'WELCOME TO THE FABULOUS WORLD OF CAFE OLE!'
CAFE OLE MONDAYS AT SPACE - ROGER SANCHEZ - MARCO LOCO - DITA VON TEESE (AUG 26TH)
In a taxi from San Antonio to Playa del Bossa we're absorbed by the prominent Full Moon shining down on us all the way - Koh Phangan to Ibiza! We're about to have our own Full Moon Party on the White Isle: Marco Loco on the Terrace at Space Ibiza!!! En route to Space, Marco points out the sights on the journey over the headland - Privilege, Amnesia - to virgin visitors to Ibiza the Escobuds.
We take a tour of the Playa del Bossa strip; Ushuaia Tower, Bora Bora and then it's on to the highlight of the evening...
We're heading backstage into Space! Marco tells us to take a seat on the VIP zebra-print sofa and Space backdrop while he checks we're 'all good for the guest list'. I set up the camera for the iconic shot of the Jungle Tribe's VIP welcome at Space Ibiza - and already I'm having the time of my life.
I could have walked away happy without even getting in! Jungle Experience DJ Kuma is also on Marco Loco's guest list this evening - and yet another familiar Jungle Experience face will be joining us behind the decks - Sean Hughes.
By this time I'd got used to being non-plussed by the Ibiza highlights. Cafe Mambo, Ibiza Rocks, the San Antonio strip ; we'd thought all those places were iconic, so to find them to be just terrace cafes and plastic fantastic burger joints had taken us by surprise - when we were expecting the wow factor!
In reverse, if you came to Koh Phangan to see what all the Jungle hype was about, you would come away amazed and dazed at what a beautiful party was going on deep in the Koh Phangan jungle, with International DJs rating it amongst their top parties to play at in the world:
"Specifically, Jungle is one of the only massive parties on the planet that triumphs quality underground music -- and it's raging" Randy Seidman, USA
"Priority One was The Jungle! I had such a great gig there last year. Up there with my best gigs in Thailand, full of cool people who really appreciated the music I was playing" Marco Loco, Ibiza
"One of those dream DJ gigs, playing to an up for it crowd of thousands in the Koh Phangan Jungle" Coran Maloney, Bangkok
Then take MerKaBa, which Danny & Ilona Rampling had raved about:
"That DJ booth! OMG! Haha... I have to say its gotta be one of the best I've ever seen, to be quite honest. In the jaws of a giant tripped out cat… What the hell! "
And whereas the likes of Ibiza favourite Bora Bora had left us wondering what the hype was about, Secret Garden, Loi Lay and The Coast on Koh Phangan seem to have much more charming appeal as how a stylish beach club could be.
So how would Space fare? Would it live up to all the pre-conceived notions of being rated - year after year - the best super club in the world?
'... Marco comes to collect us and leads us backstage into Space, then gives us a tour of the main room. I stop open-mouthed in wonder: "OK, I'm impressed now", I say straight-faced.
Marco laughs at me: "Of course you're impressed! Don't think you're going to come to Space and NOT be impressed! It's the best club in the world!"...'
Here it is in style, class; classic Spanish hospitality! The traditional brick walls welcome you as though into a luxury Spanish super villa: There is a sense of intimacy, an attention to detail... the wrought iron bar stools covered in faux crocodile leather are oozing luxury! From the outside Space had looked like a giant aircraft hangar to me at first glance - I'd expected to hate it! All I mean is, on Koh Phangan we like to party outdoors!! How could a club holding 12,000 people possibly float our Koh Phangan boats?…
SPACE IBIZA, I take it all back, sublime in your sublimity, in your style and decadence; a sense of familiarity and luxurious comfort abounds - I'd expected to feel ill at ease... not instantly at home! I LOVE IT!!!
We go for a tour of the second main room where Roger Sanchez is in residency tonight. Mondays at Space: The Cafe Ole theme tonight is 'Motel', hosting a pumping crowd dancing around the leather-clad podium dancer lovegods and a burlesque queen in a shower tub, all illuminated by a knock-out laser show. Come August the superstar burlesque performer Dita Von Teese will be performing here!
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Through the doors into 'La Terraza' at Space: The stylish lampshades, the decor, the smiles on the faces of the barmaids catch my eye... what a beautiful place to work! The elevated DJ booth shouts 'Strictly DJs ONLY' - Solo DJs - and I'm resigned to spending the night on the dance floor with the disco-loving Balearic crowd.
Marco Loco takes over the decks and instantly beckons us up into the DJ booth. OMG! Can we come in? Yeah, he laughs, waving us in, and our moment is intensifying - behind the DJ decks on the Terrace at Space!
Stop it! Now, that's got to be the highlight in any disco diva's career!!!
As the evening continues and the Hierbas is flowing, Marco turns to warn the Escobuds with a glint in his eye: You'll see a completely different Marco Loco tonight! Underground house & techno this aint, we're not just talking nu-disco funk - we're going straight back to old skool DISCO!!! And the Iberian crowd are LOVING IT!!!
The girl with the familiar face watches as Sean Hughes, Marco Loco, Pablo Escobud and I take a shot from Marco's chilled bottle of Hierbas - straight from his DJ fridge - then she calls Marco over to ask if it was him at the Jungle Experience, Koh Phangan in February. Certainly was! I thought she looked familiar! Koh Phangan to Ibiza - small world.
Halfway into the night I'm dancing away like a mad thing, hands in the air, the crowd before me mirroring my movements - and now my Moment is chystalisiing in its clarity.
My blood starts to tingle, as one with the crowd, I get what Lizzie Curious - due at Space Ibiza for a live PA next week! - and Phangan Party Girl fire queen Natasha 'Pout' Shaw were talking about: That unique buzz, when you are with the crowd and the crowd are with you... and I'm having a Major Moment!
Pablo? He's just priviliged to watch the master craftsman at work: Marco Loco, genius of the dance, even if it is just good old fashioned DISCO!!!
MARCO LOCO ON THE TERRACE AT SPACE IBIZA
'Last night a DJ saved my life!'
Or even, 'Last Night a Dub Saved My Life' by JM Jackmaster!
It doesn't come any better than this, in all my disco diva career, THIS is the pinnacle: KOH PHANGAN - IBIZA! One with the crowd, feeling the superstar status for a fleeting evening and I've got priceless memories to count! You couldn't recreate that feeling in a million years. I'll never feel like that again and the adrenalin will continue to rush through my system for hours. It'll be three days later before I take my VIP Space tag off my wrist!
I message Lady Oh's husband, Alain aka DJ Tattoo Skunky, the next day:
"SPACE! Now I understand."
And DJ Skunky will simply reply:
"SPACE: NOW you know."
"DJ Skunky is showing me the Space Ibiza stamp tattooed on his wrist, and as we look up from his tattoo to the iconic Space Ibiza shirt & pork pie hat of Marco Loco - his adoring public meters away from him with outstretched arms - in that moment, we feel the connection: Ibiza to Koh Phangan!"
Mia Escobud Tales of the Underground: Marco Loco at Jungle Experience Koh Phangan
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Mia Escobud Tales of the Underground |
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