Mon 3_08_09 – 10 Years Cocoon Ibiza “Special Sunset Party”

Cocoon is celebrating 10 years in Ibiza.

For a special treat, Sven decided to do a sunset terrace set at Amnesia with Cassy warming up, followed by Josh Wink and Richie Hawtin (Yes! you are reading this right).

At the start of the night Carl Cox showed up and perched at a bar next to us, I gathered up some courage and introduced myself and he had a conversation with me, we talked about his gigs at Family and how he fondly remembers them.  Sven showed up and handshakes all round before he jumped on the wheels of steel..

Cassy played a perfect warm up as the crowd piled in and then sven finished the job off in fine form.  As opposed to the previous Monday, he seemed in a really good mood and it was really rubbing off on the crowd…

We left the party about midnight and it was absolutely pumping.  We were going home to get 4 hours sleep before heading back to the club at 5.30am (when Sven would be hitting the decks in the mainroom).  When we were leaving Clif ran into Sven in the carpark and had a chat with him, Sven wanted his feedback on the night (whilst sitting in his RangeRover with number plates DJ9000).

When I got back to the club later it was full.  Apparently Cocoon @ Amnesia is the one of the only clubs to consistently shut the doors and put up the “CLUB FULL” sign.  After a 30min wait, I realised there was no chance of getting in, and dejectedly caught a cab home

Link to terrace set here

Wed 29_07_09 – Rincon del Pepes, Erick Morillo @ Pacha

Rincon del Pepes is a small authentic tapas bar in San Antonio.  The staff here know their stuff and take pride in the food they present, you can just tell by the way they serve it.  All the classics were ordered:

• boquerones con vinagre
• higado plancha
• mejillones
• aceitunas
• jamon iberico
• choricitos (to name a few…)

A trick in Ibiza is to have dinner at the club to get free entry to the night’s event.  As we were going to see Erick Morillo @ Subliminal, we dined at Pacha Restaurant in Eivissa.  Pacha restaurant is such a nice place (everything Pacha is unbelievable).  The food was good to quite good, although I wasn’t overly awed by my piece of turbot with citric oil.  After dinner (11.30pm res) and some cava, we headed into the main room to hear Abel the Kid going to town.  Pacha has had a remodel since I’ve last been there, and now there’s a major stage and some more decor areas.

Annie Mac was the night’s guest and she looked fairly nervous, I don’t particularly like her style of music but the club was still rocking.

Erick showed up and the mood changed.  Erick himself was in quite a mood and was very publically giving it to, what looked like a personal assistant.  It appeared as though something wasn’t set up right or working properly.  After sending a few texts on his two Blackberries, he ordered some drinks and systematically sent the crowd wild.  This man is one of the alltime djs.

Tue 28_07_09 – Bora Bora, Carl Cox & Moby @ Space

Bora Bora is one of the long-standing beach day bar/clubs in Ibiza. It is located near Ibiza Town in a beach area named Playa d’en Bossa, it is also quite close to the airport and the planes go over quite regularly.

We went to Bora Bora about 5pm and it was in full swing, people dancing, lots of europeans and the drinks were on ice. The music was really good and it was hard not to get carried away too early (knowing we had a big night ahead). We had dinner there – a good choice – and it was pretty good, before heading to superclub Space.

We got a ticket off a tout that offered entry for €10 (usual price €50). The deal turned out to be legit and we got to see Carl Cox do his traditional sunset set on the sunset terrace. After he finished about 12am, they opened the doors to the humongous space called the Discoteca and Moby was winding the crowd up well and truly. Carl also runs a drum and bass night in the side room called the Terraza.

Much later Carl played in the main room ’til close and it was an excellent night all round…

Mon 27_07_09 – Cocoon, Sven Väth @ Amnesia

Our bags arrived today and we had to get back to the airport to clear them from customs because we coming from another continent.  The girls were pretty excited to get there stuff back.  After that, we had to prepare for the big night at Cocoon, Amnesia.

Tonight Sven was playing in the main room with Joris Voorn from Holland (we usually play most of his records).  And on the terrace was Onur Ozur and Mar-T.  The club was absolutely packed!

There was really funky house music being played on the terrace and very deep minimal in the main room around 1am.  Sven came on around 2am and sent the place crazy, Joris had to come on play his “live” set (I felt a bit sorry for him cause Sven had totally whipped the crowd into a frenzy).  Sven came back on a bit later for his closing set.  When we left (quite late) the place was still really busy and did not appear to be slowing down.  The crowd was mostly Spanish people I thought…

Video link to Youtube

Sun 26_07_09 – Ibiza, Judgement Sundays at Eden

Referring to the previous post, we all were luggage-less in Ibiza. Tonight was our first night on the “White Isle” or La Isla Blanca and we were heading out to see world famous DJ and friend Judge Jules.

Jules had organised two VIP passes for me and the lady at the entrance saw there were six of us so she offered two VVIP passes and allowed the rest of the group to come into reserved area so we could be together, which was brilliant. We ordered a bottle of Bacardi and sat back to enjoy the show (behind the DJ booth).

The night was specially planned as it was going to be broadcast live on BBC Radio1 the following week.  Judge Jules had John O’Callagahan on warm-up duties and Kutski was going to close the night.  There was also another DJ who warmed up who did a brilliant job but we couldn’t find out who it was.  Everyone had an awesome night…

Fri 24_07_09 – Gordan Ramsay, Shrek The Musical, Pacha NYC

Gordon Ramsay has a restaurant at an upper Midtown ritzy location being The London (W54th St). He has two restaurant, the serious one Gordon Ramsay, and a cheaper more casual one called Maze at The London. We had a lunch booking for Maze (the Gordon Ramsay only opens for dinner) and it was excellent. The menu was very interesting and all the dishes were executed perfectly. I had the Veal Terrine with Sweetbreads, Pan fried Tasmanian ocean trout, orzo and fennel heart cassoulet with peekytoe crab and the farmhouse cheese selection. It really was excellent and much more affordable than I thought.

Some of the other dishes, were Tortellini of beef short rib, escarole, trompette royale and dashi, Smoked rainbow trout, avocado sauce mousseline and fennel crisps, Pan fried sablefish, braised leeks, smoked eel and red wine sauce and Berkshire pork loin with black pudding, romanesco, apple and cider jus.

Maze by Gordon Ramsay at The London

Shrek The Musical was playing at The Broadway Theatre so we decided to see it. The theatre was nice and although the first half was pretty slow, the second half definitely picked things up and it was quite funny. Before the show we had dinner at Mario “Iron Chef” Batali’s tapas restaurant “Food was excellent and it was the first time I got to try razorclams.

Mario Batali’s Casa Mono

That night after the show we had a VIP table reservation for Todd Terry’s debut at the club. It was a process to get in, about 3 security checks and ID checks (photos were taken off our ID because they couldn’t be read by their machine scanner). We got there fairly early and it was quiet but just a little after midnight the club was really getting full. Todd Terry came on and played an awesome set, Clif and Jade went home a little earlier than Kiri and I (oops).

Thu 9_04_09 – Sydney, Trance Energy

Arrived about 3pm after a delayed flight from Brisbane and were lucky enough to jump straight into a cab to Star City – our accommodation for the stay.  Kiri and I had some time to spare, as Clif and Jade were on a later flight.  Clif was on the same flight as my sister and he scammed a lift in with them.  In the meantime we got used to the casino, read: played pokies and ordered some drinks. Had a quick dinner at Sushi Star which was quite forgettable and went back to the room.

 

The accommodation at Star City is really good, it’s expensive but it’s good.  The rooms are really well appointed and our particular floor was finished with a really nice wood and brown colour.  In-room internet is still bloody expensive – something I’ve never really understood compared with other countries.

 

Off to trance energy at about 11.45pm, the cab we were in got a clear run through the city straight to the Hordern Pavillion.  The main room is quite huge and there was a good sound quality to go with the impressive lighting.  The bars were quite easy to deal with and the drinks were standard festival price ($9 = can).

 

Judge Jules – the main act we were there to see – was starting at 2am.  Before him we caught Marco V and Sander van Doorn (both from Holland).  SVD was convincingly better than Marco V and he set the scene well for Jules.  Jules played a very standard, well executed festival trance set.  The crowd was really going bananas.  He played an old favourite of mine that has been mashed-up with a more recent trance tune, the resultant tune is called Cherry Whip.  You could probably look it up on youtube if you’re interested.

 

Called a cab at about 3.40am and it arrived about 10 minutes later amazingly.  Back to the casino for a few games and a bit of a carry-on…