Seminal rave legend, Slipmatt, is heading to Ibiza once again with Slip Back In Time presents Old Skool Ibiza. Taking place over a week from 15th – 22nd May at the San Remo and S’Estanyol hotels in San An, plus venues including Eden, Es Paradis, Ibiza Rocks, Itaca and more, Old Skool Ibiza brings together an up-for-it community of lifelong ravers and the best tunes from across the decades.
Over 100 of the biggest names from back-in-the-day are lined up, including Slipmatt, K-Klass, Shades Of Rhythm, Ratpack, Utah Saints, Brandon Block, Alex P, Mark Archer (Bizarre Inc / Altern-8), Rob Tissera, Nicky Blackmarket, Graham Gold, and Marcella Woods. Embracing the old skool with the rave generation that never grew up, it’s like nothing else on the white isle today.
We caught up with the Godfather of Rave himself to find out what’s in store…
Matt, welcome to DMC. Can’t quite believe we’ve never interviewed you before. Paint the picture for us mate, what’s going on in your world right now?
I can’t believe it either lol. It’s been a long time since we first connected way back in 1988 when I entered the DMC Mixing Championship at that pub in Sussex alongside Pogo and Carl Cox. What a memorable day / night that was. From there I was involved with pirate radio and the huge Raindance parties in the summer of 1989. Little did I know at the time, my rave career would be cemented. Fast forward through the glory years of 90/91/92 and the SL2 era, Hardcore & Jungle through to the mid 90s, and then back to House Music in 95/96. Ibiza came next, and a then fair bit of Old Skool along the way up until now.
I’m still flat out DJing all over the place. I have my own regular and well-established podcasts, a weekly live show on Centreforce, and have been running my own annual Ibiza event for the past 5 years along with a great team.
Let’s jump straight into Slip Back In Time Presents Old Skool Ibiza. You’re back on the Island with another week’s worth of parties. Are there any in particular you’re especially looking forward to?
We pride ourselves on keeping the week’s events as interesting as possible, utilising different venues that hold a lot of history, and carefully programming the line ups that bring all the different flavours of Rave, House and Dance music. It’s hard to pick out specific nights because I love each venue for different reasons and fond memories. If I really had to choose, it would be a toss up between Es Paradis and Eden, both of which I’ve played dozens and dozens of times over the years.
There’s a mammoth 100 artists appearing. How do you go about curating the lineup – is it done by committee or are you single-handedly programming it?
The line up is my responsibility and I do spend bloody ages curating, tweaking, and tweaking some more, and then juggling set times until I’m totally satisfied (and shattered). That being said, I always present everything to our small team for approval and take lots of suggestions. It’s really tough getting it finalised, but I am very fussy – I like to think the programming is one of our strong points. The other tough aspect is that it’s a struggle to fit everyone in. We do try our best to bring in new talent where possible with the likes of Matty Robbo, Sammy Dean, Nicky Nally etc., but the downside is there’s always going to be too many DJs to choose from.
With just one boat party over the week, how do you decide who plays there – do you put out the feelers for who has the best sea legs?
We love the concept of The RatPack boat party, tagged ‘Slip-wrecked’ of course 😊 This year, we’ve also brought on board our friends Nico & Dean from ‘House Is A Feeling’ who run the biggest Old Skool House boat in London. The boat is always sold-out way before the event, but it would be too much to sail more than once. For the DJs, no one has flaked out yet – a few more beers and the old sea legs aren’t an issue haha.
The price of this event is incredible – probably the cheapest way we’ve ever come across to spend a week in Ibiza. Can you give us a quick breakdown?
We hold this event primarily because we love Ibiza, the sunshine, and we love raving with friends and likeminded people. Our aim is ALWAYS to provide value for money – not to make it cheap, but to create the best experience without taking the piss. To be honest, a week’s holiday in Ibiza, all-inclusive (unlimited booze and food all week) in a lovely, modern and well-managed hotel with the friendliest people, top DJs playing all day and, 7-nights entertainment and club entry included… well, it’s a bargain. At worst, you might pay a very slightly higher price at night for drinks than you would in London. Because of the all-inclusive, I don’t spend a single cent all day until after 11pm. It’s a real no-brainer.
Tell us about the crowds there. Are they all old ravers – like us – or do the parties also attract fresh meat?
Yeah, I’ll admit it, many of us are very middle-aged older ravers. However, for me, that’s perfect, because lots of us experienced the 90s and some as far back as the illegal 88/89 raves. Hence, we know how to party. I’m the oldest in the team, my missus Rachel is approaching 50 but our other SBIT partners Terry and Jacqui are much younger. Some of our guests bring their grown-up kids, which is fantastic, and we do have a fair amount of 30-40 year olds. But we’re all on the same vibe, and everyone seems to know the score! It actually amazes me how some of our older guests’ party so hard for 7 days and nights, straight!
We love the sound of the Rave Awards which you host at the end of the week. What type of awards get handed out?
It’s great fun with shit prizes haha: Rave Legend, Best Old Skool Raver, Best Dressed Raver, Lightweight, Dancing Legend, and Caner of the Week.
I think the prizes this year are an inflatable bottle of Champagne, a small trophy which Rachel lovingly makes, a small bottle of Ibiza Hierbas, and an official certificate.
As someone who has travelled to Ibiza hundreds of times over 30 years, do you still get that same sense of excitement each time you head out?
Yes, I do, and Ibiza still feels like home from home in many ways. We have lots of close friends who live there and there’s always somewhere for us to stay all year round. Ibiza has changed a lot though, as of course nothing stays the same forever. As culture has changed over the decades, the island has changed with it. The sad parts are that it’s lost a bit of that carefree vibe, licensing is much tougher, and sound restrictions during the day are ridiculous. It’s the same all over Europe though I suppose – it seems so much harder to escape politics these days.
But the beauty of Slip Back In Time is that we don’t get affected too much by the expensive prices or wrapped up in all the restrictions. We make the most of the daytime at our wonderful all-inclusive and ‘exclusive’ hotel. Our sound levels are going to be very carefully monitored this year, so we’re bringing a ton of extra surround sound with us to compensate for the strict limits. We’re also adding speakers in and around the hotel. Our nighttime venues are free for our guests, and we do all we can to keep the bar prices low where possible. I believe many of our guests join us because the SBIT experience is as close to the 90s as you’ll ever find.
We hear 2024 marks 35 years since your first official DJ gig at Raindance in 1989. If you could bring just one element of that night to Slip Back In Time Presents Old Skool Ibiza, what would it be?
Yes 1989 at Jenkins Lane, Barking. I was DJing before that, but I mentally mark that rave as the start of my official ‘Slipmatt’ DJ career. To be honest, we have guests with us that were at that actual rave in 1989, and I will be playing a lot of those same tunes across my sets. We do play lots of new music as well all the classics over the past 40 odd years, and we always manage to conjure up that same magical vibe and feeling from the good old days.
Production wise, you’re always cooking up something new. Will you be dropping any new cuts in Ibiza that people should listen out for?
I have a lot on the go at the moment, but if I’m honest, it’s been a battle to knuckle down over the past couple of months with so much going on. I’m hoping to get a handful of fresh edits ready for the event. I have a cheeky ’89 bootleg I’m hoping to have finished, and there’s an Awesome 3 collaboration that I want to get to the stage where I can test it out.
One to watch out for: Kelly who used to dance with SL2 back in 91/92 went on to become the famous singer with Cappella through 93/94. Well, she’s made a comeback as Kelly-O and we’ve recorded a new single together. It’s a version of the 1990 track “Take Me Away”. She’s just started her summer festival tour across Europe, and I’ll no doubt be dropping the tune in Ibiza at Slip Back In Time.
Other than that, my plan is to lock myself away for a few days every week until September when I’ll have a few big music projects well on the way. Watch this space 👉 www.slipmatt.net
Best of luck with the event, Matt.
Many thanks, and great to chat 😊
*****
A 7-day, all-inclusive trip to Slip Back In Time Presents Old Skool Ibiza starts at £645. For more information, visit www.slipbackintime.com.
