"when Mark Knopfler was working with Brendan Croker and Steve Philips, it was reported that he turned up and played in Leeds pubs."

That definitely happened when I was living in Leeds some years ago, the pub being The Grove, Leeds' long-established music pub.

Another common sighting at Leeds Irish sessions was the actor Geoffrey Hughes who was rather good on the bodhran. He was Eddie Yates in Coronation Street, Twiggy in The Royle Family, and Paul McCartney's voice in the Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine'.