Stylus, Leeds 21st February 2026
It’s Saturday night and I descend to the subterranean venue past waves of staggering students in fancy dress to the impeccably well-mannered Paper Kites crowd. Sam Bentley describes them as a community and the respect is amazing. There is silence while the band performs, exultation when they pause. This isn’t an ordinary band and Sam thanks us for choosing them this Saturday. “Leeds is a really nice place. I’ve been in the library this afternoon and it’s very nice – you should go”.
The set opens with all six band members huddled round a single mic, singing the simple and delicate ‘Morning Gum’ that opens their new album, ‘If You Go There, I Hope You Find It’. It’s a nice touch and sets the expectations nicely. Once in band mode, the standard set up is Sam on vocals and acoustic rhythm guitar, David Powys adding crunches of electric. I wasn’t overwhelmed by their last album but, as it does with live music, it made sense tonight; the arrangements, the focus, the mood, the electric guitar licks adding bright splashes. By the end of the evening Bentley was totally in the zone, singing with his arms as he clutched his heart or gesticulated.
The harmonies are key to the quiet sound, along with the multitude of instruments the band plays – bass, keyboards, pedal steel, bongos. They are adept at keeping the set moving with changes. ‘Black and Thunder’ sees tasty blues licks and electric rhythm guitar. The support act, Bess Atwell, comes up for a solo acoustic duet with Sam – ‘Dearest’, which they wrote together – then a huddle for ‘Paint’. There are the occasional longeurs, like ‘Bleed Confusion’ but, as Jerry Garcia said to Paul Morley, sometimes life is like that too and ‘Without Your Love’ sees the band shift into a heavy rock-out (well, by contrast to the rest).
Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy and David Powys head into the crowd with a Chinese lantern to sing ‘Deep (In The Plans We Made)’. It’s amazing how respectful and charmed the audience are. In fact, the whole evening has been like that – a safe place for gentle expression of love, loss and hope. Who doesn’t need a bit of that now and again? There’s a time to fight and shout and a time to recuperate between battles with The Paper Kites. After all, they sing “spare me the news of the day”.
Of course there’s an encore and it’s a huddle with guitar, banjo and ukelele on ‘Bloom’ before the band play out with ‘When the Lavender Blooms’ from the new album. It’s been a gentle and refreshing evening, with the crowd and staff, if anything, even more chilled than before.
Album review:
The Paper Kites – ‘If You Go There, I Hope You Find It’ – “safe, perhaps deliberately so”
Ross McGibbon