Leeds Festival: Arctic Monkeys close weekend with huge singalong on UK return

Arctic Monkeys slipped a new tune in among some old favourites during a career-spanning headline set to close Leeds Festival on Sunday evening.

“Hello Leeds, you’re looking well,” smiled singer Alex Turner to legions of adoring fans in their home county.

Fellow Sheffield co-headliners Bring Me the Horizon brought out Doncastrian Yungblud as Branham Park was turned into a cathedral of Yorkshire music.

After rap had reigned supreme on Saturday, Sunday was all about rock ‘n’ roll (baby) and the return of the prodigal sons drew the biggest crowd of the whole weekend by some distance.

In the middle of a set that plucked from old indie sleaze bangers and newer slick rock-pop beats at will, from their six number one albums, Turner and co also performed the unreleased late David Bowie era-esque track, I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, giving a glimpse of their upcoming LP, The Car.

Most bands could not get away with road testing new material on the biggest of stages, but then the Arctic Monkeys are not most bands, especially around these here parts.

From the opening strains of Do I Wanna Know? which saw their frontman saunter out riffing on a teardrop guitar, to sticksman Matt Helders, wearing a leopard print shirt, thumping the hell out of his bass drum on Pretty Visitors, the expanded High Green outfit displayed their nowadays Transatlantic sheen.

They followed up their new material with the the nightclub queueing anthem, From the Ritz To Rubble, as flares were lit by fans in the crowd, followed by a series of singalong hits including I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, 505 and RU Mine?

“Thanks for having us Leeds,” said Turner, from behind his night time shades. “It means a lot to us.”

Remarkably, on one of the biggest night’s in Yorkshire’s recent rock history, Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes actually went to the same school as the Arctic Monkeys.

“It might not be that mad for them but it’s mad for me that we’re here doing this with one of our favourite bands in the world,” he said on stage. “This is next level simulation stuff.”

The metal rockers roared their way through tracks like Drown and Throne during a high-octane, mosh pit inducing co-headliner set.

Screaming his lungs out for the most part, singer Sykes declared: “This is as close to a homecoming gig as it gets”. He thanked fans for helping him through when he “nearly died a good few times”, referring to his past drug and mental health issues.

In a rare softer moment, Sykes, who like Turner has a Yorkshire white rose tattoo, paused to say a quick hello to the locals in customary fashion. “I feel like I haven’t had chance to say eh up yet,” he said. “Eh up!”

The crowd returned the favour, and cries of “Yorrrkshire!” came from all angles, including from the stage.

The baton was then passed to the next generation, as Yungblud joined him for a head-banging rendition of their collaboration Obey, and a second round of “Yorrrkshire!”s was ordered by the young star.

One man near me yelled “Barnsley!” while another raised him a “Hebden Bridge!”

Wolf Alice may not be from south Yorkshire but they once again showed on Sunday why they seem destined for the top slot one day, while Fontaines DC did their burgeoning reputation no harm either.

Another band who are from south Yorkshire, The Sherlocks were given “the graveyard shift”, as singer Kiaran Crook put it on stage, opening one of the main stages at midday.

Crook and his brother and drummer Brandon told us they were blown away that so many (likely hungover) people had dragged themselves out of their tents to see them.

The siblings were 11 and 14, respectively when the Arctic Monkeys first blew up in the mid-noughties and said they “had a massive influence on us when we just finding out feet.”.

They recalled being shocked when Helders and his family turned up to watch them perform at a gig in Los Angeles, and said they intended to go find him just as soon as our interview was over.

While several of Sunday’s acts won’t have had too far to get home to their families, many festival-goers will wake up on Monday morning with a mission on their hands.

This year, Music Declares Emergency hosted it’s first eco camps at Reading and Leeds, where campers were rewarded for agreeing to leave the campsite as they found it on departure.

More than 2,300 tents were left behind at last year’s Reading leg of the festival, leaving local councillors wondering if it could be time for a more stringent approach.

Claire O’Neill from A Greener Festival, an organisation that helps events improve sustainability told the BBC taglines and hashtags like “#NoLeedsOnADeadPlanet” can “really help to tie in the messages that can be quite complicated into something quite simple and direct”.

She urged punters to use re-usable tents and to reduce traffic pollution by taking public transport or travelling in vehicles as full as possible, while calling on festivals to collaborate with the local authorities to improve infrastructure [sustainable transport and mains power] going forwards.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport told the BBC the government was “going further and faster than ever before to achieve a net zero future”.

Enter Shikari, whose recent track Elegy For Extinction addressed the threat of climate change, backed the scheme and appealed to the crowd’s better nature during their set on Sunday afternoon.

The St Albans rock band told the BBC backstage they once completed a whole tour driving in a van powered by chip oil, instead of petrol. And frontman Lou Reynolds believes it is pivotal to take conversations about pressing environmental concerns into areas of everyday life.

“Festivals are a place where people come together, they connect, they experience things together,” he said.

“So I think the the more fury really that can build and be harnessed and used to demand real change, the better.”