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