Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall
Peter Xan opens the evening in YES’s Pink Room, delivering an indie-rock set bursting with personality. London-based Xan asks the crowd to step forward, joking that “I don’t bite”. Many struggle playing to small crowds full of people who don’t know them, but Peter excels.
Supported by guitarist Noel the Reverend, bassist Biz and drummer Elliot Frampton, Peter Xan makes the stage his own with songs like ‘Glow in the Dark’ and ‘Hostage’. Clinging onto the poles above the stage, he leans over the crowd and gets up close and personal with those in front.
Noel climbs into the crowd to play, before backward rolling himself back onto stage. Each band member has their own flare and eccentricity. With afro-punk roots, Xan is a sure breath of freshness in the music scene, making a defiant impact with his set.
Talk Show eventually stride onto the stage, launching into ‘Oh! You’re! All! Mine!’ from 2024 debut album Effigy. Lead singer Harrison Swann has stage presence like no other, playing a caricature of someone who perhaps ingested something stimulating backstage before the show, wide eyes surveying the audience.
Swann only breaks character once, as he takes a moment to mention it’s a hometown show for him and that all his mates are there. They affectionately jeer for him to take his shirt off, which he does, and his pants off, which he does not.
With Chloe Macgregor on drums, Tom Holmes on guitar and George Sullivan on bass, Talk Show steam through a mixture of newer and older tunes from their catalogue. Swann dances in an eccentric way, really playing into this character he portrays on stage and through the music – it’s mesmerising, almost hypnotising, to watch.
‘Gold’ gets the crowd moving and moshing at the drop of the chorus (“Just feel it, just feel it… Gold”). Talk Show have a unique sound; meshing together post-punk and techno-dance which, along with Swann’s gravelly vocals, create a middle ground for the rave heads and the grunge kids.
‘Leather’, from post-punk experimental EP Touch the Ground, marks the end of the set. With its techno-mechanical chorus and chants of “I wanna get loose” from the crowd, the set closer reduces the audience to a collective sweaty mess, as Swann finally drops his character once more, breaking into a massive smile as he takes in the atmosphere the music has created.
Featured image: Georgina Hurdsfield After the considerably grey weather of the weekend, Sunday morning started with a spell of glorious sunshine to wake the people of Leeds Festival, a spot of cheer going into the dreaded final day of the weekend. But, of course, it wouldn’t be a proper festival weekend without the flash downpours,…
Featured image: Henry Redcliffe Not to be outshined by the artists performing today, the rain makes its inevitable return to the skies of Yorkshire over Leeds Festival. With the downpours hardly taking a break, Saturday is the day for the indie-heads and brats, as two of the most anticipated acts of the weekend take the…
Featured image: Georgina Hurdsfield Despite the dreary weather forecast, it seems the explosive noise of the night before has blown away the expected torrential rain, as the sun fights through the clouds to shine over Leeds Festival on Friday. With the opening of the ‘other’ stages, the first double headliner, and a very special birthday,…
Featured image: Ruby Boland As the gates of Bramham Park finally opened for the 2026 edition, so too did the heavens, with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for the whole weekend, you’d be forgiven for thinking this year’s instalment of Leeds Festival was a write-off. Neither the punters nor the artists would let this dreary…
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