It was 18 months ago that Anthony Kneeshaw and Mark Husak combined forces and set out to achieve a single mission.

Their aim was to bring live music back to Bradford.

The live music fans were tired of having to travel outside of their home city anytime they wanted to see a band play a local venue.

Leeds, Sheffield, sometimes York: when bands set out on regional tours they rarely included Bradford on lists of must-visit cities.

Kneeshaw and Husak knew that it was not always so.

It might have been more than15 years ago, but Bradford did once have a thriving live music scene.

As venues began closing, however, this live scene slowly began to die.

In May 2007 Kneeshaw and Husak staged their first BD1 Live gig, hoping to give live music in Bradford an adrenalin shot to the heart. With backing from the council, they had secured the city's St George's Hall as a venue and booked local band Duels to play.

When hundreds turned out to support the gig, the promoters knew that they were right about the appetite for live music in Bradford.

A year later, in May this year, the pair had built such a following for live music that they staged a whole weekend of gigs around several venues in the city. They also secured their biggest booking, the Irish indie rock band Ash.

The weekend was a success, but for Kneeshaw and Husak, it was another step on the road to truly bringing live music back to the city.

On Monday the pair see their biggest booking yet play St George's Hall. The Brit Award nominees Guillemots play the city next week.

"They are the biggest name we've managed to get to come to Bradford," says Husak.

The promoter is careful to make it clear that he is delighted that the band are coming to Bradford, but doesn't want to seem over excited.

"It is fantastic news and it's a band that we're very excited about bringing here for people in Bradford to see, but we don't see this as a pinnacle."

Husak is even unwilling to concede that it's a high point.

It turns out that this is because he and his partner Kneeshaw have big plans.

"It is great, but we don't want to see it as a peak as much as we want to see it as a rung on a ladder that we're climbing," says Husak.

"It's still hard work to convince bands to come here and play. Bradford's been neglected for such a long time as a live music city that we really are at the start of convincing music acts that it's worth coming here, that we have an audience and that they will enjoy playing.

"Hopefully the Guillemots will enjoy playing here and having them means we can go to other bands and book them to play Bradford – hopefully the whole thing will have a snowball effect."

Fyfe Dangerfield, who formed Guillemots in 2004, said he was looking forward to coming to the city.

He said: "With this tour we wanted to go to some different places. Normally when you arrange a tour there are some pretty standard cities that you arrange to visit – seven or eight of the academies and a few other places across the country.

"This time we decided we wanted to try go to some of the places that are not on the list of the usual one and see some different cities and some different venues.

"A friend of mine comes from Shipley and she talked about Bradford and so I knew about the city. I'm really looking forward to actually coming there and seeing the place and seeing what the audience is like."

Guillemots play The Plug, Sheffield, on Sunday, Nov 16, tickets 0114 2413040 and Bradford St George's Hall on Monday, Nov 17, tickets 01274 432000.