We all know the story don't we? It goes a little something like this. It's the Summer of 1987, right, and there's these four blokes from South London; proper music heads the lot of them. You want names? Let's just call them Paul, Nicky, Danny and Johnny. Anyway, they're out on this little Spanish island aren't they? Paul's been before - he's got a mate who's working there, Trevor - and he's decided to fly out for a few weeks to celebrate his 26th birthday.
Paul saw it like this: "I've always been a sharing person. When
I find something I love I want to share it with other people; a record, a place, whatever.
And that's what this island's about. Someone comes and then they bring back a couple of
friends who bring back a couple of friends and so on."
The island's not particularly well-known, certainly not as packed-out as the tourist traps
of, say, Benidorm or Majorca. But Paul's always liked it.
It's got a cool vibe, part
hippy-trippy and part jet set rich and famous, and, besides, there's this DJ - a Spanish
geezer called Alfredo - who plays all kinds of different music, mixing Farley Jackmaster
Funk with The Cure or LL Cool J with some old Woodentops record. It's much better than the
pretentious, exclusive, trendy bollocks of the London club scene.
So anyway, the point is that one night they're down at this after hours club that kicks off
around three or four in the morning and runs through to midday - a wicked party venue just
set back from the road between the island's two main towns - and they decide to take this
new drug that's knocking about. Of course, the drug is not new as such - it's been a mainstay
of the gay scene in Chicago and New York since the early 80s
- but it's new to our four heroes. So they pop their pills one night back in the summer of
1987 and ...and what?
Hold on a second. Let's just fill in a few blanks. The Paul was Paul Oakenfold (with his mates Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker and Trevor Fung), the club was Amnesia, the island was Ibiza and the drug ecstasy. So the myth of Ibiza had begun. So the 'Summer Of Love' followed a year later. So acid house was born.
So British clubland was irrevocably repackaged and revitalised. So British popular culture underwent its greatest upheaval since the kids tore out their cinema seats watching Bill Haley's 'Rock Around The Clock'. So that's what. So a lot.