Ibiza's biggest promoters have oft-stated their commitment to taking risks. And Manumission were true enough to their word. For their 10th birthday celebrations last Friday they knocked djs off their perch from where highly paid jocks had been ruling the roost during the last few years in Ibiza.
Electric 6, the five piece Detroit band whose big hits are ‘Gay Bar’ and ‘Danger: High Voltage’, were headlining in the main room. There was a possibility it could all go horribly wrong, of course. Would youthful pill munchkins raised on a diet of happy clappy big room anthems cope with being force fed a retro dish whose principal ingredient is guys with guitars? Yes, as it happened.
The biggest club dance floor in the world did not clear, although the crowd had been given due warning of the evening’s eclectic intentions by 2ManyDjs, who immediately preceded E6 with a typically rock-inflected set ensconced in the pool-straddling dj booth. The genre-buggering Belgians had included ‘Danger…’ on their eponymous smashed-to-bits hit compilation from a couple of years back, so the sound-weld melded well when E6 came on.
At first the lead singer, Dick Valentine, looked a little over-awed by the situation, unlike the star of last year’s show, the diminutive Har Mar Superstar who really took it to the brothers and sisters. Then Mr Valentine opened his mouth and his screaming roar filled the venue. Being clad in a non-descript greeny brown suit in the 30+ degree sweltering heat didn’t stop him from pulling a few classic moves including the stage press up, tho the stage sit up is a new one on us.
They came back on again at around 6am to perform Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ plus other musical treats and we have it on good authority from Manumission’s programming and point man Derren Smart that one of the tracks was recorded and will be a b-side on an upcoming single.
In fact E6 were on the island for a week to rehearse and experience some of the same White Isle vibes enjoyed by members of Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones among others. Mr Smart tells us their sound engineer even wanted to stay for the whole summer, he was having such a leviathan of a time.
We can report New York’s LCD Soundsystem, who played at around 5am in the Music Box, most certainly have not lost their edge, but they did lose over half their equipment en route to Europe, some of which turned up several days after they had left the island.
The stress from this and other inevitable misadventures was a “fucking nightmare” logistically, says Derren, but he says the total experience of putting on bands was especially rewarding, especially as no-one, so far, has really sucked.
Other highlights included a great big birthday cake covered in girls, and crowd surfing from Mike Manumission and his long serving side kick, Johnny Golden.
