BBC Leeds Online December 2003

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"Cassia Baldock went along to The Wendy House at Stylus for a different kind of music event.

Leeds has rightly become well known for its exciting music scene. Sadly, many articles focus too much on dance music, in particular, house music. Hard house, happy house and funky house but now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Wendy House.

Alternative, 80s and Goth is the threat. I liked the sound of alternative and 80s, as I always have done, but wasn’t too sure about that goth element. Fittingly, the first song I heard was some booming, doom n' gloom death metal tripe. I was eager to hit the bar.

Dancefloor divas
That was pretty much the only time my friends and I were away from the dance floor. My ears perked up at the sound of a few classics, and by the time Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl had been played, there was a run of songs which had been the soundtrack to my teenage years - Guns n’ Roses, The Pixies, Hole, Manic Street Preachers, Nine Inch Nails and so on.

The list of memorable tracks was endless. The emphasis is on the best alternative music from the 80s onwards – with a bit of pop chucked in. I also found that the goth label isn’t as bad as I had thought.

The music isn’t restricted to these labels either – pretty much anything goes. You can expect all sort to be played. Except Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, of course, but you never know…

Drill n’ Bass
There is the mutate room upstairs, with its Cyborg Beats. Hmmm, interesting. This room promised 'hard electronic music for the dancefloor', which apparently means industrial, noise, power electronics, drill n’ bass, acid techno - basically anything at all, because even these punchy labels cannot begin to define the music in the mutate room.

There are a few recognisable tunes hidden within the set-lists and I was impressed to hear the Plump DJs and Peaches.

I am so grateful for places like this, because it is somewhere else to go instead of the vast numbers of bars and clubs which churn out the exact same music as each other. Not that these are bad places, it’s just brilliant to have something as refreshing as The Wendy House as a true alternative.

Cassia Baldock

FACTS .....

WHERE: Leeds University

WHEN: The third Saturday of the month.

SIGNATURE TUNES: A total mixture, including Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, A-ha, New Order, The Darkness, Rammstein, Prodigy, System of a Down, Tiffany, Fisherspooner, Duran Duran, Soft Cell, The Cult, Madonna, Rage Against the Machine, Guns N Roses, etc.

DJS: Glenn, Susie, Nik, Echo, and Gill – all very friendly and they welcome requests.

Leeds Guide, May 2003

" Once a month, Stylus at Leeds University Union is overrun with black PVC, pink rubber hair extensions. eyeliner wedding dresses, dark nuns, evil nurses and mad, bad, dangerous to know hatters. Its all because of The Wendy House, which this month celebrates its fifth birthday. Five years of playfully dark parties has led to the club becoming the largest of its genre in the north, and has also, one would assume, kept many a cosmetic firm afloat - the make-up, clothes, costumes and hair of the regulars are nothing short of inspired. The night is more than just a goth club. With lashings of 80s, rock and garage and plenty of electronica and theme tunes chucked in for good measure. The music policy is described as "the best alternative music from the 80s onwards all with a dark, twisted and occasionally ironic slant on it". In other words, expert lots of Nine Inch Nails and Sisters of Mercy but possibly also the Buffy theme tune in there too. You might even get a little bit of Britney thrown to the crowds although exactly which bit of her I'm not quite sure...

Upstairs is Mutate: electro-industrial cyber and techno; everything from Aphex Twin to um.. Neurotic Fish. And unlike many of today's prima donna residents, the clubs DJs will happily take requests - you can even email them in from the website in advance.

Play time at The Wendy House is accompanied by sweets, balloons and of course lots of dressing up. Like a twisted school disco where the uniform's black and shiny and no-one's going so be sent home for having their nose pierced. The crowd travels from all over the country to join the party and this birthday will no doubt be an anticipated date in many a diary. "