Chris Euesden, Eddie Affleck, Judith & Trish, Leather'O, Phil Cerny, and White Sail were among the performers in the venue's intimate upstairs room.

We’ve been covering the work of néomí for a few years now, and the Dutch-Surinamese artist even paid a visit to our fair city in 2025 in support of Seafret.

There’s something in the water up the coast in Hartlepool, as Shy Bairn Records unearth another northern gem, Crescent.

OGGY is an artist we’re discovering at the start of a new era, heralded by her single Help Me Find A Reason.

As the number of those seeking to divide feels ever more present in the world, it’s important to remember that there are those fighting in the opposite direction.

What’s better than one creative powerhouse? Three! Shehnai combines the talents of Rameez Khalid, Kainat Masood, and Amaizy (Aizad Hashmi).

Words and Photos - John Hayhurst The Brudenell is the kind of venue that thrives on nights like this: sticky floors, low ceilings, a crowd packed in so tight that the air itself seems to hum. On a wet Leeds winter night, it’s the perfect pressure cooker for a Manchester band whose reputation has been growing faster than their catalogue.

Words and Photos - John Hayhurst By the time the doors open at Crescent Community Venue, there’s a sense of something deliciously wrong. This is a room built for earnest locals and cult bands, not a group with a Mercury-nominated debut and two decades of bangers. That mismatch becomes the night’s secret weapon. Maxïmo Park arrive not to politely rehearse, but to stress-test their legacy against a ceiling you could headbutt and a stage barely wider than Paul Smith’s splits kick wingspan.

Review and Photos by John Hayhurst Saturday night in Holmfirth is cold, damp but quietly buzzing. Inside Holmfirth Picturedrome, though, it’s already crackling before a single note is played. Support comes from BEX, a key figure in the UK’s current nu-punk surge, and she wastes no time announcing herself. Her songs snap with sharp hooks and confrontational lyrics, delivered with a blunt-force confidence that refuses to ask permission.

Words: Kian Simon-Law Photos: John Hayhurst January sees my return to the world of live performance, this time for a wholly unique set of musicians. JINJER. Headlining this tour, the band returned to the road for the debut of their newest album Duél. Joined by Unprocessed and Textures, two bands with some amazing material that certainly deserve to be on the road for their own reasons, truly make for great supporting acts for JINJER.

Tamara S’s debut album Where Are The Butterflies?, a collaboration with Oliver Rees, is a diary sung. Sharing the fears, joys, and inner‑dialogues we experience moving through life. Using the rhythmic, soulful, move‑y power of R&B and hip‑hop, the music pushes more meaning than the lyrics already so beautifully do.

I can't think of the band Ash without remembering a story a school friend told me about their drummer.

Maxïmo Park are set to return to Leeds next month as part of their A Certain Trigger 20th anniversary celebrations, performing at O2 Academy Leeds on 20 February 2026.

There are many things out there purporting to be ‘old school’ or ‘retro’ nowadays, but few are the real deal. In the case of DownTown Mystic, aka Robert Allen, his authenticity speaks for itself.

Brock Davis certainly isn’t new to the music world, or to us, and now he’s about to return with a new album.

EchoBravo’s (Jack Booth) new collection Awakening Of Dreams are not just ambient soundscapes; they capture the essence of dreaming.

January: horrendous weather, short days, and the post-Christmas comedown. Well, it's nearly over, and WREX saw it off in style at The Fulford Arms.

Jeff Mettlewsky (Duolant) and Chris Rorrer’s new single Unwavering is a futuristic, cinematic piece of music capable of teasing out ideas from the complex, unexplored folds of the brain.

Toronto-born pop-rock firestarter LØLØ brings her fearless new era to Leeds this spring as part of her god forbid a girl goes on tour! headline run.

Arriving to us from the Seoul, Korea club scene, Concerta is a DJ and producer with the shrewdness needed to resurrect trance music.

New to our blog, Tom Woodward is a genre-blending folk artist that is worthy of attention.

Lucy Dreams are the pulsating successors to electronic pioneers like Pet Shop Boys and Empire of the Sun.

Somerset Maugham was a playwright in the mould of Noel Coward, a writer who concealed some bitter truths beneath sparkling dialogue.

Nashville-based band The Brook and The Bluff have been touring almost non-stop for the past decade or so, and yet this is the first time we've ever featured them in these pages! They've decided to put the touring on hold for a moment so as to focus on creating new music, with Can't Figure It Out being their latest single release.