KU, Is this place a club??

R

Rich Stazzone

Guest
Has anybody been here. I heard it is great. Any advice!! Thanks, will be in Ibiza in 5 days.
 
Ku was the original name for Amnesia, correct me if i'm wrong peeps, and as such obviously it is amazing but just has a different name. It was the one of the first superclubs in the 80's sumtime

has anyone seen the bar just down the road from it...class name

'BAR-BY-KU' :lol: :D
 
ah club ku

>> coco loco, holding hands on the dance floor, icf, transvestites, ted-free zone
 
ku was privillege and it was open air

the 2nd room of amnesia used to be open air too :p
 
Yes. It was very good - it had a different feel then. Mind you - I havent been since they covered it - I refuse to do Manumission.

You could see the lights and hear the music miles off !!!!
 
I can understand why people go but for me I dont like all that 'entertainment' stuff in clubs , I go for the music and the music policy IMO is a definite no-no.
 
comin' at ya said:
I can understand why people go but for me I dont like all that 'entertainment' stuff in clubs , I go for the music and the music policy IMO is a definite no-no.

know what you mean - last year i got in there about 1am and the music wasn't doing it for me so i went straight to the roof, and i usually don't head up there till at least 5 as i like a good stomp, after about an hour i tripped downstairs - alfredo and his son came down a flying fox thing into the box dressed in skin tight spiderman costumes, and girls alfredo's son is fit ;) but he was wicked and i had the best time... i've seen john kelly there too and he rocked the place
 
History- Taken from www.ibizaholidays.com

Privilege is the largest club on the island, and now officially the largest club in the world (Guinness Book of records 2001) but became famous under its previous name 'Ku'. It sits proudly on top of the hill between Ibiza town and San Antonio near to the village of San Rafael looking from a distance like some huge, domed UFO that has landed temporarily to refuel. If size is a virtue then this club has it by the bucket load.

Allegedly it has entertained as many as 10,000 visitors on a busy night which gives you some 'football crowd' imagery to conjure with. Basically when it's full it takes on a unique identity as the sun rises and people spontaneously leap into the in-house swimming pool in a last desperate attempt to pull, before chucking-out time. For several years it has been famous for it's Monday night Manumission spectaculars although other promoters occupy the space every other night of the season. Trade & Renaissance were probably the hits of 2000. Remember to pack a swimming cosi and towel for this experience, or face a possible 'wet clothing on the disco-bus home' experience.



The History:
Largest Club In The World Emerges From Swimming Pool !

Back in the 1960’s the urbanisation of San Rafael had a big community swimming pool with a small bar where the, predominantly French, local residents would meet in the summer heat to exchange pleasantries. Some would visit the huge silent pool at dawn to watch the sunrise and eat pasta dishes whilst enjoying the hospitality of Siegfried and Ramón Jesús.

It was literally an unspoilt oasis of trees and campo, shade and calm away from the already busy beaches - after all you can’t get much further away from a beach than San Rafael? Many years later in 1979 Siegried had the misfortune to lose an important card game and with it the enterprise. The new owners, from the Basque region, soon set about exploiting the potential of the venue, now known as ‘Ku’. In the evenings, after a days sunbathing with visiting friends, they often arranged parties for any excuse that came to hand.




Gorri
The guiding lights in those early days were Javier, Santa, Gorri, Brasilio and Amilio, creating impossibly real, but imaginary parties to celebrate full moons, a local fiesta, the mid-summer equinox, the far distant carnival in Rio or Notting Hill, even a party celebrating the existence of a particular colour or a part of male or female anatomy. It was any excuse to party and well beyond what we nowadays view as the excesses of the clubs. Amilio was the man who brought in the superstars, Roman Polanski was an early visitor, who later included Amilio in one of his later films.

A quick look through the photo-archive of the early years of Ku soon shows that you weren‘t going to get in to rub shoulders with the stars unless you were dressed up to the point of lunacy - transvestite garb was almost compulsory and to understand the mentality behind this almost compulsory cross-dressing is to begin to understand the ethic behind what has made this club the biggest indoor club in the world, that now houses Manumission - the largest single club night in the world - who by their own admission “probably wouldn´t get away with it anywhere else in the world”. This place was “in your face”, out of the closet and had found a formula that very soon became ‘dance music’ throughout Britain and subsequently the world. It wasn’t so much championing the music as opening the door to acceptance of gay permutations and cross sexuality which was the key to getting admitted to those early clubs that opened everyones minds to the repetative beats option which now dominates the music spectrum.

Understandably, Ku soon became the place where you could expect to find your friends of an evening. Initially a music bar was added, the following year another with some decoration - an alternative venue for the people of the island and their visiting friends. In 1978 a mini disco with a capacity of 125 was added to the equation to promote their eaterie. They could have had little idea that at that moment they were laying the foundations to the largest club the world has ever seen. Quite possibly the largest club in the universe. Globally promoted by the likes of Grace Jones dancing naked in the rain alongside the swimming pool and Freddie Mercury recording “Barcelona“ - the place was soon packed with young trendies, transvestites and millionaires. Demand rapidly exceeded supply so bits were added on and some bits taken away. The original pool had Olympic dimensions but its edges were trimmed to gain space, its depth diminished and its wid th crossed by a bridge that embraces it like a perverted, yet almost appropriate, chastity belt.

Originally open to the Ibiza sky, moon & stars, sunsets and rises it became the archetypal Ibiza setting for a night out. A place to rub shoulders with the rich and famous, from the fashion and rock & roll industries, enlightened local luminaries or hippies on the road from Amsterdam to Goa or beyond. A cosmopolitain blend of like-minds seeking liberty and freedom of expression where nearly everything was either possible or acceptable. A paradise of celebration which over the years became a temple to music, although its size still permits conversation in quieter corners.

The prevailing emphasis on music, combined with advancing technology in the equipment designed to deliver it, brought about two new laws in 1990 requiring the big discos to install soundproofing, i.e. put rooves on! For a club the size of Ku this was a serious project considering the size of the space they were using and their Olympic swimming pool. The legal requirements and the fact that the roof blew off in a storm the following year eventually drove Ku in to bankruptcy! The club remained closed throughout the summer of 1991 and re-emerged with its current emphasis on a new style of party - more massive and musically orientated than previously - to fit in with the rising power of dance music sweeping through Europe at the time.

Despite continued success at the club, the involvement of prominent local bankers, who had financed the legal and monumental requirement of roofing the club, finally foreclosed on their loan during a dispute over the interest rate that should have applied to the loan. Santa Maria, a famous ex-footballer and one of the main partners who ran a number of night clubs in mainland Spain, was assasinated in San Sebatian on suspicion of being involved in the drug business at about the same time. It was all going pear-shaped. ‘Ku’ ceased to exist and ‘Privilege’ was born.

The baton that was ‘Ku’ passed on to the new owners in 1995 and the new name ‘Privilege’ reflected a period of change. The one-time local swimming pool that served as a quiet oasis for the locals in times gone by now serves as a symbolic moat to the enormous medieval fortress, but with a twist of modern science fiction, that we all nowadays know as Privilege. It’s not a fairy tale, but if anybody had suggested to you twenty years ago what was about to happen at the local San Rafael swimming pool you would have been forgiven for laughing …
 
when did they change it to privelege?
and why???
well the manumission parties arent what they used to be anyway, but hey.....things change....sometimes not for the better but the place is still breathtaking.
 
in 1990 all clubs had to put rooves on (es paradis was open air as well)

there are a number of stories about why's etc that involve certain catalan businesses, a local famouse politician and lending money (as the copied article says)

the old pics of privilege and es paradis are in the "images of ibiza" section at ibizaholidays.com
 
I was told that the owners of a building are only liable for tax from the Spanish Government once the roof is on.

Maybe that would be why?

or it could be a load of old..........
 
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