Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Leeds Poly, Met, and Beckett as a vital venue for music legends
Leeds Beckett University and its predecessor institutions have given Leeds some of its most memorable musical gigs, and continues to do so. Dr Peter Mills dives into the history of the geniuses who have been a part of this musical heritage for the city and the university.
Beginnings of music culture at Leeds Poly
When Leeds Polytechnic was formally ‘incorporated’ in 1970, the event was marked by an Inaugural Ball. This was the very first live music event held at the new institution. Held on 30 January 1970, the bill featured The Nice, Family and Chicken Shack–big bookings for that era.
In this it illustrates just where the institution was–a new model for higher education in the United Kingdom, and a new market opening up for bands on the burgeoning rock and pop scene. Indeed, the emergence of the college circuit in the early 1970s had a profound effect on the UK music industry. Consider, for example, The Beatles never played a university refectory or hall. The Student Union circuit simply did not exist until the very late 1960s, really taking off in the early 1970s. Coincidentally, this was the precise moment that Leeds Poly came into being.
Fifty years of musical history
In late 2019, a series of commemorations were being sketched out to mark the 50th anniversary of the institution. The pandemic put a stop to those projected events, of course, but my idea for an exhibition reflecting the 50-year musical history of the institution stuck with me. Over the past couple of years, I have been researching and gathering information on the subject.
Building on this research, in May 2024 I organised a one-day conference on the subject ‘Live at Leeds: The Musical History of Leeds Polytechnic, Metropolitan and Beckett University’. Speakers included former social secretaries, graphic designers who got their start creating publicity posters for gigs, and promoters who had run gigs at the Student Union (including the head of the Leeds branch of Rock Against Racism).
The conference was held in the ‘Stage 2’ space of the Student Union. Of course, as Leeds Poly’s Founding Director Patrick Nuttgens pointed out when quizzed by a TV reporter about him allowing the Sex Pistols to play at Leeds Poly on 6 December 1976 (one of the very few gigs to survive on the ‘Anarchy In The UK’ tour after the Bill Grundy incident on live television), the university hadn’t booked them at all – the Student Union had, a completely different entity. So, when we are looking at the concert history of our institution, we are actually looking at the dynamic relationship between the institution and the SU – that is, between the university and its lifeblood, the students. That connection remains vital to this day, for both sides; distinct but deeply interconnected.
The Sex Pistols performing at Leeds Poly in December 1976
Leeds Beckett Student Union as a vital venue for music legends
On a trip to the Refectory at the University of Leeds, it struck me that Leeds’ ‘other’ higher education institution – Leeds Poly/Met/Beckett – had also had many illustrious musical guests. For example, The Clash and The Jam had both played at Leeds Polytechnic three times before they arrived at the University of Leeds. Similarly, many great acts whose careers had faltered before the big time beckoned had trodden the boards at Portland Way.
Furthermore, without the SU at our institution, would Leeds have seen Talking Heads, The Ramones, XTC, AC/DC, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Cheap Trick, Dire Straits, Ian Dury & The Blockheads? And that was just my first year of gig-going at the Poly! Historically notable gigs include the infamous (and consequently very well-documented) visit of the Sex Pistols in December 1976 and the first ever UK gig outside London by Bob Marley and the Wailers – or as they were billed back in November 1973, simply The Wailers.
The venue has remained vital throughout the first half century of its use and every era supplies famous names. the Stone Roses played here in 1989, Nirvana in 1991, both illustrating the point about the venue being suited to bands who were just about to break through – both acts were on the cusp. As were the Manic Street Preachers when they played the first gig after the institution became a University in October 1992 -- the tickets for which still read ‘Leeds Polytechnic’ as the booking and printing had been done some months in advance.
Our musical graduates
The institution has not just provided a stage for visiting artists, it has produced a few of its own too. Marc Almond and Dave Ball, who comprised synth-pop duo Soft Cell were both Fine Art students at Leeds Polytechnic. At the start of their career, they frequently played gigs at the bar in the Brunswick Terrace building, which stood on the site now occupied by Leeds Arena. Soft Cell gave Leeds only its second ever number one single with ‘Tainted Love’ in 1981, and Marc Almond has often spoken of his time as a student at Leeds Poly. A plaque marking Soft Cell’s link with the University can be seen at the entrance to the Sheila Silver Building on Woodhouse Lane.
More recently Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs was a student at Leeds Met, graduating in Graphic Arts and Design in 2000 just before the band broke big. They are easily Leeds’ most enduringly successful group and have played at the SU several times.
My research has also shown that many former social secretaries went on to successful careers in the music industry as promoters and in venue and band management.
The music project at Leeds Beckett Students Union
My ultimate goal is to create a full listing of concerts at the institution and create a permanent display within the SU which both lists the shows of the past and can be added to in the future. What the project has really shown me is that live music at the LBSU is wide awake; the venue is not a museum piece. As has always been the case, up and coming bands find a great space and a great audience at Leeds Beckett, and the venue has been used as a great proving ground prior to big gigs or comebacks by Matt Johnson and rock band The The (preparing for the Royal Albert Hall!), The Idles and Leeds’ own Corinne Bailey Rae.
The role of social secretaries has changed out of all recognition. What has been lost in terms personal style has been capably made up for in terms of professionalism and continuity of provision. The role is now a fully funded ‘proper job’ rather than a sabbatical post within the SU.
In terms of my research and the materials it has yielded is part joy, part frustration. The latter first: the various changes the institution has been through post-1992 has meant that most of the material relating to previous incarnations has been either lost (perhaps disposed of when name changes came into effect) or has survived only by dint of being in people’s lofts for decades. Many of these people have kindly shared those materials with me and been happy to talk about their time working to ensure the students, and indeed the people of the city of Leeds, have been able to see and hear great music at our institution.
On a final note, the space that the SU still uses in Portland Building is the same one that has been in constant use since 1970, and, if you listen carefully, you might hear all those sounds and voices still ringing round the hall.
This blog has been contributed by Dr Peter Mills from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He specialises in research on Popular Music Studies.
