There are times when history lets you down badly, especially when you have a column to write.
History does not record, for instance, what music the Vandal tribes of Central Asia listened to as they went around invading and conquering in the 4th and 5th centuries. It would have been a useful piece of information to have to hand, especially as the Vandals were the first invaders to find their way to Ibiza (455 AD) to plunder all round them. They were certainly not the last, but we know everything there is to know about the music which the most recent invaders brought with them.
As the summer season kicks off, Ibiza is still a relative oasis of calm. To be sure, there are more billboards for Pete Tong at Pacha and Chris Liebing at Privilege than there are for Lidl or fast cars taking up space on the road leading from the airport. The club shops down by the harbour in Ibiza town are fully stocked, while the first input of Brits who will work as greeter-geezers are trying to get their heads around the euro in the queue for the bus to San Antonio.
By the end of July it will be a different picture as European clubbers arrive by the planeload. Ibiza continues to be where clubland goes to recharge its batteries. Trends are still set here and tunes are still broken by the galaxy of superstar DJs who turn up for their summer residencies. Dance music and clubland may be allegedly in the doldrums elsewhere, but no one has passed on this news to the islanders who make a solid living from clubland tourism during the summer.
On Ibiza, clubland is always throwing new shapes as part of a constant cycle of reinvention. Such cycles, however, have more to do with economics than any particular creative notions. There's now a huge infrastructure of clubs and venues, and they accumulate bills which must be paid. This means getting clubbers through the door every night of the week, and if putting on a bunch of so-so bands is what will pull in the punters, you can start the soundcheck right now.
This summer, Manumission at Privilege, a club once noted for feats of outlandish hedonism, will feature sets from Babyshambles, Maximo Park, Fischerspooner, Goldfrapp, Mylo, Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery and others. You can be sure that these bands are getting as much out of the association as Manumission. It's a mini-Oxegen, but at least no one will have to deal with campsite buskers and their untuned acoustic guitars.
Such pragmatism is good for business. The incredible popularity which pushed clubland into the mainstream during the 1990s convinced many that the bubble would never burst. But such growth was unsustainable. Superclubs went to the wall and brands came to the end of the marketing and sponsorship love-in because they were unable to adjust to new social and economic realities.
People still wanted to go out and be merry; they just didn't want to do what they had been doing for the previous few years. The clubs that were on top of the heap in 2002 had tumbleweed blowing through the dancefloor
12 months later.
On Ibiza, adjusting to new realities is a way of life. The island has always depended on mass tourism to fill wallets and ensure enough cash in the bank to cover the quiet period between October and May. In the last decade, clubbers have accounted for an increasing proportion of that tourism spend, so empty superclubs are bad news.
As the Ibiza season unfolds, stories about late-night excesses on the road to San Antonio or hot tunes on the Space terrace will be commonplace. Read between the lines, though, and you can see clubland coming slowly to terms with a new reality. Ibiza today, your town tomorrow.
