THE FRONT ROW

One of the final nights at The Leadmill goes out with fire, frenzy, and a full house of fans singing their hearts out

As The Leadmill enters its final week before the doors close for good, there was always going to be something heavy in the air. But on Sunday night, that weight turned electric as The K’s delivered a sold-out, full-throttle set to 900 voices crammed into Sheffield’s most iconic room. It was the second of two hometown-adjacent shows for the Earlestown band, doubling up as launch gigs for their long-awaited debut album Pretty on the Internet, but the atmosphere felt like a victory parade, a eulogy, and a proper knees-up rolled into one.

They opened with Gravestone, one of three new cuts from the album making the setlist. On record, it’s a biting, lyrical track full of simmering emotion, but live it’s a statement, sharp and urgent, it set the pace for the night and gave frontman Jamie Boyle plenty of room to stretch those rasping vocals. If there were any nerves about playing newer material in front of a packed crowd, they didn’t show.

What followed was a non-stop blast of everything The K’s have become known for – anthemic, melodic indie rock with choruses built to echo off the ceiling. Icarus and Chancer came thick and fast, full of that jangly, arms-around-your-mates energy that’s turned them from local heroes into national ones. Hoping Maybe had the whole floor in chorus, while Glass Towns and Circles reminded the room of the depth in their catalogue, not just festival- friendly hooks, but emotional punch and lyrical guts too.

But it was the surprise inclusion of Aurora that brought one of the night’s biggest reactions. The track’s been missing from recent tour sets, but here it came roaring back with real force, shimmering guitar tones and that yearning chorus landing with pinpoint emotional precision. You could feel the room shift when it kicked in, like 900 people all being handed back a favourite they thought they’d lost.

The band paced the set smartly, weaving in older fan favourites like Black and Blue and Hometown before landing on The Bends (Here We Go Again) – a punchy, urgent track from Pretty on the Internet that’s already gaining traction as one of their most assured new pieces. It’s clear the album hasn’t just added to the live experience, it’s pushed the whole thing up a level.

And then came Helen, Oh I.

Now, almost, firmly cemented as the closer, and rightfully so, the track is an absolute juggernaut. A slow-burner that builds into one of the most cathartic finales you’ll see in a venue this size, it’s already taken on cult status with fans, and when the final refrain hit, it was deafening.
“What I’m gonna do, what I’m going through / What I wanna see, who I wanna be / When I get older / I never told ya, told you”
echoed out again and again, the crowd holding onto every word, arms raised, eyes closed, voices cracked. You don’t get many moments like that in a venue like this. It felt like a send-off. For the tour. For the album. For The Leadmill itself.

The K’s didn’t try to make the night into a sermon, there was no long speech about the closure, no dramatic farewell. But they didn’t need to. Just being there, filling that room with noise and heart and history, said enough. This was a band that came to honour the stage they were standing on, and the crowd that have carried them to it.

As The Leadmill prepares to go dark, it’s hard not to feel the loss. But if it has to end, let it end like this – two nights of indie rock done properly, by a band still climbing and a crowd that never stopped believing. The K’s brought their record, their fire, and their fans – and gave Sheffield one last night to remember.