Lets Rock Leeds Line Up Revealed!

**TICKETS FOR LET'S ROCK LEEDS! 2016 ARE NOW ON SALE**

After a hugely successful 2015, Lets Rock returns with an even stronger line up....take a look at this...

We are excited to announce that the line-up for Saturday 18th June 2016 is as follows:

BILLY OCEAN
Billy Ocean is the biggest black recording star Britain has ever produced, one who has sold over 30 million records in his lifetime. He has collected a pile of Gold and Platinum records across the world and hit the number one spot worldwide on pop charts including the USA, Australia, Germany, Holland, and the UK. Billy has achieved extraordinary success as both an artist and a songwriter.

Billy got his first break when he signed to GTO records, for whom his second single was the Motown-ish Love Really Hurts Without You,which reached No. 2 in the UK charts and No. 12 in the US.

Two top twenty singles followed; Love on Delivery and Stop Me, then Red Light Spells Danger became a smash in both the UK and the US.Billy changed record labels and his move to Jive Records provided instant success, with the million selling American number one single Caribbean Queen (for which Billy won a Grammy for best R&B Vocal), followed by Loverboy, and Suddenly, which became the first of Billy’s killer ballads. The Album from which these singles came from spent a year in the US Charts selling double platinum (triple in Canada).


Billy also performed on the American half of Live Aid, making 1985 a truly incredible year for him.1986 wasn’t bad either, opening with When the Going gets Tough (the tough gets going), the theme song to the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner/Danny Devito movie Jewel of the Nile. Billy then launched the Love Zone album, which went straight to No. 2 in the UK charts, staying in the top 40 for six months. In the US, there was a No. 1 single with There’ll be Sad Songs (to make you cry). More Hits were to follow with the now classic Get Outta my Dreams; Get into my Car, giving Billy yet another US No. 1 hit.

JASON DONOVAN
Jason Donovan came into our lives in the late 80s as Scott Robinson on the hit Australian series, ‘Neighbours’. Throughout 1988/89 he had several hits and his album ‘Ten Good Reasons’ was the best-selling album of 1989. Since that time, he has rarely been away from stage or screen including leading stage roles in ‘Joseph’, ‘The Rocky Horror Show’,‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, ‘Priscilla’ and ‘The Sound of Music’. In the two years since we saw him make the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ final, he completed the ‘Strictly Live UK and Ireland Tour’, released an album, was interviewed by Piers Morgan for his ITV1 ‘Life Stories’ series, and was a mentor/judge with former Spice Girl, Melanie Chisholm, Dawn French and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the ITV1 musical talent show ‘Superstar’. In the winter of 2012, Jason was delighted to return to Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds – The New Generation, in the role of Parson Nathaniel.

SOUL II SOUL
Founded by Jazzie B and featuring a changing roster of other musicians – notably Penny Ford, Nellee Hooper, Simon Law, Phillip 'Daddae' Harvey and Caron Wheeler – Soul II Soul's experiments in music-making of their own resulted in the dub plate "Fairplay," which secured them a recording contract with Virgin Records.

Their first singles in 1988 failed to make the UK Top 40, but the group went on to commercial success in 1989 with the singles "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)", which topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks, and was the fifth best-selling single in the UK that year. Both tracks, which featured Wheeler on vocals, were taken from their debut album Club Classics Vol. One which reached number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and was certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. In July 1989, the British music magazine, NME, reported that Soul II Soul had to pull out of their scheduled live appearance on BBC Television's Top of the Pops programme, following a dispute with the programme's producer.[3]

Their follow-up album, Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade, yielded two Top 10 hits, "Get a Life" and "A Dream's a Dream", the latter featuring vocals by Victoria Wilson James. This album also reached number 1, and was certified platinum by the BPI, and reached the Top 30 in the US where it was certified gold. In April 1990, Soul II Soul got three US Soul Train awards.[4] The band had one more Top 10 in 1992 with "Joy", taken from their third album Vol. III: Just Right, which itself peaked at number 3 and was certified gold by the BPI. The group then virtually disbanded for some years, but reformed for various live dates in the 2000s.

JIMMY SOMERVILLE
The unmistakable voice of Bronski Beat and The Communards, featured on massive hits such as ‘Smalltown Boy’ and ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ – it can be none other than Jimmy Somerville.
Bronski Beat not only introduced the world to Jimmy’s unique voice, their debut smash hit ‘Smalltown Boy’ tackled pertinent social issues with it’s lyric addressing the isolation and rejection felt by a provincial gay youth forced into leaving town. Although not the first pop song to deal with this topic, Bronski Beat’s chart friendly early 80’s electronic dance sound and the everyday ordinariness and honesty of the three performers, made ‘Smalltown Boy’ the biggest record about gay issues there’d ever been.

Jimmy’s next band The Communards enjoyed a string of hits from their two hit albums ‘Communards’ (1986) and ‘Red’ (1987). One moment the Communards were hurtling to the number one spot – a position they held for weeks in the UK in 1986 – with their energetic, hedonistic cover version of the Philly soul classic ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, the next stunning audiences into silent awe with their touching lament for a loved one lost to AIDS, ‘For A Friend’.


1989 saw Jimmy embark on a solo career with 5 more hit singles and two albums; ‘Read My Lips’ (1989) and ‘The Singles Collection’ (1990). These included a stirring cover of Sylvester’s disco anthem ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’.

CHINA CRISIS
When “Christian” made UK #12 in early 1983, this brought them to national prominence. The album peaked at#21 in the UK Albums Chart. During this period the band toured supporting Simple Minds 


Adding to their line-up, a second album, Working With Fire & Steel: Possible Pop Songs – Volume 2 was released in November 19’83. This was regarded as a more consistent effort, with tracks including “Tragedy and Mystery” (released as a single six months earlier), “Hanna Hanna” and the title track, “Working With Fire & Steel”, which became a hit single in Australia. ‘The album was a Top 20 success in the UK, and China Crisis spent 1984 and 1985 making their biggest chart run, beginning with their only UK Top 10 hit single, “Wishful Thinking”, which peaked at #9.

CHESNEY HAWKES
In 2001 Chesney embarked on a ‘mini’ tour with his four piece band. Initially intended to take in five dates, the touring has never stopped. Headlining at universities, colleges, and clubs continues unabated and performances have now passed the 1,200 date mark during this period. Further appearances at festivals and radio promoted open air summer road shows, together with events abroad, have brought the combined ‘live’ audience to which he has performed to close to 2 million. In 2014, Chesney joined Ant and Dec for 12 dates on their nationwide ‘Takeaway’ tour and in April 2015 Chesney performed to an audience of 12,000 at the NEC to mark the 10th Anniversary of Rock Choir.

CUTTING CREW
Formed in 1985, the Grammy nominated rock band will always be remembered for their classic songs “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” and “I’ve Been in Love Before” (number 1 and 9 in USA). Original singer and writer Nick van Eede performs every gig now with his amazing guitarist, Gareth Moulton. The past few years have brought appearances/duetting with Chaka Khan, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Greg Lake, Jack Bruce & Midge Ure. Plus concert tours of Germany and USA with ABC, Berlin and Wang Chung. Their great live show has reached the hearts of audiences across the world

JOHNNY HATES JAZZ
In 1987, as the era of Electronic Pop and New Romantics was reaching its culmination, Anglo-American band Johnny Hates Jazz were catapulted to fame with the release of their single ‘Shattered Dreams’ on Virgin Records. It became a top 5 hit worldwide, reaching number 2 in the USA and Japan, and has since been played over 3 million times on American radio alone.

‘Shattered Dreams’ was followed by other hits including ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Hero’, ‘Turn Back The Clock’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’. Their album ‘Turn Back The Clock’ entered the UK charts at number 1, going double-platinum and selling 4 million copies in the process. It is arguably one of the definitive albums of the 1980’s, and is one of only two debut albums released by Virgin Records that immediately went to the top of the charts upon its release — the other being ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ by The Sex Pistols.


The band went their separate ways shortly afterwards, deciding to focus on other musical projects instead. In fact, over the next 20 years, they completely lost contact with one and other. Then, in 2009, original members Clark Datchler and Mike Nocito decided to come back together to write, record and produce a brand new Johnny Hates Jazz album for the modern era. At the same time, they began to perform at festivals in Europe and Asia.

TOYAH
From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award‐winning rock legend as well as a much loved actress and music composer. Toyah’s band gained critical success with the debut single Victims of the Riddle (no.1 in the independent charts) and six track EP Sheep Farming in Barnet. Her first album, The Blue Meaning, became a Top 40 hit. A TV Documentary “Toyah”, an accompanying live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! – as well as hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want to Be Free, Brave New World and Be Proud, Be Loud, Be Heard plus the platinum albums Anthem and The Changeling ‐ confirmed her status as one of the most significant talents of the Eighties. In 1982 she won the Best Female Singer at the Rock & Pop Awards.

KATRINA
Katrina Leskanich is the lead singer from the Grammy nominated band, Katrina & The Waves. The band got their first break in 1984 when The Bangles covered their song, ‘Going Down to Liverpool’.

In 1985 ‘Walking on Sunshine’ was a top ten hit all around the globe and has since featured in countless advertisements and films including, High Fidelity, Secret of My Success, American Psycho and Walking on Sunshine and it’s been covered by Dolly Parton and was a mash up with Beyonce’s ‘Halo’ sung by the Glee cast. Follow up hits were, ‘Do You Want Crying’ (US Top 40), ‘Sun Street’ (UK Top 30), ‘That’s The Way’ (US #16). Katrina also sang back up vocals on ‘Torn’ by Natalie Imbruglio and has recorded songs with Eric Burdon and Rick Wakeman.


In 1997 Katrina and the Waves’ ‘Love Shine A Light’ won the Eurovision Song Contest with the largest ever margin, followed by an unprecedented four consecutive appearances on Top Of The Pops and a No. 3 in the UK Charts.

MODERN ROMANCE
The band released "Everybody Salsa" in summer 1981, which reached the UK Top 20. They followed this later in the year with similarly themed "Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey", which reached the UK Top 10. Despite these two hits, the band's debut album, Adventures in Clubland, was not a success. However, in the US they scored a number 2 hit on the Billboard Dance chart with "Can You Move", a mostly rap variation of "Everybody Salsa". After further UK Top 40 hits with "Queen of the Rapping Scene" and a cover of the 1955 hit "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White", Geoffrey departed the band in 1982 to pursue solo projects.


Michael J. Mullins took over the mantle of lead vocalist, and their next release saw the band reach their highest UK chart position with "Best Years of Our Lives" in late 1982. Further hits followed in 1983: "High Life" (UK No. 8), "Don't Stop That Crazy Rhythm" (UK No. 14), and the ballad "Walking in the Rain" (UK No. 7).  Both "Best Years Of Our Lives" and "Walking In The Rain" earned Silver discs

OWEN PAUL
Owen Paul, the Scottish singer, producer and co-writer of the 1986 UK and European smash summer hit (My Favourite Waste Of Time) has done many things in the twenty or so years since he first came to musical prominence. He has played a leading role in a major musical theatre production, toured the UK and Europe with Phil Collins as one of ‘ Mike and the Mechanics ‘ as well as being their vocal arranger on their last album ‘ Rewired ‘, and Owen has even been harassed by Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne in the infamous ” noisy neighbours ” episode on MTV’s record breaking show ‘ The Osbournes ‘.

Buy Tickets

Let's Rock Leeds!
Temple Newsam, Leeds

Saturday 18th June 2016
Gates at 11:00, Show starts: 12:00

Age restriction: All Ages Event
Please note that maximum order quantities apply per person/card/household.


Adult (13+)
Tickets £49.50 (inc. booking fee)
Child (3-12yrs) £23.10 (inc. booking fee)
Family (2 adults + 2 children) £123.20 (inc. booking fee)
VIP Ticket £148.50 (inc. booking fee)

To book, please visit Lets Rock Leeds / Gigantic HERE