Dance To The Radio And Friends Alldayer

All day events are usually something of an endurance test, and this Dance To The Radio-curated Good Friday shindig proves no different. Bars open from midday, a club night at the end and, in between, twelve live bands. Here come the highlights, in words and pictures...

First up Spodni Pradlo, a Bradford-based octet who've been causing quite a stir in these parts of late and certainly get The Cockpit's already burgeoning crowd warmed up on this chilly afternoon. Their sound, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci harmonising with Panda Bear(s), is buoyed by endearing boy-girl harmonies and the use of a mercifully un-Zutons-esque woodwind section. Ones to watch, for sure.

On record, local(ish) quintet The Debuts make really-quite-agreeable Clap Your Hands-y guitar-pop, but on this occasion they're let down by a lacklustre performance from frontwoman Zandra Klievens. Whether it's nerves or designs on Julian Casablancas' crown of detached cool, her bored-to-tears demeanour is the only blot on what is otherwise a pretty slick copybook.

With the current abundance of below-par singer-songwriters, female or otherwise, you could be forgiven a certain amount of cynicism when confronted by a lone figure taking to the stage with nothing more than a guitar and keyboard for company. Thankfully, though, Laura Groves' music isn't just in a different ballpark to, say, Adele or Duffy, it's playing another game entirely; one where Kate Bush makes the rules, Joanna Newsom referees and Björk serves the halftime hotdogs. It's music that tugs heartstrings until they almost snap - we actually see grown men weep this afternoon. Absolutely spellbinding.

Arcade Fire. There, we've said it: Broken Records do sound a lot like Win Butler's Canadian ensemble, of that there can be no doubt. Violin as lead instrument? Yup. Orchestral, gravitas-ridden anthems? You bet. There's also a fair bit of Gogol Bordello about the upbeat numbers, which is no bad thing either. More impressively still, they manage to insert a great deal of their own character into the mix.

Like Broken Records, Wild Beasts have had to deal with their fair share of hype in the past few months. Unlike the Scots, distilling this Kendal-bred quartet's sound into a list of influences is nigh-on impossible. Let's try adjectives instead: operatic, theatrical, ambitious, artful, sublime, ridiculous and, tonight, pretty awesome to boot.

Thrilling, emotive, original. Three more adjectives, and ones that no-one would have expected to see applied to Duels based on their first and only full-length to date, 2006's The Bright Lights And What I Should Have Learned. It was underwhelming to say the least but tonight, and indeed on forthcoming LP The Barbarians Move In, they sound like a different, infinitely better, band. Drawing on influences like Radiohead and Nick Cave (one song in particular recalls haunting Cave/P J Harvey ballad 'Henry Lee'), the new material suggests that great things could finally be about to happen for them. Their set, like the rest of the day, is further proof - if any were needed - that the Leeds music scene remains as healthy as ever.