We are five minutes into Ellur’s sold-out show at Yellow Arch Studios and she’s beginning to sound like Sean Bean’s Sharpe at the battle of Waterloo.
“We started this tour in Yorkshire, and we will fucking end this tour in Yorkshire!” she beams proudly.
Her set begins with ‘Dream of Mine’, a song I had on rinse-and-repeat throughout January. It’s a fantastic piece of indie folk-rock, with Joni Mitchell-esque storytelling centred around the classic dilemma of love or freedom.
“I’ll be playing the piano ’til the end of time
And you always remind me that’s the thing that caught your eye
So if you’re pointing fingers at the tell-tale signs
I’ll say, “Are you coming with me or are you leaving me behind?”
Tonight, the refrain of ‘Dream of Mine’ takes on a different meaning. This concert, this tour – this is Ellur’s dream, and we’re all coming along for the journey.
Ellur is from Halifax, so the Yorkshire pride and ‘King in the North’ speeches continue throughout the set. ‘Yellow Light’ is introduced with: “This is a song about how my dry Yorkshire sensibility makes me sound like an arsehole.” Something the crowd clearly relates to, with everyone joining in to shout the line: “I act like a dick and blame it on my Northern blood.”
But let’s move away from Yorkshire for a moment, and focus on the music.
Ellur’s debut album, At Home in My Mind, came out in February and so far it’s in pole position for my album of the year. There’s no prize, admittedly, but maybe I should make a trophy. I just can’t get away from it. I put it on in the same way you pull on a comfy jumper.
Musically, the album is varied – from the Sam Fender-style riffs of ‘Missing Kid’ to the balladry of ‘The World Is Not an Oyster’.
At Home in My Mind feels like the perfect title. It’s a deeply personal record, with Ellur exploring her experiences of growing up and being a young woman in 2026. That emotional core is perhaps best summed up in the anthemic, ‘God Help Me Now’
Live, the songs take on another dimension. I wondered whether the gig could live up to my expectations, but it exceeded them. The rock songs hit harder. The slower moments felt even more powerful.
A couple of new songs were also thrown into the set: ‘Love Me Fuck You’, an exploration of romantic attachment, and ‘Cave Hands’, which deals with the grief of losing her great-grandmother.
As the set draws to a close Ellur says, “I think I see a Yorkshire flag in the crowd.”
The flag is thrown on to the stage and Ellur drapes it around her shoulders while singing ‘God Help Me Now’ alongside a packed Yellow Arch Studios crowd. It feels like an appropriate ending to both the gig and a milestone tour for Ellur.
Ellur has just been added to the so-big-it-is- bursting-at-the-seams line up for Friday’s Rock and Roll circus. If you are going to the festival, I can’t recommend her gig enough.
