There is a certain weariness to the final day of festivals generally – and as we approach lunchtime on the Sunday, it’s good to see lots of fresh day ticket holders arriving to help bring the energy to the day.
It also helps that on the smallest stage, The Canopy, there is a good run of artists I wasn’t particularly aware of pre-Festival, but fancy checking out. They are more hip hop based than most of the artists who have been on that stage over the weekend and it’s good to catch some beats and bars early on in the sunshine.
Opening the stage is Sade Olutola, the self-styled pop princess from South London, bringing smiles to the area as people start to slowly trickle in to see her.
Her pop is a soulful RnB style, mixed with elements of rap. ‘Grey Matter‘ is perfectly on vibe for the time of day and ‘Game For Two’ is a real smoothie that hits the spot. She looks like she is enjoying herself and that’s infectious, laughing as she explains to us that she’s about to play ‘Ready 4 It’ as “someone sent me a DM after my set at Reading yesterday asking me why I didn’t play their song, so just in case you want to
hear it, here it is”. We do. We also want to hear ‘2099’ another track from her ‘Arrow Heart EP’ and she
duly plays that to finish a joyful first set of the day.
Following her on the same stage after a small gap is ‘Pozzy’. Bury St Edmunds might not strike you as a breeding ground for grime inflected hip hop, but here we are. As the saying goes, it doesn’t matter where you start out; it’s where you end up and that’s certainly the case as he also delivers a lively twenty minute set.
He’s joined in the background onstage by his producer and DJ JT and that’s who we have to thank for the deep beat on ‘P O Double‘ that sees Pozzy accompany it spitting bars like an Uzi!
‘Levels‘ is the track I’d listened to and liked online and it transfers really well to the live arena, plenty of crowd interaction and while he may look like he works in IT, he has the skills to deliver. Big up the B St Ed massive, as nobody has probably ever said before and I shouldn’t ever type again!
Slayyyter has been mentioned in potential albums of the year by lots of press and music fans and maybe it will take more than the one listen I had to convince me she should be in that conversation. Seeing a good chunk of her set today, though, is a solid start towards understanding the support she gets online.
Think of a slightly scarier, grungier sounding Charli XCX, never more so than between songs when she says, “Are you ready for the next one? Don’t let me down, Leeds.” and fixes a stare on the crowd. We’re frightened into submission. Definitely someone I need to give more time to and will.
I miss the back end of the previous set to get back up to The Canopy, which is quickly becoming my favourite tent of the weekend. It’s never too crowded, you get a good view and more importantly I’ve seen some unexpectedly impressive gigs.
Ruby Roberts is up next and she can definitely sing – easy on the ears with an ever so light country touch to the overall sound and model-esque in stature, she seems right on trend and dedicates ‘Away With the Fairies‘ to “all her type B girls in the crowd”, I’m too old, not a girl and clearly not the target market to understand the reference*, but it’s a nice set. Time will tell if ‘nice’ is enough for Ruby.
Having seen Bar Italia a few years ago in Manchester at YES – a pretty small venue – and leaving feeling disappointed, I’m back under the chandeliers in The Ballroom to give them a second chance live (I still buy the records).
While we wait for them to appear, local legends The Cribs start blaring out of the PA system for them to come on to. I’m taking that as a good sign!
It turns out it was a good sign. They deliver one of the stand out performances of the whole weekend for me: classy and controlled throughout. My gripe with them live previously was the vocals, but that and everything else about them live has been transformed in the intervening few years since I saw them.
There is a confidence that glows from them, they’re polished when they need to be, angular and awkward in a good way in other moments.
While Sam Fenton and Jezmi Tariq deliver their own impeccable vocals, it’s the slinky, spinning top form of Nina Cristante in the centre of the stage that glues the whole performance together. They are on scorching form. Tracks like ‘My Little Tony’, ‘Fundraiser‘ and ‘I Make My Own Dust‘ are exceptional and old favourite ‘Nurse‘, that I expected them to keep until last, is played a few tracks earlier.
My highlight from them is probably ‘Changer’. It has some lovely harmonies amongst them and the guitars absolutely shimmer. Lovely stuff all round. They’ll be delighted to know they are very much back in my good books.
A welcome gap between bands I want to see and these tired legs sensibly stand at the back of The Canopy for Gurriers.
I’ve seen them before, supporting Adult DVD and I’m years past mosh pit action now, which with the frenetic intense nature of their tracks I foresee happening here. The pits start straight away. It’s a great little atmosphere in the tent for them and they feed off the energy.
After walk on music which sounds like (Shazam lets me down sorry) something from an Ennio Morricone western, they blast straight in to ferocious opener ‘Nobody’s Coming To Save You’ and the pace barely drops from there, the order of the day for them is sizeable mosh pits and even one song where the guitarist/bassist (it’s hard to tell with him laid down and arms and heads everywhere from the crowd) end up on top of the moving mass, still playing while orchestrating a circle pit around him. He’s eventually passed over everyone’s head back to the stage.
New track ‘Pins’ from their forthcoming album does eventually bring the pace down a little and gives the crowd a breather. It’s a more reflective track but still excellent. They are back on the faster stuff to finish off the set, but not before lead-singer Dan Hoff delivers a barbed dig at Cruz Beckham when he says “Thank you, it’s been a real pleasure to play what used to be the BBC Introducing stage and for context, my
parents were a postie and worked at Tesco. I’m not the son of famous footballer”. It’s a fair comment, as more and more working class bands struggle to get a foot in the door and it shows the Irish post-punkers aren’t looking to forget their roots anytime soon.
As with last night it’s a pretty appealing top two acts headlining The Grid to close off a magnificent weekend of music.
Raye is someone I wouldn’t class as my sort of thing and a bit like a few people I have seen and enjoyed over the weekend, I doubt her songs are aimed at the fifty year old balding bloke demographic, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find some common ground, so I’m keen to see her.
For a ten to fifteen minute period it seems that might not happen. For the first time this weekend, not only have the heavens opened dramatically and puddled the arena, but also thunder and lightning are threatening Raye’s set as they crash around in the sky loser than we’d like.
For all she’s now very much a part of the mainstream and the six (yes six) Brit Awards at the 2024 ceremony attest to that, she has a heavenly voice and I’m going to give her credit, not just for a great set that follows but for stopping the storm as well.
You see she’s a lady of many talents. Backed by a big band, strings and backing singers she breezes through her back catalogue as if the inclement weather has not even happened and she has much more diversity in her tracks than I would have previously acknowledged her for.
‘Skin and Bones’ is a funky groover, ‘Worth It’ is a slick classic, ‘Winter Woman‘ is nearer to a ballad with those beautiful strings at the start, while ‘Life Boat’ ends as a bouncing club banger and penultimate track, with her sister Amma joining her as a guest vocalist, is exactly as it’s titled – uplifting pure ‘Joy‘.
She has all the hallmarks of becoming one of the greats if she can keep this level up and I leave impressed.
Final act of the weekend for me is Dave, a super talented UK hip-hop star who has delivered a trio of brilliant albums over the last 7 years, from his debut ‘Pyschodrama’, sophomore album ‘All Alone in This Together’ and more recent release ‘The Boy Who Played The Harp’, he’s consistently delivered on record, but how will that transfer to the live arena and a big Leeds Festival headline crowd?
Fireworks on and off the stage before, throughout and at the end of his set as no penny is spared on putting on a show, it’s a good stage set up and the pyrotechnics add to the spectacle.
His flow is of course incredibly smooth and at a time when the world is as divisive as it’s ever been, his lyrics are socially aware and positive, calling out misogyny and other social ills throughout. One other thing that is clear is if you listen to his tracks tonight, he’s a storyteller, he fits a lot into them in terms of the picture he paints and it never ceases to amaze me the ability to remember and perform so many lyrics as a rapper like Dave (and many others) does live, but he makes it look effortless.
He’s an incredibly likeable ‘star’, someone that you feel isn’t going to let you down in life. Even during a big headline set there seems to be a boyish, wide-eyed disbelief that this is actually happening, and he’s headlined Reading and Leeds. That likeability and talent is probably why he’s able to call on some of his previous collaborators to join him tonight, highlights being Central Cee for ‘Sprinter’, Tems joining him for a brilliant ‘Raindance’ (you could argue after this evening we don’t need one of those) and the magical pairing of him and Kano on ‘Chapter 16’.
Yes, the crowd has definitely got a bit sparser than it was for Raye, but a late set on a Sunday after a long weekend, weather turning for the worse and families needing to leave with young children, it’s not something he can do anything about other than deliver as he does.
It’s questionable if he is the right act for a Sunday night closing slot, in terms of the style of music and how widely known he is, but you definitely can’t begrudge him his moment in the rain and mud and he grabs it with both hands, I can’t wait to see him again, hopefully minus the imminent trench foot next time!
*A Type B girl is typically easygoing, relaxed, flexible and takes a calm, carefree approach to life and relationships.
