The hardcore and punk venue was forced to close its doors in March after struggling to survive throughout the Covid pandemic. The landlord decided to terminate the lease and turn the building into flats and shops… a story becoming all too prominent in this country.

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However, after a string of benefit gigs and crowdfunding campaigns, Boom is now ready to reopen its doors at a beautiful canalside location on Armley Road.

Next door to the 1,000 capacity Project House, the new venue will become a hub of music and culture which, when complete, will boast a live music space, rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, extra event rooms, and education and community facilities.

The first show will take place on May 21 as Leeds hardcore band Bodyweb headline with support from Long Goodbye, imissyoualready, Crowquil and Monroe.

The news of a venue re-opening after being forced to shut comes as a glimmer of hope to grassroots venues up and down the country.

Mxdwn has extensively covered the growing problems that independent venues are facing in this country, with a new survey finding that over half of the British population have witnessed the closure of a locally important venue since 2020.

Work is being done to tackle this by many groups including the Music Venue Trust and Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace And Justice Project, with the latter recently announcing the new campaign ‘A Summer To Save Live Music’.

Now, fans of punk in Leeds can rejoice at the reopening of the legendary venue. Posting on Instagram, the Boom team said: “Thanks to six months of fundraising, merch projects and countless volunteer hours, we’ve already started to transform the space and can’t wait to welcome you all back later this month.

“There’s still plenty to do, and it’s definitely a work in progress, opening for gigs is our next big step in raising the funds we need.”

 

 

 

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After the opening night on May 21, the venue will then be headlined the next day by Inhuman Nature with support from Grief Ritual, Sidewinder and Hard Stare.

One band that cut their teeth at Boom was Static Dress. Speaking in January 2024, frontman Oli Appleyard spoke of the importance of the venue, telling NME: “It’s a home of so much culture and not just one specific genre – punk, metal, hardcore, grindcore – all the stuff which wouldn’t normally have a place.

“It’s a place which allows international artists to come through and play shows, and it allows a safe place for all these things to exist.”

Tickets for the launch gigs are available now from here with the opening night costing only £12 plus booking fee.

You can also support the venue by donating to their crowdfunder which has already raised over £3,500, or by heading to their merch store here where a selection of posters and clothes are available.

A statement was posted on music platform Certified Jackin’s Facebook announcing the news. They called the DJ  “one of the pioneers who helped shape UK Jackin’, House & Bass”. The statement read “Nick didn’t just make tracks – he made memories. His music soundtracked countless nights out, countless moments, and left a mark on a whole generation of ravers. From Leeds to the world, Nick Hannam’s legacy will live on in every speaker, every dancefloor and every heart he touched through his music. Rest easy Nick. You’ll never be forgotten.”

No age or cause of death was given.

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Amongst the many other tributes given to the DJ and Producer, fellow DJ and rapper Tom Zanetti called Hannam a “beautiful soul” who “always knew the answers”. He wrote: “I’m heartbroken to announce the man who helped me build the song ‘You Want Me’ brick by brick in a little bedroom studio in Leeds, a song you all know and love which is randomly going super viral at the moment – Nick Hannam has passed away.”

Back in 2016, the pair collaborated to co-produce ‘You Want Me’, a song which went platinum in the UK and made its way into the UK Top 40. The song also charted in countries such as Belgium.

Nick began producing music in the early 2010s and quickly made a name for himself in the house-focused sounds that combined groove, funk and jackin’ house. Responsible for other underground hits such as ‘Serious’, ‘Love You Girl’ and ‘I Like To F*ck. ‘You Want Me’ peaked at Number 22 in the UK Top 40 and Number 7 on the dance charts.

“Nick didn’t just make tracks – he made memories. His music soundtracked countless nights out, countless moments, and left a mark on a whole generation of ravers.”

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Since their formation in 1998, the Sugababes have achieved remarkable success in the UK music scene, including six number-one singles and millions of global sales. Their chart-topping hits include ‘Freak Like Me‘, ‘Round Round‘, and ‘Push the Button’. The group has also received numerous awards, solidifying their status as one of the most successful and influential vocal groups of the 2000s.The trio’s recent performances have been met with overwhelming enthusiasm. At Glastonbury 2024, their set on the West Holts stage attracted such a massive crowd that the area had to be closed off due to demand. Additionally, they sold out London’s O2 Arena, further cementing their enduring appeal.

The multi-purpose venue opened its doors in April last year, after a refurbishment of its previous site Tiger Tiger Bar.  ‘Carousel’ refers to the bar on the premise which features arcade games, live music and DJs, whereas ‘Home’ serves as a nightclub consisting of two rooms. Both are run and owned by the same operator.

New Leeds bar Carousel and huge nightclub ‘Home’

We all know Leeds loves to party and here is a new bar AND super club transforming nights out in the city

Carousel has an arcade packed full of games, music and cocktails, and downstairs you’ll find nightclub ‘Home’! pic.twitter.com/zr7HVCFBg9

— Leeds+ (@LeedsPlusSocial) April 8, 2024

The revelation to give attendees lollipops came after the various noise complaints from those within the city centre and the nearby K2 Apartments. On behalf of the tenants, Tony Whitfield suggested noise has been an ongoing problem, even with the previous owners of the premise. Whitfield revealed: “Sound really does resonate through the building”.

Continuing, Albion Street (where the venue is located) has “been a flash point for a lot of violent attacks”.

Operations Director, David Nejrup has empathised with the victims of the noise complaints and insists Home and Carousel will be proactive in their approach to reduce noise and anti-social behaviour which disrupts nearby residents of the city centre.

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Alongside giving attendees free lollipops on their way home, other measures will include moving the outdoor smoking area and the installation of sound insulation on the dancefloor. Nejrup insists the measures will ensure that “there should be no noise leakage from that nightclub”. His comments follow similar measures that have been instated in other venues across the country. He continued: “As daft as it sounds, people tend to become quiet when they have something in their mouth”.

The attention to noise complaints follows a recent council hearing on Tuesday (January 14) regarding an application made by the premise to extend its serving times during the week. The BBC have noted that the Local Democracy Reporting Service have recognised a trend in venues in the city wanting to stay open later.

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Home and Carousel will now be able to sell alcohol until 04:00 AM from Sundays to Thursdays and 05:00 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. These new hours for the venue were agreed due to the venue’s compliance to implement measures which would safeguard the wellbeing of locals.

James Gibson, the Cross Gates and Whinmoor Labour councillor who chaired the meeting, stated: “We note that you’ve agreed to work with the residents. We want to see you do that”.

As Home and Carousel prepare to re-open their doors this week following the new noise-cancelling measures, the venue and nearby residents will remain hopeful to their effectiveness.

‘Writing Out A List Of All The Names Of God’ sees the band combine the heavy, punchy, distorted guitar and drum sound of IDLES with a vocal delivery reminiscent of that of Yard Act by singer Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, albeit slightly more aggressive. The Jungle-inspired drumming along with the tortured commentary encapsulates the unique and exciting sound of the band well. The single was recorded in Beckview Studios in Scarborough with producer Rob Slater. According to a press release the lyrics of the track were in part inspired “by a desperate and hopeless desire to retain the memories you hold closest to you in your declining years.”

The Leeds group will be starting a new era as they have signed with Big Scary Monsters. This follows the release of their Debut album ‘Thoughtless Cruelty’ in 2022 among a number of EPs, the post-punk outfit will be hoping to go on the big things under their new label.

They have sold out a number of headline dates across the UK over the last couple of years and are set to take the stage at this year’s ArcTanGent festival in Bristol later this month. You can buy tickets for the festival here.

Speaking on their new track Vinehill-Cliffe said: “I think the recorded version might actually be the first time we successfully played the whole thing through.”

He continued: “It’s a diss track, in response to another diss track – noise rock as a genre needs more diss tracks, I feel (see The Jesus Lizard – Mouth Breather). It’s also loosely based on something I saw pinned up in my grandpa’s study one of the final times I visited before he moved to a nursing home, he had handwritten a list of different names used to refer to God, I guess because he had become so forgetful and this was something he specifically didn’t want to forget.”

The full list of Thank’s live shows for 2024 is below:

07/08 – ArcTanGent Festival – Bristol, UK
16/10 – New Cross Inn – London, UK
17/10 – Les Vieux de la Vieille – Reims, FR
18/10 – Waldmeister – Solingen, DE
19/10 – Magasin 4 – Brussels, BE
04/11 – Yes – Manchester, UK (w/Cherubs)

The project aims to preserve the musical heritage of the city by amassing a collection of visual memories in the form of concert tickets, thereby allowing both us in the present and those in future generations to resonate with and relive live music performances by some of the world’s greatest artists.

One of these is Bruce Springsteen, whose performance with The E Street Band in July 2013 inaugurated the First Direct Arena. Such a massive moment in the musical history of Leeds is now documented, visually in the form of an actual physical ticket, in the archive for others to enjoy and celebrate. A show by the iconic Irish rock band U2 is another among the remarkable performances recorded on the platform. They played Elland Road on July 1st 1987, where tickets were £14 and Special Guests were promised.

The archive also remembers Sir Elton John’s 1984 gig at The Queens Hall during his European Express Tour. The ticket reminded a commenter on the archive post about their experience at the gig as they stated, “I was at this gig! Elton played at the now demolished Queens Hall (tram shed) and it was truly one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to!“.

Louise Birch, the senior librarian at Leeds Libraries, recounts how the project came to be, saying, “The project came about as I was going through some of my own ticket stubs that I’d collected over the years, and I realised that many venues don’t actually issue physical tickets anymore.

“Leeds has hosted some of the biggest names in music over the years along with a thriving local gig scene and some incredible venues that have become a huge part of the city’s story.

“Every single one of these tickets also represents a unique memory for the person who went to that gig and what we really want is for people to share those memories and experiences and help us build a living, constantly evolving archive of live music in Leeds.”

The librarians who run the archive are actively trying to increase the collection and are on the lookout for particular gigs, including Jimi Hendrix at The Odeon in 1967, The Sex Pistols at Leeds Polytechnic in 1976, Nirvana at The Duchess in 1989 and Oasis at The Duchess in 1994.

The Leodis archive can be accessed here: https://www.leodis.net/.

Lead singer of You Me At Six said in a press release about the event: “Looking forward to returning to Slam Dunk this year to headline the festival. Slam Dunk has given You Me At Six so much over our career & we’ve got a lot of special memories from performing there over the years. The line-up is stacked with great artists, so will be an elite one.”

Fans of You Me At Six, who released their eighth studio album earlier this year titled Truth Decay, shared their excitement over the news on X. One person said: “Already my favorite slam dunk”, whilst another person commented: “favorite band headlining my favorite festival.” The group first performed at the festival in 2007 alongside Paramore, Reel Big Fish and Mad Caddies.

Already my favourite slam dunk.

— Benjamin Franklin (@benmeatsix) October 25, 2023

Since 2006, the Slam Dunk Festival has celebrated rock and punk artists from all over the world. This year, the festival treated the audience to performances by legendary punk group The Offspring, British band Enter Shikari and Billy Talent. However, the festival received criticism over issues of health and safety concerns – including overflowing toilets.

In a report, Slam Dunk Festival organizers said: “Thank you for giving us the time to fully investigate the events of the Slam Dunk Festival 2023.  We have taken that time to work with our internal team and many external partners, firstly to work out why things went wrong and then find solutions and improvements for next year. Please let us be clear that we are not trying to pass the blame of anything to other people, we are simply telling the truth about what caused those issues, so you can be assured we have identified the problem and therefore are able to fix it.”

“We would like to stress that we take full accountability for everything that happened on the day, and we are so sorry that some people didn’t have the experience that they should have. We hope you give us the chance to change that.”

Organizers of the event have promised a change for next year’s show, including 25% extra toilets and additional taps at all waterpoints.

Confirmed line-up

You Me At Six
The All American Rejects
Prevail
Artio
Asking Alexandria
Bob Vylan
Boys Like Girls
Funeral For A Friend
Goldfinger
Head Automatica
La Dispute
L.S. Dunes
Mad Caddies
Mom Jeans
One Step Closer
Palaye Royale
Pale Waves
Pennywise
Røry
Set It Off
The Bouncing Souls
The Interrupters
The Selecter
The Skints
The Wonder Years
Waterparks
We The Kings

As promised, a leather-clad, cigarette-brandishing Matty Healy and co. turned back the clocks this weekend, indulging hardcore The 1975 fans with a setlist that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a 2013 Tumblr user’s dashboard. A culture-defining LP for young teens at the time, The 1975 was, in Healy’s own words, trying to capture “the apocalyptic sense of being a teenager” and remains emblematic of an era where a very niche subculture, characterised by black and white imagery of Dr. Martens and fishnets, provided a new online audience with a sense of identity.

Listen to The 1975’s live rendition of 2013’s “Heart Out”:

As evidenced by the huge crowd at Reading on Saturday, the record clearly continues to resonate with young people even today, with deeper cuts such as “Pressure” or “She Way Out” – songs which are rarely, if ever, played live – prompting enthused singalongs from an enamoured audience. The fact that a portion of the festival’s attendees made up a new wave of listeners, didn’t go unnoticed, either, with Healy acknowledging:

“This album, I don’t know, it feels quite relevant now, and you all look very young and you’re all enjoying it – it feels like the internet’s working in the way it should do.”

The frontman is correct in assuming that his band are as relevant as ever: their latest album landed them a TikTok hit in “About You” – a song which harks back to the sonic landscape and romanticised aesthetic first explored on their debut album. The group’s early hits, however, are still equally as potent, with crowd-pleasers “Sex” and “Robbers” showcasing The 1975’s enduring influence on fans. 

Check out their live performance of “Robbers” below:

Meanwhile, Healy was quick to appreciate his band had been gifted an opportunity at the expense of a certain Scottish pop singer:

“Well, first of all can we have the loudest round of applause in our set for Mr. Lewis Capaldi who couldn’t make it tonight.”

Capaldi, who has been struggling with Tourette’s syndrome, was initially set to headline Reading, but was forced to cancel a number of shows including the bank holiday weekend festival due to his wavering health.

In honour of its 10 year anniversary, The 1975 will be releasing a special edition format of their self-titled debut album, due to hit stores on September 1. The 1975 (10th Anniversary) is available for pre-order here.

For their full set at Reading 2023, head to BBC iPlayer.

Check out the performance below:

“Your Side Of Town” hace su debut en vivo en Inglaterra pic.twitter.com/xA6poiQ0zn

— The Killers Fans (@t_hekillersfan) August 26, 2023

The new song, which marks the band’s first of the year, is also their first release since 2022’s standalone single “Boy” and showcases the Las Vegas rockers’ knack for a catchy hook and driving synth-line. In view of a recent Brandon Flowers interview, however, “Your Side Of Town” may be the last arena rock number The Killers put out for a while, with the frontman expressing a desire to make quieter music for smaller venues. 

Talking to The Times, Flowers admitted he had grown tired of the band’s classic sound and even scrapped their latest album midway through recording sessions: 

“Halfway through recording I realised, ‘I can’t do this’ […] I don’t think you’ll see us making this type of music any more. […] This is the crisis I’m in. The Killers are my identity and our songs fill the seats, but I’m more fulfilled making music like ‘Pressure Machine’. I’m as proud of ‘Hot Fuss’ as you can be for something you did when you were 20, but I’m not 20. So I’m thinking about the next phase of my life. […] I’m a different person now, it’ll be difficult to go back.”

Listen to the studio version of “Your Side Of Town”:

The rock and roll talisman didn’t let his songwriting predicament affect The Killers’ headlining performance at Reading, however, with the band firing on all cylinders and Flowers displaying his usual showmanship flair. “You know they used to call this Reading Rock?”, he declared, “We’re turning back the clock tonight. We just happen to be the purveyors of some of the finest rock and roll on earth.”

Elsewhere during their hit-filled set, the band honoured their longstanding tradition of inviting a fan up on stage to play drums with them. The lucky candidate this time around was a youngster from Bath, whose hand-made sign requested a chance to perform “For Reasons Unknown” – a wish he was duly granted. Donning a Brazilian football shirt, the boy, named Ozzy, was helped up on stage, where he initially kept the tempo at a slower pace, prompting a joking remark from Flowers: “Go faster,” the frontman said, “More cocaine than marijuana”.

Watch the moment below:

Lewis Capaldi recently announced that he will be taking a break from work commitments following his performance at Glastonbury in order to “adjust to the impact” of living with Tourette’s syndrome. Capaldi wrote, “I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this and I’d hoped three weeks away would sort me out. But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend so much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time.”

This announcement followed his decision to take a break to prepare himself for his Glastonbury performance, but has ultimately ended in a longer hiatus than initially planned.

One such commitment that Capaldi will be missing is the headlining slot of Reading and Leeds Festival, where he was set to headline Reading on Saturday 26th August and Leeds on Sunday 27th August. The festival organisers addressed his cancellation, writing, “We’re gutted that Lewis Capaldi won’t be performing at R&L this year, but health comes first and we wish him a speedy recovery.”

The 1975 have now been announced as the replacement headlining act, and are reportedly close friends with Capaldi. At The 1975’s gig at Finsbury Park on 2nd July, Matty Healy addressed Capaldi, saying “I want to send my sincerest thoughts to Lewis Capaldi who is a dear friend of mine, who on the day when he had to cancel his tour, checked in on me. And it’s also a reflection on how hard being a solo artist is as I would not be doing this show if I didn’t have these amazing men and women behind me.”

The 1975 have decided to use their headlining slot to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, released in 2013. Frontman Matty Healy announced this decision onstage at TRNSMT festival, telling the crowd, “So, on Saturday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds in celebration of 10 years of our debut album, The 1975 will be playing that album in full in support of our good friend Lewis Capaldi. If you’ve got tickets, good for you. If you haven’t, go and get them. We’ll see you there.”

The band also took to social media to confirm that this will be a 10th anniversary performance of their debut album.

Reading & Leeds Festival
25th – 27th August 2023

‘The 1975’ 10th Anniversary Performance
Tickets on sale now https://t.co/VV4VRerwe4 #The1975 pic.twitter.com/lMyQoeToIW

— The 1975 (@the1975) July 10, 2023

Tickets to Reading and Leeds Festival 2023 are available to purchase here.

Read about Matty Healy leaving his Dirty Hit directorship here.

Read about The 1975’s War Child collaboration here.

Stream The 1975 here.