The finca (country house) that would become the Amnesia nightclub was sold in April 1970 by the Planells family, who had inhabited the house for five generations, to a widow from an aristocratic background. In May 1976, the widow signed a five-year lease on the house to Antonio Escohotado, a Madrid-born philosopher who had arrived on the island five years earlier to start a new life.
Ibiza, which had become a destination for tourism in the 1950s, was in the 1970s a hive of counterculture and idealists. Escohotado sought to turn the old farmhouse into a place for hippie bands and culture. He launched a discotheque named El taller del olvido ("The Workshop of Forgetfulness"). He wanted to express that when people go out at night it is to forget their problems and indulge in an unknown world far away from ordinary routine. However, co-founder Manolo Sáenz de Heredia proposed the Greek word Amnesia. Initially, admission was cheap, 25 pesetas (equivalent to 1.74 EUR now) including one soda or beer. There were no access restrictions. Escohotado was not interested in the commercial operation and left after 8 months. The dance floor was in the open air and sessions lasted until 12 or 1 pm.[5]
In 1978, Ginés Sánchez, a manufacturer from Madrid, took over Amnesia. Unexpected closings alternated with summers with capacity crowds in competition with the other discothèques, such as Ku (now Privilege Ibiza), Pacha, Glory's, and Lola's.
In the 1980s, Prontxio Izaguirre took over Amnesia, changing its theme to dance music, a mix between pop and funk, and hip hop. Freestyle mixing was permitted, house was about to take over, and Balearic Beat was invented by DJs such as Alfredo Fiorito.[6] In 1984, the drug of choice at Amnesia was mescaline from Valencia.[5] In the late 1980s, the routine circuit was:
On 22 June 1991, Amnesia reopened under MFC management. The clubs of Ibiza began to gain international fame. In the mid-1990s, Ezna Sands brought UK promoters and labels, including Joseph Mullen, onto the Balearic Island and into Amnesia. The island, once merely a destination for holidaymakers aged 18 to 30, became a mecca for dance music enthusiasts. While earlier, each club had a personality, now the parties depended on the theme or the hired DJ. In July 1995, techno parties were brought from Germany.[5]
The club expanded, increasing its bars from four to 16, and growing from a staff of 30 to a summer workforce of more than 200, including waiters, go-go dancers, security, and administration staff. As of 2003, the venue had a capacity of 5,000 people and is divided into two areas: Main Room and Terrace.[4]
Since 2005, Amnesia has been run by the Liverpool nightclub Cream, created and founded by Joseph Mullen in 1995. Mullen sold the brand to Cream UK for £4.8 million and retired from the music industry.
Above & Beyond are an electronic music group consisting of English DJs Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Finnish DJ Paavo Siljamäki. Formed in 2000, they are the owners of London-based electronic dance music labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, and also host a weekly radio show titled Group Therapy Radio. The trio has been consistently ranked among DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs Poll, having placed at No. 6 in 2007, No. 4 in 2008 & 2009, No. 5 in 2010 & 2011, No. 51 in 2018, No. 22 in 2019, No. 19 in 2020, No. 21 in 2021, and most recently No. 30 in 2022.
Fabric is a nightclub in Farringdon, London, England. Founded in 1999 on Charterhouse Street opposite Smithfield Market, the club was voted World Number 1 Club in DJ Magazine's "Top 100 Clubs Poll" in 2007 and 2008 and ranked World Number 2 in 2009, 2010 and 2017.
DJ Magazine is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Latin America, China, South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Russia, Belarus, and the Netherlands.
Pierre David Guetta is a French DJ and music producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 14 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll. In 2013, Billboard crowned "When Love Takes Over" as the number one dance-pop collaboration of all time.
Berghain is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain in Berlin, and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station. Founded in 2004 by friends Norbert Thormann and Michael Teufele, it has since become one of the world's most famous clubs, and has been called the "world capital of techno."
A State of Trance is a Dutch trance radio show hosted by Armin van Buuren and co-producer Ruben de Ronde that first aired in June 2001. Currently, it is aired weekly every Thursday at 20:00 (CET) and 14:00 (EST). As of January 2021, ASOT is broadcast to more than 150 stations in 84 countries, and its weekly listener count surpassed 40 million.
The Winter Music Conference (WMC) is a week-long electronic music conference, held every March in Miami Beach, Florida, United States since 1985. It is also known as the premiere platform for electronic dance music. The conference brings together professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives (A&R), producers, promoters, radio and the media for seminars and panel discussions. Thousands of attendees attend the WMC each year from around the world.
Space is a superclub on the island of Ibiza, Spain from 1986 to 2016, owned by STANCA. In 2022 the brand opened a bar near Cafe Mambo. They sometimes run popup events around the world. But don't have a fixed club at the time of writing in 2023.
Pacha Group is a Spanish holding company specializing in the leisure, entertainment and hospitality businesses. It was founded in 1966 by Ricardo Urgell.
The International Dance Music Awards or IDMAs was an annual awards ceremony held in Miami Beach, Florida, United States as a major part of the Winter Music Conference. The awards were held every year from 1985 to 2020, except for 2017, when the conference was in the process of being purchased by Miami Music Week.
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are a Belgian–Greek DJ duo composed of brothers Dimitri Thivaios and Michael Thivaios. They were ranked No. 1 on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list in 2015 and 2019, and were ranked No. 2 in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020.
Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel is a brand belonging to the Spanish Palladium Hotel Group. The brand was founded in 2011 after the meeting of Abel Matutes and Yann Pissenem. The brand includes 2 hotels: the first one is called The Ushuaïa Club and was opened in 2011 on the Balearic island of Ibiza. The second hotel, called The Ushuaïa Tower, opened a year later in 2012. Both hotels are located in Platja d'en Bossa, Ibiza.
↑ Brewster, Bill; Broughton, Frank (2014). Last night a DJ saved my life: the history of the disc jockey (Updated and reviseded.). Grove Press. p.380. ISBN9780802146106.
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