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Saturday 1st February saw Hyde Park Book Club, an intimate, vibrant bar, transformed to host brand new festival: ‘REGTOWN’, a small yet mental event hosted by independent record label Private Regcords.
The day brought together a vast array of artists and genres across the upstairs ‘snug’ stage, and the ‘basement’ stage found in the venue, all of which went perfectly with the cinnamon buns sold on site.
The ‘snug’, situated next to Book Club’s cozy beer garden, saw a range of performers from experimental duo ‘Kiosk’, whose mix of synthesiser and bass tones, were brilliantly complimented by clever lyricism, and ability to keep the crowd on their toes from one song to the next; to father-daughter, singer-song writing duo ‘The Tallulahs’, whose original story-telling style tunes brought evoked a sense of nostalgia within the crowd. Following their first song I heard a seemingly poetic festivalgoer near me in the crowd relate it to the feeling of “watching the hills roll by on a peaceful
train ride”.
The ‘snug’ also housed funky groove sounds by ‘Tali Jackson’, soft indie rock from ‘Two Blinks, I love
You’, and a Mitski-esque four piece set by ‘Rhiannon Hope’, amongst others. The low ceilinged ‘basement’ stage provided a very different experience. Despite the relaxed start to the event, with one of the first acts being Sam King, a beautiful folk artist who had been called up to fill in for the absent Wing Commander Gusty, the shift in tone from this point was seemingly waiting to happen.
Performances from Soft Rock group ‘Drury Hill’ provided sounds reminiscent of Black Country New Road. Many an unreleased song was performed, heard only by the adoring fans filling up Regtown’s basement. The progression to harder rock continued even more with the four guitarists and drummer of ‘Bank Details’, getting the crowd crazy at 5pm on a Saturday and fiending for more! The turn of day to night could also truly be felt with self-described (on their Instagram bio) “teen sensations” Bathing Suits. Their outlandish performance and wild antics filled their half hour set
perfectly, with a mental performance from the group’s lead singer!
Regtown finally culminated in the basement with headliners ‘Normal Village’, a four-part group who had the people of REGTOWN feeling, by all accounts, anything but normal. The star performance had the basement filled to the last square inch, with limbs flying in every direction, it provided the perfect end to an incredible day.
The range of bands on show was a clear indicator of the incredible up-and-coming music scene in Leeds, and Private Regcords’ event, the first of hopefully many, created a stellar atmosphere for the incredible new music scene in Leeds.
Words and Images by Danny Gordon-Boyd, he/him
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