“It is never too late to give up our prejudices,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. Little did I expect a nightclub to make his case.

Last year I swore off Privilege. One night too many being groped by Italians while wandering fruitlessly around the dancefloor in search of some atmosphere and I decided the World’s Largest Club isn’t for me. Give me the sweat-dripping walls of DC10 or Amnesia’s sci-fi splendour any day.

If it weren’t for my friends Helen and Nikki who are promoting hip-hop trio Sophisticated Funk (playing the second room) at SuperMartXe’s Friday night party I wouldn’t go anywhere near the place.

I do, though, but with vertically-challenged expectations. Especially after popping to Underground for a drink and discovering it’s empty at 2AM. Only walking up the road to Privilege do I realise something is happening. A traffic accident, I assume, from the massive tailback of cars trailing out of the drive and back down the carretera.

Pushing through palm fronds and pebbles towards the main entrance I can’t figure out what’s going on. There are these people, everywhere, scrambling through the underbrush, shouting at each other in Spanish or Italian, smoking, grumbling. “This isn’t the freaking queue?” I groan. Oh yes it is. Forty stifling, elbow-riddled minutes later my friends and I stumble out of the crush and through the entrance into another crush - a gloriously OTT swirl of bodies, lights, thumping house music and grinning faces.

SuperMartXe is reputedly a Madrileno gay night with a heavily Spanish following. In fact, it is completely mixed in every sense. And what a blinding show it makes: couples of every persuasion; gangs of friends chattering in a assorted languages as they struggle for space on the dancefloor; the white-hot blaze of the glittering SuperMartXe logo in lights across the stage; dozens of perfectly sculpted, expensively enhanced dancers wearing imagination-defyingly tiny outfits (a baby oil sales exec’s dream come true) and a staggering stage set - the whole display a glorious triumph of pomp over seriousness.

My friend - a Privilege virgin - is standing goggle-eyed: “Now this is what I expected an Ibiza club to be,” he says reverently. And he’s right. I’ll be back. Without prejudice.

Photos and text By Cila

(Cila is an occasional/regular contributor to the blog and Ibiza NOW magazine.)

MIKE & CLAIRE… CLONES AND ZOMBIES… WALL OF SOUND… MARK RONSON… THE BAREFOOT DOCTOR… FLAMENCO GUITARS… MYLO… FATBOYSLIM… OPERATIC MERMAIDS… HUNKY SAILORS!

The Soundtrack…

Renowned for their vanguard ways, this year Manumission have enlisted the help of Mark (Wall of Sound) Jones and between them, have put together a line up that will have Ibiza shaking in its platform shoes. From Zane Lowe to 2ManyDJs, Mylo to FatBoySlim, Kissy Sell Out to Mark Ronson, these are merely a few of the must see/must hear guests that are set to provide the soundtrack to Manumission 2008. With this year’s parties taking over both rooms of the world’s best club, it’s a match made in Heaven and a gift from the Gods for any discerning music buff.

The Culture Fest…

But Manumission, as always, is not just about the music; rather, it is a cultural explosion that this year incorporates elements of opera from Belgium’s appraised Elise Caluwaerts, Flamenco from the island’s very own Paco Fernandez, costumes from the hand of one of Spain’s finest couturiers, Manuel Albaran, film from Phil Silcock, art from Sergio Ferrer and life changing affirmations from the Barefoot Doctor.
The King & Queen of Manumission, Mike and Claire will take to the stage, joined by their ever adoring and loving crew and cast, in a story of love and gore, life and death, glitter and gyrations, acrobatics and disco antidotes.

The Show and its Cast…

With a storyline based on the weird and the wonderful, the Manumission ‘Coney Island Review’ combines a cast of beauties and freaks in a four act tale of Vaudevillian mischief.

Johnny Golden, Antonio Culebras, Polly Fey, Antonio de la Rosa, the Dynamite Boys and the Manumission Girls are merely a few of the names that make up the momentous cast in a tale of kidnapping and cloning, anti-corporate clampdown and chipping.

Set to a soundtrack created especially for Manumission by A Human, and including lyrics penned by the Queen herself, Claire Manumission, the story tells of the evil Fraudster and the Dandy Doctor’s attempt to kidnap and clone the Manumission crew before dooming them forever to a life of Zombie Hedonism set in a dangerous drag room of transvestites… will our heroes escape from the clutches of the Terrible Two and continue on their Manumission World Tour??

Only one way to find out..

Never one to shy from the weird and the wonderful, this year Manumission is also presenting the ‘Freak of the Week’ with special guests including Lucky, the World’s Most Tattooed Man, and Baby The Acrobatic Vagina.. say no more.

its just started and its very interesting so far !

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

This mornings 1st panel was about synchronisation - or as i used to know it: 3rd party exploitation - I have to declare an interest since my job used to be to clear and authorise UK owned Polygram (Universal) repertoire for use in TV ads, Radio commercials, premiums (giveaways) etc worldwide, so for me it was fascinating to see 6 serious players on the panel discuss synch’ing.
We also did a short video interview with Danny Whittle which we’ll put up as soon as we can.

This afternoon’s panel should be interesting with nearly all the club owners on the same table as the Consel….:

IBIZA: THE YEAR OF CHANGE? HOW IBIZA WILL RE-INVENT ITSELF IN 2008. OR NOT
Moderator: Samuel Guetta, Ibiza Voice
1: Paco Medina, Ibiza Consel Insular
2: Andy McKay, Ibiza Rocks
3: Juan Arenas, Space
4: Andrea Pelino, Circo Loco
5: Isaac Hidalgo, Eden
6: Marisol Aguirre, Es Paradis
7: Daniel Magdalena, Amnesia
8: Francisco Ferrer, Pacha
9: Manuel Lopez, Privilege

Some more photos from this morning

	Pete Tong introduces the IMS founders: (himself) Ben Turner, Steve Hulme, Mark Netto and Danny Whittle

The Panel. Neil Barnes, Randy Reed, Adam Wolf, Kerri Mason (Billboard Magazine), Jason Bentley, Bruno Roussel, Adam Bradley	Neil Barnes from Leftfield (left)

	Adam Wolf, Pig Factory Publishing

Bruno Roussel, Editor Six Feet Under, Las Vegas	Lenny Ibizarre

	Danny Whittle

Today we got down to the task of putting ibiza club tickets on our iphoneibiza.com website.

After mucho help from my old mate kosso we went live about an hour ago - there’s some tweaking to be done, but we’re happy with it so far.

eg. you can buy ibiza rocks hotel opening tickets.

We’re just a few days away now from adding in the full club listings for another classic summer of dance music on the island. It’s all kicking off slightly earlier than usual this year:

There’s a few things we’d like to blog about at the moment but we’re having to contain ourselves - so we thought we’d remind people about the main website which we’re very proud of… and there’s more to come…

We thought it was about the right time to show how far the site has developed using the google maps api and to show the various sections, options and features you can view throughout the site. The website runs off of one google map of the island with all the "information" coming from a database and displayed depending on which section you "click" on without having to constantly open separate "pages".

We’ve now got a little ace up our …. sleeve… but thats to come…

Please do investigate the main website here: www.ibizaa-z.com or www.ibiza-now.com

As ever, click on the images for larger versions.

Use the navigation menu on the left for each section, relevant information appears underneath the map	You can now choose the new "Terrain" option

The menu above the map gives you numourous options to zoom in or out, to search the database or change the style of the map to normal, satellite, hyrid or the new terrain option. You can also show or hide the side bar which lists the markers on the map	The towns all have their own markers showing banks, phone boxes, etc and other local features . Clicking on a marker or its entry in the right hand side bar shows relevant information under the map

You can see exactly how the different municiplaties on the island are organised	Want to see exactly where organic shops and farms are and their descriptions?

For example, you can see an overview of where the libraries are on the island,	Or you can zoom in, change the map style and see exactly on a street map where your chosen library, shop, bank, or marker is

We have markers, photos & descriptions for all the beaches	Clicking on an image brings up a larger image overlayed on the page so you dont have to have popup windows or go to another page

We have an ever expanding photo and video gallery	Of course we also have a nightlife section, as well as activities, living, travel, art & culture, history, about ibiza etc

You can also book hotels and see exactly where they are	Want to take the coastline ferries and know when and how much ?

As this is a joint webste with Ibiza NOW magazine you can subscribe online for your own copy, delivered to your door	We are adding the front cover and contents pages for each months magazine as well as the monthly diary, classifieds ads. Articles from the magazine are added all the time - creating a vast archive.

Please do investigate the main website here:

www.ibizaa-z.com or www.ibiza-now.com
 

• Ibiza Rocks Hotel will open probably around the middle of May (ish) - expect a surprise “do”…
• Pete Tong leaves Pacha and starts his own night at Eden called Wonderland
• Defected will be back at Pacha
• Amnesia opening party will be 14th June
• People from Ibiza opening party at Amnesia will be June 21st
• Rogue / Good For Nothing will be back at Judgement Sundays at Eden - opening party is 8th June
• Radio 1 Weekend will be Fri 1st- Sun 3rd August
• Space Opening 1st June
• Eden Opening May 31st

Pete Tong at Ibiza Rocks 2007 (at the Kaiser Chiefs gig)	Arctic Monkeys at Ibiza Rocks 2007

UPDATE: All the photos are now in the photo gallery and theres a review in the Nightlife News section of our main website here

Today we took a wander down to Privilege to see how Manumission set up for their weekly friday night extravaganza. We met a great bunch of guys who work extremely hard throughout the day. Full article will be in next months magazine and on the site but in the meantime here’s some pictures from today.

Click on Images for larger versions. More Pictures at our new Gallery here.

The crew behind the weekly job of building up the Manumission set	A sight you dont often see - an empty Privilege!