Helen Donlon - Shadows Across The Moon

SHADOWS ACROSS THE MOON

Outlaws, Freaks, Shamans and the Making of Ibiza Clubland

Helen Donlon

www.hannibal-verlag.de

INSCRIPTION

For Kris, my soul mate, and for the real Ibiza, which will always, always be there.

IMPRINT

© 2015, 2016 Hannibal

Hannibal Verlag, an imprint of Koch International GmbH, A-6604 Höfen

www.hannibal-verlag.de

ISBN 978-3-85445-613-1

German original edition © 2015

ISBN 978-3-85445-449-6

Cover design by bürosüd°, Munich

Typeset by Thomas Auer, www.buchsatz.com

Picture research by Helen Donlon

The Author hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with Sections 77 to 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages.

CONTENT

UNDER THE INFLUENCE, 2013

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

The myths of Es Vedrà – an island inhabited by bats – the Phoenicians – Tanit and Bes – an island of Barbarians – the Romans – the Moors – Moorish music – the Catalans – Bubonic plague – corsairs and privateers – the Castilians – the Civil War – courting rituals – the port bars – an artists colony – the jazz age – the art of Hipgnosis – freaks and peluts

CHAPTER TWO

The lotus-eaters and draft dodgers – the hippie trail – the smugglers and the jet-set – datura and LSD – trepanation – the first boutiques – hippie markets – Nico – the fakers: Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving and Orson Welles – beach and villa parties – Barbet Schroeder’s More – Jenny Fabian’s Chemical Romance – yohimbina – the first nightclubs – a land of first names and nicknames

CHAPTER THREE

Entrancement – the Pied Piper and the shaman – underground dance parties – Carl Cox and his Caribbean music roots – from the music of the spheres to drones, keyboards and ambient performance – electronic trance music comes of age – nomads, sannyasins and the Goa/Ibiza party crossover – Ibiza trance parties – ayahuasca – Lenny Ibizarre and the psychoactive toad – Mike Oldfield’s Ibiza meltdown

IMAGES I

CHAPTER FOUR

Pacha, the hippie club – Ku: the Basques, the shady politicians and the sunrise over the dance floor – La Vaca Asesina: the Ibiza club party format – Pino Sagliocco, Brasilio, Freddie Mercury and Grace Jones – the reign of Manumission – Pacha Magazine, The Pacha Hotel and the Manumission Motel – the gentrification of Marina Botafoch – Cathy and David Guetta: F*** Me I’m Famous! – Pacha’s political shapeshifting

CHAPTER FIVE

La Movida, Franco’s death and sexual liberty – the first gay bars – pansexual club parties – Baby Marcelo and the theatre of clubland – SuperMartXé – Sant Antoni packs them in – the rise of VIP culture – swingers, sex parties and private orgies – Tony Pike, a free-spirited Ibiza playboy – tourism versus the libertines – white lines and pornographic makeovers – young clubland workers: from dream to nightmare – an avoidable murder in VIP clubland

CHAPTER SIX

McMansions, strange fruit of the new Euro currency – the bureaucratic trouncing of Michael Cretu – enter Ushuaïa – Matutes, the island’s Godfather – Grupo Playa Sol’s controversial ascent – Platja d’en Bossa goes boomtown – Space: the new frontier in clubland – daytime parties – the after-hours laws of 2008 – how to be a warm-up DJ at the world’s favourite club – Carl Cox at Space – ENTER. Richie Hawtin – Quo vadis Space?

CHAPTER SEVEN

The sociology professor who built Amnesia – from after hours to night time spot -the sannyasins share their ecstasy – Alfredo inspires – The UK invasion and expansion: Aciieeed – the rise of Sasha and Paul Oakenfold – Britain’s Second Summer of Love – outdoor raves – The Superstar DJ era – Cream – the changing face of Sant Antoni clubland: Eden and Es Paradis

CHAPTER EIGHT

I Feel Love: the sound of the future – Detroit’s techno underground: a new urban-inspired manifesto – Plastikman, The Electrifying Mojo, The Belleville Three and Underground Resistance – Sven Väth: clubland godhead and Ibiza hippie – the landing of Cocoon – techno contortionism – epic Cocoon after-parties – the Luciano touch and Dubfire undercurrents – Circo Loco’s renegade DJ launchpad – ENTER. and the future

IMAGES II

CHAPTER NINE

Pink flamingos and salt pans – Sa Trinxa – the quiet chill-out spots – Manel, cave life and the Sunset Ashram – Fous de la Mer, opera, and how to be an Ibiza chill-out producer – Santa Agnès and the almond valley – David Lynch’s music and a quiet hotel in the campo – tales of paradise today – The Ibiza Film Festival – El Divino’s evolution – The Croissant Show, home of the demi-monde – The International Music Summit- Sant Antoni sunsets: from the cliffs and colours to Café del Mar and Café Mambo

OUTRO

NOTES AND FURTHER READING

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PLAYLISTS

UNDER THE INFLUENCE, 2013

It was mid-July, and the loudest sound on the island was the rasp of the cicadas. We were driving through the baked red earth terraces of Ibiza’s dry countryside in my rental car. Miquel Costa and I had just been to a remote finca to visit a pair of graphic artists who had covered the floors of the house with colourful mocked-up layouts and poster prints, ready for the opening of Sant Antoni’s radical new arts festival, Bloop, then in its first year. In the still of the afternoon the pair, who had evidently been up all night, were showing Miquel options for a poster design for the opening party; all around them lay papers, spray paints and a lot of artists’ methodical mess. There they were, as busy as hive workers in the heat, while in the gleam of the countryside the Ibicencans had taken to their traditional post-lunch siestas.

Bloop described itself as an ‘international proactive arts festival’ and was an urban stab at transforming the usual expectations of the island – which, largely supported by tabloid newspaper stories, was that of a nocturnal clubbers elysium – and was focusing instead on the creation of open air galleries and installations, graffiti, workshops and photography. As it was Bloop’s first year, no-one yet knew how it was going to go down, and Miquel was overseeing the project, on behalf of the Ajuntament, the local council. Similar events had been springing up on the island in recent years, with things like Urban in Ibiza, a convoy of internationally famous graffiti artists who’d work on huge canvases and other objects, such as cars, in the wide open countryside of the Atzaró agroturismo complex in Sant Llorenç.

July is the busiest month in Ibiza for many islanders. The clubs are in full force and for most of the tourists arriving on the island during this period Ibiza could seem like one big nightclub. The Walsall-born graffiti artist, Chu, had even explained one of his giant graffiti canvases to me at one year’s Urban in Ibiza event as, “A sound system. I’ve basically turned the island into a sound system. I get the feeling the island is just one big sound system anyway, and if it isn’t it should be.” It certainly could feel that way. And now, in 2013, and with all else that was going on in Sant Antoni in midsummer – the overseeing of the activities of the super-clubs under its remit, the handling of peak tourist season, traffic wrangling, gorged hotels and crammed hospitals, the continuing threat of droughts and keeping an eye on the ever corroding coastline of some of the more beautiful parts of the region, the Ajuntament staff had their work cut out for them taking on the Bloop arts festival too. And then there was our Nico event.