It’s been the talk of the town since last year when the construction started and the first ever Hard Rock Hotel in Europe was built. Five star luxury, innovative design combined with a legendary Rock and Roll brand, what’s not to love? Well, there’s been a fair bit of hostility towards the ‘new style ‘luxury establishments being built in the area in recent years, with those claiming the new ‘exclusive’ sites are taking away from the ‘real’ essence of Ibiza.
The Hard Rock Hotel is part owned by Ushuaia owners and while the musical playground that is Ushuaia closes its doors every Friday, the Hard Rock Hotel has created their own weekly concert night in its place. ‘This is Hard Rock’ is the weekly residency concert night and last Friday the 13th June was the opening night with none other than Chic front man, Nile Rogers. It was a night we at Ibiza Disco Ticket were looking forward to. Apart from Ibiza Rocks over in San Antonio there’s not much else around that plays anything other than dance music so we were looking forward to a musical change.
We walked into the venue around 8pm and found the set up not too dissimilar to Ushuaia with a big concert style stage, huge dance floor and two big VIP areas. It was pretty quiet at this stage of the night with most people choosing to sit down on the edge of the VIP area whilst a small crowd gathered at the front, dancing to disco tunes being played by the the first DJ of the night, Paul Reynolds. The sun was out and with a vodka lemon in hand it was enjoyable enough listening to classic anthems ‘Love Sensation’ and a bit of Luther Vandross, ‘All My Love’.
There was a nice, laid back vibe going on with families in the venue, people eating at the snack bar and enjoying the sunshine. Then at 8.30pm, the presenter of the evening came on stage to welcome the guests to the first ever Hard Rock Hotel in Europe. He was joined on stage by all the top guys from Ushuaia and Hard Rock as well as Nile Rogers. At this point most of the people in the venue had gathered to the front to watch the group on stage put on their hard hats and smash up a very nice guitar each to commemorate the opening. The presenter then sang a rendition of PharrelL Williams’ ‘Happy’ – a song that just keeps on giving and people keep on singing.
Next up was Masters at Work on the decks who picked the tempo up a bit with some commercial, old-school house music and after playing a few classics in the form of Despina’s ‘Sugar Daddy’ and Cystal Waters’ ‘Gypsey Girl’, it had got us in the party mood. As Masters of Work finished their set around 11.30 it was time for the main act of the night. At this point the venue was pretty full but with such a big stage even the people at the back would have had a decent enough view. We made our way to the front and as the suspense and excitement was built up among the crowd, Nile Rogers was introduced over Prince’s ‘I wanna be your lover’. It was show time!
To a thunderous applause, Nile Rogers announced Sister Sledge was also in the house and as the rest of the band and dancers joined him on stage the the show started off with ‘Everybody Dance’. ‘I’m Coming Out’ followed ‘I want your love’ and ‘Dance Dance Dance’. At this point the crowd around us were chanting along to every word and the singing from the stage was so powerful and flawless as they belted out every number. Everyone song was familiar and the tracks were getting better and better with ‘I wonder why’ and ‘We are Family’ which made all the girls on the dance floor huddle together and sing out ‘I got all my sisters with me’. ‘Upside Down’ and ‘Like a virgin’ followed before a tribute to Nile Rogers’ ex partner ‘Bernard Edwards’ was made to ‘Thinking of you’.
The singing trio and band didn’t draw breath and belted out Pharrell’s ‘Lucky’, David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and finally once Nile Rogers had introduced all of the original Chic band members on stage, ‘Freak Out’. There was a real magic in the air, the magic of proper live music. By the end of the show we felt exhausted from all the dancing and singing but we would have given anything for them to do it all all over again.
For those haters out there complaining about Ibiza not being ‘what it used to be’, that the flash, five star hotels are ruining the essence of Ibiza then they need to remember that live music is where it all began. We are super excited about Fridays at the Hard Rock. The best booking for us is UB40 on the 27th June but don’t miss Neneh Cherry this week, Ellie Goulding, Snoop Dog, Robin Thicke, Icona Pop, Jason Derulo and many more this summer at This is Hard Rock at the Hard Rock Hotel in Playa D’en Bossa.
