🎶 The Ticket Stub – Music in Leeds April

Spring is upon us. It is at this moment that the earth’s axis is tilted neither towards nor away from the sun; instead, everything hangs in balance, and the world is perpendicular to the sun’s golden rays. With the Spring Equinox comes growth, rebirth and Russian shoegaze bands playing at Wharf Chambers.

Here are some gigs happening in Leeds this April.

Holiday Ghosts and Vehicle at Wharf Chambers (5th April)

This will be a night of meat and two veg rockin’ and rollin’. Two bands influenced by very different sides of Velvet Underground, Holiday Ghosts play warm and melodic garage rock, whilst Vehicle, formed from the ashes of cult Leeds band Perspex, use classic songwriting to create something more moody and atmospheric. They don’t make ‘em like this one anymore.

Gnoomes at Wharf Chambers (11th April)

From Perm, Russia, Gnoomes play a self-professed mixture of ‘psychedelic stargaze, kraut techno and kosmiche pop’. It might seem like a long commute, but their brand of face-melting techno-psych has built up a steady following from years of traversing the British Isles. Back with their first album since 2019, expect a great show at one of the UK’s finest venues.

Ambient Leeds at The Fenton (14th April)

If all the talk of songs with drum beats aren’t for you, this night of soundscapes a-plenty should do the trick. The latest installment of Ambient Leeds combines Zimbabwean Mbiras and enough analogue synths to remortgage your house. Since the end of Think Tank, a mixture of ambient music and art installations at Belgrave, Leeds’s ambient scene has seemed all too quiet. 

Nuha Ruby Ra at Headrow House (17th April)

Nuha Ruby Ra came into London’s music scene with much more of a bang than a whimper, playing an aggressive and intense style of Avant-punk. Her 2024 single ‘Fetish 2 Forget’ has seen her delve into more electronic, slightly trip-hoppy territory, but you can still expect a show that is unpredictable and provocative. It’s an epic and discombobulating progression from the brooding, post-punk theatrics of her 2023 Machine Like Me EP.

Romare at Belgrave Music Hall (18th April)

For most of my time at university, I steadily collected a selection of songs for impressing people at parties. At this point I hadn’t quite learnt to DJ yet, but I’d always have one eye on playlists I curated in case I was called into action and handed a phone connected to Spotify. For rowdier nights, my secret weapon was always Romare’s ‘The Blues (It Began in Africa)’, a sample-heavy slice of 2Step garage with a wonky drop. 

Anyway, catch Romare at Belgrave and see the master at work.

Elvana at Leeds O2 Academy

If you’ve ever listened to Nirvana and wished that they were fronted by a Geordie doing an impression of Elvis, this is the band for you. Since some extremely popular mainstage sets at Glastonbury and Download Festival, Elvana have become a pretty unstoppable force on the tribute scene.

Lynks at The Wardrobe (20th April)

I played a couple of gigs with Lynks when they were starting out. The moment I heard them play their song, ‘How to Make a Béchamel Sauce in 10 Steps (With Pictures)’ to a slightly empty crowd at The Victoria in Hackney, I knew they would always have a special place in my heart. Since then, their brand of industrial drag, falling somewhere between PC Music and Human League, has become a regular fixture on main stages at festivals.  

If you’ve somehow missed the Lynks train, their new music video tells you everything that you need to catch up on.