You’ll learn where a lot of useless stuff is in Fresher’s week, supermarkets, hospitals, fire exits etc. Now for the important shit, the music venues. Leeds is full of music venues, from arenas to basements, all of them wonderful. Navigating all these can be tricky so we’ve made a handy little guide to let you know where to find your shiny megastars and your brilliantly grotty punks. We’ll help you infiltrate Leeds’ musical nooks and crannies, starting at the obvious and ending in the ridiculously niche.

 

The home of the musical safe bet. For those who have better things to do with their life than trawl through shelves of dusty records and are a bit more BBC Radio 1 than BBC Radio 6, these are the venues for you. The tickets are more expensive but the crowds are bigger and chances are you’ll know the songs and will be able to have a nice singalong. Plus they’re the kind of venues that won’t offend anyone’s taste so if you fancy bringing your mum along then she won’t look at you like you’ve taken her to see a gig in the basement out of Silence of the Lambs.

First Direct Arena – Look out for… Fall Out Boy, Mumford and Sons, Kelly Clarkson.

O2 Academy – Look out for… Years and Years, Editors, James Bay.

Stylus – Look out for… Reverand and the Makers, The Enemy, Lucy Rose.

Leeds Beckett Union – Hot Chip, Slaves, Lower than Atlantis

 

If you’re a bit more adventurous musically and regularly find yourself carefully dissecting NME like it’s the financial times you’ll need to know these venues. In your time in Leeds I guarantee you’ll find yourself owning a Brudenell t-shirt, chowing down on Nation of Shopkeeper’s chicken wings and sitting on the rooftop patio of Belgrave wishing they wouldn’t only serve “premium” continental lagers that cost double the amount of the faithful crap in Terrace.

Brudenell Social Club – Look out for… Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Speedy Ortiz.

Wardrobe – Look out for… Drenge, Gengahr, Nothing but Thieves.

Nation of Shopkeepers – Look out for… Girlband, Demob Happy, This Feeling.

Belgrave – Look out for… Wavves, Summer Camp, Sebadoh

Headrow House – Look out for… Everything Everything, Daniel Avery, Factory Floor.

Key Club – Look out for… Wheatus, Radkey, Dinosaur Pile-Up.

 

Leeds’ local music scene would get into anyone’s top 5 local scenes in the country – it’s phenomenal. Punk has long been ingrained into Leeds’ psyche so if you like fuzzy guitars and your bass heavy Leeds is the place to be. Revolutionary bands like the Mekons and Gang of Four formed here giving an intellectual art-school spin on the old sex pistols formula, and more recently Cribs and Pulled Apart By Horses learnt their punky trade in the bars and venues around the city. There’s a huge array of other genres present though, in particular a thriving electronic music scene whose influence can be seen in the music of giants like Wild Beasts and Alt J who both came through our uni. If you love discovering new music that will one day create huge waves around the UK, there are no better places than Wharf Chambers and Chunk. You might not go in to the gig knowing much about the bands but Leeds has got such a knack of producing top-quality bands that you rarely leave disappointed.

Wharf Chambers – Look out for… Radiator Hospital, Cheatahs, Nomasta

Chunk – Look out for… Jealousy Mountain Duo, Esper Scout, Bearfoot Beware