Legends on Menu

Leeds University and other areas of the city have an overwhelming reputation for featuring live, big name bands and this is the envy of many other cities.

The use of the university refectory as a major rock venue came during the late 1960s. Big city venues were in short supply. Leeds cinemas such as the Odeon were used, but did not have the facilities needed. The refectory could accommodate up to 2,000.

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac are listed as being the first band to appear at the refectory venue on October 4, 1969. The remainder of the year saw bands such as Pink Floyd, Moody Blues and Deep Purple appear.

On the night of February 14 1970, The Who with their best-known line-up of Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, stopped off to play in the refectory. At this point the band had seen chart success throughout the 1960s, had released their rock opera Tommy and played a blistering set at Woodstock.

Having recently returned from the US, Townshend rejected the idea of trawling through tapes and releasing a live album from many of the band’s sell out shows over there. Instead the band planned releasing a live album recorded from two shows in the UK, one at Leeds University and the other in Hull, the night after the Leeds gig. Technical difficulties beset the band at Hull, with Entwistle’s bass not being recorded on some of the songs.

The Who were booked to appear at the refectory by former student Simon Brogan, who, along with other members of the ents. committee struggled to lay on ‘double’ electricity for the event to be recorded.

Students queued for hours to get tickets – 11/6 each – for the three-hour concert on February 14 1970 and were sold out almost as soon as they went on sale. A thousand who failed took to the roof of the building that night to hear and feel the music. The Who charged £1,000 for their performance.

Live at Leeds, including many of well-known Who numbers, was released on 16 May 1970. Disappointingly, it appeared as just one LP record and only embraced Townshend. And, over 36 years after the original concert, the band returned to perform at the refectory, a gig organised by Andy Kershaw.

Commenting before the event, Leeds University Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Arthur said: “Leeds has had its Nobel prize-winners and other eminent academic achievements, but the Live at Leeds concert by The Who is an equally important part of the University’s history. It’s a real tribute to the refectory’s reputation.”

Over the years Live at Leeds has been re-packaged a number of times and from the 1990s included the entire refectory concert.

Just over a year after the Who’s first appearance, the Rolling Stones bowled into the Leeds refectory in March 1971 as part of their brief concert tour of England and Scotland. With new guitarist Mick Taylor, who replaced Brian Jones, the Stones had not staged a tour proper in the UK since autumn 1966. Shortly before the tour began, they announced they were becoming tax exiles and moving to the South of France.

Performances in Brighton, Liverpool, Leeds and London were recorded with the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio by the band’s crew. Much of the Leeds show was later broadcast in mono by the BBC. Supporting the Stones at the various venues were Tony McPhee’s Groundhogs.

The Stones Live at Leeds University remained unreleased for many years, but a version of the concert was ‘bootlegged’ under the title Get Your Leeds Lungs Out. This is a reference to the Stones’ official live record Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, released in September 1970.

In 2015, the re-release of the Stones deluxe edition album Sticky Fingers includes the complete and remastered Leeds performance.

Music styles continued to change after the appearance of the Who and Stones and amongst the top bands who appeared during the remainder of the 1970s were: Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Paul McCartney and Wings, Roxy Music, The Clash and Boomtown Rats.

The top names role call at the university continued into the 1980s with the appearance of Elvis Costello, Pretenders and Celtic punk band the Pogues who played there on March 15, 1986. Among the numbers delivered by front man Shane McGowan, in inimitable style, were the politically tinged Jesse James, Wild Cats of Kilkenny, Whiskey You’re the Devil’ and Dirty Old Town’.

Into the present century, the Klaxons appeared during December 2007 in high spirits after enjoying a year of success, winning the 2007 Mercury Music Prize for best album and touring across the globe with sell out shows.

Also, they had just released a double album comprising 27 songs described as ‘nu rave’. The Leeds university concert itself was sold out with 2,100 attending.

Detailing the fame of the Leeds University refectory must not take away the shine of other venues which have played a major part in providing entertainment for students and long may it continue.

Special thanks to Leeds University Press Office for help with this piece.