Festival Coverage : Live at Leeds - Part 2

First on our playlist – and indeed, line-up – is Swiss Lips. After narrowly avoiding the huge queue for wristbands it's a frantic power-walk up to The Faversham, where the Manchester lads are set to play. With ten minutes to go the small venue is pretty much full, and it is fit to burst by the time the guys finally come on stage. They launch into 'Danz'. a punchy power-pop track which pretty much sums up their sound. Front man Sam exudes energy and at times it seems unclear as to whether he is feeding off the audience or they are channeling energy from him. Bouncing around the stage, he thanks the audience for “coming out so early” – it's 3pm – and jokes that he might hit his head on the rather low ceiling, before taking a picture of the crowd whilst the band deal with some tech issues. It's a great start to the day and we leave on quite a high.

Next up are the Ruen Brothers at the Cockpit. They are a duo that we were desperate to see and they certainly don't disappoint. Henry looks the vision of Johnny Cash in his black outfit – though is much chattier and has good crowd interaction. Their music – a mix of blues and rock’n’roll – is well received; their harmonies are fantastic – but most of all they look like they're really enjoying it. Very comfortable up on stage, the boys run through a number of tracks including next single 'Walk Like A Man' and their latest release 'Aces' which goes down a treat. We have rather high expectations for this gig and they have been absolutely exceeded.

London Grammar had already started by the time we make it to Leeds Met. The venue is packed and the band admit it was “the biggest audience [they’d] ever played to”. Vocalist Hannah’s sultry voice is amazing, though their slower songs seem to drag amongst the more upbeat numbers. Perhaps we are alone on that thought though, as the crowd whoops and claps their way through the performance – particularly when the set is rounded off by 'Metal & Dust'. It's a strong finish for the band, and apart from the downbeat stuff, we leave impressed.

We've not heard much about Arlissa, so we're interested to see what she’s like live. The Academy fills up incredibly quickly whilst she's on stage and we aren't surprised – she's incredibly good. A strong voice and some seductive moves seem to win both the male and female members of the audience over and it's clear that she was getting caught up in the music. She starts the set with 'Sticks And Stones' and does an incredible version of 'Hard To Love Somebody', which is captivating. Arlissa makes the whole performance seem effortless; her tone is really well complemented by the music, which is sparse yet interesting – overall we're pleasantly surprised by her.

Rounding off our festival experience is Laura Mvula, who doesn't get off to a great start due to technical issues – neither of her microphones are working - so we are kept waiting 30 minutes. The crowd is generally good-natured about it and Laura handles the situation very graciously when she does finally appear. Had there been an uproar it would have quickly died down once Laura begins – looking striking with her cropped blonde hair she kicks things off with 'Let Me Fall' (a non-album track) before launching into 'Light The Morning Dew' – a gorgeous song with lovely, squelchy harmonies. She's nice and chatty, making jokes, explaining things about her tracks and introducing her band. She's joined on stage by quite an ensemble, including a harp, double bass and cello; two of the musicians are her brother and sister, which adds a nice touch. She introduces “a song that might have been annoying you on the radio lately” before pleasing the audience with ‘Green Garden’. It seems to bring her to life as the crowd dances and claps along appreciatively. Finishing the set with her new single ‘That’s Alright’ the room is alive with thumping drums and impeccable vocals. It's the perfect end to a great day.

Live At Leeds has the perfect mix of local, up-and-coming and just-made-it musicians throughout the day. It seems incredibly well organised, and apart from having to hotfoot it from a couple of venues that were quite far apart near the beginning of our day it is pretty easy to get around. Musically, The Ruen Brothers and Laura Mvula were the highlights of our day, but if there was one criticism I could give the festival it would be that there was far too much going on. Still, when there was so much great music to choose from, that’s hardly a complaint, is it?