Paul Oakenfold

"Ibiza changed my life"

It's over a decade since Paul Oakenfold took a holiday on a quiet Spanish resort with a few mates. But that trip changed not only his
life, but that of thousands of clubbers worldwide. So what exactly was so special about Ibiza, and has it still got its magic today?

We all know the story don't we? It goes a little something like this. It's the Summer of 1987, right, and there's these four
blokes from South London; proper music heads the lot of them. You want names? Let's just call them Paul, Nicky,
Danny and Johnny. Anyway, they're out on this little Spanish island aren't they? Paul's been before - he's got a mate
who's working there, Trevor - and he's decided to fly out for a few weeks to celebrate his 26th birthday.

Paul saw it like this: "I've always been a sharing person. When I find something I love I want to share it with other
people; a record, a place, whatever. And that's what this island's about. Someone comes and then they bring back a
couple of friends who bring back a couple of friends and so on."
The island's not particularly well-known, certainly not as packed-out as the tourist traps of, say, Benidorm or Majorca.
But Paul's always liked it.
It's got a cool vibe, part hippy-trippy and part jet set rich and famous, and, besides, there's this DJ -
a Spanish geezer called Alfredo - who plays all kinds of different music, mixing Farley Jackmaster
Funk with The Cure or LL Cool J with some old Woodentops record. It's much better than the
pretentious, exclusive, trendy bollocks of the London club scene.

 
So anyway, the point is that one night they're down at this after hours club that kicks off around
three or four in the morning and runs through to midday - a wicked party venue just set back from
the road between the island's two main towns - and they decide to take this new drug that's
knocking about. Of course, the drug is not new as such - it's been a mainstay of the gay scene in
Chicago and New York since the early 80s
- but it's new to our four heroes. So they pop their pills one night back in the summer of 1987 and ...and what?

Hold on a second. Let's just fill in a few blanks. The Paul was Paul Oakenfold (with his mates Nicky Holloway, Danny
Rampling, Johnny Walker and Trevor Fung), the club was Amnesia, the island was Ibiza and the drug ecstasy. So the
myth of Ibiza had begun. So the 'Summer Of Love' followed a year later. So acid house was born.

So British clubland was irrevocably repackaged and revitalised. So British popular culture underwent its greatest
upheaval since the kids tore out their cinema seats watching Bill Haley's 'Rock Around The Clock'. So that's what. So a
lot.
 
Paul Oakenfold continue