 Pete Tong is a leading British ambassador of club culture. An original groundbreaker, he has met the Queen and been immortalised in the movies. Working tirelessly, the BBC Radio 1 DJ presents new dance music to millions of listeners each week as the infectious energy of his output circulates around the world. A longstanding and vital figure in the industry, always with a keen eye on cutting edge movements, Pete made his Ibiza DJ debut almost 20 years ago. Other influential imports – namely the revered radio shows: the Essential Mix and Essential Selection – arrived on the inimitable island later (1995/96). Celebrating 10 years of Radio 1 in Ibiza, the perennially popular Radio 1 Weekend was another almighty success and included Pete’s live broadcasts from Cafe Mambo and Space.
Gathering 4,000 party people on the beach in front of Cafe Mambo, Pete’s Essential Selection shows are renowned as the warm-up to weekends. And it was here at the world famous pre-club bar on sunset strip that we caught up with Pete following his Radio 1 broadcast. For Pete, there was still a huge party ahead: Friday is (his night, his residency) Pure Pacha, and with a designer who was inspired by the movie Moulin Rouge they have created ‘a wonderland for grown ups’. Pete’s relished his Pure Pacha residency for three years and has just released this season’s mix CD. He believes it’s the residencies and clubs themselves that are now becoming the stars again. DJing, broadcasting, clubs and Ibiza, speaking from the one of the world’s most historic party capitals, jump in at the deep end with Pete Tong.
How’s the season going, how’s the mood, how’s Ibiza?
“It’s been great. Every year it’s hard to avoid comparisons – everyone’s like ‘you’re up’, ‘you’re down’, ‘you’re this’ or ‘you’re that’ – but it has been good and of a really high quality. Now in the third year of running Fridays [Pure Pacha], I feel even more comfortable and think the night has become more like my own. They are a great family to work for, but everything takes time and you have to integrate yourself into the way the club runs and also with the locals. I think the line-up that I’ve have had this year probably reflects a little bit more of my own personal taste. When we started doing Fridays, we obviously had lots of very big names and many of those we had in the first year actually went on to do their own nights, so I couldn’t book them. Generally, it just gets better and better – the island is strong! Journalists may talk about tourist numbers being up or down and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the vast majority of people I know and speak to have been very excited about this year. And I’ve been very impressed by going to Space and Amnesia, particularly those two places, and then looking at Pacha. Without question they are three of the best clubs in the world, all doing really well and all doing groundbreaking and cutting edge things. If you look at Cocoon at Amnesia it’s just magnificent and Carl Cox’s night at Space is off the hook – there’s a lot of good stuff here!”
So the Pure Pacha 05 CD is out and the residency is going well…
“Yes, the residency – 17 weeks a year for the last three years running – is a big commitment, but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. I spend so much time travelling during the rest of the year that it’s actually nice to stay in one place, and it gives you so many ideas…”
Having first DJ’d on the island almost 20 years ago, how did you find Radio 1’s recent 10th anniversary (1995-2005) and how do you feel about your own next season?
“I don’t think I’ll be celebrating – I wasn’t very good when I first played! The Radio 1 Weekend was good though. The pressure is always on to try and come up with different things, but it went really smoothly and was again of a high quality. It’s hard doing a radio show sometimes: you obviously get very excited about the audience in front of you, but you’ve constantly got to remember everyone back home. This year was one of those years when we definitely managed to get all the excitement of here down the wire and out to the listeners. We had many good comments and obviously pulled the rabbit out of the hat with Jamie Cullum – it was a bit of a gamble but it worked.”
The live PAs of your own track, Deep End, with Chris Cox and Sk8 were amazing at Pacha and Space, any personal reflections on those?
“It’s obviously all new to me, doing my own tunes, but it worked. I work really well with Chris Cox, he’s a very talented guy, it’s just a shame he lives so far away from me. He lives in L.A. but was in Europe and so I suggested that we do these two things together. We did Pacha on Friday and Space on the Saturday. Weirdly enough, Chris ended up being at Matinee until five in the afternoon… but then he went away, collected himself, and came back in for midnight!”
Are there any other productions lined up with Chris?
“We’ve started a few things, but it’s just having the time. Hopefully we’ll find more time in October or November. We never set out with a game plan, but there’s a lot of interest in it now, so we will see. Every time we get together something comes of it: guitar for Oakie’s chill out album which everyone liked, and then we did More Intensity last year. Now we’ve done Deep End, so it’s going well.”
You bought a home in Ibiza, do you have a studio/DJ set-up there or is it a retreat?
“It’s a working space, but it’s definitely a retreat...”
The Essential Mix is exposing exceptional talent at various clubs in Ibiza this year, how has that been going?
“It’s 10 years in Ibiza, so we thought that we would reflect some of the energy and music from particular nights and show where we are with it right now. To be honest, I really wanted to do Cocoon but Sven [Vath] was a bit shy about it this year, so maybe next season? Apart from that, I’m really happy with what we’ve got and particularly about recording DC10.”
What, in your experienced opinion, makes a good club great?
“The music, the people, the environment… There’s a list of about 20 things and everything on the list contributes a little bit, and then it’s a balancing act. I think we are probably going through a phase in the scene right now where environment is becoming really important again. To actually get the music, experience and DJ’s sound across, you want the right environment. In the 90s you had a lot of DJs just touring around and going to everyone else’s club, but now I think residencies and the clubs are almost becoming the stars again – although obviously heavily influenced by the DJs and promoters who are involved with them. There are the three places that I mentioned here, and DC10… then you look at Space in Miami… there are certain places where people just love to go. And that is probably the way I see the scene going over the next year or two: we will be investing back into the venues and creating these places where people can go and have an amazing time. This will have a massive influence on where we go next, as opposed to the ‘superstar DJ’ or DJs constantly touring different places.”
And what new developments in the DJ booth are inspiring you lately?
“Pioneer’s DJM-1000 digital mixer has been the breakthrough this year. The company had a phenomenal time with the DJM-500 (and DJM-600) mixer. It became so popular all over the world – it was almost like the Ford Cortina of mixers because it was obviously a huge best seller… Now with the DJM-1000 I think they’ve done it: the interface is just so good looking, it’s easy to use and everyone likes the sound of it. All the great sound systems from around the world are accepting it – Funktion-One etc are happy to use it – so that’s really good and the EFX-1000 unit that goes with it is great. The next generation of CD players to play files directly from a hard drive will be really interesting!”
How’s your 3 mobile show going, any new video acquisitions to announce?
“We’ve been doing my show for two years now and there has been a great response. Although sometimes it is frustrating as we have lots of ideas about what we want to do, but (with the whole legal issue of downloading music) it’s as if the technology can’t move fast enough. The company I’m involved with does many other shows with Ministry of Sound, Zane Lowe, Jamie Oliver and Jodi Marsh, so we’ve got all sorts of things. Just being in that space providing content for mobile phones has been very interesting, and if it helps promote and sell music in clubs then it’s all good.”
What about ‘new’ territories, have you played in Latvia lately, how do you feel about areas where party/club culture is less established?
“South America is a great place to DJ, and very similar to playing in Ibiza and Spain – the people are crazy… There are loads of new places opening up. Argentina has always been good, but now Brazil is coming up to speed. I’d highly recommend Chile, Peru and those places. Eastern Europe is changing rapidly. I haven’t played in Latvia yet, but I have played in Russia. Then there’s the Far East, and although I haven’t played in China yet everyone tells me it’s fantastic.”
Finally, are there any other plans to mention?
“Just getting to the end of the season! Pacha is opening in New York and Erick [Morillo] is running with them so that will be very interesting – if I can establish that as a regular place to play it would be great. Italy is also a good location at the moment... In the next year or two, I’d rather play fewer places more regularly and just go back to the places where I can trust the environment is great.”
Pure Pacha 05 mixed by Pete Tong and fellow Pacha resident Sarah Main is out now. On the horizon, a new line of Essential compilation CDs are coming soon: inspired by the summer in Ibiza, these include an Essential Selection mix album and an Essential Classics collection!
Of course, yet more indispensable beats beckon as Pete plays out the Ibiza summer season in style – his remaining Pure Pacha dates include:
16th - Wally Lopez, Nic Fanciulli, Pete Tong, Sarah Main & Jade Jagger presents Jezebel with resident Jarren C
23rd - Danny Howells, Jacques Le Cont, Pete Tong, Sarah Main & Jade Jagger presents Jezebel with resident Jarren C
30th - Closing Party, Mylo, Alex Neri (tbc), Pete Tong, Sarah Main & Jade Jagger presents Jezebel with resident Jarren C
For more information go to: www.petetong.com.
(article provide by Loco Rites) |
