Ibiza Rocks is back for an extended season (two more dates than in 2010) after last Saturday's intimate one-off solo show by Johnny Borrell at the Ibiza Rocks Bar. The previous night I was on Youtube watching a video of The Prodigy's memorable show last summer and it gave me goosebumps... twenty-four hours later, crossing the doors of the Ibiza Rocks Hotel, I felt that excitement again. Just thinking of some of the names that will be gracing the stage of the hotel in the coming months is enough to send me over the moon!
Rising star Wretch 32 was the first artist of the season. For the opening party there was a couple of special guests: Annie Mac, who introduced both acts with the cameras of Channel 4 recording the whole thing, and Example (later he appeared at Es Paradis' after show too), who joined the grime MC on stage to do together the song "Unorthadox". That was the highlight of the first show of the night along with the final "Traktor"!
The singer, actor and film director Plan B was next. As a warm up, the talented Faith SFX did some awesome beatboxing (later he came out again to sign in a few songs). The 70-minute set of the rapper-turned-soul artist was based on his second album but there was some surprises: "Charmaine" (from his first album), "Coming Up Easy" (a Paolo Nutini cover) and the brilliant "Pieces" (one of his two collaborations with Chase & Status) plus soul and dubstep medleys. Special mention to the super hit "She Said" which was sung by literally everybody!
A great start of the season and, judging by the nearly sold-out of last night, opening a week earlier was a clever move!
Favourite moment: "Pieces"
