Back to work today after an epic 10 day stint in the white isle. It may well be one of the last times i will go back due to ridiculous pricing of everything from tickets to beer and food. Don't get me wrong, the nights are still packed, tunes are rocking and the clubs are still as i remember (except Space) but you have to question how on earth they can justify charging you €15 for a drink in Space and Amnesia and €10 for a beer!!!!
Had a good all round holiday experience however with the villa which far exceeded all of our expectations, this is truly the way to experience Ibiza if you haven't already. Forget your sh1tty litle apartments, this house would have been worth several million back home in Jersey with 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 lounges and views to die for.
Didn't make it to as many nights as i had hoped, only 3 big nights mainly due to the first initial 3 days of arriving getting absolutely ruined.
Quick rundown anyway for ya..........
Sunday - We Love at Space
Arrived far too early at around 5:30 pm, anyone that remembers Space pre the draconian new opening hours will remember the place absolutely rammed to the rafters by this time, with both the terrace and inside going off. This time the new terrace was dead, the bar area to the left has now been made into another terrace and this was actually like the terrace of old with pumping hands in the air house, Tom Novy I think duly rocking the **** out of it......... Floated round for what seemed like an age waiting for it to get going on the old terrace but it never happened so moved inside at around 10pm. This is still as I remember and for me will always be the best room in any club I've been to in the world. Unsure of who played the first 2-4 hours but the music was very flat before Layo & Bushwacka came on and really picked up the pace. Easily the best I have ever heard this duo play and a lot heavier than I remember them previously. Dark, sinister driving, booming techno with rolling basslines and slick as you like mixing. Sounded unreal on that system and we stayed til the end of their set til about 4ish before having to leave as our legs had given up on us…
Monday - Tiesto @ Privilege
Arrived around 12:30am and the place was already absolutely heaving. They'd cut the rear of the club off so that Tiesto' production could be added with a massive stage and huge led screen behind the dj with stunning visuals. Sander Van Doorn was the special guest and already had 7000+ people rocking to his trademark tech trance sound. He played a lot of new material and some of his more well known productions even chucking in an amazing remix of Prodigy 'Out Of Space'. We got ourselves a perfect spot next to the a speaker stack to the left of the pool and danced like maniacs for the next 4-5 hours hardly even noticing the change when Tiesto came on. Tiesto played well but for me personally his set didn't have as much impact as Sander and we ended up leaving at about 5am to carry on back at the villa.
Well after nailing it at Space Sunday, then Tiesto Monday and the party going well on into Tuesday the only night that I really was bothered about going to fell by the wayside. Simply cannot believe I bolloxed myself so hard that I missed the chance to see Carl Cox and John Digweed inside at Space………….Probably the biggest single regret I have of the holiday and the overriding factor that is pulling me back to go again. Daft, especially at the prices you're paying but anyone that's listened to Digweed's Transitions vol 3 and his essential mix from the Warehouse project knows just exactly how good this night would have been………..
Enough of the 'what could have been' anyway and back to the diatribe!
Wednesday and Thursday were spent either at Cala Bassa or lounging round by the pool with trips down to the sunset trip and the inevitable meal at Savannah bar to try and recover some of the brain cells and force food down into the rapidly shrinking stomach. Anyone that's been to Savannah knows how good the food is and despite having to pay for the view it was as good as I'd remembered. The strip is definitely quieter this year and I think generally numbers are slightly down on previous times I have been but this may just be due to the earliness of our trip. The boardwalk they have constructed from the port right round all the way to to past Kanya (vastly improved also) is stunning and for those that haven't seen the change be sure to walk round for the spectacular views and gorgeous bars / restaurants. One thing though, do not expect to get great service from these places, in particular Sun Sea bar! Sat for over an hour without our drinks and then food order was wrong on 2 separate occasions at €30 per head!!! Personally your far better to opt for Kasbah which is only a stones throw to the right of Kanya but infintely better food, service and english staff who were ever so helpful and friendly.
Thursday night - Cream @ Amnesia
Hopped on the disco bus from Kanya up to Amnesia which was interesting to say the least. The chavs singing their songs about the war, footy chants and so on really reminded me of why the English are so highy regarded in Ibiza………
Arrived at about 12:30am and Michael Burian was on in the main room rocking out some seriously pumping trance with a few classics thrown in. Remember Beachball getting played to a fantastic crowd response especially with the ice cannon in full flow during the breakdown. Next up was ferry Corsten and I must say that he absolutely blew me away. None of the fluffy, cheesey sort of trance you'd expect to see from the dutchman, just solid, tough almost techno with some killer riffs and rolling basslines. Really energetic behind the decks and got us jumping even though the place was rammed to the rafters and you barely had room to swing a cat. The soundsytem in there is simply devastating and stood right under a speaker stack we really did get the full benefit!!! We were rooted to the spot for the full 2 hours of his set before PVD came on to rapturous applause from the near capacity crowd. As the opening bars of Pryda's Pjanoo came in the place went absolutely ****ing mental, the hairs on my arms are stood up even as I am writing this!!! Hadn't really heard PVD for a few years but he played a stormer, trance seems to have got a little more serious with hardly any of the big sweeping breakdown and cheesey vocals that had so often saturated this particular genre. Much more techno influenced and I suppose this was inevitable after such a rapid rise, especially in Ibiza over the years…. The time seemed to just ebb away as we were absolutely twatted so went for a wonder round into the totally revamped terrace for a drink and a bit of a chill out. The décor and overally feel of the tearrce is a huge improvement with the dj box centrally located at the top end of the room. Nice clear sound but nowhere near loud enough and the tunes of choice of Annie mac, the Count & Sinden were totally the opposite of where our heads were at and didn't really do it for us. Stayed around for 20-30mins then back into the main room where PVD had cranked it up another notch and the place was jumping. Managed to get back in our spot which is a miracle really for Amnesia as previous visits a few years back I hadn't even managed to get into the main room!!!
More to follow………………...
Had a good all round holiday experience however with the villa which far exceeded all of our expectations, this is truly the way to experience Ibiza if you haven't already. Forget your sh1tty litle apartments, this house would have been worth several million back home in Jersey with 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 lounges and views to die for.
Didn't make it to as many nights as i had hoped, only 3 big nights mainly due to the first initial 3 days of arriving getting absolutely ruined.
Quick rundown anyway for ya..........
Sunday - We Love at Space
Arrived far too early at around 5:30 pm, anyone that remembers Space pre the draconian new opening hours will remember the place absolutely rammed to the rafters by this time, with both the terrace and inside going off. This time the new terrace was dead, the bar area to the left has now been made into another terrace and this was actually like the terrace of old with pumping hands in the air house, Tom Novy I think duly rocking the **** out of it......... Floated round for what seemed like an age waiting for it to get going on the old terrace but it never happened so moved inside at around 10pm. This is still as I remember and for me will always be the best room in any club I've been to in the world. Unsure of who played the first 2-4 hours but the music was very flat before Layo & Bushwacka came on and really picked up the pace. Easily the best I have ever heard this duo play and a lot heavier than I remember them previously. Dark, sinister driving, booming techno with rolling basslines and slick as you like mixing. Sounded unreal on that system and we stayed til the end of their set til about 4ish before having to leave as our legs had given up on us…
Monday - Tiesto @ Privilege
Arrived around 12:30am and the place was already absolutely heaving. They'd cut the rear of the club off so that Tiesto' production could be added with a massive stage and huge led screen behind the dj with stunning visuals. Sander Van Doorn was the special guest and already had 7000+ people rocking to his trademark tech trance sound. He played a lot of new material and some of his more well known productions even chucking in an amazing remix of Prodigy 'Out Of Space'. We got ourselves a perfect spot next to the a speaker stack to the left of the pool and danced like maniacs for the next 4-5 hours hardly even noticing the change when Tiesto came on. Tiesto played well but for me personally his set didn't have as much impact as Sander and we ended up leaving at about 5am to carry on back at the villa.
Well after nailing it at Space Sunday, then Tiesto Monday and the party going well on into Tuesday the only night that I really was bothered about going to fell by the wayside. Simply cannot believe I bolloxed myself so hard that I missed the chance to see Carl Cox and John Digweed inside at Space………….Probably the biggest single regret I have of the holiday and the overriding factor that is pulling me back to go again. Daft, especially at the prices you're paying but anyone that's listened to Digweed's Transitions vol 3 and his essential mix from the Warehouse project knows just exactly how good this night would have been………..
Enough of the 'what could have been' anyway and back to the diatribe!
Wednesday and Thursday were spent either at Cala Bassa or lounging round by the pool with trips down to the sunset trip and the inevitable meal at Savannah bar to try and recover some of the brain cells and force food down into the rapidly shrinking stomach. Anyone that's been to Savannah knows how good the food is and despite having to pay for the view it was as good as I'd remembered. The strip is definitely quieter this year and I think generally numbers are slightly down on previous times I have been but this may just be due to the earliness of our trip. The boardwalk they have constructed from the port right round all the way to to past Kanya (vastly improved also) is stunning and for those that haven't seen the change be sure to walk round for the spectacular views and gorgeous bars / restaurants. One thing though, do not expect to get great service from these places, in particular Sun Sea bar! Sat for over an hour without our drinks and then food order was wrong on 2 separate occasions at €30 per head!!! Personally your far better to opt for Kasbah which is only a stones throw to the right of Kanya but infintely better food, service and english staff who were ever so helpful and friendly.
Thursday night - Cream @ Amnesia
Hopped on the disco bus from Kanya up to Amnesia which was interesting to say the least. The chavs singing their songs about the war, footy chants and so on really reminded me of why the English are so highy regarded in Ibiza………
Arrived at about 12:30am and Michael Burian was on in the main room rocking out some seriously pumping trance with a few classics thrown in. Remember Beachball getting played to a fantastic crowd response especially with the ice cannon in full flow during the breakdown. Next up was ferry Corsten and I must say that he absolutely blew me away. None of the fluffy, cheesey sort of trance you'd expect to see from the dutchman, just solid, tough almost techno with some killer riffs and rolling basslines. Really energetic behind the decks and got us jumping even though the place was rammed to the rafters and you barely had room to swing a cat. The soundsytem in there is simply devastating and stood right under a speaker stack we really did get the full benefit!!! We were rooted to the spot for the full 2 hours of his set before PVD came on to rapturous applause from the near capacity crowd. As the opening bars of Pryda's Pjanoo came in the place went absolutely ****ing mental, the hairs on my arms are stood up even as I am writing this!!! Hadn't really heard PVD for a few years but he played a stormer, trance seems to have got a little more serious with hardly any of the big sweeping breakdown and cheesey vocals that had so often saturated this particular genre. Much more techno influenced and I suppose this was inevitable after such a rapid rise, especially in Ibiza over the years…. The time seemed to just ebb away as we were absolutely twatted so went for a wonder round into the totally revamped terrace for a drink and a bit of a chill out. The décor and overally feel of the tearrce is a huge improvement with the dj box centrally located at the top end of the room. Nice clear sound but nowhere near loud enough and the tunes of choice of Annie mac, the Count & Sinden were totally the opposite of where our heads were at and didn't really do it for us. Stayed around for 20-30mins then back into the main room where PVD had cranked it up another notch and the place was jumping. Managed to get back in our spot which is a miracle really for Amnesia as previous visits a few years back I hadn't even managed to get into the main room!!!
More to follow………………...
