Independent Leeds Magazine: Issue 2

Independent Leeds Magazine Issue 02 www.independentleeds.co.uk

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Issue 02 March 2016

The Power of Words

Words…Whether they are written, spoken, acted or even painted, have the power to enrich a city. In issue two we take a look at how the power of words are shaping the city and its communities across a wide variety of mediums.

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Social Club Beer - Music - Crisps - Fun - Etc

Contributors

33 Queens Road | Hyde Park | Leeds | LS6 1NY

Editor Louise Fletcher

Monday 4 April

Sunday 17 April

Wed 11 May (O2 Academy)

Tuesday 5 April

Wed 20 April

Sun 15 May

Saturday 9 April

Thurs 21 April

Sat 21 May (Gold Sounds Festval)

Sunday 10 April

Tuesday 26 April

Sunday 22 May

Tuesday 12 April

Wednesday 4 May Phil Cook & The Guitar Heels Monday 9 May

Friday 27 May

Besnard Lakes Meatbodies Lucius

Black Mountain Liima

Wednesday 13 April

Maybeshewill

The Cover’s Story Every issue we will be asking a different Leedsbased artist to produce our cover image. This issue saw illustrator, Nathan Evans take on the challenge. To see more of his work visit: www.n-evans.com

Damien Jurado The Flamin Groovies The Lovely Eggs Shonen Knife

Three Trapped Tigers

Father John Misty Yak

Yuck

Owiny Sigoma Band The Icicle Works Saturday 28 May

The Wedding Present

www.brudenellsocialclub.co.uk

Writers: Louise Fletcher Steph Pullen Conor Crozier Khadijah Ibrihiim John Slemensek Jed Skinner Matt Bradshaw Nina Hunter

Photography: Bokehgo Kirsty Garland Katie McMillan Max Miechowski Mike - @vibrant_Leeds Mihaela Bodlovic

Illustrations: Nathan Evans Nina Hunter (Child Friendly Map)

Contents Preserving the past to inspire the future

4-5

Poetic Licence

6-8

The Power of Words

11-13

Mail Art

15-17

Treading the Boards with Manic Chord An Instrumentalist’s Investigation into Lyrics

19-20 21

Child Friendly Map of Leeds

23-26

Chinwag: Enhancing Through Enquiry

28-30

Hello & Welcome to Leeds

32-33

Raising a glass to Yorkshire’s finest

34-36

NE

37

The Two Band Syndrome

38-39

Digger’s Island Disc: Joe Gill

40-41

The Evolution of Holbeck

42-43

Vibrant Leeds

44-46

Delve deeper into the independent scene in Leeds at www.independentleeds.co.uk Twitter: IndependntLeeds | Facebook: IndependentLeeds | Instagram: independentleeds

Words by Louise Fletcher Photos by Bokehgo

Preserving the past to inspire the future

If you take the time to stop and soak up your surroundings, it’s amazing what you can find.

Nestled among the retailers, banks and travel agents found on Commercial Street, is one of these little hidden gems.

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Find the right spot, look up and (depending on the strength of your eyesight) if you squint a little, through the large windows you will catch a glimpse of the spiral staircases and leather bound books of independent, Leeds Library.

This peaceful oasis from city centre life houses over 150,000 books, all of which have been chosen by its member since it was founded in 1768. The result? A treasure trove of books with titles which will make anyone a little bit giddy. Yes, there’s the standard classics but these staples share the shelves with much weirder and wonderful counterparts.

Walk along the rows and books on Aztec tribes, essays on laughter and even experiments on vegetables will all shout out at you, wishing you to discover the odd work inside.

Chief Executive of The Leeds Library, Andrew Morrison, explains what makes an independent library such an exciting prospect.

“It’s quite nice to be an independent library because you can be different. We don’t have any political agenda, we’re not trying to be big. We’re just trying to be open about what we’ve got and allow people to use it in a very exciting way.

If you look around you it’s full of dull brown spines but it isn’t the books that are important at all, it’s the words that are in them and you would be amazed how many things that were published in the past that people have never heard about.

We found a book the other day which talked about time travel which was written in 1900.

Nobody has ever heard of it. It is a sequel to H.G. Wells, The Time Machine but its set in Leeds and it’s a tiny little pamphlet. It’s a really nice little publication by somebody from Leeds in 1900 about what will happen in the future, all the way up to 1996.

Now nobody has ever heard of that, it isn’t very important in the grand scheme of things but actually if you are looking at time travel and Leeds, it’s great. It’s a really nice little thing and sometimes it’s those oddities which are the most exciting and creative pieces, you know not the big famous novels.

It’s those little independent things, published by independents.

Any book less than 100 years old members can take out and take home, any book over 100 years old they can have access to. There are no rules, white gloves or special collections, if any member wants to access any book, then they can do.

That’s the other thing about being an independent library, we are here for the members and they can have access to anything and look at them. It’s meant to be very open and a creative resource for people, whether they get inspiration from reading it or asking themselves “what does that mean!”

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Words by Louise Fletcher Photos by Bokehgo

Poetic Licence

“When I thought about poetry, I thought about Shakespeare. As you get older and you get deeper into it you realise it’s just expressing yourself. Even a rap song is just poetry but on a beat. When you take the beat away it’s just decoded.”

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Mention poetry and shudders may spread down your spine at the thought of English teachers forcing Anthology works down your throat, feeding you conceptual ideas about how the words are actually all metaphors for the writer’s ideology. It’s a detrimental experience which sends a lot of people running away from the art form, instead of embracing it as a form of expression open to everyone.

You could once have put music artist, Denmarc Creary into this camp but after seeing spoken word being performed with passion and relevance by Leeds Young Authors, he realised that there was much more to it. Wanting to get involved Denmarc started attending their weekly sessions (which still run today) and the rest as they say was… well no let’s not say history, instead the fluid beginnings of a bright future.

“When I was younger I didn’t feel like there was much to do,” Denmarc explains. “I would finish school and go play with my friends outside but that was it. We would be bored a lot of the time. No real way of expressing ourselves, doing something different to the norm and being creative. So finding things like LYA and writing changed that. Music has always kind of been there, I have always dabbled and made my own beats but the words part definitely came from there.”

Whether writing lyrics or writing for his spoken word, using his experiences keep the written word accessible and exciting for him and his diverse audiences. For his opening performance at the BBC 1xtra Live show to 12,000 people, he drew on his experiences as a young person coming from Jamaica and getting to where he is now.

“I think 1xtra wanted to highlight what’s good

about Leeds and to me that is everything. It is a kind of good way of expressing my love.

“I think about a subject and everything else kind of goes. I’m in this weird moment. It’s therapeutic and helps me express myself. I’m not the type of guy that is easily expressive. I can’t explain things properly and it helps me in that way.”

But for someone who says they find it hard to be expressive, his performance skills are a big part of what he does. This isn’t a drab poetry reading we are talking about here, it’s all about getting the crowd to feel your vibe and catch your enthusiasm, something Denmarc lets slip he built up with the age old help of a hair brush and a mirror.

“Years ago being in my room recording myself on my mac with my hair brush and literally performing like I was performing to 30,000 people.

That’s my way of getting over the nerves.

“The more you do it the more you get comfortable. You know that the audience isn’t there to criticise you, they are there to cheer you on. The deeper you get into it, the more you realise that.

There is always the butterflies but fear turns into excitement. The nerves come about a minute before you get up on stage but when you’re up there and you see the reactions and face smiling, it all goes.”

And refreshingly it’s this enjoyment which spurs Denmarc on more than anything, “it’s just really fun. I really enjoy it. I do it because I really enjoy it and it allows me to do so many things.”

So what does the future hold for Denmarc?

Well there are goals and aims he has in mind but he keeps those close to his chest, knowing that for him, all things will come in time, rewarding hard work and the right attitude.

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“Purple trees are growing, I can feel them forming, Just coz you don’t see em’, Doesn’t mean you know, Not everyone knows, and, You’re used to the green ones, I feel it in my bones, I don’t know why I know, What would I gain?

What would I gain if I told you some lies?

Don’t dismiss, Don’t dismiss me just look in my eyes, You feel what I’m telling you don’t you?

They told me you wasn’t supposed to, Believe me when I first told you, If I could then I would just show you, But there’s power in the strength of believing, There’s always a logical meaning, It’s beyond us were just humans, Our perception is based on feelings, You’re in doubt right now, These are just sounds right now, Purple trees are growing, I can feel them forming, Just coz you don’t see em’, Doesn’t mean you know, Not everyone knows, and, You’re used to the green ones, I feel it in my bones, I don’t know why I know.”

Piece: Purple Tree’s from Denmarc Creary (The Sudden Change EP)

Words by Khadijah Ibrihiim Photos by Bokehgo

The Power of Words

There’s so much to be said about the Yorkshire region, especially when it comes to poetry and Literary events. Over the last few years, a growing amount of literature festivals have sprung up across the region, boasting some of the world’s most prestigious prize winning authors and poets. This of course is great news, as it opens the door to the region as a welcoming and cultured place, where people can enjoy book readings combined with live poetry and performance. But what is more amazing, is when it comes to celebrating the word, Leeds is like a gold mine, so rich, beautiful and flavoursome, you’ll always want more.

There’s an array of talented and diverse writers, poets and spoken word artists right on the doorstep of the city, a stream of folk who craft the poetic

forms, bringing life and art to an audience in a mixture of ways, from the more established works of Rommi Smith, Ian Duhig and Helen Mort to the gritty rawness of Saju Ahmed, Rheima Robinson, Andy ‘Testament’ Brooks, Jamal Gerald, to name but a few.

Of course one should not forget myself (Khadijah Ibrihiim) from the above line up.

However, as an arts practitioner, I’m widely known as the poet who nurtures, mentors and directs young writers. So When it comes to supporting the next generation, I can confidently say Leeds is one of the only cities since 2004 to consistently host an annual Youth Poetry Slam and Lit Fest ‘Voices of a New Generation’ (VNG). These attract an astonishing amount of young people from across Leeds and

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beyond to pick up the pen, write creatively and perform in their schools, youth groups and at events.

Leeds is the only city to win three out of four UK National Youth Poetry Slam Champions, the first UK city to attend ‘Brave New Voices’ (BNV) International slam festival, USA, and take 2nd place out of 52 teams. We’re one of the first and only cities to create an international award winning documentary; ‘We Are Poets’, which features the talent of Leeds Youth. It’s with this history that the city can safely say the written and spoken word is alive in the hands of youth expression.

So what’s led to this injection of youth creative energy? Projects such as Leeds Young Authors (LYA), which runs weekly workshops at Host Media Centre. Founded in 2003 by myself, the project offers a safe space for youth expression and career development. LYA’s main aim is to support the progress of young people, who are looking for avenues to express themselves from page to stage.

Over the last 13 years LYA have seen a number of youth go onto pursue a career in the arts writing, producing or performance. Such as Zodwa Nyoni playwright, poet and author of Nine Lives and Boi Boi is Dead, Tila and Tavelah, appearance on BBC ‘The Voice’, Denmark Creary, who recently opened up for BBC 1xtra at the Leeds Arena and the list goes on.

It’s the love, passion, and commitment of the work which is why LYA exists. Despite little or no funding, it continues to produce work which puts Leeds at the top of its game, with outstanding youth mentors, facilitators and poets who find joy in giving back to young people.

Emilee Moore is a visiting Research Fellow until the end of 2017 in the School of Education at the University of Leeds. In coming to Leeds, one of her aims is to link up with out-of-school programs that are engaging with children and young people through literacy in critical and creative ways.

She is currently collaborating with Leeds Young Authors in seeking to understand the socially transformative potential of spoken word poetry, a powerful artistic practice and as a transnational youth culture connecting young people around the globe. Through spoken word poetry, young authors are empowered to use their ideas, their words, their voices, their bodies and their emotions as catalysts for social change.

As one LYA poet comments, his poetry is the only means through which he feels he is being listened to. Emilee’s goal is to draw on experiences and expertise developed outside of mainstream classrooms, such as in LYA, in contributing to socially transformative pedagogical practices in schools, through her role as a teacher educator.

But language and words are just as powerful in everyday life and community as Malika Booker, poet and author of Pepper Seeds explains;

“I’m a new Leeds resident who stumbled into The city and fell in love. There’s a hospitality here which includes each passenger’s automatic thank you to bus drivers as they exit, or unsolicited but welcome advice from sales assistants, strangers on the street or even bank managers about where to get cheap internet, good fish and chips or savings for a mortgage.

“Chapeltown heaves with stories, a fact demonstrated by the local’s relationship with their geographical space. Here official street signs, buildings, or local parks bear no relationship to the names uttered by the locals. So when asked to meet someone by the Rec – the person really means ‘The Norma Hutchinson park’ in Chapeltown. As an outsider I would query these discrepancies to be regaled with stories riddled with historical and personal anecdotes.

“Chapeltown is a very close-knit African Caribbean community so introductions raise questions like - who is his/her people? Alas I am always bereft having to reveal no kinship ties due to having recently migrated here. Yet it is fascinating to witness a local’s introduction. The person’s Christian and family name would be exchanged with a strong emphasis on their surname, where they lived, whose daughter or son they are. It would be a variation on “you know so and so who used to live by x and was married to y, well it’s her mother’s sister”. This is all very fascinating raw material for a poet like myself especially since I moved to Chapeltown from Brixton (London) after being appointed a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in the Faculty of English (at the University of Leeds).

“I’m here as a poet/ theatre maker to research the burial rituals within the Caribbean community and use these as stimulus for a book of poems and an interactive theatre piece. People here are eager to participate in my research project, even extending invitations to funerals and recommending other perspective participants. Chapeltown pulses with oral history and it’s my pleasure to be here as a poet interacting with and recording the fascinating socio-cultural history of these people and this place.”

There are a number of programs around the city and region doing great work like Ilkley young writers, First floor, West Yorkshire playhouse, Sustained Theatre Yorkshire and The writing squad Sheffield. As well as publishing houses such as Peepal Tree Press PTP, the biggest publishers of Caribbean Black British Literature based in Burley Leeds.

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Photography by Bokehgo

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Words by John Slemensek Photography by Bokehgo

Mail Art

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Leon Varga is an interdisciplinary artist who has been living in Leeds for ten years, working in the mediums of sculptural installation and painting. He spent many years developing his artistic approach while studying at the Hungarian School of Fine Art and was awarded Best Hungarian Young Artist in 2006 by The Academy of Rome, delivering a major art installation project called ‘Transport’.

Although his extensive work and accolades across many platforms are all extremely impressive, it’s his “Mail Art” project, which focuses on using envelopes as an art form in which to spark conversations and encourage engagement which we’re excited to explore.

Mail Art in Leon’s words Mail Art has a long term history in Hungary dating back to the 70s. It was often used as a secretive way to express political and cultural class views, a particularly risky way of communication under communist state censorship. In spite of this it was a regularly used alternative art practice. Through the crossing of space and the creation of interaction, my mail art invites the idea of extended engagement in encounters where the involved partner/spectator is called to take responsibility for what she or he sees or reads and adds to the original message of the mail.

These mails are not only textual messages and

photographs but portions of documentaries. The use of documents as a link enforces its meaning, suggesting a direct relationship between the past events and the conditions it has come to represent.

This mode of communication for me, works as a device for seeking a moral engagement with the archives of our past.

I first began using mail art in 2004. Photos, graphics and texts were sent by airmail on envelopes as a way of opening up the important questions and thoughts of my everyday life. I was using the outside of the envelopes as a postcard. These envelopes were created as open correspondence or discussion.

For me, the images, poems, drawings and texts created strong and intimate dialogues on the daily concerns of my life and art processes. I used this form as part of a wider project, the installation ‘Kiss the sun Icarus’ 2007.

In 2010 I returned to the idea, recognising the more complex potential that the form seemed to promise. I felt it opened up new potential for exploring Hungary’s past by allowing for collaboration between ‘interlocutors’.

Mail art as a form of practice, informs my theoretical considerations which I record in my written notes. Text has an important role in my practice as it serves as feedback and correction, and as a referential structure for my art practice which allows me to keep track of my studio work. For

example I used photographs of iconic Hungarian locations printed onto A4 envelopes and added a short text inviting the recipient to simply ‘add to the message and return’, and addressed these to correspondents in Hungary.

Other envelopes included arrangements of photo portraits of immediately recognisable Hungarian politicians and texts from the 60s and 70s from official Hungarian propaganda, again with the invitation to add and return. Interestingly the less political messages were most returned pieces, while the more political, which directly touched upon the wounds of the past, were never returned.

I subsequently used photographs of iconic city sights and I sent them out on envelopes to artists I knew in Budapest. On the envelopes I wrote an invitation for the recipient to ‘add to the message and return’. What I received was very interesting; some of my correspondents (interlocutors) had related the iconic images to the real locations and had taken photographs of homeless people in these locations and then superimposed them over the locations on my envelopes.

In a world where the art of letter writing is losing the battle to its technological younger siblings, Leon’s approach to reach out and create dialogue through envelopes, creates a physical link in long distance communication which is so quickly being lost.

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Words by Conor Crozier Photography by Anthony Robling & Giles Smith

Treading the Boards with Manic Chord Treading Water (Credit - Anthony Robling)

Deep into a conversation with Dave Cartwright, one of the Directors of theatre company, Manic Chord, we broach the subject of ‘the power of words’ and what this means to him and the theatrical world in a wider sense.

In a moment of wondrous irony, Dave’s overwhelming admiration for language almost gets the better of his vocabulary. “The English language is beautiful, it is so… so… flamboyant and over the top and miraculous and to be able to work with that on a daily basis and to evoke feeling with that language is a joy.

“That escapism, relief and ability to laugh, joke and bleed with what you write; you can evoke so many emotions in your audience. Emotions are becoming filtered down, they’re becoming emojis.”

After meeting friends Sam and Alex on a Theatre Performance course at Leeds University, the three Decade of Quality Ad.indd 1

19/02/2016 15:25

utilised their passions and followed the advice of their lecturers to set up their own company.

In the three years since graduating, the trio have managed to legally establish the company, hire professional actors, set up an education programme and take a number of shows nationwide.

“Sam absolutely loves the making of work, so he directs all our shows. He tends to propose the ideas too. Alex is the company producer, so he deals with booking tours, funding bids and all that me and Sam don’t want to do! And he’s very, very good at it. I am in the middle, I write all the work, perform occasionally and I run the education side of things.

“I think the desire for me to write is to be a part of the bigger picture that then can infiltrate people from lots of different angles to give them a really well rounded experience that they take and

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Words by Jed Skinner

Treading Water R&D (Credit - Giles Smith)

An instrumentalist’s investigation into lyrics

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then carry forward, and it’s lovely once I’ve written a script to see what others do with it and she how it’s shaped”.

Dave’s passion for theatre comes from his belief in it being the grounds for humanity; as an outlet for entertainment and escapism, but also as a forum for debate and discussion and for provocation. It’s this passion that’s carved the company’s direction in an industry exhausted by public spending cuts.

As a retaliation to stretched and axed drama departments in schools, Manic Chord have set up two educational programmes: The Takeover consisting of hour long drama workshops in schools across the country, and Generate - a project for teenagers inspired by The Takeover to develop their performing and writing skills.

“If you start people young and get them used to presenting their words and talking, you build their confidence” Dave explains. “It’s lovely to see that on day one you have a group of kids that don’t have that much confidence, all terrified to talk to each other, and by the end of session one they are all walking out with their arms around each other.”

For Dave, this lack of confidence extends beyond the classroom and has become deeply engrained within society, inadvertently threating to destroy the culture of theatre;

“The art of socialising has completely changed.

People feel uncomfortable sat in a room with loads of other people. That humanity has been fractured a bit. Do I think there are ways to pull that back? Yes,

absolutely. I think it comes back to introducing it to people at a younger age, encouraging young people to see as much theatre as they can.”

He quite clearly understands the issues faced within the industry, and brushes them off as an optimistic challenge for the company to craft their work. But nothing is as clear as his future aspirations for Manic Chord.

“The goal is to become one of the best makers of theatre in Britain and become an international touring company with a very strong outreach strand to engage people who wouldn’t usually access these areas. There’s so many other options nowadays for people to do during their free time and with their limited disposable income so it’s very important for us to engage people in what we are doing and make sure that our work is worth people’s money.

“We’re lucky in Leeds because we’ve got so many little outlets of theatre, you’ve got City Varieties, Hub which is where we’re based which constantly has the most incredible young companies coming through its door. Carriage Works, The Playhouse, The Grand. Even Seven Arcs in Chapel Allerton. So there’s a lot going on here.”

With so much variety on our doorstep enclosed in some of the city’s most beautiful buildings, exploring the world of theatre seems an unmissable concept, yet most of us remain forgetful of what can be an exciting alternative to weekend TV for the price of a cinema ticket.

I don’t really like writing about myself, but I have a confession. When I told my friends that I was going to be writing something about lyrics, the response was something along the lines of ‘oh really?’

I play in a two-piece band called Galaxians, based in Leeds. We’re probably unusual in the sense that we are predominantly instrumental.

Until recently, when we started working with a tremendous vocalist friend of ours, we just didn’t think about lyrics at all. If there was a ‘vocal’, then it tended to be a hook (a repeated melody that circles around a few notes).

The process of trying to fuse that rhythmic pattern with words has been a skill that has escaped me. I’ve always been interested in how the method of lyric-writing works, what goes into it, what inspires it, and whether the words or the music come first.

Recently, I went to see Latetia Sadier (formerly of Stereolab). My ears pricked up when, in response to a question from the audience, she replied that lyrics “always came first” for her when writing a song. And then, in a queue for the loo, I bumped into my friend Sarah Statham from the band Esper Scout, a four-piece rock band from Leeds, who had been equally interested by Latetia’s response to the question.

So, I asked Sarah and her fellow band-mate Rebecca Smolinski if they wouldn’t mind answering a few questions about lyrics. Sure, they said:

“I doodle words and phrases in notebooks and loose bits of paper during the more freeing times”, says Sarah. “I’m the sole lyric writer in Esper Scout however, Rebecca and our bandmates Kirsty or Abbi will sometimes suggest alternative ways of phrasing or choice of language to compliment the way the music’s moving.”

Rebecca adds: “I hear Sarah’s vocal melody and automatically my imagination finds words or sounds which fit. I feel like this is the way which I can input to the overall flow of a song but not necessarily the words or feeling which are being communicated”.

Lyrics are picked up from life and events happening around them, which can be seen in their new single, In Forgeign.

“I used to grab bits of observation here and there when I worked at Blockbuster. Occasionally I’d be struck by a line when daydreaming on the shop floor, and then I’d be quick to commit it to a blank piece of till-roll and pop it in my back

pocket.”

So, like a musical chicken and egg situation, does the melody fit around these pocket notes or do the notes themselves fit into music already laid down?

“More often than not I’ll write things down with a certain distance”, Sarah says.

“As a result, the meaning of lyrics can occur to me over years. Such as when a life event, sometimes tiny, strikes sudden resonance. I think that says more about a block between my practical and emotional self, rather than enigmatic self-indulgence.”

I start to think about some of the lyrics of Latetia Sadier, from her time in Stereolab. One of the songs that stands out lyrically to me is ‘Ping Pong’ and how it reflects on Marxism.

Recent financial crises have drawn me back to this track, listening to it in a new light every time the bankers mess something up. Which is often.

I asked Esper Scout if they had similar political themes in their work, and if being a band of four women might subject their lyrics to a level of scrutiny that wouldn’t happen to a group of four men.

“There are definitely times when being musical women is brought to our attention, but never in relation to lyrics”, says Sarah. Adding. “I don’t think on paper you’d guess the gender of the person who’d penned them. I haven’t seen anyone attribute femininity in reviews or discussion, but perhaps if the lyrics were more sexual, or coming from a place of gender politics – statements about being a woman in society for example – more of that kind of attention would be drawn”.

So what’s the key to writing really good lyrics?

“My way is not to question too much, or at least being conscious of a tendency to scrutinise to the detriment of what’s organic and human”, says Sarah.

“Move things around, change some of the words, sure, but the sentiment and feeling is the magic. Being overly analytical is a suffocating force I’ve experienced enough. Through Esper Scout, and with my solo project, Fig by Four, I’m finding more security in my own character. This can be quite a personal fluctuation, so I’m grateful to have this tool of sorts. It’s not a constant fountain either, which makes it more special”. She concludes, “Even if without rhyme or reason, writing is stabilising”.

So perhaps the most important thing to learn from this, is to just do it.

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Words and illustrations by Nina Hunter

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Hi, I’m Nina. I’m a graphic designer and illustrator with a studio in Leeds City Centre.

When Simon and I married in 2008 we bought a flat and loved living in the city centre “adult - style.” Leeds is an amazing city with so much to offer culturally, entertainment-wise and of course great shopping and night life. We’re very much city folk.

Then Gabriel was born and our lifestyle suddenly took a dramatic twist. All the bars, shops and most restaurants suddenly disappeared from our menu and I found myself rediscovering Leeds from a totally new perspective - through a toddlers eyes.

I don’t like getting the car out, so at the beginning I thought it almost impossible to have a lovely day with child in a city. Leeds is going through a wonderful boom time right now. It’s bursting with independent shops, cafes and restaurants; everywhere you look something new is happening and the local community is getting stronger. However, I still didn’t think there was enough going on for the children, but the deeper I dug the more I found.

It turns out Leeds City Museum has tons of activities for children of all ages. Millennium Square is a great playground that can change into a million things depending on the season from a beach to an ice-skating rink.

I always have tons of ideas for my day out with Gabriel these days, but my favourite thing is

to spend time at Leeds Dock. I love hanging out in this safe area with such a lively three year old, on a rain-free day. I like watching him ride his scooter, then we go to this new little playground near Tesco.

We can eat our lunch either in one of the cafes or at an outdoor table.

There’s no way we would go home without a free water taxi ride there and back. If the time and the energy levels are sufficient, we also like to get out at the end and explore Granary Wharf.

Leeds is an amazing city, with a lot of undiscovered child friendly treasures which myself and my three year old boy enjoy exploring, which I wanted to share with other families, so created my illustrated child friendly map of Leeds.

I hope my favourite places will inspire you with ideas for your family adventures in Leeds City Centre and that we can develop this map together, transforming this amazing city into a totally safe, family orientated place!

I have really enjoyed working closely on this project with Independent Leeds’s sister initiative, Leeds Welcome, and the Child Friendly Leeds team at Leeds City Council. I am excited about building on this collaboration to help Leeds grow as a child and family friendly city.

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Some of our Favourite Places

Hyde Park Picture House Great value family movies and regular events hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk

Leeds City Museum Regular free family events, permanent exhibition, mini playground on the top floor.

Opera North Singing and music classes for toddlers and preschool children.

A RR OYA L M O U RIE S

Leeds Market New performance stage coming, lot’s of cafes. This is where Breeze is based. www.breezeleeds.org

Royal Armouries Great armour exhibition, with a child friendly cafe and a play room on the top floor.

Millennium Square (Carriage Works Theatre) Art gallery www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery Arena www.firstdirectarena.com Belgrave www.belgravemusichall.com park square st john’s park (with Arch Cafe) zaap www.zaapthai.co.uk city square roxy lanes www.roxylanes.co.uk city varieties www.cityvarieties.co.uk VQ with a fountain feature Northern ballet northernballet.com leeds college of music www.lcm.ac.uk

The Tetley Regular family events, classes and a dinery.

yorkshire dance www.yorkshiredance.com colour may vary www.colours-may-vary.com outlaws yacht club outlawsyachtclub.com twinkles private nursery www.twinklesnurseries.com corn exchange (With Primos Hot Dogs) water taxi the works skate park theworksskatepark.co.uk trinity kitchen trinityleeds.com/trinitykitchen everyman cinema www.everymancinema.com Water lane pubs (The Cross Keys, Midnight Bell)

Map Key Car Free Area | 26

Classes/ Learning |

Food & Drink | Events

Entertainment |

Outdoors |

Facilities

Words by Louise Fletcher Photos by Bokehgo

Enhancing Through Enquiry

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It seems like most of us go through that epiphany moment at some point in our lives, the one where at a family gathering you realise that the uncle you don’t see very often, is more than just the person who dishes out chocolate coins every Christmas.

They are instead enigmatic and full of interesting anecdotes and outlooks on life.

Your view on them shifts as you over hear them sat on the sofa discussing experiences in previous careers as geologists, visiting far away shores and the time this nearly led to them getting a tattoo by a transsexual somewhere in Asia. OK, so that last one might only apply to us, but our point is this. If you take the time to explore the people around you, you can be surprised by the results and even enlightened by the experience. Sitting down to a Chinwag is a little like this.

Running over the last couple of years, Chinwag events are easy going chats which meander through the experiences, thoughts and ideas of creative thinkers and doers. Although very much an event, as an audience member sat within a crowd at Outlaws, you can’t shift the feeling that you’ve stumbled across an interesting conversation which

was innocently happening at the next table.

As host Chris Madden will admit, describing it as an interview is “over-egging it” but that’s the beauty of these intimate chats, anecdotes and jokes, which regularly draw a diverse crowd down to indulge the nosy parker side which exists within us all. A concept which we explored with Chris over a hot chocolate and talk of swapping a jumper at “Marksies” on the Chinwag sofa.

“I’m here to sit down and hopefully have an interesting experience which draws people in and allows some kind of connection to ideas, some kind of connection to thinking, connection to another person,” he explains. “I think people like that.

People like stories and narratives and finding out stuff.”

As a psychotherapist, the exploration of narratives is something which Chris does on a daily basis but makes it clear that none of his guests are having a “session” when they sit down to talk.

However, these chats can lead to guests discussing deep, personal experiences which haven’t been aired before.

Although not officially “therapy”, Chris agrees

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Welcome to CrossEyes Leeds

CrossEyes Leeds 9 Mill Hill Leeds LS1 5DQ Tel. (0)113 245 5378

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with us that the idea of talking things over and reflecting on experiences has therapeutic qualities in its own way. Talking about things with a friend or even chuntering about life to yourself in the shower (not that we ever do that…) can all help put things into perspective.

“We’re born in and of relationships, we seek to make connection. I know with some of guests we’ve had, we’ve got really deep and some go really personal, and with some we haven’t. If that person sits here and doesn’t feel like they want to talk or they can share certain things, I totally get that.”

The talks are also self-proclaimed “self-help” for Chris, helping him to get over his fear of looking like a “div” speaking in front of an audience, asking the wrong question or messing up. He adamantly states he isn’t a natural interviewer (something which from our experience we would refute) and does little preparation for his talks.

“We had Irvine Welsh here a few years ago.

I didn’t really know what to say to him and I ran out of questions. I was pretty up front and said look Irvine I haven’t got any questions right now. Are you ok if we throw it out to everyone?

“People seem to really like it. My perception is that it might be that people tap into the vulnerability.

I know that I’m making a bit of an idiot of myself, I know I’m not a natural interviewer, I don’t prepare.

I haven’t got enough time to prepare because I have a full time job, kids and a life. I do this for better reasons than stroking my own ego and making a

career out of it. I’m interested in creating dialogue and showing humanity, showing connection.”

Apart from imparting dialogue into the world, greater reasons for Chinwag come in the form of MAP, an organisation which helps give young people the opportunity to explore and develop through creativity. All the money raised through entry goes back into MAP and for Chris is the only reason that the events have been running so long.

“Meeting people whose work you admire is great but actually, what’s the purpose of it? It wouldn’t have continued without Joe (a trustee of MAP) and meeting Tom down at MAP. That’s when it actually became really purposeful and there was a reason for doing it.”

Although, we can’t help but feel even without the official events, Chris would constantly be chin-wagging to great effect. Our conversation travels around all aspects of life from Thin Lizzy to conspiracy theories, from spiritual beliefs to an introduction to Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategy cards. However, we always seemed to come back to a central concept - how language and dialogue in all its form is a beautiful and powerful thing. We part ways agreeing that enquiry is something we must never lose sight of. Chris leaves us with this thought;

“Life is an amazing experience. If you grab it and you treat it as a constant enquiry, it can give you really deep riches.”

crosseyes.co.uk crosseyesuk crosseyesuk

Words by John Slemensek Photographs by Bokehgo

Hello & Welcome to Leeds

If you have been down by Leeds Kirkgate Market’s outdoor market recently, you might have noticed there’s been some changes.

Across from the hundreds of workers in hivis jackets getting John Lewis ready to open later this year, the sounds of construction and heavy machinery, a bright, new piece of public art has emerged.

A bit of a David and Goliath story if you like. One man, armed with some rollers and paint cans, tackled a 20 plus metre stretch of bare wall, through rain, rain, and more rain, day-in and dayout for three weeks. But the end result has brought the people of Leeds something quite magnificent; a public art piece that acts as a beacon, an entrance to Leeds’ historical and beloved market, as well as welcoming new visitors to the city.

The piece was commissioned by Leeds City Council’s Unfold program with funding from Leeds BID to celebrate the coming of the British Art Show 8. It’s a marriage of the integral history of Leeds, as well as the new creative blood coursing through its veins, and make up the face of the city as we know it and is all down to one incredibly talented artists with a love for words.

Working for over 12 years in illustration, Nathan Evans, has always had an interest in creating individual and unique ‘type’ pieces throughout his work. From a showcase of letterform techniques in his new alphabets, to visual representations of rapper lyrics in the Typog-RAP-hy Series, his work

draws on his ingrained creative practice.

He takes inspiration for his eclectic letterforms from a bank of collected and created source material spanning his creative career. Once a few relevant examples are found, he puts pen to paper to create words which act as a visual representation of the character and feeling he believes they resonate.

The sometimes unbelievable precision of his compositions comes from the help of tight grid networks however, this only works when working on paper. For this ‘Hello & Welcome to Leeds’ piece, the brickwork took on this role, working as an excellent upscale when mapping out the letters.

Nathan explains;

“Every letter has its own structural rules. I experiment with them, abstracting their form as much as possible whilst still retaining their legibility and meaning”

His distinctive colour palette choices sign off the piece into a perfect bundle, giving a wholesome feeling of togetherness despite a wide variation in the forms of the words.

The result? Beautiful works that draw you in, make you smile, and give words personalities of their own.

You can see Nathan Evans’ ‘Hello & Welcome to Leeds’ mural in the flesh on George Street, next to Leeds Bus Station. To see more of Nathan’s work visit: www.n-evans.com // Instagram: @neillustration

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Words by Louise Fletcher Photos by Max Miechowski

Raising a glass to Yorkshire’s finest

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After hearing a broad Yorkshire accent butchering the delicate pronunciation needed to order a world class bottle of wine, it’s hard to imagine a Leeds landscape ever producing a bottle to rival it’s old world counterparts. Besides, the weather just wouldn’t be good enough…

Well that’s where you’re wrong. Although we may be preconditioned to believe that you only find vines growing in countries bathed in sun-kissed weather, you might be surprised to find out that as far back as Roman times, it wouldn’t have been uncommon to see vineyards across the country.

Although these skills mostly died out when the 1st world war unfolded, there are plenty of people bringing wine back to the UK and we’re lucky enough to have one of these vineyards right on our doorstep.

Started 30 odd years ago, George Bowden set out to create Leventhorpe Vineyard from a piece of land he spotted one day in an agricultural magazine with a title so niche, you can’t ever imagine an audience large enough to read it. After scoping it out and nodding in the wrong places at an auction, the land was his and he started out on a journey to

build a name for Yorkshire wine around the world.

Now before you all go running out to buy some vines to supply your two bottle a week habit, there’s a little bit more to growing vines than planting seeds, pointing them towards the sun and hoping for the best. Something which George’s background in chemistry and geography helped with;

“It’s not a case of just buying a bit of land and planting some vines. You might as well throw your money away. It has to be the exact right spot.

“It’s a long hard slog. You can only make wine after four years of planting vines and then you need to know what your land is capable of, you need to know what your vines are capable. You have to learn over the years what to do with your grapes given a certain type of weather pattern. Too many people think the kids have left home and we have got rid of the horse, let’s grow some vines.”

And although a bit of geographical know how is no doubt handy, George’s trips to Californian Vineyards in the 60s have also helped build up a bank of knowledge, even if he can’t always remember how he got home…

“I used to work in Canada and the States in

Photographs by Bokehgo

NE Neon - A chemical symbol, an inert gas and a thing of beauty. We capture how this scientific element is creatively used across the city.

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the late 60s. Travelling around there I came across vineyards in California which were just starting up again. They were having a hard time because people used to say ‘Californian wine, no thank you.’ I heard all the stories which went on.”

After coming back to Blighty, setting up experimental vineyards and even using winemaking as a chemistry demonstration in his teaching years, Leventhorpe was born. After a lot of hard work, learning curves and man hours from teetotal, grape pickers, its name and produce is now enjoyed by wine drinkers from across the world, with bottles being exported as far away as Japan. It can also claim to be a staple for the ex-French rugby union coach, who introduced his French colleagues to the wonders of Yorkshire plonk.

But apart from picking a magical plot of land with just the right conditions, the trick to producing a great glass of wine in our less than tropical conditions is all down to picking the right grapes. Pick up a bottle of Leventhorpe’s finest and it’s unlikely you’ll spot a name you recognise, there’s no Sauvignon Blanc here, instead, among others, a lovely, fruity Madeleine Angevine;

“Supermarkets have unfortunately just about ruined wine culture in Britain. There are at least 4000 different types of grapes that can be grown in Britain but they’re only interested in the ones

people know. All the grapes that produce fabulous wines are getting lost because people only go for the ones everyone knows. People now are starting to look around for new tastes.

“So, Madeleine Angevine, people have never heard of that but it’s just right for Britain and gives a good characteristic and French tasting wines. A lot of other English vineyards have gone for German grapes and have a Germanic feel.”

As George explains that it’s these lesser known, resilient grapes which allow him to create something to rival vineyards from warmer continents, (something which, after trying a bottle, we can definitely vouch for) it strikes us that, if this were beer we were talking about, these old and unusual recipes would have no doubt been widely explored and celebrated by now.

Rightly, the trend for drinking craft, local beer and ale has boomed in the city over the last couple of years, with brewers experimenting both old and new exciting recipes. So why then do we not all have a stock of Leventhorpe wine in our fridge, getting excitement from discovering the new grapes and different flavours?

It only seems right that we raise a glass and celebrate beers more refined, sophisticated relative and give it the spotlight it deserves.

Words by Conor Crozier Photos by Katie McMillan

The Two Band Syndrome

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Multi-tasking can be a real struggle for people; every morning we weave our way past those who attempt to walk and text, and at times we can all find it difficult to juggle our work and free time. But what about playing in two successful bands whilst holding down a part time job? Just the thought of it would be enough to cause some people to breakdown, but we spoke to one man who thrives off his busy schedule.

Charlie Thomas met the rest of his Calls Landing bandmates at Leeds College of Music after they came to him looking for a drummer.

They formed as a band soon after and established themselves in the Leeds rock scene, frequenting shows at illustrious venue, The Cockpit.

After becoming part of a wider web of nationwide bands through playing Pinky Swears shows, a creation of Slam Dunk organiser JD, the band met establishing record producer Bob Cooper who helped them record their first EP.

It was through this connection that Charlie

met Rob Lynch, a successful acoustic artist from London who was recording his debut album and asked Bob Cooper to produce the record. Needing drums for the album, Bob reached out to Charlie.

“I went down, listened to the track on the train and played a session. Talking to Rob afterward he said he’d been signed by a label and was going to do some tours. So I said ‘If you want a drummer, I’ll do it”.

Charlie has since joined the army of musicians who split their talents across more than one band or genre and has been on tour with both acts across the UK and Europe. He describes the contrasting experiences with affinity, “When I first went off with Rob we were supporting German band Tease.

We were in a tour bus, it was like nothing I had ever experienced. When I did it with Calls Landing we slept in a Land Rover in McDonald’s car parks.”

Although his strikingly different episodes might convince certain people to choose one over the other, Charlie remains balanced. He strives to

make both ventures as successful as they can be, and appreciates the experience each role brings to the other.

“I feel like touring with Rob brings something else to our [Calls Landing] world, like how we could craft what we were doing. I think with one band that plays bigger shows, it definitely drives me to put everything that I learn from one into the other”. Although don’t be misled by this, Calls Landing are no local flash-in-the-pan band, playing the Lock Up stage at Reading and Leeds Festival and recently supporting Deaf Havana.

Charlie has learnt to utilise the contacts he makes while touring with Rob to transfer into Calls Landing. “We were meeting people who work for Rock Sound or Kerrang and when it came down to our record, the woman that did Rob’s press campaign became a good friend so I asked if she would to do ours and stuff got in Kerrang and Rock Sound”.

However, maneuvering between the two has been met by a few issues. “Communication is the hardest thing. [Calls Landing] released an EP while I was away on the first tour and I was trying to sort out all the logistics of that but I was stuck in a venue in Hannover with the world’s worst wifi, not being able to get in touch with anyone, and when I finally did, I’d have to go and sound check or something.

That was tough”.

For the young drummer, his hectic schedule of

varied sounds is his creative outlet. Between sharing stages with his favourite bands as Calls Landing and being able to hone his craft with Rob Lynch, Charlie wouldn’t change his positions for anything.

He even enjoys the frenzy of his part time barista job at La Bottega Milanese, “it’s cool because making the coffees is like playing an instrument in itself, because you’re doing two things at once in harmony”.

Clearly not one to turn down a challenge, Charlie has also just started his own project that he’s been sitting on for a while. With a teenage love for New Wave sounds, and a yearning to get off the drum stool, he’s trying something new. “I have these demos that people say sound like The Cure, so I thought I would start a band with them.

But I’m going to play the guitar and not the drums.

I want to experience something different, it gets a little cold at the back of the stage”.

Rather than laying off the steam or acting smug now that he’s caught a break in an increasingly difficult industry to do so, Charlie maintains a humble and driven ethos.

“It shows it pays off if you just get your head down and crack on with it. There’s definitely moments where you don’t feel good about it but if you believe in something enough and there’s heart in it, others will enjoy it”. Surely an outlook we can all take something from?

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Words by Steph Pullen Photography by Kirsty Garland

Digger’s Island Disc: Joe Gill

Digger’s Island Disc, explores the collections of Leeds’ most prolific vinyl slingers and groove bringers. We challenge them to present to us the bare essentials from their collections and explain why they couldn’t live without them.

Our second installment features Outlaw’s Yacht Club’s very own, Joe Gill, formerly of Joe’s Bakery, a pioneer in bringing the sleazy, disco beats of the vinyl world to Leeds. We met up with him to discover some absolute, funk-heavy gems.

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Grannens Förflutna.

Strategi Gul / Utvandring.

This is my number one, this is an amazing record.

It’s a private press, which means it was privately financed and put together, no record labels behind it. Which these days, I guess is a lot more common.

It’s a little bit rarer, it means you’re only doing a few hundred copies of each.

This was done, it was 1983, by these Swedish teenagers, out in the countryside. They went to their local music shop and rented synths, drum machines, recorded a few things and then pressed up a 12” which is amazing, cosmic synth music.

We’ve got some friends who’ve got Wildlife Records in Malmö, Sweden – Wildlife Records.

They tracked it down and then they found a box of records from the guy who made it. Because he

pressed it himself, he probably just had a box of them in his garage. So it’s really limited and rare but they were just selling a box of old records, which had never made it to shops anywhere. It’s just amazing music and a great story as well.

Piano Fantasia.

Song For Denise.

It’s not really a rare one, it’s a quite nice, little, continental, floaty piano number. This is quite special for me because I played it at one of the best gigs I did with Francois Kay at Electric Elephant Festival. This takes me back to rocking out on a boat party with Francois Kay in the crystal clear blue seas of the Adriatic, with all my mates on the boat… it doesn’t really get better than that.

Patrick Forgas. …Sex Move!

It’s a little, weirdo 7” from a French guy called Patrick Forgas. I discovered this with a friend of mine, David Barbarossa, who’s a really good DJ from Glasgow. He played it, I really liked it and I had to find a copy, because it’s uber rare. What am I going to say about this one? It’s weird, it’s sleazy and you can dance to it. That’s the three things that I really look for in anything. Anything that’s just wrong and good. It’s funky.

Jorge Reyes & Antonio Zepeda.

A La Izquierda Del Colibrí.

It’s an LP from Mexico, 1986 if I’m not wrong. It’s just a crazy, amazing LP of Mexican drug chug.

The cover is great, you can just tell it’s going to be good. It’s got these two guys stood outside Aztec temples with a load of synth equipment. They’ve just come out of the rainforest after smoking peyote or something.

It’s a great LP of jungle soundscapes, just really sleazy, synth music. And the cover’s also great because it inspired our Light Night project. At the back it’s got this sort of TRON-esque laser pyramid and that became the inspiration for our building a pyramid in Mabgate. It was good! It wasn’t quite like this…

Lots of the time I think when you’re record digging, you instinctively start going on covers.

Especially when you’re in a room with thousands of records, it would take you days and days.

So when you’re flicking through, anything with space or pyramids is an immediate grab. I mean, that’s just the golden rule of record digging, if it’s got space pyramids on there, it’s bound to be amazing.

Patrick Cowley.

Muscle Up. This is a new compilation reissue, a recent purchase, it’s only just been out but it’s essential. Patrick Cowley, if you don’t know him, he’s an amazing, American, sort of virtuoso musician. He did the famous 15 minute I Feel Love, Donna Summer mega-mix. Most people know him as that. He did various other big disco hits, like Syvester, Someone to Love Tonight, you’ll know his music if you don’t know the name.

He also did some gay porn soundtrack stuff.

So this is a compilation of his gay porn soundtracks from when he was at college, which was about 1975, to when he died of HIV which would have been in 1982?

This is the stuff he did in-between that time frame, which was amazing, broody, chuggy, weird synthesiser music – sleazy again. Its timeless stuff, it works on the modern dance floor. There’s a 1975 demo version of Someone to Love Tonight on here, which is so long its right. There’s loads of other weird, synthesiser stuff with didgeridoos in there too.

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Words: by Matt Bradshaw Photos by Bokehgo

The Evolution of Holbeck

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There’s a newly built ingress to and from Leeds Railway Station, it’s like a golden pod that reflects its own hue, simmering and shimmering with sunlight and optimism. Not only is it an entrance that ‘entrances’ you but it’s also a portal built upon the sure steady confidence that’s quite literally brewing in Holbeck and its surrounds. So how did Leeds Council, Metro and Network Rail find themselves drawn to opening up Holbeck in such a visionary space-age way?

Kudos must go to their choice of architects Bauman Lyons who’ve already helped to shape the area, not just with cold blue-prints and bricks and mortar but with warm collaborations and consultations with everyone from locals, small businesses, musicians and artists.

This golden doorway opens up into Holbeck and gives us a glimpse into the past, present and future of the area. Within the hot-spot of listed buildings (33 in total) is a history that, like the magical new entrance, is rich in connections and idea’s that seem to suggest a strange, listless pull throughout the ages, that as we’ll explain further, has branched out beyond its mere geographical locale.

Over the last few years it’s attracted the attention of some of Leeds entrepreneurial and industrious folks, like Northern Monk, deciding to set up a working brewery to compliment the many pubs and bars that have decided to make their homes in the area. It’s no secret that the area’s vast industrial roots and buildings are now being used by hi-tech industries and modern businesses, once more bringing life and jobs into the area. So as we’ve seen the grains and hops of the beer world and the seeds of ideas of modern business take root, we should look at how the old Holbeck used seeds of another kind to change the area.

Flax seeds throughout the ages have been used to make clothes, broken down into fibres and used to make linen. There is evidence they’ve been in use for at least 30,000 years but in Leeds in during the Industrial Revolution, an industrious fellow named John Marshall purchased the rights to use a recently patented flax spinning machine and set about building to house factories to make linen.

One of the most impressive buildings he created (Grade 1 listed) is Temple Works, designed in the ancient Egyptian style and based upon the Temple of Edfu (which honoured Horus, an

ancient patron God that was supposed to look after an area and its people). The architecture is quite the eye-opener in contrast to its surroundings, with powerful columns and an almost mystical style.

Flax seeds were harvested and spun in Ancient Egypt and regarded as sacred too (It may not come as a surprise that Mummies were wrapped in linen), so it seems that the ancient past may have influenced John Marshall as he looked to the future and built up his fortune manufacturing material.

But within present day Holbeck we see its magical pull at work again, this time attracting Burberry to move into Temple Works to begin a new era of manufacturing, making its iconic trench coats and bringing the clothes industry back into the heart of South Leeds.

When traveling into Leeds by train you may spy elaborate towers to the south which seem almost the polar opposite of the dark satanic mill towers seen around the rest of Yorkshire. It’s as if they come from another era, another country even, which all makes sense after a little research reveals they’re based on classic Italian architecture, specifically Giotto’s Campanile in Florence and Torre dei Lamberti in Verona.

They were part of a massive steel works set up to make steel pins for the textile industry but today, Tower Works has attracted a different type of industry, with everyone from Digital start-ups, to costume designers, artists and PR companies all spinning a creative web that’s capturing more and more of the countries talent.

This thriving creativity may seem a million miles away from an industrious past but when you consider the very first steam railway foundry was built in Holbeck, as was the very first centrally heated house in England, It seems that the area has always had that creative aura in its various industrious guises.

Just like the new golden entrance, Holbeck also has a golden future, not just as the latest hip destination for great craft beers and food, or even the exciting businesses that are popping up all over the place, but for its potential for re-inventing and re-discovering itself. As you research, you become aware that Leeds seems to have a canny ability to spot the potential in areas like Holbeck, and all it takes are a few visionary types and a bit of the old industrious gumption to turn once glorious past lives into prosperous futures.

Words & images by Mike @Vibrant_Leeds

@Vibrant_Leeds

The talented photographer behind the @Vibrant_Leeds Instagram account, explains why he connects to the city and shares some of his favourite pictures.

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I was born in the LGI 24 years ago and since then Leeds has been my home. I’ve always been interested in photography but it was only until I started at the LCA that I really get into it. I couldn’t get enough of it. It changed my perspective of the city drastically, evolving from the small city centre I’d grown accustomed to into a mammoth hub of beauty waiting to be explored.

I started taking photos of anything and everything.

The architecture, the traffic,the way the light streamed down back streets, the wildlife and the characters. In the last couple of years I’ve found my focus has shifted towards people much more. I’ve always found people fascinating and love to capture

how they interact with Leeds itself. I aim to catch the fleeting moments that are often missed, finding beauty in the everyday activities one does that get overlooked, may they be funny, serious or humbling.

Even on the grimmest of days the city and its people can find a way of making me smile. There’s always something that manages to surprise me.

I see it as documentation. I don’t know what I’m documenting for, I just hope that it will matter at some point in the future. I’m extremely proud of my city, its culture and its inhabitants. I find great joy in watching it grow, I’m proud to call myself a Loiner and hope my work convinces others to feel the same.

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