Last night's We Are Rockstars at Ibiza Rocks Hotel was an evening of loose, noisey, unpretentious fun. It was only a few hot pants shy of a full house, with the area in front of the stage rammed with party-goers spilling into the bar space and arms and legs dangling out of every surrounding balcony all the way up to the fourth storey. The pull of headliner Example must have been strong then, but it was by no means the only draw card, as the Ibiza Rocks courtyard was already jumping for support Idris Elba (who leads a double life as a successful Hollywood actor when he's not on the decks… for serious, check IMDB).
Elba was playing back to back with W.A.R! resident Doorly and the two were bouncing off the walls as much as the audience. Towards the end of their set they went old school, dropping Prince, Madonna, Oasis and the Fugees, before faceplanting into some pure and manic drum'n'bass. Doorly knows his crowd well, and when combined with Elba's energy and rampant hype tactics the pair had the house completely in its thrall.
DJ Wire then took over, announced and briefly interviewed over the mic by Doorly, who asked the burning questions like, “how many drinks have you had?” Once it was established that both DJ Wire and the vast majority of the audience had had “more than two!” the music resumed at a cracking pace with Prodigy Firestarter. For a while it was a 90s fest on fast-forward, with Prodigy backed up by Darude Sandstorm, Blur Song 2 and then slinging back even further with Guns'n'Roses Welcome to the Jungle. What Wire's set lacked in continuity it made up for in energy, and it's hard to go wrong with the barrage of classics he pulled out of the bag.
When Example (Elliot John Gleave to his mum) galloped down the stairs and onto the stage the long line of young blonde bombshells in the front row completely lost their heads. The MC was smooth and confident, frequently inciting roars and wildly waving hands from both the fans at his feet and those hanging out of the walls above. DJ Wire was knocking out the Example classics like Say Nothing and Kickstarts whilst the main man sang, spoke and danced his way through the songs that made him massive, with the occasional interlude of roaring electro bangers like Bloody Beetroots Warp. Energy levels were off the scale by the time Example made his exit, at which point hundreds of satisfied customers charged off to meet the next part of their night with ten times the energy they came in with. The only complaints Example fans could have made that night would have been aimed at his tardiness, or, as one worker put it…
“What time d'you call this eh?” - Phil, Security.
