My full Ibiza Review!
Dates – 13th – 22nd September
Stayed – Jet Apartments
This year was a beast and so my long review reflect that - and a very quiet day at work, and nothing like any of my previous Ibiza trips in terms of partying and meeting new people and will also go down as one of the best holidays Ive ever had!
I was meant to stay for 5days until Tuesday but extended it to Thursday and then again to Sun morning making it a 10 day stay – which says it all really!
Went with around 18 people although given that a lot of us knew other people going at the same time as us and the amount of people we met out there that at times it felt like closer to 30 and at other like a small group of 5 or 6 of us who were staying in our room which was perfect.
Thursday – arrived around midnight after being the very last one to make my flight back in Stansted despite having the day of to pack and shop (last minute Ipod troubles!) and having the bad luck of sitting in front of a bunch of uber 30 something chavs from essex on a stag do - and met my best mate Nick who I basically don’t go on a holiday without – pretty much an unspoken rule – and another mate Todd and to be told another mate Marcus had missed his flight!! Headed down to Jet where me met about 10 of the crew who had flown in with the rest to arrive the following morning.
Most of the guys were heading to Cream as we all had a guestlist, but given my pathological hatred of Cream myself and Nick were keen to head to Monza to see Samim – who of course dropped Heater and MANDY. Got there around 3am and given I hadn’t been to Privilege since 2001 was surprised at how I remembered the venue. Was not particularly busy which I was slightly surprised about given the rave reviews Ive heard for Monza this year. Nevertheless was a perfect introduction, getting the circulation flowing in the old legs in preparation of what was to follow. Left around 6am and straight to bed.
Friday – woke up to find the rest of the crew had arrived – a big bunch of Aussie mates who are all living in London for the last 4/5 yrs – great guys but complete animals – the thought of sleep disgusts them and they were to prove a pretty bad influence on me for the rest of the trip – especially Rick, who along with Nick, Todd and the finally arrived Marcus were my roomies at Jet – not that I didn’t know what to expect when I booked with them!
Friday was mainly spent by the pool at Jet catching up with everyone, sinking a lot of beers and other assorted items and generally catching up and being silly. Before I knew it, it was time to get dressed and head to Pacha for Pure Pacha. Arrived there around 2am after a quick couple of drinks in Ibiza town at Base Bar. Once in the music was good but not what I was really in Ibiza to hear – bit middle of the road and was disappointed with Trentemoller given how his album “The Last Resort” was one of my fav’s over the last 12 months– though with Rick plying me with contraband the night was a random blur during which all I remember was Nick walking by on the dance floor with a girl and guy slung over each shoulder at one point like it was perfectly normal, me kind of coming to and realising Id lost my (expensive) shades (in anticipation of going straight to Matinee) and ending the night with a fetching pair of Red oversized shades which I have no idea how I got and also a little Spanish guy starting a fight with me because I wagged my finger at him when he was trying it on with one of my friends who wasn’t too pleased. Remember he put his collar up and started rolling up his sleeves like a cartoon. I was giggling uncontrollably by this point and offer him my hand. The response I got was pretty unexpected. He started hugging me, repeatedly shaking my hand and followed me around like a puppy dog for the next 5mins! Bizzare!
And then it was literally time to go home!
Saturday – Saturday rolled on with about 4hours sleep before I awoke to Rick shaking me and telling me to get down to the pool where “Breakfast” was being served on a frying pan! At this moment I dedcided to tell him I thought he was absolutely nuts. Which he said was the nicest thing anyone had ever told him.
Didn’t go out on Saturday although a day time Borra Borra session more than made up for it as well as the pleasant surprise in meeting an old mate that I had no idea was going to be out in Ibiza! Although without sounding like a whinge, Borra Borra has definitely lost a bit of atmosphere since the ban on dancing on tables came in.. In fact Spiderman was looking decidedly glum as well and I have to say he’s let himself go a little. Quite a sizeable paunch forming!! Still great times dancing in the sunshine. Sat night ended up being a house party of sorts with all 20-30 of us as well as assorted randoms we had collected over the past couple of days moving in and out of each others apartments. Was a great night with much randomness including developing a system of transporting beers between the 4 flats by a sytem of levers and buckets. The moment that brought it home that the night had totally degenerated was when a group of us in our apartment, who were quietly congratulating ourselves for being pretty wasted decided to go upstairs to one of the other apartments. The state of everyone in there made me feel decidedly sober, especially watching one conversation where one of the aussies had had socks on his ears and just his underwear on, Nick had somehow got all his nails painted pink and was grinding / dry humping the breakfast bar and one of the other aussies had waterwings and goggles on and was repeatedly spinning/pirouetting – with 3 other people talking to them as if this was a completely normal everyday occurrence. We all knew it had been a cracking night when we started reminiscing about the funny things that had happened just a couple of hours afterwards!
Sunday – woke up with my nails now all painted as well which I don’t recall happening. And after a very sketchy early afternoon at Borra Borra, realised it was 6pm and that we wouldn’t get our passouts if we didn’t get to Space pronto. Only manged to round up 5 or 6 of us as a lot of the guys had gone to Las Salinas and the rest were happy to stay at Borra Borra and not bother with the passout. We got to Space and both Nick and I realised we had forgotten our Tshirts at Jet. Time being the essence we went over the road and bought the cheapest tshirts they had – Hard Rock Café Ibiza T-Shirts. Once inside it was great to see the Terrace going off. Really good afternoon tunes and a cracking atmosphere – felt good to be back! Met loads of friendly people who were commenting on the matching rubbish Hard Rock Cafe tshirts and painted nails – assuming we were a couple! Was a great conversation starter anyway! Especially with the girls who were singing “Giggy giggy giggy” together in time with the music – which slightly disturbed us given our respective states.
Left around 9pm and returned around 11pm. Nick arrived around half an hour later looking what I can only describe as very weird. Given he is 6ft5 he attracts a fair bit of attention anyway but wearing a ridiculous red headband and what can only be described as a wooden cock ring swinging about his neck had me in fits and though I guess you had to be there – and was basically a culmination of a very sketchy couple of days. Anyway we were there to catch the last hour of Tom Novy who I thought was ok but very annoying with his MC’ing over the tunes! Groove Armada played a great set – commercial but nothing wrong with that at times, and Tiefschwarz were as good as ever. Personally though the night was tainted by the Discoteca which we all agreed was totally uninteresting most of the time and pretty much was just Boom Boom Boom – normally love the Discoteca so was slightly disappointed with everything apart from Dan Ghenacia’s set which I personally enjoyed but think the rest of the guys still found a little hard.
Back at the flat again there was a bit of a carry on with assorted randoms. Finally got to bed around 1pm which I knew was going to severely dent peoples keenness for DC10.
Monday – Woke up around 4ish and the general mood was not particularly enthusiastic re DC10. Went down to Borra Borra and took some new friends we had made – coincidentally a group of Aussie gals and guys - staying 2 apartments down who had just arrived – and who were to become our principal partners in crime for the next 5 days.
Evening time – a lot of the guys were flying home that night whilst quite a few more were flying home in the next day – so spent most of the evening reminiscing, having a few beers etc until at 3am I decided to go and meet a couple of other mates from school who were on the island and head to Cocoon. What can I say except that Richie Hawtin totally blew me away. Was a revelation for me and has to be one of the best sets I have ever heard – musically perfect. Had loads of stuff in my pocket but quickly decided that this was a night were nothing needed to be enhanced. Loved the fact that when I said goodbye to my mates at 730 to go to Jet before my the guys I had come with left for the airport it took me 20mins to get out of Amnesia it was that packed.
Tuesday – Having said bye to pretty much all the crew and having booked to Thursday planning to chill for the last couple of days and hang out with my school mates - staying in Figueretas I was snoozing when I got a call from Rick. Assuming he was at the airport I answered only to be told that for some reason they wouldn’t let him on his flight and that he was outside Jet! Now I love the guy but he should come with a health warning so I quickly knew at that point that my plans for a quiet couple of days were about to go out of the window. Rick seemed surprisingly happy that he hadn’t been allowed on his flight – funny that eh! And immediately started getting on it with our new friends down the hall.
I packed my stuff and moved down the road to the hotel I had booked for my couple of “quiet days” and met my school mates for lunch in Las Salinas at the Jockey Club. Had some amazing seafood and chilled – so far my plans to chill were going smoothly!!
Headed for a couple of hours of sleep back at my hotel - Fiesta Playa D’en Bossa – opposite space and where I stayed last year – very nice and very quiet after Jet. Then met up with Rick and the guys down at Borra Borra in the evening, which was the busiest I had seen it since I arrived. This was the start of a 3 day bender that was most definitely not planned!!
Tues night – Danny Tenaglia at space – was a really good night – went with my school mates staying in Figueretas – Samir and Ad’s and a couple of the aussie girls from Jet as well as few of the other randoms we had met from the previous few days and 4 of mine and Ricks mates from London who we would have just overlapped with had things gone to plan and we left on Tuesday
Thought Danny T was spot on how I expected, having never seen him before – chugging, proggy tribal dance along stuff that never got boring but never really peaked either. He wasn’t the draw I expected in terms of numbers - I had expected Space to be as busy as for Carl Cox but was still busy enough – though lacked the wildness of other events I have been to at Space
Wednesday – Wednesday rolled on and somehow we all ended up at some girls apartment in PdB doing silly things for a Weds morning. Someone gave the call to arms and it was back to Space around 10am for In Bed With Space closing party. At this point I was feeling very sketchy, but once I got onto the terrace life was all good again. In Bed was very cheesy – but they made no apologies for it – perfect music considering my state, bouncing around on the terrace to some good mainstream electro that didn’t require too much thought if that makes sense.
Left Space around 3pm for a little pit stop at Passion. At this point a special mention must go to Magnum PI – 50 year old Antonio who provided much of the contraband for the trip. Was a genuine legend to the point of taking one of my mates who was about to miss his flight to the airport, and arguing with us saying that he owed us money and not the other way around which was a first!!. Anyway Antonio showed up to make a delivery and announced that he was going to a Villa party up in the hills and whether we wanted to go along. Feeling slightly awkward and tired but also feeling that it could be quite funny the 3 of us who were there decided to go
Got to the Villa party and it was going off. Beautiful Villa in the hills. The party was being hosted by some Americans with one of them on the decks with some very slurred MC’ing that makes Tom Novy’s efforts look pretty sharp! Either way was cracking fun, with everyone extremely friendly and some nice eye candy in the form of the dancers they had hired and the 2 sweetest Argentinians girls Ive ever met who had been on the Island for 2 months and seemed traumatised by all the horny Italian men that had been hitting on them. Was also a bit of an eye opener seeing a waitress walk by and offering a tray of ……Thought that was left for the movies / Ibiza myths! No complaints on my parts though.
After a few hours there and a few calls from the guys back in PdB decided it was time to head back around 11pm. Getting back and after a quick shower felt surprisingly alive got ready for La Troya. Not before I remembered however that my flight was scheduled for tomorrow morning!! Given that Rick had decided to stay until Saturday and given we were having a great time with the Aussie crew from down the hall as well as the other friends from London I couldn’t bare to leave so went and extended my trip again, this time to the early hours of Sunday morning oblivious to the damage being done to my bank balance.
Most of the gang weren’t up for La Troya, with Shannon and Tom, 2 of Mine and Ricks mates with Tom having worn the same stupid grin on his face for 2 days solid now and looking completely out of it with a straw attached to his ear which I genuinely think by this point he thought was a real ear piece, and a couple of the Aussie girls the only ones.
What can I say. I cant recommend La Troya more highly. AMAZING music. After Cocoon and later Matinee was simply the best music I had heard on the trip. Really pounding electro on the indoor terrace that just had you dancing. Crowd was excellent too. Nice mixed crowd and very Spanish which I always enjoy. Shannon and Tom both being gay I could tell were slightly disappointed with how straight the crowd was as there seemed as many girls as guys there – which in the sausage fest that is Ibiza at times I found genuinely surprising – but wasn’t complaining about myself . Though I did completely lose my bearings a couple of times and given how many times I’ve been to space had trouble navigating my way around the indoor terrace it looked so different, not helped by the guy in a cage in the middle…”helicoptering” which seemed to perk my mates up. Special mention must go to the La Troya Monster drag thingy – Legend!
Thursday – Thursday morning rolled on and a sleep was definitely needed having only slept for 2hours since Monday afternoon. It all nearly went horribly wrong when walking to my hotel I was kidnapped by a group of crazy Spanish people who tried to drag me to Space with them! Was protesting and although they seemed fun if not slightly scary I made a quick escape and headed for bed. Woke up nice and refreshed in the evening and met up with the gang down in San Antonio at Mambo. My School mates were leaving that night so told them to come down for a goodbye drink. Although the Sunset wasn’t great was nice being on the Sunset strip as I haven’t been to San An since 2001 and its nice how they have done it all up.
Some of the group bought cream tickets and although I wasn’t initially keen given my dislike of Cream I went along with the flow as I thought it would be a closing party and might surprise me. How wrong I was. The main room was so busy that they shut access to it at one point. And when I did get inside I heard the sounds of Darude Sandstorm or something along those lines. After my last experience in Amnesia being Richie Hawtin on Monday I wasn’t impressed, nor was I impressed with the terrace and the general averageness of the tunes. Will definately never go to cream again and if any of my friends were desperate for trance, which I personally dont like would prefer to check out Armada
Friday – Finally had the chilled one I had been trying to have since Wednesday. Headed to Benhirras in the early afternoon which I thought was lovely and then onto Dalt Villa. Really loved the winding steep streets and little galleries and museums to pop into along the way as well as the beautiful views of the harbour. Topped it off with some amazing tapas and some lovely wine. Great afternoon followed by a very chilled evening playing cards and relaxing.
Sat – one last party and one I was really looking forward to having missed it the week before – Matinee @ Space. Only 3 of the gang managed to make it down with me but the music once again on the terrace was spot on and the crowd was excellent. Made the 45mins queue at 9am well worth it. Definitely my fav daytime event at Space – much preferred the vibe to WLS I have to say, which I though was a bit too Brit dominated.
One last Borra Borra session and then it was off to another Villa party. One of the aussie girls is really good friends with Sarah Main, the Pacha resident and her sister Pietra who was throwing a villa party. She had a lovely villa outside Ibiza Town. Great fun and I can now say I played back to back with Sarah Main who was really sweet letting me press the buttons on the cross fader or whatever its called though I can tell she thought she was just indulging some wasted joker and not the genius on the decks I really am. Lovely way to go out, me having to go straight from the party to the airport along with my friend Raph, one of mine and Ricks mates from London who had the same flight as me.
I told Raph, that we needed to make a move, only for him to say that he was staying now for a few more days! Given I had been through the same process in the last few days before couldn’t really argue so it was off to London on my own!
All in all was an amazing trip. More about the people I was with and the people I met out there this year than any previous trip. Musically and crowd wise Cocoon, La Troya and Matinee were the standouts, whilst I spent many an afternoon at Borra Borra with a stupid smile on my face.
Had a reunion over the weekend and the funniest thing is that of the 18 of us that originally went, without exaggerating at least 10 of us have shed a tear over the trip since we got back. Great times and apart from the damage to my bank balance and brain cells even the eventual 10 days still didn’t seem enough
Roll on 2008!
Dates – 13th – 22nd September
Stayed – Jet Apartments
This year was a beast and so my long review reflect that - and a very quiet day at work, and nothing like any of my previous Ibiza trips in terms of partying and meeting new people and will also go down as one of the best holidays Ive ever had!
I was meant to stay for 5days until Tuesday but extended it to Thursday and then again to Sun morning making it a 10 day stay – which says it all really!
Went with around 18 people although given that a lot of us knew other people going at the same time as us and the amount of people we met out there that at times it felt like closer to 30 and at other like a small group of 5 or 6 of us who were staying in our room which was perfect.
Thursday – arrived around midnight after being the very last one to make my flight back in Stansted despite having the day of to pack and shop (last minute Ipod troubles!) and having the bad luck of sitting in front of a bunch of uber 30 something chavs from essex on a stag do - and met my best mate Nick who I basically don’t go on a holiday without – pretty much an unspoken rule – and another mate Todd and to be told another mate Marcus had missed his flight!! Headed down to Jet where me met about 10 of the crew who had flown in with the rest to arrive the following morning.
Most of the guys were heading to Cream as we all had a guestlist, but given my pathological hatred of Cream myself and Nick were keen to head to Monza to see Samim – who of course dropped Heater and MANDY. Got there around 3am and given I hadn’t been to Privilege since 2001 was surprised at how I remembered the venue. Was not particularly busy which I was slightly surprised about given the rave reviews Ive heard for Monza this year. Nevertheless was a perfect introduction, getting the circulation flowing in the old legs in preparation of what was to follow. Left around 6am and straight to bed.
Friday – woke up to find the rest of the crew had arrived – a big bunch of Aussie mates who are all living in London for the last 4/5 yrs – great guys but complete animals – the thought of sleep disgusts them and they were to prove a pretty bad influence on me for the rest of the trip – especially Rick, who along with Nick, Todd and the finally arrived Marcus were my roomies at Jet – not that I didn’t know what to expect when I booked with them!
Friday was mainly spent by the pool at Jet catching up with everyone, sinking a lot of beers and other assorted items and generally catching up and being silly. Before I knew it, it was time to get dressed and head to Pacha for Pure Pacha. Arrived there around 2am after a quick couple of drinks in Ibiza town at Base Bar. Once in the music was good but not what I was really in Ibiza to hear – bit middle of the road and was disappointed with Trentemoller given how his album “The Last Resort” was one of my fav’s over the last 12 months– though with Rick plying me with contraband the night was a random blur during which all I remember was Nick walking by on the dance floor with a girl and guy slung over each shoulder at one point like it was perfectly normal, me kind of coming to and realising Id lost my (expensive) shades (in anticipation of going straight to Matinee) and ending the night with a fetching pair of Red oversized shades which I have no idea how I got and also a little Spanish guy starting a fight with me because I wagged my finger at him when he was trying it on with one of my friends who wasn’t too pleased. Remember he put his collar up and started rolling up his sleeves like a cartoon. I was giggling uncontrollably by this point and offer him my hand. The response I got was pretty unexpected. He started hugging me, repeatedly shaking my hand and followed me around like a puppy dog for the next 5mins! Bizzare!
And then it was literally time to go home!Saturday – Saturday rolled on with about 4hours sleep before I awoke to Rick shaking me and telling me to get down to the pool where “Breakfast” was being served on a frying pan! At this moment I dedcided to tell him I thought he was absolutely nuts. Which he said was the nicest thing anyone had ever told him.
Didn’t go out on Saturday although a day time Borra Borra session more than made up for it as well as the pleasant surprise in meeting an old mate that I had no idea was going to be out in Ibiza! Although without sounding like a whinge, Borra Borra has definitely lost a bit of atmosphere since the ban on dancing on tables came in.. In fact Spiderman was looking decidedly glum as well and I have to say he’s let himself go a little. Quite a sizeable paunch forming!! Still great times dancing in the sunshine. Sat night ended up being a house party of sorts with all 20-30 of us as well as assorted randoms we had collected over the past couple of days moving in and out of each others apartments. Was a great night with much randomness including developing a system of transporting beers between the 4 flats by a sytem of levers and buckets. The moment that brought it home that the night had totally degenerated was when a group of us in our apartment, who were quietly congratulating ourselves for being pretty wasted decided to go upstairs to one of the other apartments. The state of everyone in there made me feel decidedly sober, especially watching one conversation where one of the aussies had had socks on his ears and just his underwear on, Nick had somehow got all his nails painted pink and was grinding / dry humping the breakfast bar and one of the other aussies had waterwings and goggles on and was repeatedly spinning/pirouetting – with 3 other people talking to them as if this was a completely normal everyday occurrence. We all knew it had been a cracking night when we started reminiscing about the funny things that had happened just a couple of hours afterwards!
Sunday – woke up with my nails now all painted as well which I don’t recall happening. And after a very sketchy early afternoon at Borra Borra, realised it was 6pm and that we wouldn’t get our passouts if we didn’t get to Space pronto. Only manged to round up 5 or 6 of us as a lot of the guys had gone to Las Salinas and the rest were happy to stay at Borra Borra and not bother with the passout. We got to Space and both Nick and I realised we had forgotten our Tshirts at Jet. Time being the essence we went over the road and bought the cheapest tshirts they had – Hard Rock Café Ibiza T-Shirts. Once inside it was great to see the Terrace going off. Really good afternoon tunes and a cracking atmosphere – felt good to be back! Met loads of friendly people who were commenting on the matching rubbish Hard Rock Cafe tshirts and painted nails – assuming we were a couple! Was a great conversation starter anyway! Especially with the girls who were singing “Giggy giggy giggy” together in time with the music – which slightly disturbed us given our respective states.
Left around 9pm and returned around 11pm. Nick arrived around half an hour later looking what I can only describe as very weird. Given he is 6ft5 he attracts a fair bit of attention anyway but wearing a ridiculous red headband and what can only be described as a wooden cock ring swinging about his neck had me in fits and though I guess you had to be there – and was basically a culmination of a very sketchy couple of days. Anyway we were there to catch the last hour of Tom Novy who I thought was ok but very annoying with his MC’ing over the tunes! Groove Armada played a great set – commercial but nothing wrong with that at times, and Tiefschwarz were as good as ever. Personally though the night was tainted by the Discoteca which we all agreed was totally uninteresting most of the time and pretty much was just Boom Boom Boom – normally love the Discoteca so was slightly disappointed with everything apart from Dan Ghenacia’s set which I personally enjoyed but think the rest of the guys still found a little hard.
Back at the flat again there was a bit of a carry on with assorted randoms. Finally got to bed around 1pm which I knew was going to severely dent peoples keenness for DC10.
Monday – Woke up around 4ish and the general mood was not particularly enthusiastic re DC10. Went down to Borra Borra and took some new friends we had made – coincidentally a group of Aussie gals and guys - staying 2 apartments down who had just arrived – and who were to become our principal partners in crime for the next 5 days.
Evening time – a lot of the guys were flying home that night whilst quite a few more were flying home in the next day – so spent most of the evening reminiscing, having a few beers etc until at 3am I decided to go and meet a couple of other mates from school who were on the island and head to Cocoon. What can I say except that Richie Hawtin totally blew me away. Was a revelation for me and has to be one of the best sets I have ever heard – musically perfect. Had loads of stuff in my pocket but quickly decided that this was a night were nothing needed to be enhanced. Loved the fact that when I said goodbye to my mates at 730 to go to Jet before my the guys I had come with left for the airport it took me 20mins to get out of Amnesia it was that packed.
Tuesday – Having said bye to pretty much all the crew and having booked to Thursday planning to chill for the last couple of days and hang out with my school mates - staying in Figueretas I was snoozing when I got a call from Rick. Assuming he was at the airport I answered only to be told that for some reason they wouldn’t let him on his flight and that he was outside Jet! Now I love the guy but he should come with a health warning so I quickly knew at that point that my plans for a quiet couple of days were about to go out of the window. Rick seemed surprisingly happy that he hadn’t been allowed on his flight – funny that eh! And immediately started getting on it with our new friends down the hall.
I packed my stuff and moved down the road to the hotel I had booked for my couple of “quiet days” and met my school mates for lunch in Las Salinas at the Jockey Club. Had some amazing seafood and chilled – so far my plans to chill were going smoothly!!
Headed for a couple of hours of sleep back at my hotel - Fiesta Playa D’en Bossa – opposite space and where I stayed last year – very nice and very quiet after Jet. Then met up with Rick and the guys down at Borra Borra in the evening, which was the busiest I had seen it since I arrived. This was the start of a 3 day bender that was most definitely not planned!!
Tues night – Danny Tenaglia at space – was a really good night – went with my school mates staying in Figueretas – Samir and Ad’s and a couple of the aussie girls from Jet as well as few of the other randoms we had met from the previous few days and 4 of mine and Ricks mates from London who we would have just overlapped with had things gone to plan and we left on Tuesday
Thought Danny T was spot on how I expected, having never seen him before – chugging, proggy tribal dance along stuff that never got boring but never really peaked either. He wasn’t the draw I expected in terms of numbers - I had expected Space to be as busy as for Carl Cox but was still busy enough – though lacked the wildness of other events I have been to at Space
Wednesday – Wednesday rolled on and somehow we all ended up at some girls apartment in PdB doing silly things for a Weds morning. Someone gave the call to arms and it was back to Space around 10am for In Bed With Space closing party. At this point I was feeling very sketchy, but once I got onto the terrace life was all good again. In Bed was very cheesy – but they made no apologies for it – perfect music considering my state, bouncing around on the terrace to some good mainstream electro that didn’t require too much thought if that makes sense.
Left Space around 3pm for a little pit stop at Passion. At this point a special mention must go to Magnum PI – 50 year old Antonio who provided much of the contraband for the trip. Was a genuine legend to the point of taking one of my mates who was about to miss his flight to the airport, and arguing with us saying that he owed us money and not the other way around which was a first!!. Anyway Antonio showed up to make a delivery and announced that he was going to a Villa party up in the hills and whether we wanted to go along. Feeling slightly awkward and tired but also feeling that it could be quite funny the 3 of us who were there decided to go
Got to the Villa party and it was going off. Beautiful Villa in the hills. The party was being hosted by some Americans with one of them on the decks with some very slurred MC’ing that makes Tom Novy’s efforts look pretty sharp! Either way was cracking fun, with everyone extremely friendly and some nice eye candy in the form of the dancers they had hired and the 2 sweetest Argentinians girls Ive ever met who had been on the Island for 2 months and seemed traumatised by all the horny Italian men that had been hitting on them. Was also a bit of an eye opener seeing a waitress walk by and offering a tray of ……Thought that was left for the movies / Ibiza myths! No complaints on my parts though.
After a few hours there and a few calls from the guys back in PdB decided it was time to head back around 11pm. Getting back and after a quick shower felt surprisingly alive got ready for La Troya. Not before I remembered however that my flight was scheduled for tomorrow morning!! Given that Rick had decided to stay until Saturday and given we were having a great time with the Aussie crew from down the hall as well as the other friends from London I couldn’t bare to leave so went and extended my trip again, this time to the early hours of Sunday morning oblivious to the damage being done to my bank balance.
Most of the gang weren’t up for La Troya, with Shannon and Tom, 2 of Mine and Ricks mates with Tom having worn the same stupid grin on his face for 2 days solid now and looking completely out of it with a straw attached to his ear which I genuinely think by this point he thought was a real ear piece, and a couple of the Aussie girls the only ones.
What can I say. I cant recommend La Troya more highly. AMAZING music. After Cocoon and later Matinee was simply the best music I had heard on the trip. Really pounding electro on the indoor terrace that just had you dancing. Crowd was excellent too. Nice mixed crowd and very Spanish which I always enjoy. Shannon and Tom both being gay I could tell were slightly disappointed with how straight the crowd was as there seemed as many girls as guys there – which in the sausage fest that is Ibiza at times I found genuinely surprising – but wasn’t complaining about myself
. Though I did completely lose my bearings a couple of times and given how many times I’ve been to space had trouble navigating my way around the indoor terrace it looked so different, not helped by the guy in a cage in the middle…”helicoptering” which seemed to perk my mates up. Special mention must go to the La Troya Monster drag thingy – Legend!Thursday – Thursday morning rolled on and a sleep was definitely needed having only slept for 2hours since Monday afternoon. It all nearly went horribly wrong when walking to my hotel I was kidnapped by a group of crazy Spanish people who tried to drag me to Space with them! Was protesting and although they seemed fun if not slightly scary I made a quick escape and headed for bed. Woke up nice and refreshed in the evening and met up with the gang down in San Antonio at Mambo. My School mates were leaving that night so told them to come down for a goodbye drink. Although the Sunset wasn’t great was nice being on the Sunset strip as I haven’t been to San An since 2001 and its nice how they have done it all up.
Some of the group bought cream tickets and although I wasn’t initially keen given my dislike of Cream I went along with the flow as I thought it would be a closing party and might surprise me. How wrong I was. The main room was so busy that they shut access to it at one point. And when I did get inside I heard the sounds of Darude Sandstorm or something along those lines. After my last experience in Amnesia being Richie Hawtin on Monday I wasn’t impressed, nor was I impressed with the terrace and the general averageness of the tunes. Will definately never go to cream again and if any of my friends were desperate for trance, which I personally dont like would prefer to check out Armada
Friday – Finally had the chilled one I had been trying to have since Wednesday. Headed to Benhirras in the early afternoon which I thought was lovely and then onto Dalt Villa. Really loved the winding steep streets and little galleries and museums to pop into along the way as well as the beautiful views of the harbour. Topped it off with some amazing tapas and some lovely wine. Great afternoon followed by a very chilled evening playing cards and relaxing.
Sat – one last party and one I was really looking forward to having missed it the week before – Matinee @ Space. Only 3 of the gang managed to make it down with me but the music once again on the terrace was spot on and the crowd was excellent. Made the 45mins queue at 9am well worth it. Definitely my fav daytime event at Space – much preferred the vibe to WLS I have to say, which I though was a bit too Brit dominated.
One last Borra Borra session and then it was off to another Villa party. One of the aussie girls is really good friends with Sarah Main, the Pacha resident and her sister Pietra who was throwing a villa party. She had a lovely villa outside Ibiza Town. Great fun and I can now say I played back to back with Sarah Main who was really sweet letting me press the buttons on the cross fader or whatever its called though I can tell she thought she was just indulging some wasted joker and not the genius on the decks I really am
. Lovely way to go out, me having to go straight from the party to the airport along with my friend Raph, one of mine and Ricks mates from London who had the same flight as me.I told Raph, that we needed to make a move, only for him to say that he was staying now for a few more days! Given I had been through the same process in the last few days before couldn’t really argue so it was off to London on my own!
All in all was an amazing trip. More about the people I was with and the people I met out there this year than any previous trip. Musically and crowd wise Cocoon, La Troya and Matinee were the standouts, whilst I spent many an afternoon at Borra Borra with a stupid smile on my face.
Had a reunion over the weekend and the funniest thing is that of the 18 of us that originally went, without exaggerating at least 10 of us have shed a tear over the trip since we got back. Great times and apart from the damage to my bank balance and brain cells even the eventual 10 days still didn’t seem enough
Roll on 2008!
