The kids these days have a much broader taste of music than us old ravers and Ibiza is capitalising on the nu-breed. Nights like Come Together, I want my MTV and Ibiza Rocks are mixing it up with live music and DJs, and judging by the crowds at Ibiza Rocks the last couple of weeks the kids definitely like to rock.
Arriving there you would think you were living a scene from Kevin and Perry go large. The place is packed to the rafters with young Brits quaffing cider and necking jager-bombs as the raucous young un's eagerly wait for tonight’s headline act Fatboy Slim. We head to the bar to join in the fun and as I order a very civilised gin tonic, a pint of what I hope is beer flies just inches over my head, nice welcome!!
The crowd erupts as the Fatboy appears on stage and is straight into a set of classics such as ‘Right Here Right Now’, ‘Rockafella Skank’, ‘Praise You’, ‘Gangster Trippin’ and the acidic ‘Bird Of Prey’ all of which accompanied by mad visuals of Norm singing the lyrics covered in face paint and a lighting rig that could easily blind a Ryan Air Pilot at 20,000ft. It's pretty impressive stuff if you can brave the 3,000 kids moshing and flinging bottles of random liquids about.
If this all sounds a little chaotic, I'd recommend dipping your toe in at the new Ibiza Rocks House which was formally Pikes. The famous hotel is rich in music history and continues with the same ethos with a guestbook that’s included the likes of Queen and the legend that is Wham to modern day rockers the wombats, Kissy Sell-out and Friendly fires to name a few. And not a liquid missile in sight!
On to Saturday, which saw Defected In The House host 3 massive parties at Ushuaia, Café Mambo and the main event at Pacha.
I leave Ushuaia a happy man blown away by how good it was (for a detailed report head here) and literally moonwalk straight into Pacha ready for round three hoping my battered liver holds out for another seven hours of fun and frolics!
Pacha looks and feels very much like a futuristic Studio 54 tonight and by 2am the club is packed as a smiling Copyright roll into the booth after being truly hierbas'd by Christian and Alan at the Mambo pre-party. They take to the decks - their 'Copyright' intro loop announcing their arrival to a mobbed Pacha- and slam into ‘What They Say’ by Maya Jane Coles which sounds mint on a big system!
It's good to see Sam's back on his game and fully recovered from a previous neck injury and tonight he's bouncing around the booth without a care in the world, or is that the hierbas effect?! The boys have the club in the palm of their hands, dropping their own productions ‘Kama Yeah’ and ‘I'm All Yours’ alongside classics by X-Press 2 and Marshall Jefferson which still sound as fresh today as the day they were produced.
Next up it's Iberican hero's Chus & Penn who are a bit bleary eyed after playing the opening of Ushuaia, but they immediately get into the swing of things, taking Pacha a little bit deeper with their tribal infused sound before dropping a massive remix of Adele's ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and then heading into more disco-orientated flavours which have everybody smiling on the floor.
An epic weekend to say the least; Defected Saturdays have truly left their mark on the White Isle.
Words: Simon Morell
Photos: Charlie Turner / www.ibiza-blog.com
Defected In The House is at Pacha every Saturday throughout the season - check full line-up details here
Click here for details of the Defected In The House summer residency at Ushuaia, every Saturday before Pacha
