- 9 PM, New Year's Day 2010, and Manchester city centre resembles something of a ghost town. Empty kebab boxes and beer cans litter the street, which 24 hours earlier had played host to every lager lad and scantily-clad ladette out to drink as much as possible while gyrating in the most uncoordinated fashion to all the classic chart hits we've been lucky enough to have shoved down our ears this year.
In its third year at Store Street, The Warehouse Project had come to the final night of three months of sold-out events at the now revered ex-bomb shelter lying beneath Manchester Piccadilly train station. It was a night that took to a slow start, despite a mass email to all e-ticket holders during the day advising that attendees should arrive early so as to avoid being turned away. An hour before doors closed, the former car park turned Mancunian post-Hacienda clubbing Mecca was still a cold, half empty warehouse.
Photo credit: Ruairi Drayne
The music wasn't the problem. Residents Krysko and Greg Lord turned up the heat using some of the year's finest releases, including three Motor City Drum Ensemble tracks, "Raw Cuts 6" fitting particularly well against the harsh red brick surroundings and the even harsher cold air nipping at the slowly growing crowd's fingers and toes. And before long the numbers began to swell through the underground archways, the bodies stretched from the stage past the now iconic wind tunnel that lies above the dance floor.
Paul Woolford and Yousef eventually took their place on stage in front of three hi-definition large LCD TV screens, and although parts of their sets were a bit too hard for the somewhat lethargic crowd, the temperature had certainly raised by the time Tiefschwarz began. The sound rolled through small-but-not-quite-minimal-enough-to-be-considered-unfashionable techno and glitchy house, though on a night like tonight the mood began to grow in a measured incline as the hangovers began to lift.
Photo credit: Ruairi Drayne
A queue formed to see Jamie Jones, who shook off a few early technical problems to showcase where his sound will be going in 2010. The secretsundaze guys, Giles Smith and James Priestley, followed with a harder set than usual, exploring some of the punchier tracks that they clearly love and don't get a chance to play during their celebrated Sunday nu-disco/twisted house all-dayers in East London.
It was Joris Voorn, though, who acted as the perfect guest to cap the proceedings and express the spirit of the Warehouse Project at the end of the club's most successful stint to date. His laying of tracks both unreleased and acclaimed were soaked up by the crowd. Justin Robertson followed, finishing the main room with a nostalgic look at the year's biggest electro tunes.
We took that as our cue to head to Room 2 where Nick Curly created an atmosphere that was perfect, ensuring that as the signal came to stop the music one last time nobody was in a hurry to leave. So until the return of the Warehouse Project for the Lost Weekends in April, it was time to wave a teary goodbye, grab your coat and let the rest of Manchester's nightlife commence once again.