Clubbing in Leeds

Those familiar with the original version of this page (club listings) - lets face it, it never worked! I shamefully realised that I hadn't updated this particular page for over a year, so as I'm about to leave Leeds and won't know what will be going on in the future, I've decided to approach this page differently. In danger of duplicating a certain page belonging to Joe Downie, I'm gonna be giving a commentary on the nightclubs in Leeds instead, based on my three years duration here and splitting the clubs into individual categories of personal preference.

Leeds is lucky in that it has plenty to offer those whose tastes verge away from the mainstream... and when I say mainstream, I mean mundane chart stuff like Jon Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Spice Girls, Sash and Tampera... you know the score, urrgh! The offerings directly below are also generally the venues where people know how to dress and look good.

One of the trendier venues is the Faversham, a Grade II listed building located close to the university. During the day it functions as an ordinary pub, but on weekend nights offers a choice selection of alternative dance nights. Its most successful night is probably 'Freshjive' on Saturdays, offering "nu skool beats and old skool turntablism" and at which the skills of the Skratch Perverts, the Freestylers, Freddy Fresh and DJ Punk Roc have been regularly showcased. However, the potential of the Faversham is most clearly displayed when they organise events with major lineups... such as the 'Big Beat Boutique' on tour (Lo Fidelity Allstars and Cut la Roc), and the annual 'Garden Party' in June which this year boasted Bentley Rhythm Ace, and a 10 piece live set from Rae & Christian. The Faversham's only downside is that they still don't have a cloakroom.

The Underground, located behind the Town and Country Club and opposite to the Civic Hall, is an intimate venue catering to the more culturally discerning. With a funkier and retro edge, they provide kitsch sounds from the '60s at 'Lava Lounge' (Tuesdays), salsa and latin ragga at 'Casa Latina' (Thursdays, with dance classes if you're brave enough to arrive early), jazz at the 'Yardbird Suite' (Saturdays), and from DJs John & Ed (who almost appear to be taking over the Underground club nights!), the best in funk and soul music from the '60s and '70s at 'Funksoulnation' (Friday), and the regularly sold out 'Moveonup' on Wednesday nights.

John & Ed also DJ at Leeds University Union at 'Smile' (Thursdays, formerly called 'State of the Nation'), a slightly grim venue providing mainstream (almost cheesy?) indie music, with a bit of Belle & Sebastian thrown in which used to confuse the clubbers who weren't yet familiar with them. You would be guaranteed to hear at least three Stone Roses tracks, as well as Charlatans and Blur. Being at the Union, there are also very cheap drinks on offer there. John and Ed's most recent venture now includes 'Pet Sounds', also at the union, which happens once-monthly and offers a heady mix of '60s soul, psychedelia and pop classics... I found it a bit too inconsistent for my liking, besides which, I'm used to only listening to indie tunes at the union! Anyway, the union building is in the process of being refurbished and won't be ready until September 2000, it's uncertain whether 'Smile' or 'Pet Sounds' will be back next year or not, or if they will escape to another venue under different guises.

Other good venues, all close to the train station are the Fruit Cupboard where Jurassic 5 played live, Think?Tank which used to be home to 'BackBeat' before Back2Basics (from the same creators) was resurrected at the Mint Club. 'BackBeat' had attracted prolific DJs such as David Holmes, DJ Touché from the Wiseguys (of 'Ooh La La' fame) as well as featuring resident DJ Dave Beer. The loss of a big beat night paved the way for @utomatic (Saturdays) instead, a predominantly indie night which had previously been resident at The Pleasure Rooms before its closure. Think?Tank also provides a drum'n'bass night at 'D.O.P.E.' (Fridays), seemingly one of its kind in Leeds.

Also close to the train station is Liquid, another keen promoter of anything alternative - 'Sweet Revival' (Mondays) provides funk, soul, disco and rare groove, whereas 'Dust' (Wednesdays) provides an eclectic and energetic mix of breakbeat, skate and drum'n'bass, the music frequently changes, and you can often find yourself dancing to Chemical Brothers one minute, Beastie Boys the next, and then to a techno track.

The Cockpit, refurbished in 1998 provides a modernist environment (apart from the main hall which is still pretty grim). It is home to 'Garage' (Saturdays) providing hardcore rock sounds (think Rage against the Machine) and where you'll find moshers aplenty. Friday nights are more sedate with the fortnightly 'Brighton Beach' providing classic soul, R'n'B, and British Pop in the main hall - however, the little back room is much better, where not only do you get to listen to quality '60s and northern soul, but you can watch the best bit of footwork from dancers that look as though they've stepped straight out of the '60s scene, these are people who have made a real effort to 'look the part'. Friday nights at the Cockpit have gone through a slight overhaul - previously 'Brighton Beach' was on every Friday, but now its creator (Red Helen) has included Madchester inspired 'Hallelujah' (1st Friday every month, previously at Leeds University Union) and 'The Faith' (3rd Friday every month) in the Friday night listings.

There are some venues which just seem uncertain what kind of music policy they would best like to promote. Leeds University Union is one example, I've already mentioned 'Smile' which is quite mainstream indie orientated, but they also offer 'Flair', which just, well, offers 80s and 90s pop combined with cheesy 70s type anthems (like YMCA). The weekends tend to be more diverse, offering 'Hard to Handle' (rock and goth), 'Pet Sounds' and 'Templehead' (techno) on a rota basis.

Warehouse, which once hosted the prestigious 'It's Obvious', mortifyingly now provides a 'Tequila Night'! However, this is appeased by its provision of a big beat night (Fridays). The Warehouse's club nights changes frequently... as the venue is fairly big, the permanency of its club nights tends to rely on how successful it becomes, and hence it has seen a long period of changing nights - perhaps losing 'Its Obvious' was a mistake.

The Elbow Rooms, built on the site of the old Music Factory mid-1998, is really just a bar with some dance space, oh and loads of pool tables (£8/hour to hire?!), which is probably its only interesting aspect. Doesn't seem to provide much musicwise - mainly dance, disco and house most nights. Club Nato provides mostly club anthems, house, garage and r'n'b... standard kinda stuff, but somehow they managed to get Judge Jules to DJ there once!

Now going on to the just plain awful venues - these are the large corporate venues providing nights for clubbers that think Cher's 'Believe' is a great, original dance track, where sleaziness is mistaken for friendliness... and the clubbers... best restrain myself from saying anything about them. The first culprit is Club Uropa, the DJs' (?) idea of good dance music is to provide a heavy house beat across every pop track (including Cher and Celine Dion) and MCing (badly) to convince people to have a good time, which they do anyway... Club Uropa is also an amazingly badly organised venue, with several mazelike floors on different levels eventually reaching the dancefloor. I've walked past the club several times en route to a different club to find the security attendants trying to convince my friends and me to go in.

Planet Earth and Majestyk probably provide the most novelty value, Planet Earth has the huge revolving dance floor (do they have a safety certificate for that?!), podiums and matching commercial/cheesy music to boot (particularly on Monday night's 'Absolutely Fabulous'). Another favourite with students is Majestyk on a Tuesday night, where nothing really exciting happens until about 11pm - when the laser light display switches on and you can watch the lights make groovy dancy shapes above you - ooh er, how exciting. When it gets busy at Majestyk, you generally need to handcuff yourself to friends, as once you lose them, you will never find them again... also, avoid the cloakrooms, the toilets, the bars... as the queues are generally absolutely humongous.

The bastion of pure cheesiness has to be provided by the Leeds Metropolitan University Union. Proud hosts to the 'poly bop' (they've failed quite badly in renaming the night to 'Saturday Night' in people's consciousness) the venue has the feel of a school disco in what looks like a gym room. Like Leeds Uni, Leeds Met are refurbishing their union building although their venue is supposed to be ready in time for the millennium, perhaps we will see an improvement. Anyway, Leeds Met also plays host to 'OTT', a Wednesday night fest of cheap alcoholic overindulgence combined with chart and '70s and '80s music.

The Town and Country Club's most famous night has to be 'Love Train' (Fridays), a keen promoter of '70s disco tunes and popular with both students and locals alike. The best aspect about this night, is that most people make an effort to dress up for the night, wearing flairs, huge black wigs, fake moustaches, brightly coloured dresses and feather boas - not all at the same time. Its popularity might explain why the fairly new venue Club Barcelona, had tried to copy its formula with 'Disco Inferno', using similar kinds of stage dancers etc., don't know if this was ever successful as I've never been there - it's somewhere impossible to get to without a car.