Live At Leeds, Review by Rob Johnson
Live at Leeds has gone from strength to strength since expanding from an inner city festival to an ‘In the Park’ edition at Temple Newsam, and 2025 represented their biggest line-up yet, with several big-name bands performing across two main stages and a couple of smaller stages.
Sports Team kick things off with a surprisingly low-key set that still features a couple of highlights in ‘Here’s the Thing’ and ‘Fishing’ particularly effective. The last time I saw the London band back in 2021, frontman Alex Rice was more energetic. Having said that, the band sounds tight and are well received. Then it’s off to the DIY Big Top tent for Fat Dog. The band’s live shows have had a lot of buzz in the last year or so, and it’s easy to see why. Frontman Joe Love leads the crowd like a demented ringmaster, and by the time the pulsating rhythm of ‘Running’ begins, everyone at the front is going apeshit (I choose to stand further back, offering support in the form of polite applause like the English gentleman that I am). It’s a barnstorming, captivating set that demonstrates that the band are surely on the path to bigger and better things.
We catch the last ten minutes of Natasha Bedingfield over on the Main Stage North, and while she isn’t really my thing, ‘These Words’ and ‘Unwritten’ sound pretty lovely in the Yorkshire sunshine. Pigeon Detectives are enjoying a bit of a resurgence recently with the release of their new album ‘TV Show’, but it is the classics that have everybody singing along here with ‘Falling to Pieces’ the sole representative from the new record. Songs like ‘I Found Out’, ‘Romantic Type’ and ‘Take Her Back’ are meant to be performed live, and the rowdy audience responds in kind. There is clearly still a lot of affection for these songs and for the band themselves, who have always carried themselves well in the face of unearned ridicule in some quarters.
Yard Act are a band who probably make more sense in a smaller venue, but they take to the Main Stage admirably here with ‘Fixer Upper’ and ‘We Make Hits’ suitably massive. New song ‘Gonna Need a Little Music’ illustrates that the Leeds band still have plenty up their sleeves going forward, and a sterling performance of ‘100% Endurance’ towards the end of the set proves to be one of the highlights of the festival.
Next up is second headliner, Manic Street Preachers, and while there is a strong argument they should be closing out the set, it’s also incredibly satisfying hearing some of these songs while the sun is still shining. New single ‘Decline & Fall’ open the set before the band run through some of the most seminal singles of the ‘90s one after another in the shape of ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘La Tristesse Durera’, ‘Australia’ and ‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’. It’s an incredible run that serves as a reminder of just how many great songs the Welsh band have in their arsenal. The fact that deep cuts like ‘Enola/Alone’ and ‘People Ruin Paintings’ can sound so vital is a testament to their prolific output, and by the time the band get around to monster hit ‘A Design for Life,’ the crowd is bewitched. Frontman James Dean Bradfield performs a sensational solo version of ‘The Everlasting’, a song with a pro-refugee message that has never been more prescient in these present times, before finishing out with ‘You Love Us’ and ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ – the latter’s swirling guitar and desperate vocals still able to inspire shivers.
Bloc Party are celebrating the 20 year anniversary of their iconic debut album ‘Silent Alarm’ in 2025, and so we are treated to all 12 tracks from that record here. The band take a while to get going with ‘So Here We Are’ and ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ sounding a little flat, but ‘Banquet’ gets the party started and the band find their rhythm by the time they get to ‘Like Eating Glass’. It is in the encore that things really come together; however, with the first performance of ‘Compliments’ since 2019, suitably joyful before ‘Two More Years’ provides the most euphoric moment of the evening. ‘This Modern Love’ has always been the band’s forgotten classic and sounds gorgeous here, but it is ‘Helicopter’ and ‘Flux’ that really steal the show. After such a strong run, ‘Ratchet’ perhaps feels like an anticlimactic set closer, but the Bloc Party can lay claim to justifying their headline slot overall.
Live at Leeds 2025 – another successful year for one of the UK’s best medium-sized festivals.
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