Photo Credit: Lene Ray
It’s day four of Leeds Festival already and we wonder what the weather Gods will bring to us today? A forty-five minute delay in gaining entry to the arena was a little frustrating as the festival organisers had some problems around overcrowding on Saturday with The Warehouse venue, there seems to be a massive change this year from the usual rock-inspired Leeds festival of previous years to a somewhat dance-inspired one, Silva Bumpa was due to be playing at The Warehouse on Sunday afternoon and a lot of fans were disappointed that the performance had to be cancelled due to overcrowding issues.
For us though it was M60 trat opened the final day in The Gallery where a decent sized crowd have congregated, vocalist Matthew Morton leads the band through a half-hour set of indie rock with their own particular flavour, we were lucky enough to catch them at Sound City & Y Not Festival this year so we already knew how good they were. All the bands biggest songs are in the set including Honey, Darling and Fade Away, we are expecting to see the Manchester band progress over the next year and if they can get a lift up from a bigger band that would stand them in good stead. 8/10
We are seeing the north for the first time today in The Ballroom, the local Leeds band have an army of followers in the tent for a guitar infused set that leaves a good impression on us. Billy Memphis has his own brand of vocalism that is pleasing on the ears. Last song Soundtrack Your Soul was delightful to hear live, we will definitely be catching the north on their next UK tour. 8/10
We headed over to The Canopy to watch the last ten minutes of the Ruby Roberts set, the fact that she is playing her first ever festival at Leeds is amazing, you would think Ruby was doing this for years with the performance she puts in!
Maisie Peters attracts a decent crowd for our first visit to The Grid stage today, it is a good mixture of songs old and new from the bubbly singer-songwriter who hails from West Sussex. Maisie signed up to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records label in 2021 and her career took off soon after. We first saw her live in 2023 at Sound City in Liverpool and knew back then that she would go on to much bigger things. The songs from 2023 album The Good Witch are the ones the crowd are singing the most today with History Of Man and Body Better being standouts. The tribute to the late Dolly Parton is a nice touch from Maisie as she tells us how much the American singer inspired her musically, the song she covers is Here You Come Again, the crowd watch on silently. There are three songs from recent album release Florescence – Questions, Girl’s Just Flying and the last song of the set My Regards, Maisie head over to Mexico then Australia later in the year where we are sure the fans will take to her music. 9/10
Bar Italia have five albums behind them so are no newcomers although we are only seeing them live for the first time today. Formed in London in 2019 they are Italian-born Nina Cristanti, Sam Fenton and Jezmi Tarik-Fehmi and all three of them take turns on vocals, it’s a nice touch how they can switch it around so easily. They released the Some Like It Hot album last year with four coming from that release – Cowbella, Fundraiser, I Make My Own Dust and Rooster being the songs – the fifty-minute set went by so quickly. Bar Italia head over to the USA and South America for some tour dates after this performance showing how wide their music has reached. 8/10
The whole arena was already full to the brim, awaiting sombr’s arrival onstage. Fans had been camping at the front of the stage all day, wearing Sombr masks and holding their Sombr posters. The stage area of the arena was closed off fairly quickly due to the number of fans there. Sombr became hugely popular last year and is only gaining more attention for his catchy melodies and energetic connection with the audience during his performances through his emotionally charged lyrics. He didn’t disappoint today, even his introduction to the stage was dramatic and comedic. He had staged a getaway from security, which was aired on the main-stage screens right up until his entrance, when the fans went mental. He wore a silver outfit that fitted his dramatic persona, and he delivered a tight set of hit after hit from his album I Barely Know Her, which led him to stardom.
During the set, Sombr spray-painted “Leeds is the best” onto a large flag and then proceeded down towards all the fans, clapping and holding their hands as he passed them during his hit song Back to Friends. The fans absolutely loved it. His final song, 12 to 12, was cut short when the microphones were switched off because his performance was running behind schedule. He still remained cheerful and kept running to the front of the stage, shouting his thanks to the audience.
Gurrier’s new album Nobody’s Coming To Save You is set for release this month and we are happy to hear a few fresh songs from that record, in fact the title track from that album is the first on the set from the Dublin-based band … anyone hoping to get a quiet set under The Canopy would be shocked as singer Dan Hoff bolts over the barrier to start a massive mosh pit and it basically stayed like that for the full set, you’re never going to attend a quiet Gurriers gig that’s for sure! The bass player goes one better during Des Goblin as he is up on the shoulders of a fan making use of his wireless bass setup, the energy in The Canopy is unreal now. Another one from the debut album is Pains, it may be torrential rain outside now but we couldn’t wish to be in a better place. Singer Dan asks the crowd to give everything they have for the band’s last festival appearance of the year and that they do, Top Of The Bill and Dipping Out are two standout songs from the very lively set. We can’t wait to see these guys on tour in November now. 9/10
We are glad that Jamie Webster was playing his set in The Gallery and not the main stage, the rain is now absolutely torrential which also means the tent is packed out, the atmosphere is electrifying as Jamie works through an hour-long set with a few tracks from his new album Running Round The Sun while also making room for his well known songs such as Going Out and Weekend In Paradise. Jamie is not as political as he once was making his music more attractive to us, sometimes music & politics don’t mix very well, the Liverpudlian heads out on a UK tour later in the year and is well worth catching. 9/10
We had a four-hour drive ahead of us back to Glasgow so a decision was made to make a run for it back to the car after the Jamie Webster set – the tent was all packed away that morning – work was on the horizon on Monday morning. The Leeds Festival 2026 was dominated by the Irish bands for us but there was something for everyone, we wonder what headliners 2027 will bring.
Written by: Alan Brown
Photos by: Lene Ray (Featuring Slayyyter, Clara La San and Maisie Peters)
