24 June 2025
Rosie Brennan
Photo Credit: Lily Crockford
The Rosadocs All-Dayer on Saturday 14 June saw the local rising indie band headline a whole day of guitar-driven goodness at The Leadmill, one of the iconic venue’s final shows.
Joined by a line-up of up-and-coming talent, including Crystal Tides, Whitehorse and Junk, from 4pm onwards, The Rosadocs brought their love for Leadmill to the stage for a fifth and final time. The event promised to be an emotional farewell for the band, and audience, to the beloved venue, and did not disappoint. Arriving before penultimate performers Crystal Tides took to the stage, it was clear just how many people wished to share their love of Leadmill’s live music.
Photo, Lily Crockford
Crystal Tides, travelling to the gig all the way from Portsmouth, clearly suffered no lack of energy from their long journey, bringing a booming energy to the stage- the perfect warm up for Rosadocs to take their final Leadmill bow.
The bustling audience anticipating Rosadocs’ headline set was made up of anyone and everyone, from 14 year-old fresh fans in bucket hats aching to be in their first mosh pit, to seasoned gig goers patiently waiting to sing along to their favourite anthemic tracks. Those few minutes spent before watching a band take the Leadmill stage for the final time were spent in anticipation, and amidst a crowd of fellow people bursting through the lyrics of Pulp’s ‘Common People’, as it played over the PA in a bubble of civic pride.
The Sheffield-based band came onto the stage to a reception only possible from a local crowd, kicking off with ‘Bittersweet’, the track from their upcoming EP, an upbeat and melodic classic indie opener. Even with a packed-out crowd chanting back at him, lead singer Keelan Graney’s vocals shone through the set.
Photo, Lily Crockford
A cover of The Vaccines’ ‘I Always Knew’ was performed by Keelan Graney towards the end of the headline set, the rest of the band taking a quick break backstage. Chanting along with the catchy chorus, it was clear that the likes of The Vaccines had had influence on Rosadocs’ own unique sound.
Packed between pumping festival-worthy anthems were beautifully intimate stripped-back acoustic tracks.A standout in particular, was the third track on the band’s upcoming EP, ‘Cross To Bear’. An emotionally raw, vulnerable song, with chorus lyrics “you see the thing is I’m never on my own / I’m surrounded / but I’m all alone in my head / all I need is a friend” powerfully echoed by the crowd, particularly the band’s younger audience up on shoulders, bellowing out the track.
Photo, Lily Crockford
The band’s passion for The Leadmill seeped through every note and every audience interaction. “This is our fifth time performing here,” they repeated throughout, highlighting how honoured they felt to be part of the venue’s final set of shows between songs. As an audience member and, of course, Sheffield local, those few moments took away from the band/crowd distinction, and pulled you back to the fact that we were all just people enjoying one last hurrah before one of our most-loved places closed down.
Rosadocs managed to provide not only an entire day of brilliant music with other incredible bands, but an unforgettable experience in which you could feel the Leadmill memories of people of all ages echoing through the main room of the venue- the send-off it deserves.