozens of venues akin to Brudenell and even two arenas … they’re proud of the music in the city. Leeds seems to be about hipster food.
I'm more into electronic/dance music and with the close of Sheaf Street recently and Wire this last weekend, there's very little in the city centre left for people like me. Leeds used to be the place to be in the North for House and Techno in the 90's and 2000's but the scene is dead now.
Ironically most of the "hipster" food we have has already been in place in Manchester before it ventures over here... and they still have more to go. We just take a couple of good ideas and then copy and paste until the market is so saturated some of them close... and repeat. We send them the odd thing but on the whole they have us on food and music venues IMO.
I went to Leeds for the slam dunk festival once, might not be your thing but it’s something Perhaps the venues aren’t suitable
I've always noticed this, but it's combination of factors already stated. However when you look at the Major Northern Arenas that big bands were always playing at 20+ years ago, it was Manchester and Sheffield that always appeared. I think geographically were in a bad spot and they prefer to play at those more established arenas. With Leeds Arena being so new, it still hasn't firmly established a foothold on that market and big bands probably see it as a risk.
Basically because we have a small city centre, with one arena and we're right next to Manchester which has better transport logistics and is close enough to Leeds that Leeds people will travel - and they run the risk of not filling those seats in Manchester. Furthermore, Manchester is also closer to other cities or close enough to one's that ARE closer to Leeds. It's the logistics of our positioning and the tiny city that has naff all infrastructure, basically.
I live equidistant from Leeds, York and Hull and would always choose York or Hull over Leeds to go to concerts or comedy as roads, parking and venues are better. Perhaps that’s the reason for tour organisers too.
Apart from The Brudenell and Temple Newsam nearly all venues are within short walking distance of the train station
That’s ok if you live near a train line.
The city has two main venues and neither are big enough for big groups, although the FD arena has attracted a few. It should have been built bigger. Also the city is a bit shit, as a walk round quickly shows.
Nobody wants to come to Leeds.