Club Review: Filth Christmas Party with Joris Voorn @ The Warehouse, Leeds

Jack Law heads to The Warehouse for Filth's Christmas knees up featuring a three hour set by the mighty Joris Voorn.

Jayne Robinson

Date published: 29th Dec 2011

Date: December 23rd

Words: Jack Law

Back in 2007, Filth were celebrating Christmas with Myles Dyson, some dirty electro beats and Mint Club. For me it was my first Filth and it was a wicked night. Four years on, and it's clear to see just how far they have come and how things have changed. For this Christmas special they'd secured the mighty Joris Voorn to take over The Warehouse (where Filth now reside), making his long overdue Leeds debut with an extended set.

Joris Voorn's talent seems to grow and grow. Voted this year's Best Breakthrough DJ at the Ibiza DJ Awards, Joris has big tunes under his belt like 'Sweep The Floor' and huge remixes like 'Beachball' and 'Dark Flower'. He has mixed unique compilations like Balance 014 and has played at major clubs across the world from Space in Ibiza, MOS in London, to Cocoon Club in Frankfurt. Now Danny Savage (events manager of The Warehouse and the man behind Filth) had brought him to Leeds.

We got to the club at around half 12, and entry was swift. Once we got inside, I was surprised to see that The Warehouse wasn't yet very busy. No matter, we quickly grabbed a drink and headed straight for the dancefloor. Filth's resident Luke Pompey was warming up with a mixed bag of deep house and tech house, and he was doing it extremely well.

The club was gradually filling up. As Pompey dropped FCL's “Let's Go”, a favourite of many, more and more bodies arrived to appreciate the great tunes we were being served. You could feel the anticipation in the air build and build as time went on, as people waited for Joris to appear on stage. And just before 2am, he did. What a great warm up for him to follow on from.

The dancefloor was now full and Joris Voorn began his showcase. Twenty minutes in and already I could hear one of my all time Joris favourites creeping in, his Mixmag edit of “Spank The Maid”. From then on it was banger after banger. I knew in the build up to the night that he was going to be brilliant, but I hadn't known exactly what to expect. He was the definition of tech house, with bouncy beats, steady techno rhythms, and the soul of house. And the tunes just kept on coming, as he played his edit of Mark Fanciulli's 'The Tide'. Everybody was lapping it up.

As he got further into his set the crowd were treated to a reflection of 2011, with huge hits like Eats Everything's 'Entrance Song' and the Ibiza DJ Awards track of the season, the Jamie Jones remix of 'Hungry For The Power'. Joris looked to be having a great time and so was the crowd, who were going mad for it by this point.

Upstairs in the second room, Leeds night Nest had taken over. The Nest boys know how to throw a good party and I would have liked to have checked it out. But Joris had captivated me along with the rest of the crowd and I just couldn't pull myself away. All of a sudden there was a roar as we were plunged into the beat of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It', seemingly Deetron's Edit. We were having the time of our lives. As his set came to a close, if I remember correctly an edit of arguably one of his biggest tunes, 'The Deep', was booming through the soundsystem before finishing with another big hit from 2011, Miguell Campbell's 'Something Special'.

Wow. What an amazing set that had been. Joris Voorn's extended three hour set had lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Filth had hosted an incredible Christmas party and the festivities didn't stop there, as Hot Since 82 stepped up to take over. But for me it was time to head back home and reflect on what I had just witnessed.

Tonight Filth proved they are a force to be reckoned with and I am excited to see what both they and The Warehouse have in store for us in 2012. And thank you for finally bringing Joris Voorn to Leeds!