At this year’s Leeds Festival, the BBC Introducing stage offered some fantastic acts with varied sounds and presence, some of which were highlights from the entire weekend. We had the opportunity to chat with a few artists who performed about many things including their sets, inspirations and what it was like to get the call to play Reading and Leeds.
Delilah Bon and her band
First up, Delilah Bon, whose incredibly hard-hitting and unapologetically fierce lyricism empowers women, non binary and LGBTQ+ people worldwide. Delilah performed late on the Friday night of the festival, but her and her band revived the crowd at the BBC Introducing stage, many of whom felt understandably defeated by Storm Lilian. They brought a storm of their own though, performing hit tracks such as ‘Dead Men Don’t Rape’ and ‘I Wish A Bitch Would’.
GC: Brat punk. Define it to me – what’s the vibe?
DB: So that’s the style I called my music originally when I first did it. The brat side is a mixture of the 2000s elements with my pop sound, and punk is the politics and the anger in my music. I liked how it sounded and I was like, “Brat punk, nobody’s saying that!”.
BAND: Also, way ahead of the trend, like brat summer is a thing now! Hello, we did that ages ago! There’s even a song called 'Brat'!
GC: You’ve already performed at London Pride and Glastonbury. What’s it like coming out of lockdown and going straight into the deep end of being a rockstar?
DB: I kind of used lockdown quite a bit. It didn’t impact me much because I was already at home after I’d left school, and I focused on my music, so it was an excuse to reset, and think, “Am I happy doing what I’m doing?” If it wasn’t for lockdown, I probably wouldn’t have had time to start as Delilah Bon and do this kind of music. Seeing people again – I kind of forgot.
GC: In the wake of the recent race riots, where do you think protest music holds its space?
DB: There’s a lot of artists out there that are quite political but I think that people probably haven’t been listening to their lyrics and realising how real it is. There’s artists like Bob Vylan that are speaking about racism, and people just bob their heads and think it sounds cool. There is so much going on in the world, and it’s like all of a sudden people are seeing it. I think that this music is now even more powerful, we need people to write angry music about this because it is happening in the world.
GC: The new album’s coming out next month. What can fans expect?
DB: I’m excited for people to hear ‘Epstein’. I’m excited for a few men, who were angry at my song ‘Chop Dicks’, to listen to ‘Freak Alert’, because that’s kind of like ‘Chop Dicks’ but we’ve gone further on the storyline. It’s like if ‘Chop Dicks’ ended on a [slicing sound effect]! When I released [‘Chop Dicks’], people were like “Oh my God, you’ve released a song about chopping dicks off.” and I was like, “Not yet! That’s coming!”.
Ellur
Next, we had the pleasure of chatting to Halifax-born artist Ellur. On her Spotify profile, Ellur is likened to Holly Humberstone, Sam Fender and Baby Queen. Releasing singles since 2020, her dedication to music is admirable and she shared with us that it has always been a dream to play Leeds and Reading. Ellur will also be performing at Neighbourhood Festival, Manchester in October so make sure to check her out.
GC: First of all, just run us through the outfit please because this is awesome!
E: This is an idea I had a very long time ago before I even got the call to do the slot. My boyfriend’s granny gave me a box of doilies and lace that I think she had made. There were loads of tablecloths and table runners in there, and it was all white and cream and I was like ‘If I ever play Leeds and Reading I’m going to turn all of that into an outfit and I’m going to wear it.’ It’s kind of giving bridal, a bit of Kate Bush vibes. Then me and my mum made it! We made the top, made the skirt, there's a little zip in it which my mum is really proud of because she used to teach textiles. And there’s the wellies; I wear them for pretty much any gig.
GC: We’ve just been told that you’re like Phoebe Bridgers if she was a bit more rock. Who do you think are your key influences and who are you loving at the moment?
E: I think my key influences at the minute are probably Sam Fender mixed with Sharon Van Atten, a bit of Kate Bush in there, bit of Madonna but then I love The Killers, Kings of Leon, The National. There are so many influences. I also love Big Thief and Adrienne Lenker, and Chappell Roan…I am in love with her! Genuinely, I think she is just loved internationally, she is influencing the look at the minute.
GC: Who would you most want to support on tour?
E: I mean, Chappell Roan. But she does this really cool thing where she champions local drag artists which I think is so cool. We pitched for it but they told us she picks local drag artists to do it which is Rock ‘N Roll as fuck. I’d probably say dream dream support would be Coldplay. I love Coldplay! Early Coldplay, like their first two albums, have influenced my sound so much overall and I think that Chris Martin is one of the most amazing songwriters ever.
AP: They are such performers as well! Do you think that they impact how you perform on stage?
E: Definitely! They’re so magical – that’s the only way I can describe it, they genuinely bring such magic [to the stage]. And all of the consideration for fan engagement, all of the glowing stuff. I think they get a lot of stick for just being positive, I don’t know why but I love them.
AP: You mentioned at the start about getting that call to play Leeds Fest. What is the process like from getting the call to preparing for your set?
E: The thing that I’ve been telling people is, because I’ve been wanting to do this for so long, [when] writing music I’ve been writing for the festival set. This is the set and scene that I want to be playing so to play to this audience, I’ve been preparing for it from the writing stage really.
Then, obviously, Emily from my local BBC Introducing show, and Christian Carlisle called me from an “interview” and then basically recorded it on Zoom. They were like “blah, blah, blah, about the new single, whatever” and then they were like “we just have one quick question…what are you doing on bank holiday weekend in August.” And I was like “oh, I don’t know, let me just check”. Then they [asked me if I wanted to] play Reading and Leeds Festival. I nearly cried. My mum was standing outside the door because she could hear me freaking out and she knew I had an interview. I went outside and told my mum…it was wild!
Prido
We also spoke to Mancunian singer-songwriter Prido whose music cannot be boxed into a single category. Hip-hop, grime and soul are just a few of the genres Prido takes inspiration from, but it is his connection to crowds which makes him one to see live.
AP: How was the set?
P: It was alright, you know. I feel like because of what happened this morning with the stages I had to make the set a bit more joyful so I brought the positive vibes to see everyone in a nice mood again. The crowd was quite responsive by the end of the set so yeah we had fun.
AP: It has been a very chaotic morning so far. How have you been dealing with it?
P: You know what, I was one of the lucky ones and my set was not affected so I have just been sympathetic for the other artists and been trying to spread positiveness.
AP: It has to be done! You’ve been described as one of Manchester’s best rising stars. Do you have any favourite places to visit or perform when you’re in Manchester?
P: Yeah I have two favourite places in Manchester. There’s The Blues Kitchen. It has a really nice set up there and the sound is just so good. The other place is Factory International which has a great atmosphere. I feel like they’re just very open-minded there so you can do whatever you want and the people will respect it. They’re the two places for me, of course there are others, but they’re the two that come to mind.
AP: Manchester is such a centre for music in the UK in itself. Do you think that that plays a part in how you make your music?
P: Yeah, I mean obviously Manchester is such a centre for music in the North now but it never used to be on a bigger scale. So I feel like any artist coming out of Manchester now, we have this thing where we want to prove ourselves because we’re trying to compete with London where all of the artists seem to be. I feel a badge of honour to be repping a city which is coming up and I have to put my best foot forward to prove that it isn’t just the South where all of the artists reside. But I’m proud to be from Manchester…
AP: I am too!
P: Are you from Manchester too? It’s a beautiful city, it’s so multicultural so I feel like just that aspect of it is the best.
AP: When you’re out there on stage, how do you try and get the crowd to connect with you?
P: The way I connect with the crowd, I’ve got this thing called Gamilee which spins gang and family. I feel like if we are sharing the space, if we’re vibing together and if we’re having a great time, we can be a gang. But at the same time we can be a family so together we are gamilee. It just means it doesn’t matter where you’re from, as long as we can vibe together and be positive there’s unity. Every time I go on stage I just think we’re all different but we have to find commonalities and there are way more commonalities than differences.
AP: You fuse quite a few different genres. How would you yourself describe your sound?
P: Well I’m originally from Zambia in Africa and I’ve grown up in Manchester so I kind of try to fuse those two sounds together. So the Caribbean reggae sounds with UK grime. I’m just a fusion of things that have inspired me when growing up and it’s bits of everything.
AP: Who would you say is your biggest influence in the music industry?
P: It’s always changing! I feel like for now I can say that Skepta is a big influence on me because he is willing to try new things and not just be the grime guy you know, try and be a DJ, try clothing. For an artist he is a good blueprint of not putting yourself in a box. There are so many options which you might be amazing at, so I look up to that and I think that could be for me.
AP: Are there any artists who you’re looking forward to seeing while at Leeds and Reading?
P: There were a few that I wanted to see at The Chevron stage but obviously can’t. I want to see 21 Savage. I feel like there’s a lot of hype around him so I just want to see how he performs on a bigger stage.
Welly
Finally, Welly is a singer-songwriter from Southampton who, along with his fantastic band, delivered an energetic start to the Sunday at Leeds Fest. They describe themselves as “the cure” to the gentrification of pop music. Welly begin their UK tour on 11 September and they’re hoping to swing by York when planning the northern dates.
GC: The PE kits / school uniform you were wearing onstage – what’s that about?
W: Someone pointed out to me that it’s been three years and I thought, “We’ve really got to start doing something else!” When we first started – it’s not like we have money now – we had even less money then and… it would look awful, so I wanted the cheapest thing we could buy so that we could match.
GC: You’ve called your tour “The National Service Tour”. What made you call it that?
W: When we were planning the tour, it was when Rishi was talking about the National Service thing, sending people off but only if you want to, and to me it sounded like NCS. I don’t know if you went to NCS but they basically teach you how to make a wigwam and you make some money for a local charity. It was sort of like, “you can do it if you want”. It was sort of quite cockily like we’re doing a service to the local area! Hopefully we’ll play near my Grandma’s house, but looking at the capacity we’re looking at, it’ll probably be her spare room!
GC: ‘Shopping’ – a great song, the most fun, jumping around song. A lot of people try to go as serious as they can – how do you go about writing jokey, ironic songs?
W: Just no self-respect! Just no self-regard. We come from Southampton and routinely have so many bands come to see these bands that are so boring. I’m not a fan of the traditional gig, I want to do something more fun! I want to listen to songs that are interesting. Also, I couldn’t bring myself to go on stage and be serious. You know in GCSE Drama where you have to do a play about drugs and it’s all [dramatic hand gestures]?
GC: Who would be your dream act to support?
W: Genuine bucket list would be – you know what, for the money, if Oasis is reuniting, that’s the answer! We’ll do it for free to be honest – actually, [pointing at the camera] £150 Oasis, we’ll give you it!
