We are very excited to introduce to this year’s Kirkstall Festival, Leeds band Red Light Revival! Along with a couple of other key acts, they will be featuring in the latest edition of Kirktall Matters. This sounds like a must see event so dont forget to check them out on the day.
Who are Red Light Revival?
It all started in 2006 when Ben, Paul & Charlie were all working together in Leeds. They got a band together to play the Christmas party doing standard rock covers and then realised that Ben and Paul were playing the wrong instruments and swapped resulting in instant success. Not long after that Ben found Matt performing an acoustic set at an open-mic night and despite some reluctance as they didn’t get on, Ben asked Matt to join the band which he duly did.
As fate would have it Matt and Ben subsequently ended up living in a shared house together and a musical partnership was formed. The covers got dropped and the newly formed Red Light Revival started gigging. Lead guitarists with the band initially had a shorter life expectancy than first world war fighter pilots yet despite this RLR reached the finals of a Northern Battle of the Bands and recorded two EPs in 2009 and 2012, both of which met with good reviews on the Leeds gig circuit. Sadly due to “musical differences” the success was to be short lived and the band parted company with another lead guitarist. During a year off Charlie took to playing in covers band and introduced the existing members of Red Light Revival to Jon, a lead guitarist and a previous member of a signed band in Spain with a number one single to his name (if you ask him about it he will do his very best not to tell you). Ben and Matt decided that they would make a conscious effort to stop bickering for long enough to write a third EP which we are glad to confirm is due to be recorded in September of this year.
Performing at the festival
We’ve not played Kirkstall before but having enjoyed the festival for a number of years we felt this year coincided nicely with our preparations for a 3rd EP. We’ve played many venues but the prospect of playing a local festival really appeals to us and will be an excellent opportunity to perform our music at such a great event.
I think we’re all attracted to different aspects of the festival. Some of us have kids so love the entertainment but I think mostly it’s the fantastic setting for loads of people getting together and having a good time. The variety of food, drink and music always goes down well too!
Why we are not to be missed!
Red Light Revival have been around a few years but we think our current music now is the best we’ve done. The line up hasn’t changed that much and perhaps that time together has paid dividends. We’ve played a number of venues over the years but always stuck the principle of rock, blues and honest guitar orientated tunes. The 5 of us have differing and eclectic blend of influences but all seem to coincide on uncomplicated music to have a good time to, be it American, English, rock, blues, country, 60s, 70s and all the way up to current bands. We haven’t worried about fitting into any particular genre but if there’s a guitar in it, you can bet we’re all over it.
We’re road testing a number of new songs for the next EP so want to mix these with a few of the regular crowd pleasers so you can expect to see us trying to get people up and moving. As music lovers ourselves (god bless Leeds Arena!) we want to shake it with the best of them. Incidentally, this will be our first gig since Jon joined on lead guitar so no pressure!
Find out more:
http://redlightrevival.bandcamp.com/ – Our music is available here to listen to and purchase
@redlightrevival – the best way to connect with what’s going on with us
Soundcloud – Hillside: A thick-cut slice of prime rock
Photos by: Photobanksphotography.com
To find out when they are playing don’t forget to buy a programme!
