Boom Leeds: why the UK hardcore scene is fighting to save a vital grassroots venue

Boom is a venue without barriers. In the spirit of hardcore, there’s nothing separating the band onstage from the people watching them: the stage is low, and most of the time, there are no security guards in front of it. You can stagedive, mosh or two-step to your heart’s content, and be as expressive as you want. On top of that, Boom – a 250-capacity space near Leeds city centre – is a venue without barriers in a more figurative sense, famed for offering a roof under which all factions of heavy music can converge and coexist.

“To me and many others, Boom is a second home,” Olli Appleyard tells NME over the phone. The musician grew up putting on shows and shooting bands around Leeds, and now fronts futuristic post-hardcore quartet Static Dress, who will join Bring Me The Horizon on their UK arena tour later this month. “It’s a home of so much culture and not just one specific genre either – punk, metal, hardcore, grindcore – all the stuff which wouldn’t normally have a place. It’s a place which allows international artists to come through and play shows, and it allows a safe place for all these things to exist.”

That home, however, is under threat. As with many UK grassroots venues – 125 of which closed in 2023 alone, according to the Music Venue Trust – Boom has been kicked while already on its knees. Its future was already uncertain during lockdown, especially after it was told it was ineligible for the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, and had been spotlighted on the MVT’s ‘red list’ of venues most at risk of closure during this time. Now, the ongoing debts from that closure have been compounded by rising operating costs and reduced consumer spending due to the current cost of living crisis.

Boom has rounded up numerous bands from the area, including Static Dress and other local alt acts such as Higher Power, Cauldron, Bodyweb, Pest Control and more, to fight for its survival at the ‘Save Our Home’ benefit show this weekend (January 5-6). “This is our final chance to keep the doors open,” the venue warned to conclude the show’s announcement. But this event isn’t just a life-or-death fight – it’s a showcase of the breadth of talent that has grown up around Boom and its wider community.

*SOLD OUT*

donations can still be made via ticket link. https://t.co/4J4NhM1IyD

— Static Dress (@staticdress) December 15, 2023

Boom is a cornerstone of Leeds’ vibrant alternative music scene. The city is populated by similar-sized venues including the Key Club, Stylus and Brudenell Social Club, where both homegrown and international acts have cut their teeth on their way to bigger things. As well as hosting the Northern counterpart to Reading Festival, Leeds is also the birthplace of two staples of the alt calendar, Slam Dunk and Outbreak, the latter of which was founded by events organisers Jordan Coupland – who had previously put on shows at Boom – and Lee Follows in 2011 when they were still teenagers (though the festival has since relocated to Manchester).

Boom also functions as a vital, youth-centric community space – you don’t even have to be there for a gig; it can be a place to just have a drink and hang out. “Boom was probably one of the first venues that felt equally like a hang-out spot as well as a venue to me, and it was just what I needed as a teenager,” says Pest Control frontwoman Leah Massey.

“I grew up in Leeds and started going to gigs at a few different venues in my early teens and explored different alternative music scenes – the first couple of times going to Boom, I felt like I’d found my niche,” she continues. “It provided a space and a social life for people like me who at the time didn’t have a lot else going on.”

Out of all of Leeds’ venues, Boom has felt the most dedicated to platforming DIY hardcore punk in particular. It’s been instrumental in fuelling the criminally overlooked UK side to a genre that’s been in bloom ever since Turnstile kicked open a door to the mainstream with their critically acclaimed 2021 album ‘Glow On’. The impact of that record elevated scores of bands as a result, from Scowl and Militarie Gun to Zulu, Gel and Soul Glo, and has also been felt across the Atlantic.

Similar to the hardcore scenes on both coasts of the US, there is arguably not a single, unifying ‘Leeds hardcore’ sound or any particular mood that’s somehow ubiquitous to people making heavy music in West Yorkshire. The ‘Save Our Home’ benefit show includes the bouncing swagger of Higher Power, a stark contrast to the murkier sounds of Bodyweb or Pest Control’s thrashier, metallic take on the genre.

Bands thrive in Leeds because they are supported. There’s ample space to perform and rehearse – both of which Boom offers – and places to record music. Boom has evolved year on year, racking up iconic moments along the way. Last August, Converge played a festival warm-up show there, to a crowd maybe only five per cent of their usual size, while in July 2015, NYC metalcore group Merauder played a midnight set after being delayed at customs. At any other venue, turning up past curfew would have perhaps been a non-starter, but Boom has never aspired to be to stick to rules.

Similar memories might not be made if such a vital piece of that infrastructure were to close; it spells lost jobs, lost opportunities, and a missing rung on the ladder to success. “If you don’t have a place to play and a place that supports you and understands you, then there isn’t really much room for growth,” says Higher Power guitarist Max Harper.

“If people didn’t get to experience Boom,” Harper continues, “it would be very, very sad. Leeds would definitely not have the scene that it has without Boom – maybe the desire for other people to travel to Leeds for shows wouldn’t be there as much. There are other small venues too, but Boom has been the constant and the foundation, and probably the inspiration for people because it’s a very encouraging space.”

The roots of a scene are its venues. Without them, without that space for bands to play shows, and for memories to be made, the ladder to success is placed further out of reach. As more of them are forced to shut their doors, areas of the country risk becoming deserts for live music.

But while the picture might look bleak, the vibrant, strong communities venues like Boom build sometimes end up being what saves them. The South Wales scene came together in 2017 to save Cardiff’s Womanby Street where The Moon and Clwb Ifor Bach are located; an outpouring of donations to Southampton’s beloved Joiners early on in the pandemic – aided by a livestreamed Frank Turner gig –  meant the venue could open its doors again when lockdown restrictions eased.

“You can have these big events in venues with barricades, but you really lose the human side [of live music] when you’re in a corporate venue,” Appleyard concludes. “Boom has a vibe. It has a history.”

Save Our Home will take place at Boom Leeds this weekend (January 5-6). Donate to the venue’s fundraising campaign here

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