Pacha is most
famous for its Balearic incarnation that has seen thousands of clubbers
gurning the night away since the late 60’s at its home in Ibiza Town.
Pacha Ibiza is probably the most well respected club on the White Isle and
is known for its amazing ambience and ability to maintain a feeling of
intimacy even within a club that holds over three thousand people.
With its distinctive ‘cherry’ logo, Pacha has established itself as
one of the worlds leading club brands and sits comfortably up there with
the ministry of Sound as a multi million pound empire. They have run
well-established venues throughout Europe for many years (a total of
fifteen clubs!), all of which promise to capture the unique atmosphere of
their Balearic motherland.
It was therefore met with scepticism when Pacha announced they were to
open a club in an abandoned Ballroom next to Victoria Station in London.
Surely this was a poor attempt to cash in on the Pacha brand with a small,
tacky venue in a dingy corner of the City of Westminster? Surely such a
location could not compare to the likes of Budapest, Switzerland and
Evissa? Well, the Wax Music crew decided to find out…
Hedkandi, a UK label that has flourished in a decaying scene hosts
Pacha’s busiest nights. Due to its popularity, the night is guaranteed
to sell out and so we decided to head to the venue in good time to beat
the queues. Obviously this wasn’t early enough as the expanse of eager
clubbers almost stretched around the building and back again. Still, as
long as we made it in, we didn’t mind how long the wait was – just as
long as they don’t spot Matt’s hoody, we’ll be okay.
Nearly two hours later we make it past the unusually friendly bouncers and
into the club, which is heaving with beautiful young things. We head to
the bar, which appears to be staffed entirely by good-looking Spanish
people, and for a moment I forget that I’m not in Ibiza. Drag queens on
stilts wander past me as I finally manage to order a bottle of San Miguel
(I really cant be in London, surely!) and head towards the edge of the
dance floor. Mark Doyle plays an excellent set of disco house with all the
anthems including The Dub Katz ‘Shine On Me’ and Groove Armarda’s
‘Easy’. He even whacks on an absolute salsoul classic from Change
(‘Angel In My Pocket’, one of my all time favourite tracks) that works
incredibly well with the funky house even though the song is nearly
twenty-five years old.
Tune
after tune pours out the impressively crisp speakers and gradually the
dance-floor-posers are replaced by funk-fired-pill-heads as the music gets
progressively progressive. Tantalising snippets of Milk & Sugars
‘Let The Sunshine In’ tease the crowd and at one point a tune comes on
that could almost be classed as UK garage which puts the clubs capable
bass bins to the test. Before we know it, four hours on the dance floor
have passed and its time to embark on the nightmare journey back to
reality.
Article
by Jamie Izzard
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