The last sun holiday I had was in 2003 when “The Joy of Decks” TV show brought us to Ibiza, so this year I was dead set on having a holiday & wanted to return to Ibiza to check out the music, the vibe, catch some sun & best of all have a break from London even if it was only for 5 days!

I landed Sunday morning & decided not to go to “We Love Sundays…” @ Space, but to just chill on the beach & save myself for a marathon session on Monday which meant Circo Loco @ DC10 & Cocoon @ Amnesia! & I definitely wasn’t disappointed!

I arrived at DC10 about 2pm & the place was filling up nicely, with a really nice happy vibe outside with lots of colourful characters dancing around to some very cool twisted trippy electronic beats that Loco Dice was spinning. I really enjoyed his set & also Rocky from X-Press 2. He played some wicked electronic tunes & then out of the blue he dropped “ Café Del Mar” and the whole place went bezerk! Then later a “Cure” track which was a nice surprise!

But for me the man of the day was Steve Bug! Wow wow wow!! This was my first time seeing him play & boy was he WICKED!! His tunes were excellent but what did it for me was his energy… he was SO feeling it & giving it loads, he was having so much fun & was great to watch… Fantastic! In my life 4 Dj’s have blown me away with their sets…

Carl Cox, Dj Markey, Valentino Kanzyani & now Steve Bug!

Check him out if you can!

Next stop was Cocoon @ the very beautiful club Amnesia! I had read the flyer before going & Sven Vath’s theme for this years parties was “Wildlife”. His idea behind it was the Dj’s he asked to play at his night were wild & free to play whatever they wanted to play… there was no rules! This I thought was a very cool idea, but all the same the music was minimal & electronic.

Dominik Eulberg and Richie Hawtin in the main room & Meat and Ricardo Villalobos on the terrace. The music was really very good & the crowd, mainly guys but very cool with a very cool party vibe! I really enjoyed this party, all the Dj’s played cool music which I didn’t recognise any tunes & Richie played a very upbeat lively minimal techno set (compared to when I previously heard him @ Lost in London which was slow minimal chunky & pretty predictable after a while, but still very good). Plus the sound in the main room was so clean sounding it was a joy to listen to! Best of all, the Dj’s seemed like good mates & all were really enjoying themselves and dancing & lots of Dj’s were there from DC10 and other big names, Chris Liebing, Mr.C etc. all there enjoying themselves, that was very cool and great to see!

I spent all Tuesday on the beach topping up my tan and recharging my batteries ‘coz Tuesday night is Carl Cox Sessions @ Space & tonight was his closing party. I’ve always wanted to see Carl play in Ibiza so this year I was finally going to see him, yeah! I got down early as he had called me earlier to say he was playing at 11.30pm on the new terrace. The place was packed by then & he played a nice housey set & of course the crowd were going mad. I was very pleased to discover that Space had dropped the price of a bottle of water from 10 euro to 6 euro, I was actually dreading going there for that reason, so that made it a bit better.

After Carl’s closing set on the new terrace I went inside into the main room where Cristian Valera was playing some really good drummy techno, the main room was filling up fast & by the time Carl was starting his set it was rammed & a bit like a scrum, I spent most of the time avoiding guys stamping on my feet & picking broken glass out of my flip flops, I don’t think I would have stayed to be honest if I didn’t get to go backstage as it was a bit too packed & I need a bit of space to dance. No fun with people stamping on your feet all night! Carl really put his heart & soul into this set, he was giving it something extra as it was a special night… his closing party of 2005! The music he played had so much energy in it… really powerful & I really enjoyed every tune. He played so much new stuff, I was thinking damn I wish I knew the names of these tracks… plus I really wished I was up there playing myself! The last 30mins him & Cristian played back to back, which was cool.

Unfortunately the last time I was at Space in 2003 I witnessed some really awful security behaviour and again I had more trouble with security being W@*kers so I left the party before it finished! I was so disappointed.

What a shame…

Plus when I was coming into Space they took my camera off me & I had to pay them 3 euros for the privilege of them minding it!? That’s why I’ve no photos at Space. Actually a lot of clubs in Ibiza won’t let you take cameras in which I think is really stupid, why not let people keep good memories of their holiday & nights out?

Next up, Wednesday was Meganite @ Privilege & my good buddy… Mr.C’s night Superfreak @ Underground! At Meganite I was curious to see Fergie play, he was first on warming things up, I was really surprised how low the sound was when I got to the club, so low infact I could hear the monitors in the Dj booth which is suspended over the middle of the swimming pool in the main room. The monitors sounded really tinny & of course there was a delay with the their sound & the sound of the main speakers so there was an echo & it sounded awful!! And Fergie didn’t look like he was enjoying it at all & I wouldn’t blame him! Fortunately the sound did improve, the main speakers got louder & he was playing some really cool strong electronic beats! Next up was Ben Sims, he played some wicked tough funky techno & I enjoyed his energy, but then the sound got a little too loud & was hurting my ears a bit! Next up was Mauro Picotto & the sound dropped down again??? I really wanted to see Chris Liebing but I left to go support my good Buddy Mr.C @ the very cool & free, small Underground club, just up the road from Privilege!

Mr.C played a wicked very Twisted Mixed Up Underground Electronic and Acidy set. He had everyone in a really good groove & he was really enjoying himself dancing behind the decks. I really like Mr.C, he’s a very cool guy & has been very nice to me ever since “The Joy Of Decks”, always inviting me down to his nights at “The End” in London, putting me on the guestlist, plus he’s a genuine music & party lover! RESPECT! His party was wicked, very cool people in a very cool venue with very good sound!! & best of all it was free!!

Overall I had a great time in Ibiza! My high point was definitely Steve Bug @ DC 10! Best club was DC10 as nothing beats dancing outside when the sun is shining but Amnesia is also very nice! Best crowd was at Cocoon, because they were just very cool & friendly. Most powerful set was played by Carl Cox.

Oh ya, and I must mention Bora Bora beach bar, even though there’s some pretty cheesy house music played there it has such a great vibe & it’s so cool to watch people dancing away in the sunshine at the bar, on the beach & in the water… it’s free and it’s fun!

Before I went to Ibiza I had an argument with a good Spanish friend of mine in London who was complaining that Ibiza was too commercial for him & that he would never go… I disagreed with him then & now, even more! I heard so much fantastic interesting fresh new music in Ibiza especially at DC10, Cocoon. While at these parties I may have recognised about 5 tracks!!! And was thinking to myself how cool is this & the parties were really rocking, making people rock to underground unknown music is a very cool thing. I learnt a lot, playing big tunes is fun but easy to rock a crowd, it’s the Dj’s that play the unknown tracks are the more adventurous, more daring & future thinking Dj’s! RESPECT! But then again at the end of the day as long as people are dancing & having fun… that’s the most important thing!

So would I go back to Ibiza again…?

It’s full of sunshine, good music & good party people… ya of course I would!