THUMP UK Goes Ham in Ibiza

It's 6am at Ibiza airport. I haven't really been to sleep - last night we all went out for THUMP drinks, which was pleasant, until I had to get a cab straight to Stansted. While I'm waiting for a lift to the hotel, bleary and hungover, I bump into a well-known DJ and their manager - we start talking, they've barely been to sleep either, coming straight from a huge secret rave in England. Within seconds we're talking about diarrhea, homemade pills and how to play ketamine roulette. In Ibiza, there are no introductions and no pleasantries - you get stuck in straight away.

I'm here for Rinse's 20th anniversary party at W.A.R. but also to try and make sense of this anomalous island, the only island in the world another country has rented out as an en masse hedonistic escape. Earlier this year, I came to Ibiza for the first time. On the first night, I was standing on the top of a giant cliff in the old town, sun setting across the most beautiful landscape imaginable, watching Pete Tong and Annie Mac play as people bought me drinks. It was incredible, as were the yacht dinners and free-drinks beach bonfires we went to the following day. But I remember thinking, this is too easy, I haven't put the hours in - the years in San Antonio shithole bars doing shots of nondescript blue liquid, paying £80 to go to a club only to vomit up another £200 worth of alcohol and then lose my wallet.

One of the most eye-opening things about that trip was how much people loved to talk about Ibiza. Who's got the best line-up, is DC-10 as good as it use to be, where's the best place to watch the sunset, where's the best place for daytime clubbing. Among veterans of the island, there's a lot more conversation about Ibiza than actual raving. Even when they arrive at the most perfect spot in the world, they'll normally be talking about how perfect it is.

Ibiza Rocks, like a lot of venues on the island, is a hotel-cum-party (those hyphens are important). It's mostly filled with young people, under 25, experiencing Ibiza for the first or second time, with a sort of carefree attitude that I yearn for when I'm in a conversation at a party thinking about if I could be in a better conversation or should be more drunk or less drunk and if I need to go home because there's a work thing happening. There's not a lot of overthinking that goes on here - if this lot get to see sunset at all, it'll be a victory.

For most of the day - it's like any other holiday resort - loud music, boys pushing girls in the pool, people in their rooms napping off last night. The only difference is that this weekend, Rinse have been broadcasting live from the hotel, so in between your house favourites, you hear DJs talking about their last nights. At around 6pm, all the loungers are removed from the pool - and the venue is transformed. The production values here are pretty high, more like a festival than a nightclub with a huge stage, big screens and barriers.

Ibiza Rocks started as a way of bringing live music to an island that had only ever been interested in dance, responding to a time when indie was thriving and it was tough to book top-draw dance acts. Although these days it's a bit of a monolith, with a concession at the airport and branding all round the island, at the beginning it was mostly happening at a single beachfront café or at illegal parties dotted round the island. It was completely illegal and they had to be ready to move at any moment. They'd bus people out to random locations at a moment's notice. The acts were diverse with everyone from Soulwax to Pendulum, The Zutons to Mike Skinner dodging the cops. Sometimes, they were beaten by the authorities, and they'd have their soundsystems chained up, but mostly they'd get away with it. Bands - unlike club nights, only need to play for 45 minutes, so by the time the authorities were called, they'd finished their set and everything was packed up.

Eventually they moved into the hotel around three years ago, as they realised that they couldn't maintain that model with guitar music suffering and dance having a chart resurgence. So to complement the Ibiza Rocks events they launched We Are Rockstars, a coming-full-circle UK dance night.

One thing about the approach to music here is that your traditional ideas of underground and populism go out the window. On the one hand, you have the biggest concentration of people looking to go clubbing anywhere on the planet, and so line-ups that wouldn't make much of a dent at Fabric could sell out a venue here. On the other, there's plenty of competition and seven nights a week so no one holds it against, say, Pacha, if they have Paris Hilton on one night and then Jamie Jones the next. At Ibiza Rocks it's a similar vibe - they had the Kooks here a few days ago, now it's Oneman and Route 94. No one is bothered.

The Rinse event starts with a set from Tom Shorterz. He first came out to Ibiza in 2006, in his early 20s. "I just came for DC-10, Circa Loco, it was minimal techno and I loved it, it was brilliant. When you think of Ibiza, you think of Kevin and Perry Go Large, but it was so different. Since then I've come back every year."

How's it changed as he's made the transition from punter to DJ? "The biggest change is the music - back then it was minimal techno, it was stripped back, raw. Luciano, Villalobos used to be the gods. Now it's just a different vibe. And the other big thing is the dancing - people doing all the shuffling now. They use to just stand there with a frown, fist-pumping."

Things are pretty quiet for his set, which he seems to like because he can just play what he wants, from across the spectrum of house and bass. He gets things warmed up for Yasmin. Having been part of the extended Rinse family for years, she finally got her own show this year.

THUMP: So is this your third Ibiza this summer? What was the high point and what was the low ebb.
Yasmin: I use to DJ for Eve, and she got married in June in Ibiza. It was one of the funniest things ever because her husband runs The Gumball Rally so it was such a cross-section of people. At the dinner I was with the guy who filmed all of the Jackass films, and he just dropped a pill before dinner, so naturally the conversation was incredible - stories about Jonny Knoxville I could never repeat on record. Bun B from UGK was the priest. It was insane.

Do you love it here then?
Yasmin: Ibiza, it's just, I know it's the worst hippy cliché but there is something about this place. You can come here and not be judged and everyone's on the same vibe. It's dangerous because when you get to the airport everyone's sobbing into their Burger Kings in various states of comedown but that's just it. Ibiza isn't an holiday, you need a holiday afterwards.

Are you more into the big club thing or the low key parties?
Yasmin: One of the first times I came here, with my boyfriend at the time and we just stumbled on Groove Armada on the beach. It was epic. The second time I came we were just in this square in Ibiza town, lots of little restaurants, DJ Sneak on the balcony. That's my vibe, those little sneaky ones. They're the funniest for me.

Do you ever take it too far here? 
Yasmin: Earlier this summer I was here. I'd already missed two flights. So like four hours before my third flight, I thought it'd be a good idea to take mushrooms before my third flight that I'd pre-arranged, I was just having the time of my life. It was in my spiritual home, these new people that I'd just met were my soulmates.

I imagine Ibiza looks quite pleasant on mushrooms.

Yasmin: Oh god, absolutely. I remember another time where we were coming from DC-10 going to an after-party, when we're walking up the drive we find a puppy, AKA the greatest accessory to ever have at a party. Now I just want to put on the record, no animals were harmed in the telling of this story. It was pure love. That puppy probably never had such a great time.

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After that Sasha Keable does a set which changes the mood, getting people in a state for Doorly and then Oneman who plays a full on party set, even Gorillaz gets spun. Route 94 is headlining, I speak to him just before he goes on.

THUMP: Are you exhausted from this summer? 
Route 94: I'm having such a good time this summer, I don't want it to stop. When I'm having fun I get a bit carried away sometimes. It's been ridiculous.

What's been the best night? Or in your case I should probably say stretch of nights.
Route 94: It was probably last weekend. I did Bestival on Friday night, carried on till the following afternoon when I had another set and then flew straight from Bestival to Germany on a propeller plane. The guy just let us crack on on the plane, we were smoking cigars. There were four of us. It was so out of order. We got to Germany, carried on cracking on - it was one of the most ridiculous sessions I think I've ever had. Straight through for a solid few days, woke up after it all and thought I was going to die, couldn't even stand up.

Is it tough when you have to do fairly legit things like Radio 1 after those kinds of nights?
Route 94: I dunno, I can normally pull it off. And if I've been cracking on I'm pretty happy, so…

When was the first time you came out here?
Route 94: The year before last, I came out here. I was 19, playing here for the first time. I'm glad I never came as a punter though. If I'd come and done a season, I probably would have lost my mind.

I'm obsessed with people who do summer seasons here. You never meet one and they're like, "I'm in a really stable relationship and I've got good job prospects." They're always a bit broken.
Route 94: It's like a sanctuary for all the lost souls.

Every time someone serves me a drink here I just want to go, "What happened to you?"
Route 94: Yeah, it can get a bit deep. But you meet a lot of people who are similar to you. I've made quite a lot of good friends out here.

How big is your celebrity getting these days, do you ever get stalkers or anything?
Route 94: There's some pretty weird people. When people start @ing you going "follow me, follow me, follow me" What do you think's going to happen if I do follow you? People don't realise that everyone is just a person. I'm not that great. It's so weird with DJs. People are making tunes in their bedrooms and then become like gods.

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There is a bit of that vibe tonight, with everyone facing the huge stage - throwing fists and beaming rather than IRL dancing. But Route tries to push against that, getting everyone from Rinse on stage so that you can barely see him in the sea of silhouettes, playing a techno and house set without too many big hits, demanding that people turn away from the stage to their mates. For the first 10 minutes, the crowd looks a bit lost, but slowly they're won round and Route transforms the place from a festival to a good old-fashioned pool party.

To be honest, I'm looking at Ibiza from the wrong side of 17. People here aren't thinking - oof, last night I went in a bit hard and that Burger King was more gluten that I normally enjoy, better take a few nights off. There is a thirst for a good time that will overshadow any other concerns - sunburn, hospitalisation, looking like a bit of a twat. That's not me. I can almost feel myself coming back here after a few more times, talking about where the best place to watch the sunset is.

But after that initial love affair is over, it's obvious that a new kind of Ibiza emerges - away from the big clubs and the strip, there are smaller parties - in villas and on yachts, on little-known about beaches, even in street side restaurants that still attract big-name DJs but also people in their 30s and 40s, still looking for an escape but also nice seafood and a decent headcount.

After Ibiza Rocks we head up to Pikes, one of the most infamous hotels in the world - where Wham recorded the video to Club Tropicana and Freddie Mercury had his 41st birthday party (with a guest list including Grace Jones, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, Bon Jovi, Boy George, Robert Plant and Naomi Campbell). It was bought by Rocks six years ago and relaunched as the Ibiza Rocks House, but the vibe here couldn't be more different to the hotel. Everyone is in their 30s - drinking respectable beverages, dancing without looking like they're going smash your face in. In the back is a giant bathtub where you can climb in and do karaoke. Doorly and Yasmin play again, but this time a mix of old soul, disco and Balearic house. In two trips it's impossible to scratch the surface of this island, but what's obvious is that it continues to throw up new possibilities beyond the superclubs.

At around 2am, my journalistic privileges ran out, as well as some memory function, and everything that happened was strictly off the record.

At 6:30am the cabs have stopped so I take the 25 minute walk back to Rocks with Maya Jama, a Rinse DJ. As I head off to bed, she goes straight to the makeshift studio, to host the Rinse breakfast show for the next three hours.

All photos by Jordan Hallpike

More of that recap swag:
Lightning in a Bottle Recap: A Whole Different World
Electric Festival 2014: I Got Tropically Turnt in Aruba
Electric Forest 2014: Anything is Possible 

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