Photo Credit: Lene Ray
After a great start to our weekend in Leeds, we’d made it to Saturday to continue the packed music weekend.
Tooth get day three under way for us under The Canopy, the London band released a debut EP Restless In Bloom, their music can be described as alternative rock. We really enjoyed Wallflower and The Age Of Innocence. 7/10
The Ballroom is a brand new venue and is done up like you guessed it … a ballroom! Londoners Bleech 9:3 are a band we are seeing live today for the first time and they left a great impression on us, so much that we will be seeing them at the Edinburgh Psych Fest on 6th September. New song Figure 8 sounded great live while No Surprise, Underrated and Ceiling were the pick of the bunch, they head out in a UK tour in December. 8/10
Keo take to The Grid stage with an enormous crowd awaiting them, the big question is can they live up to the expectations? To be honest not too many of the crowd knew the songs but sticking to the performance from vocalist Finn Keogh, his brother Conor Keogh (bass), Jimmy Lanwern (guitar) and Oli Spackman (drums) they put one hell of a show, this was fifty-five minutes of alternative rock at its finest. There is a decent response to tracks such as That’s Me (far too short at two minutes!), Thorn and I Lied, Amber, the songs from upcoming debut album Put A Smile On For Me dominate the set with an impressive seven from that release, looking forward to 25th September. 9/10
The Guest List have just began their set back at The Canopy, they released debut album Something Real the day before this show so that adds to the excitement among the crowd in the packed Canopy. The twenty minutes we saw of the performance flew by with Weatherman, You Should Care and Something Real bringing the energy. 7/10
James Marriott has the task of entertaining the fans in the rain on The Grid stage and he does it in impeccable style as he runs through a plethora of hits including Grapes, Car Lights & I Don’t Want To Live Like This. His 2025 album Don’t Tell The Dog reached number one in the album chart and he is off touring in Australia soon proving how wide an appeal his music has. 7/10
Overpass have just announced their most ambitious tour to date for next April, the only way is up for this Birmingham band. Not long after the release of debut album Elsewhere, Always Overpass hit The Ballroom at the Leeds festival to showcase a few tracks from the album as well as a few of their well known songs such as 3AM and Take It Or Leave It. The Gallery might have been a better choice of venue though as there are quite a few watching from outside the tent. Is This Real? ends the thirty-five minute set that will have won them a lot of new fans, They are out on a UK tour soon and are well worth seeing live. 8/10
Gene Gallagher brings his Villanelle bands flavour of music to The Canopy for a very enjoyable half-hour, there has been some noise about the ‘nepo babies’ taking over The Canopy stage this weekend … what we would say to that is that Gene Gallagher has great musical talent and deserves to be here in his own right no matter who his dad is. Last one Placebo was worth hanging around for. 7/10
Irish quartet Florence Road have had quite the year so far in 2026 with a very busy UK tour, we were glad to see opening track 7563 being released a few weeks ago, The Ballroom is packed out for their set, the fact that they have toured with Olivia Rodrigo, The Last Dinner Party and Wolf Alice in recent times has put them on a pedestal, we are hoping to see an album announcement in the near future, Vocalist Lily Aron is on top form today as they work through an eight-track set with the standouts for us being Storm Warnings, Heavy and unreleased track Surprise Surprise where there is great crowd interaction. 8/10
Unpeople took to the Ballroom stage. Considering Charli XCX was playing on the main stage at the same time, they still managed to pull quite a few fans to their stage. They lit up the backdrop with animated, colourful visuals that set the scene for their kooky and witty vibe, along with some heavy grunge rock. Unpeople are a UK-based, fast-emerging alternative rock/grunge band known for their energy onstage and thunderous riffs. They instantly had the audience jumping to their feet to the heavy bass and drums. The fans sang along to their most popular songs, including The Garden, and a few tracks from their new album, Blueprints. Considering the Ballroom Tent wasn’t very full due to a clash with the main-stage headliners, we thought Unpeople didn’t let that affect their performance, as they gave us their all and delivered an explosive performance. (LR)
Charli XCX could have quite easily been a headliner at Reading & Leeds, there is certainly a big enough crowd in but to be honest this isn’t the type of music we would normally listen to, the crowd seemed to be enjoying it though. Recent album release Music, Fashion, Film is the main focus of the set with no less than ten from that release. All the big hits are in the set for those interested including party 4 u, 360 and Von dutch, the performance as a whole seemed very staged. 7/10
What can we day about tonight’s headliners Fontaines D.C? The best band in the world? Possibly. They announced a six-date UK arena tour for November … sold out already! As we write this we found out that a massive show at Glasgow Green is planned for 6th July next year too, now that’s one to look forward to. Getting back to the present though this was by far the most anticipated set of the Leeds weekend and they don’t let us down. The Dopamine Chamber album is due for release on 16th October and we are lucky enough to get the live debut of Happy For You as well as the recently released Marianne, both sounded great live with Happy For You starting off slowly and building up. Thousands of us are singing back the words to opener Boys In The Better Land, the crowd are right up for this one. Skinty Fia track Nabokov is added to the setlist and went down a treat as did Jackie Down The Line, It’s Amazing To Be Young and Death Kink. Grian Chatten is on top form tonight as he works through the nineteen-track set with ease, it fells like one big party down at The Grid stage tonight. As we move towards the end of the set personal favourite I Love You is delightful to hear live again while Starburster is the perfect song to end the set that was delayed slightly as the stage hands worked their arses off to quickly change the stage setup from Charli XCX to Fontaines. These guys do one hell of a job! 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown and Lene Ray (LR)
Photos by: Lene Ray (Featuring Beth McCarthy, Florence Road and Unpeople)
