Last Saturday Leeds University Union hosted Metropolis and Canal Mills’ Halloween night. The line up included BBC Radio 1’s Monki who brought all things garage, bass and house, as well as Bristol’s legendary producer Redlight. At 1am Godfather of Grime (or Godfather of Waste of Time), Wiley, was no where to be seen, even after rumours of the headliner being spotted in a Costa Coffee at the South Mimms motorway service station. Hardcore fans of Wiley were not surprised by this, as back in 2012 he cancelled his uni tour and stated that ‘I won’t play a university ever again’ (The Daily Star, 2012).

However Big Narstie and Logan Sama both took over Stylus and brought the grime scene to centre stage. Looking around, the crowd was buzzing, the music kept everyone’s spirits high and the flashing laser lights kept everyone on their toes, revealing flashes of creepy masks, amateur painted faces and glitter queens.

Wiley’s no show was not the only confusing element of the evening. When the clock struck 2am, the venue was filled with hundreds of students covered in fake blood and ripped clothing stumbling around the dark corridors searching for set times. With the clocks going back an hour the night became an even bigger blur and not just because everyone was wearing spooky contacts, not only did this become distressing for the puzzled students but the security were bombarded with the question ‘when’s it on till mate? But what time is it now?’ The union became a scene from the Walking Dead, with the sound of Ricks whiney kid (Carl) being replaced with house, garage and grime bangers.

Birmingham’s bassey boy Chris Lorenzo was the highlight of the underground Pyramid stage. Lorenzo Dropped the recent club favourite Raumakustik – Dem A Pree (Patrick Topping Remix) which had the biggest reaction from the crowd. His new album ‘Destroy the Image’ is set to be released on the 25th November, if you pre-order it now you can get his track ‘come down’, give it a listen here.

Overall, the night was a success. With creepy costumes, daunting décor and the buzz expected from a student evening on the spookiest weekend of the year, there wasn’t an unhappy face in the whole place (well unless it had been painted on).

Chris Jenkins

(Image: https://www.facebook.com/events/1133750026691982)