As paper ticket transactions become a thing of the past, the Leeds Local Studies library is creating a living record of Leeds gig history. Anyone with an old ticket stub or a memory of a past Leeds gig can contribute to the collection, and with no end date, this is a collection of tickets and memories that will continue to grow. Whether it’s used as a resource for historians and researchers, a trip down live music memory lane, or just a way to remember what year it was you saw your favourite band, the tickets add an exciting new strand to our existing local studies collections.

Over the past 6 months Leeds Libraries have been collecting gig tickets – only digital images not the tickets themselves – and adding them to the Leodis photographic archive as a stand-alone collection. We did a call out on social media and received hundreds of donations – so many that we’re still working through them all. All we asked is that the gig took place in Leeds and then it’s eligible for inclusion.

We’ve uploaded tickets from gigs from 2023 going all the way back to 1963 and you’ll see plenty of band names you recognise. Long lost venues such as The Duchess, The Cockpit and Queens Hall feature, as well as the University venues, the O2 Academy and the first direct arena. From huge international stars on national tours to tiny local bands who may have only played a few gigs before disbanding – all these gigs make up the musical history of Leeds and are shared experiences for Leeds communities. And now that most gig tickets are digital, we’re losing these precious pieces of paper that can hold such wonderful memories.

To browse the collection please visit www.leodis.net, use the Advanced Search and select Leeds Gig Heritage from the drop down Collection menu. Either type in a band name or just hit Search to see what we have already indexed. Alternatively just type ‘Leeds Gig Heritage’ in the search box and see what results you uncover.

Unlike other images on Leodis, these gig tickets are not for resale and we cannot provide hi-resolution copies of these for copyright reasons. If anyone spots their own artwork on any gig tickets then please do get in touch.

Now we have the core of a collection we would love to gather some memories about some of these gigs. There is the option to add comments to every single image on Leodis and gig tickets are no exception. If you went to the Duchess then tell us about it, if you saw any secret gigs then we want to know details – the more gig tickets we upload, the more memories we need. You need to create a free Leodis account to add comments to images and all comments are moderated by staff. There is no limit to the number of comments you can add so please do leave your memories on all the gigs you attended.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this collection so far – it’s very much appreciated. However, we’re very greedy and we’d love some more tickets. You don’t actually have to give us the tickets themselves – that would be a crazy idea – just a high-ish resolution photo or scan will be fine for Leodis. We’ve been using the Photo Scan app as it’s free to use but there are many scanning apps out there. If you cannot photograph/scan tickets yourself then you are very welcome to bring your collection into Central Library and we can scan the tickets for you.

Contact the Leodis team: images@leeds.gov.uk or 0113 378 6982