Ruby’s Great Live at Leeds in the City 2025 Award Ceremony

Calling all indie kids – polish your Doc Martens, don your finest vintage band tee, and strut down the red carpet to the Great 2025 Live at Leeds in the City Award Ceremony. All awards are based entirely on Ruby Smith’s opinion, of course.

Best Use Of A Violin Bow: Roscoe Roscoe (Honourable Mention: Divorce). 

Playing the guitar with a violin bow was a thread in the sparkling tapestry of sound woven by Roscoe Roscoe, as they flooded Brudenell with lush harmonies and ethereal shoegazey, psychedelic sweetness. The London-based six-piece also sported some banging knits. Honourable mention in this category goes to Divorce, who employed similar playing-guitar-with-a-bow tactics for several of their songs. The alt-country band from Nottingham enthralled the crowd with a playful and unpretentious performance that brought their stellar songwriting to life.  

Best Name: Clothesline From Hell

Admittedly, I went to this set purely because I liked the name. What I didn’t know was that I was about to discover a new favourite artist. Clothesline From Hell is the moniker of Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Alex LaFramboise. He produces endlessly creative songs featuring raw and distorted choruses that surface over textured instrumentals, only to sink back into a constant ebbing and flowing of chaos as quickly as they appeared. Packing Santiago Bar to full capacity, and decked out in a quintessentially North American baseball cap and flannel shirt combo, LaFramboise delivered an exquisite performance balanced on a tightrope between intimate and explosive.

Most Mind-Blowing Voice: Jalen Ngonda. 

Jalen Ngonda’s extraordinary vocals mesmerised the entire audience at Beckett Student Union. The sense of awe rippling through the crowd was palpable. The sheer power of his voice, combined with his masterful songs and incredibly groovy band, was definitely worth missing Adult DVD for (award for the most devastating set clash!).  

Most Environmentally Friendly: Radio Free Alice. 

All four members of Radio Free Alice were reading set lists scrawled on paper plates – how eco-conscious to repurpose lunch leftovers. Aside from reducing, reusing, and recycling, the band delivered a phenomenal performance. If they hadn’t greeted the crowd as “cunts” in drawling Australian accents, you would never have guessed they were from Melbourne; with ghostly pale skin and matching indie-darling uniforms of baggy grey jeans and navy long-sleeve shirts (top button done up), they assimilate into the UK seamlessly. What makes Radio Free Alice stand out is their music: melodic guitar licks and punchy riffs, commanding basslines, driving rhythms, and distinctive vocals colliding in indie-rock songwriting perfection. I can’t help but feel this band is going to become huge in the coming years. 

Wildest Crowd: Panic Shack (Honourable Mention: Westside Cowboy). 

Panic Shack sang “I’m lazy and I like it / I stand up just to sit back down” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Featuring choreographed squatting and playing guitar while bent backwards (half upside down!), their spiky punk-rock songs and witty lyrics soundtracked the highest energy performance of the festival. The raucous energy of the all-female line-up from Cardiff was matched tenfold by the fervent moshing of the crowd. I also have to give an honourable mention in this category to Westside Cowboy! They filled Belgrave to capacity with enthusiastic fans who danced ardently throughout their set, and could later be overheard raving to their friends about how amazing the band is. 

The Coolest: Cherry Seraph. 

Descending out of the rain into the tender pink glow of Sela bar’s basement venue, and immediately being enveloped by layered synths, spacious vocal effects, and brain-scratching loops, felt like a warm hug. This welcoming embrace was thanks to Sophie Russell, the solo artist crafting alt-pop electronic music under the name Cherry Seraph. Her low-key yet intricate performance was interspersed with friendly Yorkshire chatter and ended with a dreamy improvisation, cementing her as the coolest of the festival.

Words by Ruby Smith