The final day arrives bathed in sunshine, allowing for any respective hangovers to melt away. We start by popping by catching a bit of The Crooked Brothers and their Americana tinged folk, complete with banjos and beards. This afternoon we have plumped to be healed by some soothing reggae sounds courtesy of the always wonderful Hollie Cook. She is in a large tent structure close to Brighton Pier and thanks the crowd for having the strength to join her at midday. She, as always, delivers subtle reggae pop tunes whilst more Jamaican influences come via the ska sounds of Lazy Talk who increase the tempo and get our tired feet a-tapping.

Feeling refreshed and refuelled, we plump for indie rockers Fe whose large entourage create a chilled rock vibe to conclude our final afternoon session. We pop into the Great Escape free bar purely to bridge the gap between the afternoon session and the evening shows and are treated to sounds via Finnish DJ Jaakko Eino Kalevi.

The final session begins with a simply stunning performance from acoustic maestro The Bony King Of Nowhere. Playing in the Brighton Unitarian Church he stands with the evening light streaming in via stained glass windows as he holds the audience spellbound with a magical performance. His voice is beautifully magnified by the acoustics of the venue. Clearly a wonderful talent, he is without a doubt one of the weekend's stand out performances.

We then catch a quick glimpse of the acoustic pop sounds of Yumi And The Weather, before heading to Brighton seafront for Future Islands via Ipswich's finest Blaenavon, whose comical rock provides great entertainment and crowd participation.

The queues for the main venues are, by now, huge and we start to panic and contemplate who and where will be are next port of call. We know we want to end the night with the chilled electronic sounds of Hidden Orchestra and Jon Hopkins. In order to ensure we get to the venue on time we plump for Belgian four piece BRNS. The Brussels boys create a large drum focused sound in a small intimate hotel lounge. Our decision to plump for the late shows for Hidden Orchestra and Hopkins proves fruitful as the other venues seem fit to bursting. We see the huge queues for hip hop supremo’s Jungle and even bigger queues for the wonderful Kelis. However we are satisfied we have made the right decision and are not disappointed; a larger venue for the two acts rewarding us with some wonderful sounds as we contemplate a great three days of music and frolics.

Roll on next year and the Festival's 10th anniversary; we know it will be even more amazing than this one. Thank you Brighton and good night.

Back for a third go Bradford's Threadfest sees 40+ acts play across ten venues in the city for free over the course of the bank holiday weekend. You read that correctly - free. That lack of entrance fee is achieved by the involvement of such promoters & organisations as Music At Bradford University, Sound Shack Records, the Topic Folk Club and a host more, allowing there to be a rich variety of music (and art installations) on the various stages without anyone being beholden to some mega-booze manufacturer, sports clothing brand or whatever. A wholesome way to begin things.

First stop tonight then was The Black Swan, a pub that fairly screams ROCK! at you and where you can imagine the likes of Napalm Death or similar starting out life on the stage at the end of the bar & everybody enjoying it immensely. Unfortunately no bands were seen on the stage tonight as the start time came and went with no obvious musicians making a move to play so a taxi was called (avoiding the rain would become as much a part of the weekend as the music) for the trip across the city centre to The New Bradford Playhouse, the only other venue in use today.

Weaving through the back stairs from the basement bar brought us into aural contact with the psychedelia of local trio Gurgles and it was the sort of meeting of minds that instantly put to rest all the stresses associated with attending this sort of event. With not a guitar in sight the threesome brought a bit of a heavy prog. edge to their material at times as they ranged from a Yes-like tune at one point to lighter fare employing "Google French" and the heartfelt shouts of "You're an idiot" in a later chorus. Purchasing their 'You Send Me Up' 7" was the only sane action to be taken at the close of their set.

Keeping it local the next band to come on were the particularly youthful indie/afro-beat quartet Koala. Despite the lack of an actual stage the group don't lack for that type of presence, with singer Jemimah gamely attempting to be in more places than one such was the energy she devoted to ranging around the space. With a set including the title track from their Molecules EP and 'Moments' (to which we were all encouraged to "bop") theirs was an enjoyable half hour or so to experience, further proving the worth of making the trip down for the weekend.

Third on tonight were Nottingham's Cantaloupe, another guitarless trio but of a different brand entirely than Gurgles. A band with a quite a few releases to their name there was never going to be a problem in coming up with a set-list. Both sides of the 'Splish'/'Wet Dog' 12" were included in their krautdisco performance, along with 'Hot Water Balloon', with its trippy and motorik start that slowly builds into something altogether different. A seriously good contemporary instrumental act who had their large following along as further proof if any were needed.

Finally tonight came Leeds' Galaxians. With their debut album coming out soon the drums & synth duo didn't mess about in laying down their disco-laced beats, although writing that belies the underlying more serious musical edge that their works contain. Theirs' is a sound that more people than would expect to could appreciate if they'd give themselves the chance. On the night it was bit of a shame that the performance space didn't quite do them justice (a stage of at least a little height and a bit more space for their sounds to fill would have been better) but the crowd were moved to dance to a degree by what was afforded them so that met the bottomline.  

Thanks to Bobbi Luo and Yvonne for the accommodation and hanging out over the weekend.

With sore heads and soggy jeans we hoist our lanyards around our necks and trot out for more of The Great Escape. As we wander through the streets we come across obvious other Great Escapers. We overhear a conversation between two bearded muso types discussing what androgynies sound like and where can they hear some?

We decide to leave them to their beard stroking and we head to hear New Desert Blues and Jaws for some healthy indie rock to wake our ears up. After a quick bite to eat we continue to the wonderful sounds of Glass Owls followed by the soothing keyboards of Unknwn.

After the yesterday's disappointment of not getting into the odd venue or two, we devise a plan of attack. It's become apparent that in order to ensure you get in it's ideal to plump for the band that precedes your favoured artist.

With this in mind, we head for The Haunt. The idea being that with two acts we want to see, we may as well spend a large chunk of the evening in one place. We may also be surprised by the other acts. We spend many hours discussing the benefits of this, on one hand it prevents us running between venues, and our previous experience has told us that once you’re inside a venue, it's best to try and stay there. We are however, rewarded hugely by a great line up.

Hip Hop comes from the straight talking Hawk House with a wonderful flow of lyrics and beats. East India Youth then blows the whole crowd away with an amazing solo performance of sheer noise management. The ginger haired, pimpled youth creates such wonderfully musical landscapes as he moves from subtle keyboards, ending in full on techno. We think he has a magical future ahead of him and, in our opinion, comes out as the star of the festival.

We are then further entertained via stand up British rockers Telegram whose unapologetic rock and roll rounds off a wonderful array of talent through three different styles. Hungry for more we drop into Komedia to catch incredible Japanese DJ Tokimonsta before finishing the night with Ella Eyre whose soulful vocals soothe aching feet and heads before we're tugged home content and buzzing from  another wonderful day of music. 

Live At Leeds is a multi-venue festival that takes over the streets of the northern city as music fans from all over the country bury themselves into the vast amount of music on offer. The festival for me starts in the Belgrave Music Hall, the popular venue that today will play host to artists such as Leeds' OtherPeoplesLives, Pet Moon and Manchester's Bipolar Sunshine.

With the sun out shining and with people in high spirits, the only place on my (and many other's) minds is Belgrave Music Hall. The roof terrace is crowded with Ray-Bans, dip-dyed hair and beards as they fill the deckchairs and school hall seats to look out onto the city’s skyline. The anticipation builds, as the wait to filter down and join the packed crowd for Disraeli Gears. Playing popular tunes such as ‘Mother I’ and ‘Skeleton’,  their set is tapered with moody atmospheric tendencies. Their alt-rock sound twist the knees of the audience into grooving with their temping blues and delicate wails. After a promising start, the idea of taking a gentle stroll down to Oporto isn’t too taxing. York locals Glass Caves take to the stage and quickly have people queuing out of the door to show their support. Like turning up to a party without an invite, the queue outside peer through the glass window to listen in on the muffled noise created by Glass Caves.

After Lunch and around the corner, tucked away in the Wardrobe, the Tea Street Band fuse a tempting sound into a mix of influences such as New Order and The Happy Mondays vibes. Bringing with them a true Manchester party, they get the crowd dancing with ease as the Tea Street Band treat the audience to tracks such as ‘Summer Dreaming’ and ‘Fiesta’. London’s Shy Nature are up next to perform to a slightly weary audience. Ballroom dancing begins to couple off some audience members in some weird act of pleasure to track ‘Sinking Ship.’  The intimate setting acts as the perfect space to dance along to their indie-pop grooves.

Basking in the sunshine, the walk down from the Wardrobe to Holy Trinity Church sets the mood for New York folk singer, Gambles. Leaving the microphone and stage behind him Gambles steps away from the front and moves into the crowd. He works his way round the pews, playing heartfelt blues to the audience. His mesmerising vocals echo through the church as he stomps his black worn Chelsea boots on the floor. Astounded the audience are speechless. His tales of lost love personalised with his attentive, sentimental performance make it a true sight to see and a memorable act at this year’s festival.

Around the festival, Leeds becomes a hotspot for familiar faces; from spotting Palma Violets having a few drinks outside Wire, to King Charles enjoying watching Josh Record’s courageous vocals in the Refectory and The Midnight Beast chewing on some ribs in Red Barbecue, musician spotting becomes the perfect game for beating the long queue blues.

A bit of light entertainment is sure needed as the popularity of Royal Blood causes one of the day's bottlenecks. Hundreds of wishful thinking fans cue outside the Leeds Metropolitan SU hoping to get through the one-in-one-out system to catch a glimpse of Royal Blood’s menacing guitar sound and jump around to ‘Little Monster’ and ‘Out Of The Black’.

As the sun begins to set, Leeds University is buzzing with musical delicacies to feast your ears upon. Down in The Mine, The Wytches crawl their fingers along the guitar neck and thrash their way through an energetic set. Their bone-rattling heavy display of darkness takes a devious turn as they play through tracks like ‘Crying Clown’ and ‘Digsaw’. Their anticipated large crowd mosh and jump their way along to ominous guitar riffs and bass sounds that are clouded with dirt. Ending on a stage dive makes this performance (and the awaiting expectation of their debut album) all that more exciting.

Packing out the Brudenell Social Club, Pulled Apart By Horses close the festival. They turn the social club upside down as the crowd vigorously jump into each other, thrashing around to ‘V.E.N.O.M’ and popular ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’. ‘High Five Swan Dive Nose Dive’ turns the whole venue into a massive mosh-pit, flailing bodies and bruised limbs scatter about like loose change. Acting as if they haven’t witnessed 12 hours of music previously, the exhilarated audience, still sweating, plead with Pulled Apart By Horses for just one more song. Ending on ‘Den Horn’ Pulled Apart By Horses stick around for a few drinks afterwards to celebrate the closing of the 2014 festivities.

The mammoth event saw the doors to the Leeds music scene flung wide open for all to see. Playing host to the UK’s raw talent, today is bound to have afforded many people a few memories, a few bruises and a few hangovers along the way; a duvet filled, silent Sunday is all that is now left of Live At Leeds 2014.