"Could life ever be sane again?"
The Leeds side streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Leeds was the first city I knew. My dad worked in Leeds when I was a kid, back in the days when getting there from Huddersfield was a much shorter journey. As I grew older, Mum used to take me to Leeds Comic Marts every other month, and when I started work, I'd often catch the train from Bradford to Leeds to spend my wage in the city's many record shops. It was later that I discovered Manchester (too big and scary for a little Yorkshire lad) and later still, Sheffield (Leeds without the pretentions). Nowadays I work in Leeds myself, or close enough, but the only reason I have to visit the city centre is the occasional gig. I don't feel as welcome there as I once did... it's all too new and shiny and ever-expanding... but then, I've never been a city boy.
Still, I was encouraged to breath life into this old blog series after listening to the wonderful Cherry Red compilation, Where Were You: Independent Music From Leeds (1978-1989). Not only does that collection feature some of the best bands to ever call Leeds home, including The Wedding Present, The Sisters of Mercy, Cud, The Mekons and The Sinister Cleaners... but it also features quite a few songs about Leeds. Like this one!
Named after an Eddie Cochran song, Pink Peg Slax were a Leeds rockabilly band who scored quite a few sessions with John Peel and Andy Kershaw in the 80s, though they never broke through to the big time. They were also responsible for this little beauty...
Next, I want you to imagine that Grandmaster Flash grew up in Leeds, rather than on the mean streets of The Bronx. Get ready to meet...
Mandi and Debi Laek are two sisters from Leeds whose quirky tales of life in Leeds have drawn comparisons to The Kinks, The Jam, Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett.
Moving beyond the Cherry Red compilation, here are a few more Leeds-centric tunes I found in the hard drive...
And another Leeds band... one whose most famous song is immortalised in big neon letters on the wall of Leeds theatre, The West Yorkshire Playhouse...
Eat, sleep and crap
For it to prey on your needs
Down a dark street
In backwater Leeds
Of course, Leeds has a darker side. Back in the 80s, it was known as the home of the Yorkshire Ripper, and one notorious football team...
Lyrically, Leeds also pops up in some quite unexpected places...
She'd spent 35 pounds on one pack of ciggies
Running an errand for him indoors
Then she kept running straight down to Leeds Central
Took Intercity and left her remorse
Mark Knopfler wrote the following tune about Harry Phillips, a Leeds sculptor who never got the respect he deserved... because he wasn't from a trendy town.
He was ignored by all the trendy boys in London
Yes, and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys
Or strings of beads
Here's a contemporary American band that 30-something hipsters like Ben are into, despite the fact that they're named after that old sitcom about growing up in the 60s. The song is all about being on tour, mostly in Leeds, but far away from home...
Last night in Leeds
Ad and I found ourselves wandering the city
Looking for pizza
All we found was complacency and somewhere to sleep
I'm still waiting for the map to say home's a week away
Another band getting homesick is Atlanta's The Indigo Girls...
It's dark at 4 pm in Leeds
The steeples pierce the skylight 'til the last of it bleeds
The absent sound of another day as it recedes
Into the shadows
Until it's nothing
Also from Georgia is the band Of Montreal. Turns out they've been to the capital of West Yorkshire too...
Eating at Welcome Breaks daily
We danced in Leeds with Brit Pop Haley
Back in the UK, Geordie folkster Richard Dawson is someone I've been listening to quite a bit lately since Michel Faber sang his praises in Listen. Here, Richard talks about missing his daughter after driving her away to University...
Waving me goodbye from the steps of her building
She shrinks into the shudders of the rearview
Tears begin to fall on the outskirts of Leeds
I am missing her already
Meanwhile, Sheffield lad Jarvis Cocker suggest they're not that welcoming to outsiders in Leeds...
We came across the North Sea with our carriers on our knees
Wound up in some holding camp somewhere outside Leeds.
Because we do not care to fight, my friends - we are the weeds.
Because we got no homes they call us smelly refugees.
Kevin Rowland is even less of a fan...
Lord have mercy on me, keep me away from Leeds
I've been before, it's not what I'm looking for
But my favourite song about Leeds is still this one, from Californian songwriter John Darnielle. It's a song dedicated to Goth God and "Leeds lad" Andrew Eldritch... although he was actually born in Cambridgeshire. Nevertheless, it always makes me smile...
