September 7, 2023 • 40 mins
Ibiza is no ordinary island and Space was no ordinary club. The open-air party which lasted 22 hours every day, revolutionized the international clubbing scene and transformed the people who flocked to its dance floor every summer. Space was the blueprint for all-day outdoor Terrace parties, became one of the most awarded clubs in history, and helped to establish Ibiza as a global party hot spot
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sometimes a chance moment can completely change the trajectory of
your life, like dancing with the right person in a
crowded club, hearing the lyrics that you so desperately needed
to hear, or listening to your favorite song for the
first time. Music often finds us at the exact moment
we needed the most, and when it does, it can
(00:23):
transform our lives. That's what it did for Brandon Block,
a British DJ who went on to do residencies around
the world, get a hit record and become a legend
on the European dan scene.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I've always been into my dance music.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Brandon was born in the late sixties and Spanish childhood
in London. Falling in love with music, Brandon met some
of his best friends going to gigs and club nights
across the city and talking to people who were just
as passionate about music as he was.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very functioned it to graft An area and a time
where it was just incredible the music was available and
it was.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
In the height of disco and jazz, funk and soul,
just lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But he didn't set out to become a DJ. It
was a chance moment in his twenties that transformed music
from being something he loved into becoming his whole life.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I started DJing in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
My memory served me greatment, and it was my local
pub and me and my best may Alli, we were
asked by the owner at the time if we could
go home and get our records because the DJ who
was employed at the time hadn't turned up, and we
said absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He and his best friend Alex had never DJ'ed in public,
but they trusted their musical taste and ran towards the opportunity,
and we went.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Home, bought two big milk crates full of records twelve inches.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Back to the pub, they unloaded their records, played their
favorite songs to a room full of people and work
the crowd into a party.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
They instantly fell in love with DJ.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We had fantastic fun and we ended up being employed
to do the rounds as they say, so we were
asked to go and playing various as the pubs who
blocked that group in West London, and the interests is
true as they say.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Brandon went on to DJ around the UK and then
across Europe, becoming fully immersed in club culture.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Became a table part in my life through the eighties
and the obviously the nineties, but it was worldwide mayhem.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Once Brandon had solidified his place on the London club scene,
he wanted to reach new heights. The place in Europe
to do that was Abitha. In the nineties, Abitha was
rapidly emerging as the party capital of Europe, if not
the world. If you could really make it as a
(02:59):
DJ in Abitha, the there was no telling what heights
your career could ascend to. So Brandon decided to take
a trip to Abitha. He boarded the plane on a dull,
rainy day in London and two hours later he landed
on the hot, sun drenched Spanish island of Abitha.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
When I get off the plane used to get this
overwhelming sort of wow.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's a feeling if you are spiritual in anyone, you'd
get this. There's an energy. Back then, it was like.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You'd be sort of a naturally just getting off the
plane and being it's excitement.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
In Abitha, the air was warmer and the people were friendlier.
Back home in London, it was still rare for clubs
to stay open super late, and rarer still were the
type of summer days that would get people out into
the streets dancing. But in Abitha, the whole island was
a party.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
People stayed up longer, people were partying.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
They wanted to party, they wanted to stay out, and
there was an atmosphere and his.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Site it an atmosphere of hedonism and near constant celebration.
But there was one club on the island that everybody
kept telling him about.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
People spoke about it on the island because it was
a very special place to go.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He decided to go and check it out.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Myself and my friend arrived there at nine in the morning.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That club he walked into that morning was Space, which
would go on to become the most awarded club in history.
When he stepped in, people were walking around in shorts,
t shirts and light bright summary clothing, surrounded by palm trees,
(04:58):
beach houses and the view of the sea on the horizon.
Space's most devoted clubbers were ready to party as soon
as their morning flights landed in Abitha because Space opened
at eight am and.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Stayed open for twenty two hours.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Nine in the morning going to a pub, you know,
broad sunlight, beautiful open air. But we were there and
it was. There was a lot of people been in
a round and I was just saying, Wow, look, this
is just incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The carefree feeling emanating from the dance floor made for
an almost otherworldly atmosphere. Behind the DJ booth. He could
see the whole crowd from the elevated stage he stood on.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It looked like a sea of happy people. It was,
I suppose heavenly in a way. We didn't have a
care and no worries. Who were just sarved. You're playing records.
We loved to people who loved the music.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Once he played his first set on the Space terrace,
he didn't want to stop, so he and his DJ
partner Alex convinced the owner of Space to let them
throw a party outside on the terrace every Sunday. After
a couple of months, Sundays at Space blew up. Brandon
had made it in Abitha.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
We created that burst off rounds of an experience Emma
in the road to DJ in that place was a
comet compare it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
From eight am, all through the day and night until
six am the next morning.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Space's terrace was filled.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
With people partying in the sun and then dancing under
the stars, and every couple of minutes something unusual would happen.
In the middle of a song, just before the beat dropped,
the crowd would hear a loud, deafening sound and immediately
look up. Space had been built under a flight path,
(06:48):
and the island was so small that every couple of minutes,
a plane that had just taken off from the airport
would fly over the crowd. The sound was so loud
that it would drown out the muse playing on the
dance floor. But that made those days and nights at
Space even more special. I remember, in fact, shooting a
video there and it was very important to capture one
(07:12):
of those flights coming overhead, just so people would know
when they see the video where I was being.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Out in the open there and silent, you know, having
airplanes literally flying two three thousand feet above your heads.
With that jet, it was like a hair stand up
in your back moment. And that was part of the
Space experience because when the planes flew over.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Everyone's The sound of each plane flying over the terrace
felt like a celebration. More people were coming to the
island to join the party.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
From London.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Audio iHeartRadio and executive producer Paris, Hilton. This is the
History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
A twelve part podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
About the iconic venues and people that revolutionized how we party.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Some of the.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
World's most legendary nightclubs were known for the unique community
they welcomed, others for the cultural movements they started, and
some for the musicians and DJs they introduced to the world.
The best nightclubs champion new music, transform lives, and provide
an escape from life's pressures. One more thing. This is
(08:32):
the history of some of the world's greatest nightclubs. Not
a ranking of every club in the world. It's an
exploration of the spaces, people and club nights that made
a lasting impact on nightlife and music. Today. I'm your
host Ultranate. I'm a singer, songwriter, musician, and I found
(08:53):
my purpose in club culture. This is Episode ten. Space
in Abia, Spain. Abitha was no ordinary island and Space
was no ordinary club. It was the blueprint for all
day outdoor terrorist parties. It revolutionized the international clubbing scene,
(09:15):
and each summer it transformed the people on its dance floor.
At Space, people could dance from nighttime through daytime and
into nighttime again. I know because I've done it. There
(09:37):
are certain places in the world that seem almost mystical
when people talk about them, cities, islands, and streets with
whole mythology of stories that the people who love them
the most tell with hushed reverence. And Abitha is one
of those. Abby Lowe is a journalist who writes all
about Abitha.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
It's always been a huge melting pot of influences and
different cultures. It represents a particular ideal that's always captured
people's imaginations.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We know it now as the party capital of Europe,
but Abia's folklore began centuries ago.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It was invaded by the Carthaginians, the Romans, and even
pirates at one point, and consequently there were all of
these different influences on the island.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Including the influence of the mainland Spanish people who moved
to the island in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
That was people fleeing the Franco regime and subsequent suppression
in Spain.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
In the sixties, Spain was under the rule of a dictator.
As the country became more fascist and authoritarian, people fled
to Ibitha, but the Spanish weren't the only ones seeking
that sense of freedom.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Back in the sixties, when there was a tourist boom,
it became famous for its influx of hippies and the
Woodstock generation.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Under the repressive dictatorship of the Franco regime, all Spanish
media was censored and any music that hadn't been made
in Spain was forbidden. But when Franco's regime ended in
the mid seventies, a free spirited wave swept across Abitha
as the island became known for its hedonistic bohemian parties.
(11:19):
People from all around the world will go to Abitha
to experience that sense of freedom.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
The fact that it's this very small island, but it's
very beautiful and the beaches are incredible, and so you
feel great when you're there because it's hot and you've
got the sun on your skin, and you're surrounded by
a lot of like minded people, and also an idea
that you can shape yourself however you want to. There
(11:46):
is an essence of non judgment. I think that means
you can be whoever you want to be, and this
idea of freedom really gets beneath your skin and it
becomes an ideal that you can live and I think
that that is quite addictive.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
A lot of the clubs we've spoken about so far
became sanctuaries for people to gather, dance, and experience a
unique sense of freedom. But in Abitha, it wasn't any
one night club, bar or party that did that. It
was the island itself. Abitha was the sanctuary.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
People like the fact that they could go there and
that there were no boundaries that they could explore who
they were, regardless of where they were from, or their sexuality,
or their gender or any of those things. And so
there was this overriding feeling of just being able to
explore who you were in a safe space. And so
there were a lot of freethinkers and nonconformists and visionaries
(12:44):
that were all, for whatever reasons, drawn to this one
particular island.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And one of those visionaries was Pepe Rossello, a charismatic,
music loving man had devoted his life to creating spaces
for people to listen to music, meet like minded people,
and unwind. He'd run jazz clubs, restaurants, and music venues
(13:11):
in Spain during the Franco regime. In spite of all
the limitations. So when the regime ended and ushered in
a new era of freedom and self expression, Pepe saw
an opportunity to open a new club on the island Space.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
He just then created this space that was very much
in his image what a clubbing space should be.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Space was created to fulfill Pepe's vision of what the
perfect club could feel like, a club that reflected Spain's
newfound freedom and paid homage to Ebitha's legacy of free
spirited hedonism.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
It was open to everyone.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
It was a poem for people to explore who they were,
for people to feel more free and to live beyond
the rules that society tells you that you have to
live by.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And one of the rules that Pepe defied was the
norms of when a club should be open. He found
a loophole in the Spanish club licensing laws that allowed
him to open the club at eight am and stay
open for twenty two hours, close the doors at six
am to clean the club, then open up again at
eight am, making Space one of the world's first legal
(14:28):
after hours clubs. It was pretty easy to get lost
in the music rooms and euphoria of Space across those
twenty two hours because stepping into Space felt like stepping
into a whole new world.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
It was so big and there were so many different
rooms and doors.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It was the kind of club where it only took
two wrong turns to get lost, but each diversion could
set them on the path to having an unexpectedly incredible
new experience. Space had a capacity for five thousand people,
spread out across five different rooms. There were rooms dedicated
to dancing, like the Discotheca, which.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Was the main room you could say inside the club,
which was famous for its sound system. It had this big,
booming sound system that lends itself particularly well to really
banging technoe.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Then there was El Salon, a relaxed bar with big
white curtains on its walls and tables for people to
enjoy a drink. In El Clan, the music was loud
enough to dance too, but the volume was quiet enough
for people to talk, laugh and catch up with their friends.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
And then you had the tiny little El Salon, which
was this room where magic just seemed to happen, just
this random collection of people all joined together. So I
was taking a moment to step away from techno and
house and whatever was happening elsewhere. In the club and
just dancing to really feel good shimmering disco, soul funk.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
There were no rules in il Saloon. You could play
whatever you wanted and it would always just be bursting
with joy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
There were also quieter rooms like the Premiere Tage, a
rooftop space with white walls and yellow benches for people
to relax on. There was netting to shield the dancers
from the sun, but it only took a few steps
to the edge for them to look out at the
blue skies, palm trees and sunshine of a Betha.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
And that room was great because it was kind of
a chill out area. The Tempire was always much slower
up there, and it was more of a meeting place
that you would go to just kind of hang out
with people when you needed a rest from the dance floor.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
There was still music, but it was always much.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
More low key, and there was this iconic yellow submarine
that took up pretty much half of the floor that
people would just kind of lounge all over, and you
would always end up sparking up a conversation with a
total random who would be your best friend for the night,
and then you would never see again.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
There was the Terraza, which.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Was smaller, also like an incredible dancing space, but with
a slightly lowered dance floor.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
So you would look up at the DJ.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
There was like a little stage behind with some stairs
that led out in either direction.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And then there was Space's Sunset Terrace, which Brandon talked
about earlier. That venue went on to become legendary. It
was one of my favorite spaces actually, and I was
very blessed to be able to DJ and perform there.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
That used to be the place where there were twenty
two hour parties and people would get off the plane
with their luggage and go straight there for breakfast and
just stay all day. And you would feel this like
enormous boom as the planes went over, which would kind
of shake your ribcage along with the base of whoever
was playing at the time.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
When a Visas summer season began each May, spaces devotees
would do anything to get to Ibitha and go to
Space's opening party.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Then it was the one party that everybody would try
and make sure that they went to.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And one of the clubbers that flew to Ibitha every
year for Space's iconic opening party was the British journalist
Ralph Moore. Ralph spent some of the best nights of
his life in the nightclubs, where he heard so many
of his favorite summer dance anthems for the first time.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
I liked going to the clubs, seeing what kind of
people went to events. You could chat to people in
clubs in a very different way than you could chat
to people at a rock concert or a pop concert,
because people who were going to clubs until three or
four in the morning were inevitably fairly inebriated, so that
inhibitions had come down. So I made a lot of
friends in clubland.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Those new friends opened his eyes to a world where
music could be more than just a hobby. So in
the nineties he moved away from the seaside town he'd
grown up in to work in London as a music
journalist music magazine, and after a couple months on the job,
his boss sent him on a very special assignment to
(19:07):
go and write about a particular Islands night life scene.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Ben Turner rang me and said, I'd like to send
you to a beef next week.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And that is.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
Really where this whole mess started, because I took to
a beef like a duck to water. Frankly, I was
like a sponge. I wanted to experience everything that the
island had to offer, and I wanted to go to
all the parties that I'd heard about.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Once he'd gotten a taste of the island on that
first trip, Ralph couldn't get enough.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Going to the opening of Space was like the Dance
Music Olympics really for me, the.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Annual Space opening party was legendary.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
By the time you go from December through to June,
if you haven't seen people for six months, really, so
you're gagging to get on the dance floor. You're gagging
to cat chat with people.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And to hear all of the new music that had
been created in the months between Space's closing party back
in October and the opening party.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Each May, on.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
A good night, you could see eight to ten DJs
that you loved. It was incredibly cosmopolitan and the DJ
bookings were international, and that was what made Abitha so
much more important to me, and the DJs that matter
had included David Morales, Carl Cox, John Diguid, Cassius, dannton Aglia.
(20:35):
The bookings were impeccable.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Space was one of the few clubs in the world
where you could experience sets from a dozen world class
DJs in just one night. The Space Opening parties felt
at once like a celebration, a reunion, and the start
of summer, but because of the international nature of their
DJ bookings, they also served another purpose. After a winner
(21:00):
at home and indoors, the Space Opening party was one
of the first times many of the clubbers hit the
dance floor each summer, so when they did, they'd step
out and hear songs they'd never heard before for the
first time. In the nineties, hearing new music for the
first time wasn't as simple as pressing a button and
streaming it on your phone. People heard new music at clubs,
(21:23):
and Abitha was notorious for breaking some of the biggest
summer hits, including mine.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
I was fascinated by the journey of a record that's made,
this sort of fun journey that went from a studio
to an ascetate or a white label, into someone's record bag,
into the club.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Labels and musicians would send out a limited number of
records to select groups of DJs that they knew would
be in Abitha that summer.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
You got one of thirty white labels biked to you
by the record label and the piece of paper inside
would say one of our only thirty miles. So if
it was a really good record, not only did you
have that record before anyone else, which was important, you
also had a job to do. You were a part
of the evolution of the story of a record that
(22:13):
was going to be broken that summer. The key though,
was figuring out which ones were the important ones.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So each DJ had to thoughtfully pick and curate the
records they would fly to Ibitha each summer, because if
they played the right song at the right moment, they
could have catapulted to become a worldwide hit.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
If a record was biginn to be through, it would
be big for the entire season. The record that I
always always think of from that first season is Pete
Heller's Big Love Records. I would hear on the space terrace.
(23:01):
I'd come back and they would be hit records because
they were being broken in a Betha.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Space's annual opening parties set the tone for the sound
of each summer. Music would arrive in Abitha on those
limited release tapes at the start of the season be
played to a crowd on the dance floors of the
island's iconic clubs, and by the end of the summer
those songs would become anthems across Abitha. And because people
(23:30):
traveled to Abitha from all around the world, when they
were home at the end of the summer, they'd take
the best songs they'd heard on those dance floors with them,
playing them at parties in Europe, and requesting them in
clubs across America, until the songs that had soundtracked their
summer in Abitha became dance anthems around the world. Abitha
(23:52):
was the epicenter of dance music, and space was right
there at the heart of it. Every city we've explored
so far had its own unique role in the musical
landscape of its day. Some cities became renowned for the
new genres of music that were nurtured in their clubs.
(24:14):
Other clubs provided an inclusive space for people from different backgrounds.
Some birth legendary performers, and others became known for just
one song. But if there's one thing that Abitha became
best known for, it was its DJs.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Certainly, for those first few years, Abitha was the most
important place to break a record or to be as
a DJ, so these DJs were being built internally through
the parties. The notoriety that came from being aligned to
the right party was important.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
If someone could become a good, well respected DJ at
a club in Abitha, a residency there could catapult their
career into one of international legend. One of the DJs
whose career was deeply intertwined with the success of Space
was Carl Cox. Carl is very personable. He's very present
(25:15):
when he plays. He admits so much joy and you
feel it, the crowd feels it.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
He was always a popular DJ, but now you'd have
to call him the legend that is Carl Cox.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He had built a career in Europe as one of
the DJs at the forefront of the British rave music scene,
and his reputation had led Pepe, the owner of Space,
to follow him across Europe to watch his DJ sets.
Pepe saw Carl's potential and after inviting him to Space
to DJ at a few very successful parties, the two
(25:51):
of them formed a musical partnership that would help elevate
Space to the level of a world renowned club.
Speaker 7 (25:58):
He could pull a crowd. He was super charismatic, He
played the right music for that environment, and he understood
dance floor and club culture probably better than any other
DJ then or now really.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
In two thousand and one he began what would become
a fifteen year summer residency at Space.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Carl was very loyal to Space. Pepe Rosalo looked at
Carl like his sort of like prodigal son. Not only
did he treat him like his actual son, he also
recognized how pivotal Carl was to the success of certain nights.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Carl would DJ all around the world throughout the year,
but he would always find his way back home to
Space in the summer.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
Ultimately, he decided that Space was his home. Carl was
like the McLaren driver who never left McLaren.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Carl sets at Space were legendary, and DJ's like him
helped create the sound of each summer. It beat the
gave them the crowds and freedom to do some of
their best work.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Musically. It was just a you foreign experience.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It was all a family, and everyone was there for
one reason. That was to have fun and enjoy great
music of all types.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
But at Space they played songs from all around the world.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
The time is Belgian Neubat, which was I can't describe it.
I suppose you could compare it in a way to
indie rock type stuff way back when.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
So the Belgian Newbat's.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Italian disco some quite well pitched pop records from the eighties.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
There was also disco, house and garage music from the
UK and America.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
A lot of those.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Great original US house and garage tunes have incredible songs.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
About love, All about love, right, so you have C.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
C Rogers Sunday, Joe Smooth, Promised Land All still has It,
Frankie Knuckles Your Love.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Brandon's residency at Space helped catapult Brandon's career.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
We would have to start. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Playing to crowds of thousands of people each summer made
him a better DJ.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
When I look back on it, I think just very
grateful to be part of that that era because it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Was very special.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It was special for the DJs that played there, and
it was just as special for the clubbers who listened
to their sets from the haze of the dance floor.
Here's the journalist Abby Low again.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
There were people who met their partners there and who
had their first you know, transcendental dance floor epiphany there
and ridiculously hed aonistic fiestas that lasted for, you know,
twenty four hours and went from morning tonight and back
to the morning again, and you never really knew kind
of what.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Had hit you.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
To be honest, you would go in and emerge someone
completely different.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Nobody loved Space unchanged. Here's Ralph Moore again.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Behind me are thousands and thousands of records from that time.
To me, a record is a memory of something, as
a key to remind you of an evening. The romance
for dance music should be about having an epiphany around
the people you're with a record, you heard an experience
that you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And you just couldn't have the same experiences that you
had at Space anywhere else. The transcendental morning dance parties,
cheering as planes flew above the crowd, and partying non
stop for twenty two hours. But even the best parties
had to come.
Speaker 7 (29:37):
To an end, and then at eight in the morning,
the lights would go on, the.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
DJ would play their final song, and the clubbers would
look around to find that the party was over.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
I used to think that being at a club till
the lights came on was the most important thing, because
then you'd had the foot experience and you were there
till the end.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Each party had to end so that the next one
could begin. But eventually the people who loved Space walked
into the club for one last dance, knowing the next
time the lights went up, the party.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Would truly be over.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Space became the most awarded club in history, winning the
prestigious title of Best Global Club at the International Dance
Music Awards six times. Why because Space was landscape shaping
a global clubing institution and most simply but truly the
(30:34):
best party in the world. But after twenty seven incredible
years of partying, Space held its final fiesta on a
Sunday in October of twenty sixteen. The least for the
building had expired, and Pepe, who by then was over
eighty years old, decided to close the club.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
I think every one of my friends who cared about
dance music made sure that they were there for that,
some American friends who flew in especially for it. None
of us at the time realized how big of a
deal it was going to be.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Sadly I wasn't able to make it, but I watched
from AFAR online, crying in my sides.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
I think we went in the early afternoon initially, and
the queue to get in was absolutely enormous, already like
snakes around the entire car park.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thousands of people showed up to Space's biggest party yet,
and there were over one hundred DJs at that twenty
two hour party.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
They did their best to book those world class DJs
from the past twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
DJs like Carl Cox, Brandon Block, and David Morales came
back to the island for the Final Fiesta to play
songs that had become Space anthems.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
Most of the DJs that I spoke to who were
playing really wanted to make sure that they were digging
out the records that mattered to them.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That final Fiesta was filled with moments where the DJs
played songs that had become an essential part of the
Space story.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
You would hear like Lovers in the Air. Paul Reynolds
played and all night long and it was just kind of,
(32:34):
you know, giddy inducing. And I remember being in on
the sunset Terrace when Paul Reynolds was playing and was
just surrounded by all of my friends It's such a
cliche to say that it was electric, but genuinely, it
felt like people were surging with energy. You were all
just looking around at each other being like, my god,
this is just so incredibly good.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It felt incredible, but they knew it was the end.
As the night came to a close and the sun
rose outside, everyone left the terrace and went into the
main room.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Because Coxey was playing in the Discotheca and he was
the last DJO to play out the night.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Carl cox was behind the booth with some of the
other DJs and it beat the legends who'd become integral.
Also behind the booth with him was Pepe Rosella, the
owner of Space. As the crowd listened to Carl's final set,
they were swept up by the euphoria and sadness. They
knew that the place they loved, which held so many
(33:42):
of their favorite memories, wasn't going to be there next summer.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
It was this, I don't know, just like this weird
sense of anticipation. Everybody just having such an incredible time,
but also and kept checking their watches, being like, oh no,
it's all going to end at any moment.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The gravity of the moment began to settle in. When Carl,
who'd been playing is set for ten whole hours, picked
up the microphone, the whole crowd looked up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Thank you so much far for again.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
It's for an absolutely fantastic day before.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've never been a same you known.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
The very last record that was played was a record
I'm holding up now, which is Angie Stone I Wish
He Didn't Miss You, which was the perfect record to play.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
The lyrics had always been emotional, but at that final
momentous party, the lyrics held more weight in the club
than ever before.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I'm not really into football, so Space was the equivalent
for me of being behind it a specific team. Space
was part of my sort of identity as a music.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Fan, so hearing that song felt like watching his favorite
team play its final game. It was a mixture of
pride for how far they'd come, nostalgia all the years
he'd spent there, but then also a deep level of
sadness that it was all about to come to an end.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
So the sentiment of it is, is this really the
end of Space? If so, my God, we're going to
miss you.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
They knew it was coming.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It was the final Fiesta, but It wasn't until Pepe
took the mic that it all truly sank in.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Pepe did a little speech saying how people's memories and
love would live inside the walls forever, and it was
just this resounding feeling of it being an end of
an era, even though it was a joyful one.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Abby and her boyfriend were two of the last people
to leave the club when the party ended. They'd seen
the club during the day and during the night, in
the sun and under the stars, but as they walked
around on that final morning, they realized they were seeing
the sun come up after a night at Space for
the very last time.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
We were kind of wandering around.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Lost in the aftermath of the party. There was no
one on the dance floor anymore, just crushed cups, loose glitter,
discarded clothes, and stomped out confetti. As they made their
way out for the final time.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
We found some guy who had taken off his belt
and tied himself to a table and was refusing to leave.
And he was like mid negotiation with a couple of
bouncers who were just very gently trying to coax him
out of the club and just saying, listen, it's time
to go home, mate, and he was having absolutely none
(36:38):
of it. He was beside himself and was just refusing
to leave.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
But it was time to turn down the lights.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
Eventually we found a bouncer who made some quip along
the lines of oh, you know, I would say see
you next year, and then shrugging his shoulders and being
like maybe in the next life. And it was just like, oh,
may come on, what you do you have?
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Space was the mega club that almost never slept on
the island, that revolved around partying, freedom of self, and hedonism.
At Space, people could wake up to dance in the
sunshine or go out late to dance under the stars.
At Space, the party never stopped until it finally did.
(37:26):
Space had really mattered to people. It had become an
extension of their summer cells. It launched careers, broke songs,
and was formative in the creation of day clubbing culture
and after hours partying. Space was more than just a club.
It was a way of life. Here's Brandon Block again,
(37:47):
which given me a.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Life, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
It's a lifetime and it's weird where we sleep to
its weak to my friends and stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
We talked about how old we all remember this. I
remember that, and they said, you start thirty five years ago. Wow,
we this is a lifetime.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So music's got me through my worst times.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Twenty five thirty years ago, I was very nearly not here.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
I suppose the fact that I was able to go
back into the environment that I loved and still play music.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Save me Now.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Brandon lives by the beach in the south of England,
but he thinks about the years he spent djaying on
the Spanish Island all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
It's got me where I am today.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I'm sitting born with by the sea in my little
man shed, and I don't need a lot else. I've
got my computer, I've got my decks here, I've got
my I've got an infant library of music, and I
can tap into any time and just escape.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So many of those songs he escapes into are songs
he played and heard at Space. Space felt like a
dance party in paradise. The club close, but the party
never really ended, not for the people who formed such
visceral core memories during their time there.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
To dj in that place was I can't compare it.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
There was an atmosphere reside on it, and people say,
can you ever replace on the You never replace on Beam.
Doesn't matter where you go in the world, you'll never
find that feeling.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
In the next episode, we're heading to Legos in Nigeria
to visit the Africa Shrine, Felakuti's legendary music venue, nightclub
and political salon to learn more about its revolutionary history
and lasting legacy on West African music. The History of
(39:44):
the World's Greatest Nightclubs is produced by Neon Hum Media
for London Audio and iHeartRadio for London Audio. Our executive
producers are Paris Hilton, Bruce Robertson and Bruce Gersh. The
executive producer for Neon Humm is Jo Nathan Hirsch. Our
producer is Rufiro, Faith Mazarua. Navani Otero and Liz Sanchez
(40:06):
are our associate producers. Our series producer is Crystal Genesis.
Our editor is Stephanie Serrano. Samantha Allison is our production
manager and Alexis Martinez is our production coordinator. The episode
was written by Rufio Mazarua and fact check by Catherine Newhan.
Theme and original music by Asha Ivanovich. Our sound design
(40:30):
engineers are Sam Beer and Josh Han. I'm your host
altra natee and we'll see you next time. On the
history of the world's greatest nightclubs,
Sometimes a chance moment can completely change the trajectory of
your life, like dancing with the right person in a
crowded club, hearing the lyrics that you so desperately needed
to hear, or listening to your favorite song for the
first time. Music often finds us at the exact moment
we needed the most, and when it does, it can
(00:23):
transform our lives. That's what it did for Brandon Block,
a British DJ who went on to do residencies around
the world, get a hit record and become a legend
on the European dan scene.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I've always been into my dance music.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Brandon was born in the late sixties and Spanish childhood
in London. Falling in love with music, Brandon met some
of his best friends going to gigs and club nights
across the city and talking to people who were just
as passionate about music as he was.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very functioned it to graft An area and a time
where it was just incredible the music was available and
it was.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
In the height of disco and jazz, funk and soul,
just lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But he didn't set out to become a DJ. It
was a chance moment in his twenties that transformed music
from being something he loved into becoming his whole life.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I started DJing in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
My memory served me greatment, and it was my local
pub and me and my best may Alli, we were
asked by the owner at the time if we could
go home and get our records because the DJ who
was employed at the time hadn't turned up, and we
said absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He and his best friend Alex had never DJ'ed in public,
but they trusted their musical taste and ran towards the opportunity,
and we went.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Home, bought two big milk crates full of records twelve inches.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Back to the pub, they unloaded their records, played their
favorite songs to a room full of people and work
the crowd into a party.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
They instantly fell in love with DJ.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We had fantastic fun and we ended up being employed
to do the rounds as they say, so we were
asked to go and playing various as the pubs who
blocked that group in West London, and the interests is
true as they say.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Brandon went on to DJ around the UK and then
across Europe, becoming fully immersed in club culture.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Became a table part in my life through the eighties
and the obviously the nineties, but it was worldwide mayhem.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Once Brandon had solidified his place on the London club scene,
he wanted to reach new heights. The place in Europe
to do that was Abitha. In the nineties, Abitha was
rapidly emerging as the party capital of Europe, if not
the world. If you could really make it as a
(02:59):
DJ in Abitha, the there was no telling what heights
your career could ascend to. So Brandon decided to take
a trip to Abitha. He boarded the plane on a dull,
rainy day in London and two hours later he landed
on the hot, sun drenched Spanish island of Abitha.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
When I get off the plane used to get this
overwhelming sort of wow.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's a feeling if you are spiritual in anyone, you'd
get this. There's an energy. Back then, it was like.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You'd be sort of a naturally just getting off the
plane and being it's excitement.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
In Abitha, the air was warmer and the people were friendlier.
Back home in London, it was still rare for clubs
to stay open super late, and rarer still were the
type of summer days that would get people out into
the streets dancing. But in Abitha, the whole island was
a party.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
People stayed up longer, people were partying.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
They wanted to party, they wanted to stay out, and
there was an atmosphere and his.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Site it an atmosphere of hedonism and near constant celebration.
But there was one club on the island that everybody
kept telling him about.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
People spoke about it on the island because it was
a very special place to go.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He decided to go and check it out.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Myself and my friend arrived there at nine in the morning.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
That club he walked into that morning was Space, which
would go on to become the most awarded club in history.
When he stepped in, people were walking around in shorts,
t shirts and light bright summary clothing, surrounded by palm trees,
(04:58):
beach houses and the view of the sea on the horizon.
Space's most devoted clubbers were ready to party as soon
as their morning flights landed in Abitha because Space opened
at eight am and.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Stayed open for twenty two hours.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Nine in the morning going to a pub, you know,
broad sunlight, beautiful open air. But we were there and
it was. There was a lot of people been in
a round and I was just saying, Wow, look, this
is just incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
The carefree feeling emanating from the dance floor made for
an almost otherworldly atmosphere. Behind the DJ booth. He could
see the whole crowd from the elevated stage he stood on.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It looked like a sea of happy people. It was,
I suppose heavenly in a way. We didn't have a
care and no worries. Who were just sarved. You're playing records.
We loved to people who loved the music.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Once he played his first set on the Space terrace,
he didn't want to stop, so he and his DJ
partner Alex convinced the owner of Space to let them
throw a party outside on the terrace every Sunday. After
a couple of months, Sundays at Space blew up. Brandon
had made it in Abitha.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
We created that burst off rounds of an experience Emma
in the road to DJ in that place was a
comet compare it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
From eight am, all through the day and night until
six am the next morning.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Space's terrace was filled.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
With people partying in the sun and then dancing under
the stars, and every couple of minutes something unusual would happen.
In the middle of a song, just before the beat dropped,
the crowd would hear a loud, deafening sound and immediately
look up. Space had been built under a flight path,
(06:48):
and the island was so small that every couple of minutes,
a plane that had just taken off from the airport
would fly over the crowd. The sound was so loud
that it would drown out the muse playing on the
dance floor. But that made those days and nights at
Space even more special. I remember, in fact, shooting a
video there and it was very important to capture one
(07:12):
of those flights coming overhead, just so people would know
when they see the video where I was being.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Out in the open there and silent, you know, having
airplanes literally flying two three thousand feet above your heads.
With that jet, it was like a hair stand up
in your back moment. And that was part of the
Space experience because when the planes flew over.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Everyone's The sound of each plane flying over the terrace
felt like a celebration. More people were coming to the
island to join the party.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
From London.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Audio iHeartRadio and executive producer Paris, Hilton. This is the
History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
A twelve part podcasts.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
About the iconic venues and people that revolutionized how we party.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Some of the.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
World's most legendary nightclubs were known for the unique community
they welcomed, others for the cultural movements they started, and
some for the musicians and DJs they introduced to the world.
The best nightclubs champion new music, transform lives, and provide
an escape from life's pressures. One more thing. This is
(08:32):
the history of some of the world's greatest nightclubs. Not
a ranking of every club in the world. It's an
exploration of the spaces, people and club nights that made
a lasting impact on nightlife and music. Today. I'm your
host Ultranate. I'm a singer, songwriter, musician, and I found
(08:53):
my purpose in club culture. This is Episode ten. Space
in Abia, Spain. Abitha was no ordinary island and Space
was no ordinary club. It was the blueprint for all
day outdoor terrorist parties. It revolutionized the international clubbing scene,
(09:15):
and each summer it transformed the people on its dance floor.
At Space, people could dance from nighttime through daytime and
into nighttime again. I know because I've done it. There
(09:37):
are certain places in the world that seem almost mystical
when people talk about them, cities, islands, and streets with
whole mythology of stories that the people who love them
the most tell with hushed reverence. And Abitha is one
of those. Abby Lowe is a journalist who writes all
about Abitha.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
It's always been a huge melting pot of influences and
different cultures. It represents a particular ideal that's always captured
people's imaginations.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We know it now as the party capital of Europe,
but Abia's folklore began centuries ago.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It was invaded by the Carthaginians, the Romans, and even
pirates at one point, and consequently there were all of
these different influences on the island.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Including the influence of the mainland Spanish people who moved
to the island in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
That was people fleeing the Franco regime and subsequent suppression
in Spain.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
In the sixties, Spain was under the rule of a dictator.
As the country became more fascist and authoritarian, people fled
to Ibitha, but the Spanish weren't the only ones seeking
that sense of freedom.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Back in the sixties, when there was a tourist boom,
it became famous for its influx of hippies and the
Woodstock generation.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Under the repressive dictatorship of the Franco regime, all Spanish
media was censored and any music that hadn't been made
in Spain was forbidden. But when Franco's regime ended in
the mid seventies, a free spirited wave swept across Abitha
as the island became known for its hedonistic bohemian parties.
(11:19):
People from all around the world will go to Abitha
to experience that sense of freedom.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
The fact that it's this very small island, but it's
very beautiful and the beaches are incredible, and so you
feel great when you're there because it's hot and you've
got the sun on your skin, and you're surrounded by
a lot of like minded people, and also an idea
that you can shape yourself however you want to. There
(11:46):
is an essence of non judgment. I think that means
you can be whoever you want to be, and this
idea of freedom really gets beneath your skin and it
becomes an ideal that you can live and I think
that that is quite addictive.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
A lot of the clubs we've spoken about so far
became sanctuaries for people to gather, dance, and experience a
unique sense of freedom. But in Abitha, it wasn't any
one night club, bar or party that did that. It
was the island itself. Abitha was the sanctuary.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
People like the fact that they could go there and
that there were no boundaries that they could explore who
they were, regardless of where they were from, or their sexuality,
or their gender or any of those things. And so
there was this overriding feeling of just being able to
explore who you were in a safe space. And so
there were a lot of freethinkers and nonconformists and visionaries
(12:44):
that were all, for whatever reasons, drawn to this one
particular island.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And one of those visionaries was Pepe Rossello, a charismatic,
music loving man had devoted his life to creating spaces
for people to listen to music, meet like minded people,
and unwind. He'd run jazz clubs, restaurants, and music venues
(13:11):
in Spain during the Franco regime. In spite of all
the limitations. So when the regime ended and ushered in
a new era of freedom and self expression, Pepe saw
an opportunity to open a new club on the island Space.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
He just then created this space that was very much
in his image what a clubbing space should be.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Space was created to fulfill Pepe's vision of what the
perfect club could feel like, a club that reflected Spain's
newfound freedom and paid homage to Ebitha's legacy of free
spirited hedonism.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
It was open to everyone.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
It was a poem for people to explore who they were,
for people to feel more free and to live beyond
the rules that society tells you that you have to
live by.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And one of the rules that Pepe defied was the
norms of when a club should be open. He found
a loophole in the Spanish club licensing laws that allowed
him to open the club at eight am and stay
open for twenty two hours, close the doors at six
am to clean the club, then open up again at
eight am, making Space one of the world's first legal
(14:28):
after hours clubs. It was pretty easy to get lost
in the music rooms and euphoria of Space across those
twenty two hours because stepping into Space felt like stepping
into a whole new world.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
It was so big and there were so many different
rooms and doors.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It was the kind of club where it only took
two wrong turns to get lost, but each diversion could
set them on the path to having an unexpectedly incredible
new experience. Space had a capacity for five thousand people,
spread out across five different rooms. There were rooms dedicated
to dancing, like the Discotheca, which.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Was the main room you could say inside the club,
which was famous for its sound system. It had this big,
booming sound system that lends itself particularly well to really
banging technoe.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Then there was El Salon, a relaxed bar with big
white curtains on its walls and tables for people to
enjoy a drink. In El Clan, the music was loud
enough to dance too, but the volume was quiet enough
for people to talk, laugh and catch up with their friends.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
And then you had the tiny little El Salon, which
was this room where magic just seemed to happen, just
this random collection of people all joined together. So I
was taking a moment to step away from techno and
house and whatever was happening elsewhere. In the club and
just dancing to really feel good shimmering disco, soul funk.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
There were no rules in il Saloon. You could play
whatever you wanted and it would always just be bursting
with joy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
There were also quieter rooms like the Premiere Tage, a
rooftop space with white walls and yellow benches for people
to relax on. There was netting to shield the dancers
from the sun, but it only took a few steps
to the edge for them to look out at the
blue skies, palm trees and sunshine of a Betha.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
And that room was great because it was kind of
a chill out area. The Tempire was always much slower
up there, and it was more of a meeting place
that you would go to just kind of hang out
with people when you needed a rest from the dance floor.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
There was still music, but it was always much.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
More low key, and there was this iconic yellow submarine
that took up pretty much half of the floor that
people would just kind of lounge all over, and you
would always end up sparking up a conversation with a
total random who would be your best friend for the night,
and then you would never see again.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
There was the Terraza, which.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Was smaller, also like an incredible dancing space, but with
a slightly lowered dance floor.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
So you would look up at the DJ.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
There was like a little stage behind with some stairs
that led out in either direction.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And then there was Space's Sunset Terrace, which Brandon talked
about earlier. That venue went on to become legendary. It
was one of my favorite spaces actually, and I was
very blessed to be able to DJ and perform there.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
That used to be the place where there were twenty
two hour parties and people would get off the plane
with their luggage and go straight there for breakfast and
just stay all day. And you would feel this like
enormous boom as the planes went over, which would kind
of shake your ribcage along with the base of whoever
was playing at the time.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
When a Visas summer season began each May, spaces devotees
would do anything to get to Ibitha and go to
Space's opening party.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Then it was the one party that everybody would try
and make sure that they went to.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And one of the clubbers that flew to Ibitha every
year for Space's iconic opening party was the British journalist
Ralph Moore. Ralph spent some of the best nights of
his life in the nightclubs, where he heard so many
of his favorite summer dance anthems for the first time.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
I liked going to the clubs, seeing what kind of
people went to events. You could chat to people in
clubs in a very different way than you could chat
to people at a rock concert or a pop concert,
because people who were going to clubs until three or
four in the morning were inevitably fairly inebriated, so that
inhibitions had come down. So I made a lot of
friends in clubland.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Those new friends opened his eyes to a world where
music could be more than just a hobby. So in
the nineties he moved away from the seaside town he'd
grown up in to work in London as a music
journalist music magazine, and after a couple months on the job,
his boss sent him on a very special assignment to
(19:07):
go and write about a particular Islands night life scene.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Ben Turner rang me and said, I'd like to send
you to a beef next week.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And that is.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
Really where this whole mess started, because I took to
a beef like a duck to water. Frankly, I was
like a sponge. I wanted to experience everything that the
island had to offer, and I wanted to go to
all the parties that I'd heard about.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Once he'd gotten a taste of the island on that
first trip, Ralph couldn't get enough.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
Going to the opening of Space was like the Dance
Music Olympics really for me, the.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Annual Space opening party was legendary.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
By the time you go from December through to June,
if you haven't seen people for six months, really, so
you're gagging to get on the dance floor. You're gagging
to cat chat with people.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And to hear all of the new music that had
been created in the months between Space's closing party back
in October and the opening party.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Each May, on.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
A good night, you could see eight to ten DJs
that you loved. It was incredibly cosmopolitan and the DJ
bookings were international, and that was what made Abitha so
much more important to me, and the DJs that matter
had included David Morales, Carl Cox, John Diguid, Cassius, dannton Aglia.
(20:35):
The bookings were impeccable.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Space was one of the few clubs in the world
where you could experience sets from a dozen world class
DJs in just one night. The Space Opening parties felt
at once like a celebration, a reunion, and the start
of summer, but because of the international nature of their
DJ bookings, they also served another purpose. After a winner
(21:00):
at home and indoors, the Space Opening party was one
of the first times many of the clubbers hit the
dance floor each summer, so when they did, they'd step
out and hear songs they'd never heard before for the
first time. In the nineties, hearing new music for the
first time wasn't as simple as pressing a button and
streaming it on your phone. People heard new music at clubs,
(21:23):
and Abitha was notorious for breaking some of the biggest
summer hits, including mine.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
I was fascinated by the journey of a record that's made,
this sort of fun journey that went from a studio
to an ascetate or a white label, into someone's record bag,
into the club.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Labels and musicians would send out a limited number of
records to select groups of DJs that they knew would
be in Abitha that summer.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
You got one of thirty white labels biked to you
by the record label and the piece of paper inside
would say one of our only thirty miles. So if
it was a really good record, not only did you
have that record before anyone else, which was important, you
also had a job to do. You were a part
of the evolution of the story of a record that
(22:13):
was going to be broken that summer. The key though,
was figuring out which ones were the important ones.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So each DJ had to thoughtfully pick and curate the
records they would fly to Ibitha each summer, because if
they played the right song at the right moment, they
could have catapulted to become a worldwide hit.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
If a record was biginn to be through, it would
be big for the entire season. The record that I
always always think of from that first season is Pete
Heller's Big Love Records. I would hear on the space terrace.
(23:01):
I'd come back and they would be hit records because
they were being broken in a Betha.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Space's annual opening parties set the tone for the sound
of each summer. Music would arrive in Abitha on those
limited release tapes at the start of the season be
played to a crowd on the dance floors of the
island's iconic clubs, and by the end of the summer
those songs would become anthems across Abitha. And because people
(23:30):
traveled to Abitha from all around the world, when they
were home at the end of the summer, they'd take
the best songs they'd heard on those dance floors with them,
playing them at parties in Europe, and requesting them in
clubs across America, until the songs that had soundtracked their
summer in Abitha became dance anthems around the world. Abitha
(23:52):
was the epicenter of dance music, and space was right
there at the heart of it. Every city we've explored
so far had its own unique role in the musical
landscape of its day. Some cities became renowned for the
new genres of music that were nurtured in their clubs.
(24:14):
Other clubs provided an inclusive space for people from different backgrounds.
Some birth legendary performers, and others became known for just
one song. But if there's one thing that Abitha became
best known for, it was its DJs.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Certainly, for those first few years, Abitha was the most
important place to break a record or to be as
a DJ, so these DJs were being built internally through
the parties. The notoriety that came from being aligned to
the right party was important.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
If someone could become a good, well respected DJ at
a club in Abitha, a residency there could catapult their
career into one of international legend. One of the DJs
whose career was deeply intertwined with the success of Space
was Carl Cox. Carl is very personable. He's very present
(25:15):
when he plays. He admits so much joy and you
feel it, the crowd feels it.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
He was always a popular DJ, but now you'd have
to call him the legend that is Carl Cox.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
He had built a career in Europe as one of
the DJs at the forefront of the British rave music scene,
and his reputation had led Pepe, the owner of Space,
to follow him across Europe to watch his DJ sets.
Pepe saw Carl's potential and after inviting him to Space
to DJ at a few very successful parties, the two
(25:51):
of them formed a musical partnership that would help elevate
Space to the level of a world renowned club.
Speaker 7 (25:58):
He could pull a crowd. He was super charismatic, He
played the right music for that environment, and he understood
dance floor and club culture probably better than any other
DJ then or now really.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
In two thousand and one he began what would become
a fifteen year summer residency at Space.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Carl was very loyal to Space. Pepe Rosalo looked at
Carl like his sort of like prodigal son. Not only
did he treat him like his actual son, he also
recognized how pivotal Carl was to the success of certain nights.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Carl would DJ all around the world throughout the year,
but he would always find his way back home to
Space in the summer.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
Ultimately, he decided that Space was his home. Carl was
like the McLaren driver who never left McLaren.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Carl sets at Space were legendary, and DJ's like him
helped create the sound of each summer. It beat the
gave them the crowds and freedom to do some of
their best work.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Musically. It was just a you foreign experience.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It was all a family, and everyone was there for
one reason. That was to have fun and enjoy great
music of all types.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
But at Space they played songs from all around the world.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
The time is Belgian Neubat, which was I can't describe it.
I suppose you could compare it in a way to
indie rock type stuff way back when.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
So the Belgian Newbat's.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Italian disco some quite well pitched pop records from the eighties.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
There was also disco, house and garage music from the
UK and America.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
A lot of those.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Great original US house and garage tunes have incredible songs.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
About love, All about love, right, so you have C.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
C Rogers Sunday, Joe Smooth, Promised Land All still has It,
Frankie Knuckles Your Love.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Brandon's residency at Space helped catapult Brandon's career.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
We would have to start. Man.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Playing to crowds of thousands of people each summer made
him a better DJ.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
When I look back on it, I think just very
grateful to be part of that that era because it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Was very special.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
It was special for the DJs that played there, and
it was just as special for the clubbers who listened
to their sets from the haze of the dance floor.
Here's the journalist Abby Low again.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
There were people who met their partners there and who
had their first you know, transcendental dance floor epiphany there
and ridiculously hed aonistic fiestas that lasted for, you know,
twenty four hours and went from morning tonight and back
to the morning again, and you never really knew kind
of what.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Had hit you.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
To be honest, you would go in and emerge someone
completely different.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Nobody loved Space unchanged. Here's Ralph Moore again.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Behind me are thousands and thousands of records from that time.
To me, a record is a memory of something, as
a key to remind you of an evening. The romance
for dance music should be about having an epiphany around
the people you're with a record, you heard an experience
that you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And you just couldn't have the same experiences that you
had at Space anywhere else. The transcendental morning dance parties,
cheering as planes flew above the crowd, and partying non
stop for twenty two hours. But even the best parties
had to come.
Speaker 7 (29:37):
To an end, and then at eight in the morning,
the lights would go on, the.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
DJ would play their final song, and the clubbers would
look around to find that the party was over.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
I used to think that being at a club till
the lights came on was the most important thing, because
then you'd had the foot experience and you were there
till the end.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Each party had to end so that the next one
could begin. But eventually the people who loved Space walked
into the club for one last dance, knowing the next
time the lights went up, the party.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Would truly be over.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Space became the most awarded club in history, winning the
prestigious title of Best Global Club at the International Dance
Music Awards six times. Why because Space was landscape shaping
a global clubing institution and most simply but truly the
(30:34):
best party in the world. But after twenty seven incredible
years of partying, Space held its final fiesta on a
Sunday in October of twenty sixteen. The least for the
building had expired, and Pepe, who by then was over
eighty years old, decided to close the club.
Speaker 7 (30:56):
I think every one of my friends who cared about
dance music made sure that they were there for that,
some American friends who flew in especially for it. None
of us at the time realized how big of a
deal it was going to be.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Sadly I wasn't able to make it, but I watched
from AFAR online, crying in my sides.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
I think we went in the early afternoon initially, and
the queue to get in was absolutely enormous, already like
snakes around the entire car park.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thousands of people showed up to Space's biggest party yet,
and there were over one hundred DJs at that twenty
two hour party.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
They did their best to book those world class DJs
from the past twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
DJs like Carl Cox, Brandon Block, and David Morales came
back to the island for the Final Fiesta to play
songs that had become Space anthems.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
Most of the DJs that I spoke to who were
playing really wanted to make sure that they were digging
out the records that mattered to them.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That final Fiesta was filled with moments where the DJs
played songs that had become an essential part of the
Space story.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
You would hear like Lovers in the Air. Paul Reynolds
played and all night long and it was just kind of,
(32:34):
you know, giddy inducing. And I remember being in on
the sunset Terrace when Paul Reynolds was playing and was
just surrounded by all of my friends It's such a
cliche to say that it was electric, but genuinely, it
felt like people were surging with energy. You were all
just looking around at each other being like, my god,
this is just so incredibly good.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It felt incredible, but they knew it was the end.
As the night came to a close and the sun
rose outside, everyone left the terrace and went into the
main room.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Because Coxey was playing in the Discotheca and he was
the last DJO to play out the night.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Carl cox was behind the booth with some of the
other DJs and it beat the legends who'd become integral.
Also behind the booth with him was Pepe Rosella, the
owner of Space. As the crowd listened to Carl's final set,
they were swept up by the euphoria and sadness. They
knew that the place they loved, which held so many
(33:42):
of their favorite memories, wasn't going to be there next summer.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
It was this, I don't know, just like this weird
sense of anticipation. Everybody just having such an incredible time,
but also and kept checking their watches, being like, oh no,
it's all going to end at any moment.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The gravity of the moment began to settle in. When Carl,
who'd been playing is set for ten whole hours, picked
up the microphone, the whole crowd looked up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Thank you so much far for again.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
It's for an absolutely fantastic day before.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've never been a same you known.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
The very last record that was played was a record
I'm holding up now, which is Angie Stone I Wish
He Didn't Miss You, which was the perfect record to play.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
The lyrics had always been emotional, but at that final
momentous party, the lyrics held more weight in the club
than ever before.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I'm not really into football, so Space was the equivalent
for me of being behind it a specific team. Space
was part of my sort of identity as a music.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Fan, so hearing that song felt like watching his favorite
team play its final game. It was a mixture of
pride for how far they'd come, nostalgia all the years
he'd spent there, but then also a deep level of
sadness that it was all about to come to an end.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
So the sentiment of it is, is this really the
end of Space? If so, my God, we're going to
miss you.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
They knew it was coming.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It was the final Fiesta, but It wasn't until Pepe
took the mic that it all truly sank in.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Pepe did a little speech saying how people's memories and
love would live inside the walls forever, and it was
just this resounding feeling of it being an end of
an era, even though it was a joyful one.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Abby and her boyfriend were two of the last people
to leave the club when the party ended. They'd seen
the club during the day and during the night, in
the sun and under the stars, but as they walked
around on that final morning, they realized they were seeing
the sun come up after a night at Space for
the very last time.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
We were kind of wandering around.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Lost in the aftermath of the party. There was no
one on the dance floor anymore, just crushed cups, loose glitter,
discarded clothes, and stomped out confetti. As they made their
way out for the final time.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
We found some guy who had taken off his belt
and tied himself to a table and was refusing to leave.
And he was like mid negotiation with a couple of
bouncers who were just very gently trying to coax him
out of the club and just saying, listen, it's time
to go home, mate, and he was having absolutely none
(36:38):
of it. He was beside himself and was just refusing
to leave.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
But it was time to turn down the lights.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
Eventually we found a bouncer who made some quip along
the lines of oh, you know, I would say see
you next year, and then shrugging his shoulders and being
like maybe in the next life. And it was just like, oh,
may come on, what you do you have?
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Space was the mega club that almost never slept on
the island, that revolved around partying, freedom of self, and hedonism.
At Space, people could wake up to dance in the
sunshine or go out late to dance under the stars.
At Space, the party never stopped until it finally did.
(37:26):
Space had really mattered to people. It had become an
extension of their summer cells. It launched careers, broke songs,
and was formative in the creation of day clubbing culture
and after hours partying. Space was more than just a club.
It was a way of life. Here's Brandon Block again,
(37:47):
which given me a.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Life, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
It's a lifetime and it's weird where we sleep to
its weak to my friends and stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
We talked about how old we all remember this. I
remember that, and they said, you start thirty five years ago. Wow,
we this is a lifetime.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So music's got me through my worst times.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Twenty five thirty years ago, I was very nearly not here.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
I suppose the fact that I was able to go
back into the environment that I loved and still play music.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Save me Now.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Brandon lives by the beach in the south of England,
but he thinks about the years he spent djaying on
the Spanish Island all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
It's got me where I am today.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I'm sitting born with by the sea in my little
man shed, and I don't need a lot else. I've
got my computer, I've got my decks here, I've got
my I've got an infant library of music, and I
can tap into any time and just escape.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So many of those songs he escapes into are songs
he played and heard at Space. Space felt like a
dance party in paradise. The club close, but the party
never really ended, not for the people who formed such
visceral core memories during their time there.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
To dj in that place was I can't compare it.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
There was an atmosphere reside on it, and people say,
can you ever replace on the You never replace on Beam.
Doesn't matter where you go in the world, you'll never
find that feeling.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
In the next episode, we're heading to Legos in Nigeria
to visit the Africa Shrine, Felakuti's legendary music venue, nightclub
and political salon to learn more about its revolutionary history
and lasting legacy on West African music. The History of
(39:44):
the World's Greatest Nightclubs is produced by Neon Hum Media
for London Audio and iHeartRadio for London Audio. Our executive
producers are Paris Hilton, Bruce Robertson and Bruce Gersh. The
executive producer for Neon Humm is Jo Nathan Hirsch. Our
producer is Rufiro, Faith Mazarua. Navani Otero and Liz Sanchez
(40:06):
are our associate producers. Our series producer is Crystal Genesis.
Our editor is Stephanie Serrano. Samantha Allison is our production
manager and Alexis Martinez is our production coordinator. The episode
was written by Rufio Mazarua and fact check by Catherine Newhan.
Theme and original music by Asha Ivanovich. Our sound design
(40:30):
engineers are Sam Beer and Josh Han. I'm your host
altra natee and we'll see you next time. On the
history of the world's greatest nightclubs,
Host
Ultra Naté
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