The Warehouse in Leeds have announced that they will be reopening their doors this summer.
The venue was last in action on New Year's Eve of 2007 before shutting down completely, leaving behind it a legacy that spanned over thirty years. Now a new management team has taken control of the building, and are currently renovating the whole space, with plans to install bespoke systems for Ableton and Traktor as well as Void Trinity X subwoofers—which will be the first time that they have ever been permanently installed in a club.
The new team are currently reaching out to DJs in order to find a bunch of residents for their Friday and Saturday nights, and they're being fairly open-minded about the styles that they will accept. According to their website, stylistically versatile DJs are what The Warehouse wants, with house, US garage, disco, funk/soul and broken beat amongst the genres that they're looking to cover. Interested parties can check The Warehouse's official website for more information.
We caught up with the club's new operations manager, Anton Bailey, to get the lowdown on their plans for the venue.Have you brought on board any nights to run parties yet, or will everything be run in-house?
The plan is to run everything in house for our Friday and Saturday nights as we have a very definite idea how the music policy, operation and overall vibe of the nights should be. Talks are under way with a couple of promoters with regards to them bringing their nights to TW on other weekdays.
Do you have any particularly fond memories of The Warehouse in its previous incarnation?
I visited Vague many times in the early nineties and then SpeedQueen later that decade. The Warehouse always had a raw unpretentious feel where you could hear fantastic music and meet weird/wonderful people while enjoying a safe environment. We will return the club to exactly that vibe.
Can you tell us a little about the new team behind the club?
My role is Technical Director which encompasses sound/lighting systems and managing our resident DJ teams. I am also responsible for music policy. Jamie (our Operations Director) is responsible for all operational matters (basically running the day to day operations of the club). We are currently searching for a Promotions Manager to handle the role of promotions/marketing but until we fill this position those duties are shared between myself and Jamie.
When does the club plan to open? Can you reveal anything about the opening party?
The date is currently a fluid one at the minute depending on the length of time the refurbishment takes. We are not just slapping on some paint to cover the last 15 years of paint, we are stripping the venue back to its shell and rebuilding it from the ground up. The problem with this approach is that you tend to discover the faults that previous owners hid from view, this is why we are not naming a fixed opening date yet but it will be around the end May/start of June. As for the opening party, all I can tell you so far is it will be a Saturday night. We will be releasing line-up details nearer the time.
What will mark out the new Warehouse from when it was previously open?
Simply put, everything will. A world class sound system, cutting edge audio technology and a full refurbishment will be some of the instantly obvious things to our customers. We will heavily invest in bringing top quality line-ups to the club but equally intend to nurture local talent and give them a platform to perform on. Most importantly the ethos of the management is what sets us apart from previous years—we want what our customers want: a safe, tolerant, vibrant atmosphere with fresh and original music.