Live Inside a Dream Festival 02
Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
4th July 2026
Live Inside A Dream festival returns to Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds to pay tribute to David Lynch. Expect dream pop and cherry pie.
A full year after the very first Live Inside A Dream, it seems that festival you like is going to come back in style. Organised by Jonathan Lee Hart and those fine folks in Bradford’s Abandoned Buildings, this all-day event was created to raise money for The David Lynch Foundation UK and to celebrate the legendary auteur. Isn’t it too dreamy? With a deal on cherry pie and damn fine coffee, Hyde Park Book Club has transformed into the Double R Diner. I spot a brush leaning against a wall and can’t help but wonder if they’ll be recreating that infamous 3-minute brushing scene in Twin Peaks: The Return.
The day begins with a set of evocative Americana, as The New Mysteries take us on a road trip from The Great Northern to The Fat Trout Trailer Park. In fact, each beautifully crafted, organ-drenched doozy is written for and about the world of Twin Peaks. One minute it’s a gorgeous country swoon; the next a bluesy stomp about everyone’s favourite skull crushing, chain smoking woodsmen. It all ends with doo-wop and the chilling sound of Laura Palmer’s scream. Meanwhile, in what I’m hoping won’t turn out to be a bad omen, one of the plastic owls mysteriously falls from its perch…
“Shall we rock out?” proposes Jim Bailey, singer/guitarist in Leeds-based eclectic indie oddballs Billy Billy 5p. Well, it would be rude not to. Dressed as beekeeping astronauts (with bee fantennas for the crowd), the band’s set includes an addictive post punk number about Terry McCann (you know, him off Minder) and a jangle pop gem about the Mars Rover. Makes your band sound a tad boring, right? If all this wasn’t enough, we get a proggy instrumental banger from War Of The Worlds and a gorgeous rendition of Laura Palmer’s Theme. Amongst the sublime synthy textures we hear some familiar voices: “This must be where pies go when they die.”
Next, we head upstairs to the snug, which – appropriately enough – is decorated with a flowing red curtain and a framed picture of a familiar Homecoming Queen. It’s here we’re greeted by an intimate set from songwriter Shoddy Merchant. Gentle acoustic offerings (on a 12 string, no less) that simply ooze nostalgia. The singer transports us to a very memorable point in Lynchian history with a cover of In Dreams by Roy Orbison before dropping us off back home with a song that namechecks both Knaresborough and Robin Hood’s Bay. A songwriter to keep an eye on.
It’s then time to head back down into the bowels of the Bang Bang Bar for Leeds-based dreamgazers, Forming. The four-piece open with One Of These Days; Andie Mills’ viola weaving its way through the song like some ominous wind in the sycamore trees. Sarah Statham joins them for indie pop earworm You What, while Seersucker provides a melodic and wholly euphoric rush… complete with a finger-blistering guitar solo. That new album is shaping up nicely. Things take a darker turn with an appropriately menacing rendition of the Badalamenti/ Lynch instrumental, The Pink Room. An incredible cover of an incredibly cool tune.
Perched on a stool in the snug, Headingley-born folk/ psych musician Pete Greenwood calmly entrances the assembled crowd, evoking classic troubadours, while leaving his own indelible mark. He tells us about the time he tried to write his own Hank Williams number, accidentally creating a new sub-genre when it came out a little slow… Trank Williams will be all the rage by the end of the year, mark my words. His unassuming style can’t disguise the majestic, somewhat timeless quality of his songs. He tells us he really has to slow down with his finger-picking and save some energy for the PlayStation, adding “I’m getting really good at Metal Gear Solid and worse at guitar… it’s all about balance.”
Performing with two accomplices, Hebden Bridge-based musician Zandra quietly captures the entire room. With a whispered mix of guitar, keys and woozy effects, the trio’s subtle, spectral folk slowly seeps from the amplifiers. It’s an impossibly gentle, yet assured sound that evokes acts like Mazzy Star and Karen Dalton yet never truly sounds like anything but itself. “Don’t you wish that sometimes, you could just disappear,” she sings on the elegant Winter’s Sun as I slip into a blissful dream state. As if that wasn’t Lynchian enough, they unveil a magical version of the song Summer Kisses, Winter Tears, which was also covered by Roadhouse regular Julee Cruise.
We’re then back in the basement for Silverlode. Despite being a project for decades, I’m somehow unfamiliar with the Leeds-based indie rockers. It soon becomes apparent that I’ve been missing out. Dark narratives, passionate delivery and an ever-shifting sound makes for one of the day’s most compelling sets. Paris In The Future gets its groove on with some apocalyptic alt-pop, while Song For My Forefathers comes on like a more emotionally conflicted Mr. Blue Sky. In keeping with today’s theme, the collective treat us to a suitably shimmering cover of Chris Isaak classic, Wicked Game. I half expect Sailor and Lula to come walking through the door.
It’s then time for a short talk from Joel Pimm from The David Lynch Foundation UK. Pimm speaks passionately about Lynch and the benefits of transcendental meditation but it’s a short video from the man himself – talking about consciousness and the unified field – that really brings it on home.
Led by the British-born, New Zealand based songwriter Luke Redfern Scott, Admiral Drowsy & The Narwhals slide into a kaleidoscopic set of songs. It’s Scott’s voice that hits me first, his impassioned – almost Jeff Buckely-esque – wail proving to be particularly spine-tingling. These strange songs are swathed in guitars and electronics and filled with a deep, inescapable sense of yearning. The grooves are pretty good too. Anthony Hopkins’ shocked visage from The Elephant Man is projected behind them as their final song explodes into a satisfying psychedelic crescendo.
It’s then back to the snug for an up close and personal performance from Sarah Statham and her band AKA Fig By Four. The set has a stripped-back, almost-skeletal quality with songs like Plunge playing with a kind of funky minimalism that’s impossible to resist. There’s a nod to Mr. Lynch and the mighty Mulholland Drive with a brief yet subtly eerie take on Bring It on Home by Sonny Boy Williamson II. Clearly a fan, Statham explains how she almost got stranded at the actual Double R Diner out in the North Bend. Well, at least it wasn’t the Black Lodge.
With a guitar tone that Statham describes as the best in Leeds, it’s time for tonight’s headliners – and festival organisers – Abandoned Buildings. A slow, thick blanket of guitars fills the room; it’s a substantial yet decidedly dreamy sound that channels shoegaze, slowcore and post-rock. Songs like Tombstoning feel effortlessly epic while Intravenous makes great use of the bands three guitarists. What’s more, their cover of Falling from Twin Peaks is heavy, heartfelt and absolutely devastating. Honestly, it’s something you really need to hear. Maybe this is what it feels like to fall into that Lynch’s “ocean of pure consciousness.”
The organisers have really pulled off something impressive here; bringing together a batch of new and long-serving underground acts in celebration of one the world’s finest – and much missed – auteurs. On all counts, Live Inside A Dream has been a resounding success. A damn good festival! Unlike poor old Laura Palmer, we certainly shouldn’t have to wait 25 years for the next instalment.
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You can find all these artists on Bandcamp: The New Mysteries | Billy Billy 5p | Forming | Pete Greenwood | Zandra | Silverlode | Admiral Drowsy | Fig by Four | Abandoned Buildings
Shoddy Merchant is on Instagram.
Listen to David Lynch on Bandcamp here.
The David Lynch Foundation UK can be found on their website.
All photos by Jim Mumby | You can find him on Facebook and Instagram.
All words by Andy Brown. You can visit his author profile and read more of his reviews for Louder Than War HERE.
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