Parklife: When Roundhay Park Went Pop
Alice Hiley
In Parklife: When Roundhay Park Went Pop, Dr Peter Mills explores Roundhay Park’s part in Leeds’ musical history through personal recollections, photos and objects.
Roundhay Park has played host to some of the more iconic pop and rock concerts in recent Leeds history, in addition to having a long musical heritage. Join Dr Peter Mills, senior lecturer in Media Communication Culture at Leeds Beckett University, for a recorded talk exploring how Roundhay went from a Victorian country park to a sought-after gig venue for some of the 80’s and 90’s most iconic artists and bands.
From Madonna to Genesis and Bruce Springsteen to The Rolling Stones, Dr Peter Mills uses fascinating details including gig tickets, programmes and newspaper clippings to bring the legendary concerts to life. Charting the park’s history, from its opening to the public by Prince Arthur in 1872 to the modern day, Parklife: When Roundhay Park Went Pop is a fantastic summary of how music taste, performance styles, ticketing, crowd control and public opinion of music events and pop culture have changed in the past 150 years.
The talk was commissioned to tie in with Abbey House Museum’s 2020-21 exhibition Sounds Of Our City. The talk will go live on YouTube on the day of the event and will remain available to view until the end of July.
Sounds of Our City tells the story of how the different musical styles and places of Leeds interact. Various venues associated with the musical history of the city over the past 200 years have come together to put on in-person and online exhibitions. Discover fascinating instruments and sound equipment made in Leeds, and relive some of the most iconic performances hosted in the city. Celebrate forgotten women composers, tour music shops new and old and listen to interviews with key figures in Leeds’ musical culture.
