Last night we fuelled up and strapped ourselves in for what was set to be one of the biggest nights of the clubbing season. Part of the ever popular BBC Radio 1 weekend in Ibiza, clubbing giant Cream made its annual trip out of Amnesia's nest and headed over to Privilege. Moving a party to a club double the capacity of its usual spot is nothing short of ambitious, but with Radio 1 as its wingman, Cream showed off its pulling power filling Privilege to the rafters with ease. As usual, most people arrived within the same hour, causing heavy queues at entry that were suffered with good grace and a wry smile by most - which we thank you for!
Cream resident Sean Hughes kicked things off with some classics like Paul Simon's Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, followed by some sax heavy numbers to get the early birds dancing. The main room was a multicoloured sea of Radio 1 and Cream logos, proudly reminding revellers who had brought them this epic night out. Crowd wise, it was a British invasion with the odd sparkly animal, no doubt escaped from the 'zoo' at Benimussa Park earlier in the day.
Second City then took over the decks in the main room, cranking up the bass as the numbers filled out, large colourful mechanical gears grinding away on the screens behind him. With crowds now spread across the entirety of the main room, the doors of the Vista Club were opened where Huxley was up first to get things going. After coming in from the green lit, tree lined smoking area, the Vista Club was like walking into an altogether different garden, with blue light flooding the room and trees climbing towards the roof, decorated with coloured Radio 1 logos.
Being a BBC Radio 1 event, it of course wouldn't have been complete without some of the station's own resident DJs behind the decks, and first up was Queen of the weekend rave herself, Ms Annie Mac. Pink lips danced across the screen as we were hit with Whitney Housten's powerhouse vocals in I Wanna Dance With Somebody. She then took us from the heights of pop right down to the depths of house with the No Artificial Colours Remix of Jay Haze & Lorenzo Dada's Echo Park, proving to us that this lady knows her way around the dance spectrum. In what was set to be a theme of the night, Mac then showcased some music from a fellow DJ on the bill, giving us Huxley's song of the moment, Callin', the stabbing beat and soft piano melody leading us into the recognisable sound of S-Man's vocal hook 'Can you hear me callin', that echoed round the room.
Following Annie Mac in the main room was another Radio 1 heavyweight, Pete Tong, who played back to back with fellow DJ Sasha. The highly anticipated set was full of steady bass and big build ups, packed with upcoming house tracks like Kolsch Feat. Waa Industry with Papageno. Walking between the main room and the Vista Club, where Wilkinson had taken the reigns, you were struck by the vast difference in sounds. In contrast to the housey rumble coming from the Main Room, Wilkinson was running at a much faster pace, with the drum and bass beats from tracks like DJ Hazard & D Minds' Mr Happy and The Prototypes' Lights. A regular fixture on Jameela Jamil's Radio 1 chart show, Wilkinson of course gave his fans some of his own musical escapades, like his frantic dance track Take You Higher, and fittingly ending with his end of the night anthem Afterglow.
Over in the Vista Club's smaller incarnation, Vista Blue, another member of team R1, Toddla T, was giving our feet a break after all that two stepping, instead laying down a sound far more up the grinding, crunking sort of street, (I'm simply saying what I saw..), with Kanye West's Niggas in Paris and Ginuwine's Pony.
Gatecrasher and Radio 1 resident MistaJam took over form Wilkinson in the Vista Club, sticking to the chart-centred vibe with tracks like Second City's I Wanna Feel. He kept up a constant dialogue with the audience throughout his set, gearing us up for a sing along with Robin S.' Show Me Love, and letting us know that it was time for some old school, hitting us with Donna Allen and Serious. Rounding things of nicely, he ended his set with a few reggae numbers, with UB40's Red Red Wine and Marley's One Love.
Back in the Main Room, and Steve Angello had the crowd in the palm of his hands with his set of big beats and even bigger hits. He had the seven thousand strong crowd singing along to tracks like Sigma's Nobody To Love, and his own future hit Children of the Wild. Now we know from Ushuaïa 's Departures that at least two thirds of the former Swedish House Mafia take the more-is-more approach when putting on a show, and after last night we can confirm that Angello too loves a bit of glitz. Fire shooting into the air, co2 cannons that sent out a thick white mist that filled half the room, confetti, and thousands of white and blue streamers, you name it, he had it, and the main room as you can imagine looked quite incredible. Slowing things down, he ended his set with his new track Wasted Love, the sombre chords at the beginning leading us into the anthemic build up to finish off.
Following from Steve Angello, were the masters of melodic, euphoric trance, Cream favourites Above & Beyond. As well as some of their older hits, they gave us a taste of their more recent ventures like the heartfelt vocals of Alex Vargas from their current release Blue Sky Action. Tracks like their 2013 hit Mariana Trench, with its grinding synths at the start that fall into a delicate symphony, showcased what a versatile band they are, and proved why they had no problem filling the air-hanger sized Main Room at Privilege. Meanwhile, next door in Vista Club, Friction was knocking out the filthiest of drum'n'bass, with everyone swinging and stomping about to hits like Pendulum's remix of Prodigy Firestarter and Chase and Status's No Problem.
With so many world-class acts entertaining Privilege - and the British public - last night, I could go on forever. But assuming you've got other things to do this evening other than read this review (like read up on what else we've been posting - right?), I'll round things up. A party in the biggest club in the world, with some of the best DJs on the scene, all hosted by BBC Radio 1 and Cream, two brands at the forefront of dance music, it really doesn't get much better than that. See you next year Ibiza.
WORDS | Joanna Wright PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
