Roundhay Park's musical history to be explored in Cultural Conversation Talk

01 May 2024

Roundhay Park in Leeds has played host to music royalty including The Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson and Madonna, but could it ever see the likes of Taylor Swift performing?

The park and its musical history will come under the spotlight at a talk next month by an academic from Leeds Beckett University. Dr Peter Mills will speak about the stars that have played in the park and whether one day it might return to its former musical glory.

The illustrated Cultural Conversation will focus on the history of pop music concerts in Roundhay Park and will go back to Victorian times when the first music events appeared in the park.

The park has a rich and broad musical history, and the talk will move through the years looking at the changing nature of musical staging and performance, alongside the city's willingness and capacity to stage such events.

Dr Peter Mills, from the School of Humanities and Social Science, is an expert in all things to do with music in Roundhay Park.

"Since it opened in 1872, Roundhay Park has been a popular venue for music. It saw a real boom during the 1980s when musicians including The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and U2 all held concerts in the park. These were top bands and singers of the time, and they chose a park in Leeds.

"The attitude to these concerts has changed over time too. When the Rolling Stones came in 1982, they were met with a bit of resistance, whereas by the time Michael Jackson and Madonna were appearing, the city was very much of the mindset of why shouldn't Leeds host these concerts. It changed the way the city thought of itself and served as a shop-window to the city and showed that Leeds was somewhere worth visiting. Roundhay Park was on a par with world-famous venues and was attracting the top names - people from across the country were coming to Leeds for these concerts."

After the peak time in the 1980s, and musical tastes changed, Roundhay Park didn't hold another big concert until 2006 when Robbie Williams played two shows there. Over a decade passed before the next arena-sized event, when Ed Sheeran, The Darkness and Lewis Capaldi came to the park for two sell-out nights in August 2019 playing to crowds of 80,000.

Dr Mills says there are advantages and disadvantages to Roundhay Park when it comes to holding concerts: "In the 1980s, concerts were still effectively about a band or singer standing on the stage, playing their music and singing, whereas a 21st century arena show is extremely demanding and sophisticated in technological terms. Unlike a stadium, there is no infrastructure at Roundhay Park so the acts have to bring everything with them - such as generators, accommodation and lighting. There's also a small window of opportunity for the park to be used for such events, roughly from May to September. Furthermore, Roundhay has competition now in the form of the First Direct Arena which has everything a band/singer would need, year-round, and without the worries about the weather."

But, what of the future of music in Roundhay Park? Will the big names return?

"It's such a tremendous space and so attractive. If an act is prepared to go the extra mile to make it happen then I don't think there's a better outdoor venue in the UK. It's an open space and has a certain 'je ne sais quoi' - you get a good view wherever you are, and it's relaxed. I honestly believe that eventually there'll be another big-name concert held at the Park - after all who wouldn't want to follow in the footsteps of the music royalty who have played there?"

The event is being held by the Centre for Culture and Humanities. Dr Mills will be speaking in the Sanderson Room at Leeds City Library on Wednesday 8 May from 1-2pm. Tickets are available here.