Greg Wilson in Huddersfield

Kitchen Sink Disco
Greg Wilson
Verve, Huddersfield
26/12/2009

We all know what a pain in the ball bag Christmas Day is... inevitably you’re hung over and tired from going out on Christmas Eve, and invariably you have to sit through awkward, skull crushingly dull conversation with ‘family’ and it’s all a bloody big chore. What kept me going this year, though, was the prospect of a very cosy party in Huddersfield on Boxing Day eve courtesy of local promoters Kitchen Sink Disco who (for the first time this year as it's normally it's just a bunch of funk loving mates) booked a headliner for their get together. And what a clever booking it was – no one else could have eased swollen stomachs and fragile minds through a perfectly pitched disco, house and soul workout as well as DJing legend - and I don't use the word lightly - Greg Wilson.

Making way to the venue through light early evening snow set a festive and excitable tone, and it never really changed from there. The 150 capacity Verve in Huddersfield – not a city known for its house heritage – is a split level bar with a tight, boxy dance floor which made for a cooking atmos’ all eve. For tonight only, a table is set up in the corner with 1210s, pioneers and one of Greg’s near antique reel to reel tape players. A huge, aged Kitchen Sink Disco banner hangs behind him and the DIY aesthetics of this party make it all the more enjoyable: it really feels like a gathering of mates in someone’s front room it’s so cosy and intimate.



Throughout a steady warm-up from the KSD residents, Verve fills up, the ambiance warms, the beats flow and the moves of the collective dance floor get ever more fluid until Wilson - the first man ever to mix to records on TV - appears behind the deck station looking like your mate's dad in a nondescript t-shirt and jeans. But that's where the comparison to a middle aged bloke ends... Starting with Carly Simon and working through Voodoo Ray, Frankie Knuckles and whole host of rare funk, edited disco and slouching house classics which I cannot name, Wilson keeps spirits high, hips swinging and quite often has the whole room singing along to resounding chorus which unites us all.

Being shoulder to shoulder with the gyrating bodies and shaking asses, smiling faces and pumping fists all around makes you realise that this is what house and disco is all about - having fun, getting involved and partying. It's a world away from the slew of oh-so serious techno nights is surrounding cities; the masses of trendier than thou scenesters who go out to be seen, rather than to enjoy themselves and the hoards of girls with poles up their asses, afraid to move from the comfort of the fringes... everyone here is here to party, and it's really going off.

The laissez-faire approach really added something tonight: a room, a table, a DJ and a solid sound system is all you need, it seems, for a proper good party. Alas, it wouldn't work as well on a normal Saturday night, but for a homely and intimate Boxing Day shindig, the cosy old school vibe worked perfectly. This was a one off, and for those of us in attendance, we really felt a part of something special... If only all parties were like that.