THE WAREHOUSE NIGHTCLUB IN LEEDS REOPENS.
Legendary Leeds nightclub The Warehouse reopens its doors to the clubbing fraternity on Saturday 29th May 2010.
The Warehouse Leeds is being restored to pristine condition with a full upgrade to its infrastructure. Amongst the many features on offer with the new club is a bespoke sound system built by Void Acoustics and DirtSounds with the brief that the resulting audio should be akin to a spiritual experience (see our tech spec -http://the.warehou.se/page/techinfo.html). The Warehouse has also secured an 8am licence for seven days a week and has a capacity of 750 persons, 230 more than the last licence.
Our plan for the future of the club is to promote the Fri/Sat ourselves as we have a very clear idea of how we want the music policy and atmosphere of the club to develop. The nights break down as follows:
Fridays (VIBE) – Nu-Disco/Disco/Funk/Soul/Synth/Fusion etc
DJs to include - Joey Negro, Leftside Wobble, Norman Jay, Greg Wilson, Ashley Beadle, Crazy P, Todd Terje and Death on the Balcony.
Saturdays (SMILE) – pure House music (deep, soulful, vocal )
DJs to include - Anton Bailey, The Magnificent Dance, Tony Walker, Steve Butler and Ghosts of Venice.
The Door policy for both nights will be strict to ensure a friendly, non-pretentious vibe. All sexualities of course are welcome, however The Warehouse has always been a club with a strong mixed crowd and we will be encouraging that whenever possible.
The Warehouse has, probably more than any other UK club, played a significant role in the development of dance music over the last thirty years. From the day it was built in 1979 it lead the way musically with Greg James designing and then playing on the legendary sound system. In 1980 when the then owner of The Warehouse, Michael Wiand, started flying over New York DJ’s such as Dan Pucciarelli (Paradise Garage) from the US it was truly ground breaking. These were one of the very first times (and perhaps the very first) that records had been mixed together in a club. Over the next few years various DJs made their names mixing the same disco/dance style – Greg James, Ian Dewhirst, Rockin Roy Archer etc – not to mention the bands that played The Warehouse – Wham, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and every other notable 80’s act. The cloakroom of TW was managed by a young lad called Marc Almond who after hearing Dewhirst play Gloria jones’s Tainted Love went on to record his own electronic version under the moniker Soft Cell. Not content with bringing in acts to play the club’s owner set up Warehouse Records and signed acts such as Shannon (Let the Music Play) before they were picked up by the majors.
As the eighties gave way to the nineties and Acid House, DJs such as Sasha, Mike Pickering, Marshall, Graeme Park regularly graced The Warehouse’s decks at nights such as Soak and Kaos. It was the time of “bleep & bass” and local label Warp Records churned out underground hit after hit including the seminal “LFO – LFO (The Leeds Warehouse Mix)”. Then, in 1993, the legendary night Vague opened at TW and quickly became the UK’s number one club destination. When Vague shut its doors in 1996 it was quickly replaced by SpeedQueen which ran for ten years at the club collecting award after award for its fresh, tolerant and vibrant nights. In the last couple of years of its life The Warehouse gave birth to two further huge brands, Asylum & Technique, which have gone on today to become well-established and respected nights. In late 2007 The Warehouse closed its doors. Many people believed the club would never open again.
They were wrong. Over the last six months a small company run by a group of music aficionados has been finalising the details on a project that will see The Warehouse return to its former glory.
The next chapter of The Warehouse commences on Saturday 29th May 2010. This giant of the clubbing world, now in its fourth decade, is about to remind Leeds and the North what they have been missing.
For more information contact Tony Walker on 01132 468118 or email tony@warehou.se
The Warehouse, 19–21 Somers St, Leeds, West Yorkshire. LS1 2RG http://the.warehou.se
