Music.Leeds.Us – an exhibition of 60 years of Leeds Music History at Leeds City Museum

If you are in Leeds and have a spare hour – I would encourage you to head over to Leeds City Museum in the old Leeds Mechanics Institute building on the edge of Millenium Square. Not only is it a great Museum with natural history exhibits for kids, an ancient world’s gallery with Mummies and The Leeds Story section telling the tale of Leeds heritage, but until June 2026 the Museum also has a fascinating exhibition celebrating 60 years of Leeds Music History.

I have to admit, I do have some skin in the game here as last year I volunteered with Leeds Museum to help put the exhibition on. From initial meetings to define how the exhibition would be laid out, working with other people as passionate about music as myself to cover off many musical genres, pulling together and curating content, writing copy and putting together all our individual sections, it really has been a labour of love. A shout out to Esther, the Community Engagement Officer at Leeds Museums who co-ordinated us volunteers and managed to pull it all together!

The exhibition was timed to co-inside with the 60 year anniversary of Leeds Conservatoire with the aim of “celebrating the people, places and magic moments that have shaped the city’s musical identity across six vibrant decades”.

There is no point in trying to write something which explains the purpose of the exhibition better than my fellow volunteer Michelle Regan, so with thanks to her, our mission can be summed up by…

“From legendary gigs and local heroes to grassroots movements and global sounds, this is a celebration of the voices, venues and vibrant genres that make up Leeds’ powerful, proud — and often overlooked — musical legacy.

But this isn’t just about history — it’s about feeling. That song that takes you back. That gig that changed your life. The posters on your bedroom walls. That new record purchase. 

The venue that became your second home.

Music Leeds Us is a space to remember, reflect and reconnect. Whether it’s goth, jazz, house or punk — whether you were there at the time or hearing it for the first time — Music Leeds Us is for everyone — from lifelong locals to newcomers discovering the city's musical heartbeat.

Curated in collaboration with community partners and supported by local volunteers, we invite you to come and explore six decades of sound — and see where the music takes you”.

I ended up curating the Punk and Post Punk section, an era close to my heart that defined my youth, but no matter what your musical tribe or favourite genre I am sure we will have it covered from Funk and Soul, Goth, Jazz, Hardcore, Country or Pop.

As part of the exhibition there are a series of  live performances  in the space and every Saturday lunchtime there is an Open Mic session.

Highlights of the Music.Leeds.Us Exhibition include…

A wonderful juke box donated by Sound Leisure of Leeds (one of only two remaining juke box manufacturers in the world). Between the volunteers we chose a huge number of tracks from Leeds based artists to soundtrack the exhibition.

A celebration of Leeds venues – the heart beat of Leeds Live Music scene.

A mock-up of the famous Duchess (of York) bar with signage. “The Duchess” pub (now closed) was transformed by promoter John Keenan into a music venue with an iconic list of emerging bands and artists who played there on their way up to global status. The list includes Oasis, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Coldplay, Manic Street Preachers, Green Day, Pulp, Blur and Nirvana.

The Duchess bar (we see here), was nostalgically recreated in 2021 for the Compass Festival to encourage people to come together to share memories of gigs they went to at the venue.

It is fitting that a power point created by promotor John Keenan has generously been lent to us for the duration of the exhibition and is on rotation, showing not just bands he promoted at The Duchess, but also at the many other venues and clubs he has promoted at over the last 40 years.

There is a section about the annual Leeds Festival, the rights of passage festival for teenagers held in Bramham each year.

Donations of items from bands has been an important part of gathering content for the exhibition and we have been very lucky to get a number of items from this source to help with the Rock and Indie in Leeds with the Kaiser Chiefs, Forward Russia, Cud and David Gedge of the Wedding Present also donating items.

Boff Whalley from Chumbawumba also curated a section and lent items to the cause.

As you enter the first room of the exhibition, we have a wonderful time line pulled together by volunteer Andy. This was a huge undertaking and I am in awe of what he finally produced. There was so much to fit in, from bands, venues, key recordings, gigs etc. It takes up a whole wall and you could spend an hour just looking through this.

One thing that struck me when revisiting the timeline earlier was that Leeds has never had the recognition it deserves for its music scene with Liverpool having the Beatles and Manchester with the Hacienda and its baggy scene they always feature highly when thinking about Music Cities.

But I think Leeds legacy is the wealth of styles and the interconnectivity of everything. It certainly deserves more recognition and the fact we gave the global phenomenon of “Goth” to the world is just one example or Leeds underground influence.

Whilst we are on the subject of Goth, there is a great section curated by volunteer Lola celebrating bands like The Mission, The Sisters of Mercy, Salvation, The March Violets and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. It also reminds us of the many goth clubs at the time particularly The Phonographique  - the world’s first “Goth Club”. We also have a couple of drum machines on show.

The Goth section sits next to my Punk and Post Punk section. Every time I go inside the exhibition to show friends around and see the wording in it reminds me of myself and my daughter painting the letters in fluorescent green and pink at my kitchen table!

We were lucky enough to get lent a poster of The Sex Pistols gig at Leeds Poly as well images taken by a Leeds based photographer at the actual event.

Through curating the post punk section, it has been great to get direct contact from members of The Mekons, Gang of Four and The Three Johns. The Gang of Four were really supportive of the exhibition and Hugo Burnham even gave us a pair of drum sticks with “these drum sticks fight fascists”.

There are exhibits about he Slam Dunk pop festival and some interesting items from the Leeds Hardcore scene including this montage.

It is also lovely to have a cabinet devoted to the late Xero Slingsby with a leather jacket donated by his wife. I was in Leeds at the University in 83-87 and remember seeing him around the place at the time.

The “I’m coming out” display in a wardrobe/closet was particularly innovative and highlights the importance of the gay music scene in Leeds. I even lent the volunteer a copy of my Soft Cell single Bedsitter for the display.

Funk and Soul has been important on the Leeds scene through the 70’s and 80’s, but in the 1990’s a revival took place particularly on the live scene with bands like The New Mastersounds, The Haggis Horns and Chunky but Funky all to the fore, this is also celebrated in the exhibition.

There is also a great section on Club Culture in Leeds, with exhibits donated by the legendary Suzy Mason who  founded safe clubs such as Speedqueen and Vague.

Finally, if you have time we have hundreds of profiles of artists, bands, venues and key players in the Leeds Music scene printed out on 12” card in sleeves as though they were records which you can sift through in our special record boxes.

So definitely worth a visit in my humble opinion. There is loads more there than I have been able to share on this blog. I’m sure if you are a music lover you will find something that makes you feel nostalgic!

If you do visit – remember to let me know what you think?

https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/music-leeds-us-celebrating-60-years-b2zd