Live at Leeds 2024 preview with Futuresounds promoter Joe Hubbard and BBC Introducing presenter Emily Pilbeam

Yorkshire Evening Post

Live at Leeds 2024 preview with Futuresounds promoter Joe Hubbard and BBC Introducing presenter Emily Pilbeam.

Transcript

00:00My name is Joe Hubbard, I run Live at Leeds Festival, a multi-city festival that's been

00:06going on for 17 years now in Leeds, and I'm also a promoter at Future Sound, the company

00:11that organises the festival.

00:13Hi, I'm Emily Pilbeam, I present the BBC Introducing Leeds and Sheffield show alongside Christian

00:18Carlisle, and I also host the BBC Introducing Mixtape and Sex Music.

00:24Starting with you then, tell us about how did you get involved in Live at Leeds in the

00:30first place, and what's your history in the music industry?

00:34Okay, so I moved to Leeds in 2018 and joined Future Sound, and a big reason that I always

00:39wanted to work for Future Sound and come here was because of Live at Leeds.

00:42So I came to the festival as a fan beforehand, and yeah, that's why I applied for the role,

00:47and when I started working here it was always my ambition to work on the event.

00:51So yeah, since like 2021 I've kind of headed it up our end, and it's a really great thing

00:56to work on, yeah.

00:57What was it about Live at Leeds then that had you so interested and made you, you know,

01:01even move here?

01:02I think it had, it had like such a, well one, like such a strong attendance of people that

01:07were genuinely like out to have fun and also discover new music, because there's a lot

01:10of new music festivals that are a bit like industry-esque, whereas Live at Leeds was

01:15like actually people having fun, which there's not loads of across the country, and I loved

01:20that.

01:20And also it was just like from a borrowing point of view, it was super well organised,

01:23so I came and did it like with a band, and like it was actually, I was like, well, people

01:28know what they're doing, so yeah, that was why.

01:30There you go.

01:30So 2024, tell us a little bit about this year's festival, tell us about the lineup.

01:36Yeah, so we've moved into November this year, and we've announced the full lineup now, so

01:40we've got Everything Everything, Alpha Templemen, The K's, and the big one for us is English

01:44Teacher this year, obviously amazing having the Leeds band with the Mercury and great

01:48having them on the lineup, and then other acts as well, Cass Is Dead, and then a lot

01:52of local acts as well that we work on with Emily, amongst others.

01:56How important is it for both of you when you look for bands to find local, like West Yorkshire

02:01or Leeds talent, considering it's Live at Leeds, you know?

02:06Yeah, it's super important for us, like we've got, we've added more of it this year as well,

02:10we've added a couple of stages, one at Beckett, and we're doing Celebar again, where it's

02:14just exclusively local talent.

02:17Yeah, I mean it's great, like for example, to go really long term with it, we've just

02:21announced an outdoor show at the company for the Kaiser Chiefs next year, and like Future

02:27Sound has existed as long as they have, and like that, my bosses have started that and

02:32worked with them from that point, and what like, having that as a model of having a band

02:36that can start here and that you find them, and you help them with their early gigs, and

02:40then one day go on and play a huge gig like that is amazing to watch the trajectory, so

02:45we all just want to see that for bands in our local area, I think like, help them develop

02:49and move on.

02:51Yeah, we had Lucky Iris play the BBC Introducing Stage last year, I think they opened it, didn't

02:56they? And it was just packed out, and to see an artist or an act like Lucky Iris play to

03:03that many people and just see how happy they were with the performance is, that's kind

03:09of the whole point, I think. Obviously you hope that everyone loves them as much as we

03:14do afterwards, but I think just kind of seeing them have a great day and seeing them have

03:18a great show is what makes it worth it for me, anyway.

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Transcript

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