‘One Night With’ returned after their soulful evening with Sadar Bahar last week, to treat us to a night with Leeds’ very own Nightmares on Wax. George Evelyn, an experienced DJ and producer with releases on London-based Warp Records, returned to his hometown on Friday for a Wire takeover.

I’m not sure what my expectations for the four hour Nightmares on Wax set were, but they were definitely exceeded. The whole thing was eclectic from start to finish, leaving everyone captivated.

The crowd was taken on a journey from Hip-Hop to House, with a few twists along the way. I walked into Wire to just catch the start of his set where A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Black Spasmodic’ — a laid-back hip-hop tune — was playing over the Funktion One sound system. With this, Evelyn brilliantly set the tone for his fiery set, which included ‘Reclaim the Balcony’, a heavy new Nightmares on Wax song that was released the same day.

He then quickly changed things up, dropping some slower house songs and mixing in his own ‘Da Feelin’. The mixes were faultless and each song was a perfect extension of the last. Nothing makes me enjoy a set more than seeing the DJ enjoy it too, and Evelyn’s cheery interactions with the crowd fuelled the disco fire on Friday night.

Todd Terje’s ‘Strandbar (Disko)’ was a stand-out track which transformed the atmosphere and got everyone grooving, until Evelyn delivered the perfect final song to end our four hour journey together — the Shipperson edit of his very own ‘You Wish’. In one of those special moments that tend to define a set, the dancefloor was lit up and there wasn’t a pair of feet still on the ground.

Frankie Elsey

(Image: Justin Gardner Photography)