I've been to all the good northern cities for nightlife: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle, and can say that from my experience, Leeds eclipses all the others. Although you could say this is bias as granted i am a leeds student, but the so-called 11th best club in the world, digital (Newcastle) was nowhere near the likes of my favourite clubs in Leeds, which are Beaver Works, Club Mission, Wire and Mint Warehouse. Also, digital has 4 rooms, just like Mission and Beaver, but only boasts a capacity of 1400, while the two Leeds monsters boasts 2500+.
I went to the best-rated club in Liverpool, Kingdom (forgive me if I'm wrong scousers), and the bouncers were scumbags, the club booths that we were sitting at weren't cleaned and smelled like pig****, plus didnt rate the tunes but that is subjective. I went to South in Manchester and is the only one that comes close to Leeds. The staff were friendly and nice, the style of the club was better than the leeds clubs and the drinks weren't badly priced. The tunes were still nowhere near better the leeds djs. That title goes to Beaver Works. If you ever have one night at Leeds, it must be Beaver Works.
The problem Ive found in the Leeds clubs is that the favourites are badly located. Beaver Works is nowhere near the student village, Hyde Park. Mint Warehouse is in Holbeck, which is in a very dodgy area, right by the RLD. Its a good thing Ubers are piss cheap in Leeds. Pryzm, Mission and O2 are smack bang in the city tho which is good.