As clubbing has matured so have clubbers. On this White Isle the big venues have been operating for anything up to 30 years - easily enough time to meet someone, conceive then bring a child into this wacky world, and for your offspring to do the same.
Ibiza - 2005
Ravers in modern Ibiza are likely to be older due in part to the costs involved – if you don't earn enough to spend at least 100€ on a night out then the major clubs don't want your business. Also there are no dress codes or door pickers which typically encourage uniformity in clientele. Later licensing in Spain means that socialising does not have to be rushed. The family unit is not pressured to disband at an early hour and the old and young can often be seen drinking in bars and other premises together.
However that's a bit different to taking yer ma out to a techno night. But there are those that do. We interviewed Andreas Simon, editor of the committed underground magazine Dub, about his mother Rose and her regular appearances at Space. Which also happens to be the same location Eloise Sutton's mum Linda celebrated her birthday last month.
ELOISE & LINDA
What do you do here in Ibiza?
Eloise Sutton: I run the promotion for Ministry of Sound at Pacha. And I also have a business doing facial rejuvenation techniques with specialising in botox, lip plumps, facial sculpting, things like that.
Space - July 31, 2005
How's business?
Business is great. We've only been up and running two months in Ibiza but me and my partner Emma do the clinics back in Glasgow and Edinburgh. She's a surgeon specialising in dermatology based in Edinburgh. We fly her out here every two, three weeks, and we can do the clinics here in hotels and stuff.
Have you had a go?
I've had botox on my upper lip here to stop sweating. I had a lip plump as well.
Has your mum?
No, she's not succumbed yet. My mum's quite happy as she is.
Do you two have a good time at Space on July 31?
A brilliant time.
Space - July 31, 2005
How late did you stay?
It was actually me that wanted to go home. We stayed till about five or six. I think the Monday we went to Cala Jondal and had a really nice lunch at Yumangi and for the evening went for a really beautiful dinner in Figuertas right on the beach. Then on Tuesday night I took her to Pacha to see Trevor [Nelson].
How old are you?
23.
How old is Linda?
53.
What's her favourite tipple?
Probably a g'n't with a dash of lime.
What's her general attitude towards your lifestyle out here?
She doesn't worry about me too much. I've always done my own thing and it's never been an issue to check with her.
Does she like the music?
She's always loved music. And as well I've got two younger brothers who have always been into music. Always in our house we've always had a loud family, always had music all the time. She's all for it. There's limits of what she would like. I wouldn't take her to Cocoon for example. I'll tell you what she likes – one of those 'Fuck Me I'm Famous' CDs. I had to distribute some of them and that track ‘Precious Love', I think it might be Barbara Tucker, she thought that was great.
What kind of reaction do you get from other people when you go out with her?
That night in Space people were saying ‘It's so cool you can come out with your mum it's not an issue.' My mum just blends straight in. It's not like ‘This is my mum'. She's Linda. My mum gets on with my friends. I understand that maybe I'm lucky with my relationship with my mum, we're quite equal, I don't hide things from her. But I think the way it can enrich your relationship it's just great. It's nice for your friends to meet your mum, it's the biggest part of me. Do you know Richard West, Mr C, and his wife Xochitl? I first met them two years ago when we got the boat from Barcelona to Ibiza together and I met her mum, his mum-in-law, this old Mexican lady. We were on the boat for ten hours and you just bond. I swear my friendship with them is totally different because I know their family. It's a shame that people think they can't take their parents out with them. Why not? Why should be this big generational gap? I don't think when I get to be 53 I'm going to stop wanting to be sociable, go out or have that release on the dance floor. I think it's quite a primitive need really. Kick your heels up and have a good laugh. It's a shame that people just stop doing it. I hope that will change. I think it will change with our generation because we are a clubbing generation, it's a big part youth culture.
ANDY (HOFER 66) & ROSE
How is Dub going this year, Andy?
Andreas Simon: Very good. Is the first year I finally made some money. Now is the time to recoup all the money we put in the last four years. The one with Jennifer on the cover was the last issue. We might do one for winter. But I don't know if it will look like a Dub or a really proper underground, independent one in black and white. The costs eat me up.
What's Dub Arabia all about?
We're opening a Dub in the Middle East. It's really the same format, everything the same. But I now learn the Arabs made the Spanish quite slower than the rest of Europe in doing business. We wanted to release in July. Now I think it will be middle of October, but we definitely will do one.
What's happening down there?
In the big clubs they play Erick Morillo or Roger Sanchez, Defected stuff and all this, but there is an underground scene. We wanna make a bridge between our world and their world. Because here I think that all over there are oil millionaires or terrorists or stoning their wives. But it's normal people like us. They have to open themselves because the oil is running out in about 20 years. But the first time they saw Dub they thought it was a porno magazine. ‘Oh my god, no no no no no, these pictures no no no." You cannot show almost no skin over there. For us it's a challenge to light the frontiers. Up to where can we go? Up to what can we say? Up to what can we show?
How old are you?
39.
And Rose?
57.
How long did she stay at Space opening?
From three o'clock to 12 at night. This year she comes to the closing with her three friends and one of them she's 67. Helga is a little banger. She's asking me ‘Why don't we have a little puff?'
Jen, Dub mag cover star and Pacha dancer @ Space opening - June 5, 2005
What's your mum's favourite tipple?
Vodka limon.
What's her general attitude towards your lifestyle out here?
I rolled my first joint with her. Today she's got this attitude she says ‘When I see you and you're good and everything's fine, then I never ask you what you do. But if I see you having in problems, then you get in trouble with me.' And I love that.
Does she like the music?
In the beginning she got problems with all this electronic stuff. She said ‘It's all the same'. But since three or four years this is why she's coming to Space. She loves it. She's dancing. She said ‘Can you take me some records?' I even infected my step dad who never never got into this.
How's Monza going?
Banging. I think it's the most successful start of a promoter ever in Ibiza. I never saw one making money in their first year. What I really like is they brought a new sound to Ibiza a little bit. They brought this minimal electro style that Cocoon used to bring a sometimes to the terrace, but they now made it big star. And people come.
Other parent-related facts
- Pacha is a family-run business. Ricardo Urgell is the patriarch, and his sons Panchi and Hugo are involved in the day-to-day operations
- the same situation is unlikely to develop at Space
- Lee Garrick from Miss Moneypenny's brings his mum to their opening party at El Divino
- We Love's Sarah Broadbent says her ma shares her employer's view of Space
- web gossip columnist Twisted Sister has purportedly retired, and replaced by "her" mum
- don't mention NITEFLY's, aiight?