Anthony Kneeshaw was a dreamer. But it turned out he was not the only one.

Kneeshaw, better known as Neesh, is the man behind Mono, a live music fanzine for Bradford.

Started with two other musician friends two years ago, the monthly fanzine was published in Neesh's spare time and self-funded through advertising from venues around Bradford.

"The live music scene in Bradford was just dead at the beginning of the decade," says Neesh.

"Myself and a couple of friends who play around the town as musicians knew that there was an audience out there because we were playing to them, so we decided to start up this fanzine. It was a way to try to build up a sense that there was a live music scene in
the city."

While he was getting Mono off the ground, over at the other end of town, another music fan was bemoaning the state of things in Bradford.

Mark Husak had started his own live music night, named Granadaland, to try and satiate his appetite for live music, which was not being satisfied by the paltry offerings at the time.

"Bradford had a fantastic live music scene in the Nineties, but that has gone down the pan over the last 15 years," says Husak.

"I decided that I would start my own night up and approached a couple of places to get the whole thing going."

These two perfect bedfellows came together and combined to see if they could take Bradford's live music scene somewhere near to the point where it had once been.

Back in the heyday of the Eighties and early Nineties, Bradford was a city with a reputation for live music and for being a birthplace of exciting live bands.

The city saw the emergence of bands including The Cult, New Model Army and Terrorvision and some serious names have played the city's St George's Hall, from Bowie to The Clash, in the past.

However, with the closure of venues like The Queen's Head, the bands had nowhere to play and the music scene began to dry up.

The bands that were out there touring bypassed the city. No longer a destination on bands' tours, those in the city who wanted to hear live music would have to travel to the new stop-off points in Leeds at the university and The Cockpit.

"It was a cumulative effect. One band didn't play because it couldn't find a venue, then another band didn't come to the city because the other band hadn't and eventually Bradford had been completely forgotten about as a live music place," says Husak.

"I talked to music fans in the city and the attitude was always just 'what can we do?'"

Neesh and Husak knew what they could do. Early in 2007 they decided to approach Bradford City Council and explained their vision to return live music to the city. The council came on board with support both financial and in terms of supplying the pair with a venue to stage gigs – and BD1 Live was born.

Staged at St George's Hall, BD1 Live began almost a year ago, with the first gig taking place on May 25 last year when local band Duels played the venue. Neesh says: "It took a long time for promoters to trust us and to let their bands come to us. It was great to get St George's Hall, but we knew it was a big venue, so we had to work hard to make the gigs work.

"Now we're in the position of having promoters come to us and because they know we can give them a good audience and give their bands a good venue, it's building on the success we've already had."

The pair admit that gigs have not yet sold out the 1,000-seater St George's Hall, but as their reputation grows, so does the audience.

That has reached a point where they are able to book in acts such as Lightspeed Champion, who played BD1 Live last night and Ash,
who play St George's Hall tonight.

Tomorrow, Neesh and Husak see a landmark in their hard work with the Hop, part of Bradford Music Week, which runs until tomorrow.

"The Hop is basically 24 bands playing in two venues and people can buy a ticket for £5 and then go between the two places seeing some really good acts," says Neesh. "It's the sort of event that we've been working towards this last couple of years. Hopefully it's something that we'll be able to just keep building on."

For more information on BD1 go to www.bd1live.com


WHAT'S ON

Today

6pm Ash: St George's Hall, with four support bands: Infadels, In Case of Fire, White Light Parade, Minus Jack

12pm to 1.30pm: Music Seminar: Getting Noticed Nationally by Keeping it Local: BD1 Impressions Gallery, Centenary Square, talk by XL Records executive

2pm to 3pm: Starbucks Acoustic Session, Centenary Square: Local songwriters

4pm to 5pm: Zavvi Instore: White Light Parade: The Wibsey band has supported The Enemy and The View

7.30pm: PM Bar: Palladium, signed to Virgin Records play the intimate venue

Tomorrow

3pm: The Hop at Delius and Love Apple, featuring 22 bands at two venues

Morning / Afternoon: Centenary Square plays host to a day of live music

3pm: The Blues Brothers: screening of the cult musical movie at Bradford Playhouse