ISSUE 217 DECEMBER 2025
Leeds band 'Versus' celebrate their debut album 'The Catalyst' with a live gig showcasing the full album, at the Lending Rooms in Leeds.
Dec 12th 2025
Review by Andrew Sugden
Photos Martin Singleton
Eve and I emerged from the Library bar, leaving the Christmas parties of drunken elves and giddy wise men behind us.
We climbed the steps and entered the small intimate space of the Lending Rooms- iconic grassroots venue… and settled in a corner.
Ryley Cook, vocals and Bennie Ryder, guitar.
Red Carpet Dollhouse stepped in and took the stage, youthful ‘I couldn’t give a fuck’ swaggering (they could really). Loud, brash, emerging. The audience stirred, welcoming this brazen new band as they stormed the stage, a great appetiser rousing their hunger for the bands yet to come.
Ryley Cook, strutting onto the stage, self-assured, screaming vocals, jumping into the audience, accompanied by harsh rhythms and hot melodies from guitarist Bennie.
Ryder and thumping bass from Brandon Ames. Woodsy on drums stitched the band together with ferocious drumming. Combining the opulent red carpet, lavish and royal, with the miniature world; new, young, self-confident… ready to break out of the confined space.
Focusing on presence, self-aware and playing, contrasting grandness within a contained world, evoking glamour and performance in a controlled setting. Lords in a small space, ready to burst into the bigger world… look out, they’re going to be great.
Voice harmonies of Rob (the Librarian) and Samm beautifully blended
The Alicias were next; A five piece Manchester based indie band with pop and rock influences.
Samm’s sweet vocals, humour and openness combined with the honesty in his movement.
Teasingly seductive, playfully twirling, rhythmic hip, exuberant
Samm, on vocals
and joyous, matched the magical rock rhythms and melodic pop phrases of Ste and Rob on guitars Darren on Bass and Saul on drums.
The audience loved them, mesmerised by the dance and music. Voice harmonies of Rob (the Librarian) and Samm beautifully blended, and The Alicias, true to their name, stood noble, and exalted by the growing crowd.
And who could equal that…
... step forward, BLACK SURF.
This eclectic five-piece mixed alternative rock and punk, entwined in an easy, relaxed vocal style. Ali’s laid back genuinely empathetic performance sucked the swelling crowd, pulling them forward. The gap at the front of the stage disappeared.
The band’s vocal harmonies blended with Ali’s gentle voice and Tim Richard’s and Chas Ivatts, harmonious, melodic guitar licks, Paul Fox’s rhythmic drumming and Tom Ramsden’s resonant pulsating bass merged with soul-searching lyrics, creating soul-stirring anthems, haunting hooks and candid uncensored storytelling.
Ali on vocals
With any feast, the starters get you ready for the main meal, and a now full house at the Lending Room cheered Versus onto stage, accompanied with a shower of confetti and flashing lights. Sound and lighting by Aiden, sparkling throughout.
Shorts on vocals
With Bear on bass, Calvin on drums, Sparks and Rob on guitars, the band’s music, gritty with cinematic background, pyrotechnics and lights, flowed, giving depth to Shorts vocals…moments of thunderous aggression and haunting vulnerability, … resilience, depth and range. A show for all the senses.
With Bear on bass, Calvin on drums, Sparks and Rob on guitars, and shorts on vocals
Shorts owned the stage, with cathartic screams, and moments of introspective calm alongside the bands walls of distortion, mixed with moments of melodic harmony. A play-out of the everyday struggle of life.
The band played through it’s debut album, ‘The Catalyst’, showcasing songs of destruction, rebuilding and renewal… the chaos of self discovery.
The bands final song was noisily, appreciated by the audience, dancing and waving arms, shouting for more. At it’s end fans crowded forward to get a group photo with the band, everyone with their arms held high, fingering rock on… the sign of the horns.
Versus are a force to be reckoned with in the post-hardcore and alternative scene; definitely get out and experience them.
It was a great gig; it was lovely to see all the bands support each other’s sets, and what a fantastic mix of bands.
Eve and I left the lending rooms feeling hopeful and part of something special… we could still hear the elves and wise men partying in the Library bar, but we knew we’d had the most special time with Versus and the other bands, in a magical grassroots community.
