The man in charge of the world’s biggest nightclub empire talks exclusively to DMCWORLD…
Welcome back to DMCWORLD Mr Hulme. It is the 40th Anniversary of Pacha this year and over the winter you felt it was time to put your hands firmly back on the joystick, taking control of the musical direction again and making sure your global clientele were looked after. Overall, are you happy with the way the season has progressed – have you received glowing reports from your summer faithful regarding the changes?
“Without doubt it has been a season comparable to a ride on the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Mousetrap, a crazy wild ride. The nights were defined in two musical camps, deep-tech-house and peak-hour-commercial-bangers, split up by the ever green Flower Power 60s/70s inspired hippie vibe – overall, I think our classic fan base were pretty happy with what we delivered, we gave the VIP section lots to hold on to and delivered quality music for the dance floor clubbers.”
So in true school classroom style, please can you give an end of term report to your weekly nights of 2013…
MONDAY – DIRTY DUTCH
The hardest night of the week to fill and one you really had to work at…
“A new party and if I am honest we didn’t get the message over as clearly as we would have liked, mixed messages means we left some people on the fence and uncertain about what we had to offer, which means we feel it at the box office. That said, we did average around 2000 people across the season and it was on this night that some of the most memorable highlights happened. More than that, we appealed to a younger fan base, we brought in the San Ann crowd, a lot of under 25s from the UK, Benelux, and Italian bases and the energy they brought with them lifted the roof off on most nights.”
TUESDAY – FLOWER POWER
Was all those hours convincing Piti that this was the year he was ready for a weekly marathon residency worth it in the end?
“Absolutely! The night was rivaling Thursdays and Saturdays most of the season, it was incredible that week after week people were prepared to play dress-up and enter the spirit of Pacha Flower Power, in fact it was so successful that we have to think hard about where we put it next season, if it stays on Tuesdays or moves to an even bigger night, the appetite for Flower Power seems to be unquenchable.”
WEDNESDAY – WISDOM OF THE GLOVE
You promised us “an amazing night of strangeness played out to the best underground tech on the planet”. Did the night work?
“This was the most musically challenging night for the regular Pacha fans to take on board, it was so strange for many to see The Chromoatics live, Four Tet in the booth, Nicolas Jaar back to back with Guy Gerber, all playing music more associated to a more underground and intimate style of venue. There were some major successes on this night; Lee Burridge, Sasha, Reboot, Magda, dOP, Martin Buttrich, Shaun Reeves, Monika Kruse, Claptone and many others were absolutely breathtaking for all that witnessed them and the night attracted to Pacha a lot of new people to try us out, pleasingly they liked us once they came to us. Numbers wise it performed much like Monday’s, so even though hard to pull off, quite nice results overall. Again we made mistakes on this night, some artists were too leftfield and too underground for Ibiza to handle, never mind Pacha to handle…and it took us until July to get the branding of the “hand/glove” in full synchronistic shape to deliver a solid message. In retrospect, I think we were a little too respectful to individuals on this issue, maybe Pacha should have taken a hard lead on this element.”
THURSDAY – F*** ME I’M FAMOUS
Is Guetta as popular as ever, is he still enjoying Pacha towers?
“David and Cathy, also Cathy’s brother Chris who is David’s tour manager and all their back room staff led by Rosario were an absolute joy to work with is season. They were the first to stand by Pacha and speak up to say “we are staying at Pacha, Pacha is our home in Ibiza” when we were being subjected to unparalleled abuse and vicious malicious rumours – for that kindness we are very grateful, as we elected to keep our own council. David and Cathy didn’t hold back in their praise of Pacha and the faith they had in the new team. Their season was absolutely incredible, I worked closely with David to program the entire season, bringing in fresh faces like Showtek, Hard Rock Sofa, Albert Neves, Arty and some massive names like Steve Aoki and Diplo, also multiple appearances from Nicky Romero, Chuckie and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike…it has been been incredible stuff and the room popped like crazy – and Cathy’s show, my god talk about x-rated with class!!!”
FRIDAY – INSANE
John Digweed loved it! Will Insane be back in 2014?
“I first booked John back in Leeds nearly 25 years ago, he was a gent then while on his way up and he is a real gent now while at the top of his game, what a lovely man – honest, gracious and no bother whatsoever. Others that were wonderful to work with were Fritz Kalkbrenner, who got better and better and is without peers when he sings live, Uner and HOSH were both amazing, Coyu and Ejeca too, and we had some lovely cameos from the likes of Geddes, Joris Voorn & Nic Fanculli, Steve Lawler and Riva Starr. Of course we had the big man DJ Sneak who we all love, and with him the legends that are Mark Farina and Derrick Carter – musically this was a night to compare against anything in Ibiza, solid beats, tech house, played by maestros. It’s a night we own, so we have a vested interest to develop it into the future, maybe it moves to another night in the week? Maybe it stays where it is? A lot depends on the availability of the additional artists we want to add to Insane in order to grow it to the next level – the reality is that we put together a credible roster of artists for this night for this season at a time when we found it hard to get really credible artists to talk to us at all – for multiple reasons. But the difference now is that a lot of the negativity that was perceived of Pacha from the super credible artists has largely evaporated due to the work we did this summer, so we are in a good place overall with Insane.”
SATURDAY – PURE PACHA
Hardwell – star of the summer? Must be great to have a great Saturday back at Pacha?
“No doubt this young man has blown the game apart, when I had him play the pre-party at Mambo it was bedlam of the very best kind. The Saturdays have rivaled FMIF in terms of numbers through the door, unheard of excitement and hysteria for all the artists who played this season. Standouts include every set from Armand Van Helden, Hardwell of course was something to witness, Martin Solveig we all fell in love with…what a supertar fella this is, the most professional artist we have ever dealt and an absolute pleasure who we will work with more and more. The Pacha faithful were super happy with the rebirth of Pure Pacha as a full on party event, no holds barred, the people want to jump, shout and sing, and that’s what they did.”
SUNDAY – SOLOMUN + 1
The coolest night on the island? How has Solomun’s underground edge worked every week?
“Just gets better and better. The more he knows the room, the more he pulls it all together. The people are witnessing a superstar materialize in front of their eyes, it’s incredibly satisfying for us to give this platform to such a nice team and we are equally as grateful that they out their faith whole-heartedly in us at a time when Chinese Whispers were designed to damage us. Both us and Solomun have enjoyed the journey, he is very giving, playing as often as he could at the pre-party Mambo, he has shown great belief and support in what we have done this year in Pacha and also in Destino where he has also been masterful in front of the giant Cherry Pool. And let’s not forget the secret carry-ons we do on Monday mornings which have been hijacked more than once by the man himself and his +1 guests, sublime stuff…”
10 out of 10 Steve! This summer has seen a lot of new faces appearing at Pacha for the first time, who has really shone for you?
“I am not sure if they played Pacha before this year or not, but – Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike are amongst my favorites of the year, Joris Voorn I also love, the Claptone set was incredible, Steve Aoki debut in the main room was unbelievable, Diplo too, Monika Kruse fantastic, Nick Curly sublime, Ame fantastic, Miss Kitten and DJ Hell on another level, I could go on…I can’t praise the talents in Pacha for season 2013 enough.”
I was in the crowd at Pure Pacha and witnessed the crowd chanting The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ before Hardwell entered the booth – something that I’ve heard has happened at other clubs. Any idea who started this little sing-a-long on the island?
“I think it comes from the Italian clubbers, whenever I go to play there it’s a certainty that they chant this before, during and after the set, if you drop the bass line they go nuts, but truthfully, no idea!”
What have been some of the anthems of Pacha 2013?
“Foals ‘Late Night’ (Solomun Remix) absolutely major. Empire of the Sun ‘Makes Me Feel So Alive” – the whole room sing it. Sebastien Ingrosso / Tommy Trash ft John Martin ‘Reload’ – we had John perform last week and the whole place erupted, amazing scenes. Sonor ‘Keep Kontrol’ (HOSH Remix) – just massive.”
Pacha’s new destination hotel Destino Ibiza opened up at the start of the summer and has since put on a series of ‘electronic concerts’ starring the likes of Solomun, Art Department and Guy Gerber. How have they been received and what are the future plans for this amazing space?
“Putting on Solomun, Guy Gerber, Art Department and Joris Voorn in Destino was incredible. It was hard for us to believe we had achieved delivering such quality into such a quality space, but even more wild for us all was delivering the sole date if the summer from Nicolas Jaar as a live spectacle that had no equal this summer. It was a very special moment for Ibiza, the 3000 people attending were spellbound, we all knew we had witnessed something of such a level of quality that it we felt real tangible emotions, hairs on the back of our arms and back of our necks stood up. The audience which included many people of taste from Ibiza, knew it was absolutely magical and we would love to do more events of this stature for next year. The Chromatic live at Destino would be something special.”
An interview with the Pacha hierarchy after the summer of 2013 wouldn’t be complete without some mention of Booom! A venue that has had it’s fair share of problems these past few months and the big rumour on the island is that Pacha have bought the lease or freehold as of October? I understand you won’t want to comment too much on Danny Whittle’s new venture, but what can you say…?
“I don’t have a problem commenting, but the truth is Dan that I know very little about Booom and it’s season. The fact is that we are all in a tough business, there are people over there that are friends of mine and I wish them well, people ought to remember that in this game we all live in glass houses, so nobody should be throwing stones about – I am certainly not in the habit of throwing rocks, I wish them all the best. For all I know they are on absolute target with their own private timelines and p&l sheets – it’s not unreasonable to think that next year the club could re-launch ahead of a full season and literally go boom.”
Who have been some of the celebrities through the doors at the club this summer?
“I am not much of a celeb spotter, but I did see in the booth and club…Stephen Dorf, Sean Penn, Leonardo Di Caprio and Ronaldo the first. In fact he was trying to say hello to Solomun in the booth and I held him back, he was a total gent about it, when I realized it was one of my Real Madrid past player heroes I could have melted, but he laughed, hugged me and said “good work, there’s all kinds of crazies trying to get at Solomun tonight” – lol. Apart from celebrities, and I am positive there have been many more, I was pleased to see heroes of the scene like Loco Dice, Marco Carola, Guti, Tini, Afrojack, Sebastian Ingrosso and many others coming down to say hello to us and enjoy the room.”
The Pacha group own a mouth watering cluster of venues on the island; Pacha, El Hotel, Destino Ibiza, Lio…are there any future plans to expand for 2014?
“That’s what they call a trick question, lol…watch this space. The Urgell family are unique individuals and unique as a family, anything is possible, it’s why they are Ibiza.”
As the closing parties get underway and you can start to look back at the summer, how good a summer has Ibiza had this year. July saw some 3m people land on the white isle, has it lived up to expectations?
“Some nights have broken all records, some came up a little short…I am talking about Ibiza and not Pacha here. Generally it is common knowledge that some venues and events got their fingers burnt, but other nights were out of this world successful. I guess that is, in reality, a reasonable expectation of a season and hopefully every ones figures across the season balanced out at the end of the summer.”
Away from Pacha, what venues do you think have stood out this summer? Has Sankeys done enough to call itself one of the major clubs in Ibiza? Have Ushuaia’s multi million pound line ups worked? Are Cream a force to be reckoned with again? Did Privilige lose the plot losing the services of Mo so early on? Come on Steve, no sitting on the fence at DMC!
“Sankeys…you have to respect their belief in the sound they push, but it’s size and location make it hard to be considered a super club. It’s a very cool underground club, great sound and vibe on busy nights. Ushuaia and their multi-million pound line-ups – fact is that Avicci has been a massive success, Departures also looks like it was very good, the new Tower venue apparently didn’t work out this year and some of the events they were probably banking on in the main area obviously appeared to be lower attended than probably expected – we don’t know their P&L targets, maybe everything was a success. Cream, yes a massive year for them, great solid chunks of clubbing mayhem. Privilege and Mo, we don’t know the reason why that happened so no comment. All I do know is that Privilege is a massive space and incredibly hard to work, the new room maybe smaller but the clubs location isn’t so inviting so again a very hard job, therefore for anybody to get it right, make it a nightly success, in such a massive venue, is a very hard task.”
Do you think it has been a good year for music this summer? It’s been kind of nice not walking down the road and hearing ‘Levels’ blasting out of every bar on every street…
“Yes, the things from the underground have been fantastic; Hot Natured, Claptone, Solomun, HOSH, all putting out great stuff. On the EDM side some major hits – Avicci ‘Wake Me Up’ was gimmicky but fresh and hit the top across every chart in the world, overall there is no shortage of good music in 2013.”
What are the plans for the winter months at Pacha…
“We open every weekend through winter as usual, sometimes long weekends, special holidays and Bank Holidays. As usual we provide a service for Ibiza, we are open, it’s usually peanuts to enter or free, and we bring quality artists – we will revisit the “free parties” for Ibiza with top line DJs leading up to next season again with superstars dropping by and playing free shows. We will be at ADE in Amsterdam, WMC in Miami and gearing up for season 2014 right away, we have already started locking in deals for next season.”
And finally – what has been your favourite moment of summer 2013 in Ibiza…?
“Moments in the club that took my breath away in no particular order…
(a) Chuckie making the entire room go down on the floor and have them all jump as one on beat, OK in underground clubs we expect it, but at an EDM night??
(b) Chuckie, Nervo and Greg Kloseman encouraging the whole room to get on each others shoulders and sing along to “who is ready to jump/put your fucking hands up”, Pacha security don’t let people get on shoulders usually, so the site of a couple thousand kids on top of each other gave them a fit, lol.”
(c) Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike last Monday decided that Mike would do a crowd walk on top of the peoples hands, he pulled it off and the whole place was in disbelief, it was an unreal moment.
(d) Steve Aoki took a blind backwards leap of faith and swan dived into the crowd, no warning, no fear, total belief. The crowd surfed him all over the main room and returned him to the booth where he then proceeded to throwing ten cream pies into the willing masses at FMIF.
(e) Nicolas Jaar live at Destino. Surreal, unreal, breathtaking and jaw dropping – I could go on and on…and I guess this is my favorite.
(f) Solomun personally requesting me to play back to back with him at the secret Monday morning after party, basking in the presence of the God Like Solomun, cacking it and loving it at the same time. An incredible couple of hours of my life.”
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