Walking into the expansive, overwhelming space that is Church, the excitement for the night was palpable. Everyone from the more seasoned dance fan to wide-eyed freshers had arrived for what surely was going to be one of the best events in Leeds this year.

The night kicked off with a house set from Dave Beer, co-owner of Church and the legend behind Back to Basics. It was energetic and got the crowd geared up as Fatboy Slim’s arrival drew closer.

Finally, the moment arrived when Fatboy Slim came to the stage, getting his set off to an incredible start with ‘Praise You’. The atmosphere was buzzing with everyone singing along; it seemed to be the set everyone had been waiting for.

But then, two hours of pure house passed with a barely a trace of the tracks that everyone had been waiting for. Perhaps it’s shallow to expect him to play his most popular songs, but it was a massive disappointment, especially to leave it just out of grasp by so ostentatiously teasing ‘Praise You’.

The set was enjoyable for your average night of house, but it came across flat and the crowd weren’t responding. Never in a million years did I think that during a Fatboy Slim set I’d be contemplating the oven pizza I could pick up from Sainsbury’s on the way home. The water bottle types (you know what I mean) were, of course, having a ball, and at one point a man in sunglasses turned around and pointed at my phone, where I’d been avidly complaining about our collective disappointment in my notes, and told me to “put it away, love”. Clearly I felt more like a grumpy journalist than a fan at this point, and that’s when I knew it was time to leave.

Isobel Moloney

(Image: facebook.com/churchleeds)