For the longest time the only way to get an American to understand where you were from if you said Leeds was to add something about The Who, particularly their album Live At Leeds, a record which at the time anchored a band from London in a place few outside of Britain had heard of. Even then there would often be a look of bafflement as, by any standard you chose to set, the place that had once titled itself the motorway city had been more famous for that and Don Revie than any musical product of it’s own.
By the time the seventies had peaked to those on the outside it became easier to believe that nobody was making music in Leeds, that the whole place just fell silent at five o’ clock every day and everyone was waiting for the Sex Pistols to turn up (Which they eventually did, in September 1976). The truth, as Where Were You? reveals is that just because you couldn’t see or hear it didn’t mean that there was nothing going on.
Covering the era between 1978 and 1989, the sprawling three disk assortment presents oddities and the familiar in the same space, placing nothing on a pedestal. Here post punk icons Gang of Four and goth rock magus The Sisters of Mercy rub shoulders with none hit wonders like The Squares or Len Liggins, whilst contributions from local phenomenon such as The Prowlers, Pink Peg Slax and Expelaires take a pew alongside material by Age of Chance, Soft Cell, The Wedding Present and The Mission.
With it’s title borrowed from a song by The Mekons, Where Were You? is aural time travel, a journey to forgotten sounds made in places often now buried by progress and concrete alike. You can’t use it to educate many Americans, but if you too are a stranger to these parts, just pull up a seat and prepare to go for a wild, weird and wonderful ride.
The Voice Of Unreason 