Pete Tong: still spinning his way up

jonny68

Pete Tong: still spinning his way up
By LEE COAN - More by this author » Last updated at 17:37pm on 20th July 2007

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At 20k a gig he's the world's richest DJ, still the biggest name in Ibiza after three decades - and so celebrated he's got cockney rhyming slang status. Lee Coan elbowed past Mick and Jade Jagger to ask how he spun his way to fortune

We're in Ibiza superclub Pacha and, at 4.40am, the music is so loud you can feel every beat reverberate through your fillings.

Beside me stands Mick Jagger, his stunning daughter Jade, and a 6ft model wearing a thong and not much else.

Tonight, however, only a few people stop to look at the Rolling Stone.

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Pete Tong is the most highly paid dj and the biggest name in Ibiza
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Instead, all attention is on the stage, where Britain's biggest DJ, Pete Tong, is about to headline the most glamorous party of the year – Pure Pacha's opening bash.

As Mick Jagger flees to the VIP section, a roar goes up, there's a surge towards the dancefloor, and with the beat of a digitised drum, Tong sends 3,500 people raving mad.

"The opening night of Pure Pacha is like an FA Cup final," Tong says after his set, which kicks off the three-month summer season of Pure Pacha, often hailed as the best club in Ibiza.

"People have flown from every corner of the world to be here and I've spent 12 months preparing my set.

"I've been DJing for 30 years, but the opening night at Pacha still makes me nervous."

As I watch him swig his beer, he's clearly still on a nervous high.

This is, after all, the man who has DJed to 100 million people, is worth an estimated £20 million, and still commands £20,000 for a night on the decks.

"But it's never been my thing to play to the highest payer," he says.

"I just want to be in the hottest club."

His instinct for the hottest club has rarely been off.

For two decades, Tong has been present at every stage of the evolution of dance music in Britain and Ibiza.

He has become so iconic that his name is Cockney rhyming slang for "wrong", and a 2004 comedy film about a DJ starring Paul Kaye had the title It's All Gone Pete Tong.

And while most people think of dance music as being a Nineties phenomenon, Tong has been DJing in Britain and Ibiza since 1986.

"The rave scene in the Eighties was different," he says.

"It was a group of us having fun, trying our luck and letting our hair down. Now it's big business, it's more of a VIP scene."

And tonight we have word that Kate Moss and Pete Doherty have flown in to be here, joining the Jaggers, Lily Allen and Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules on the guest list.

Meanwhile, the ordinary punters have queued for hours in the streets of Ibiza town to buy tickets costing £40.

"The cash involved is pretty mad," says Tong.

"By most people's standards I get an astronomical fee.

"You can never justify the money, especially when people talk about the six-figure sums that DJs were being paid in the Nineties."

Tong spends the money wisely, and owns several properties around the world, including a villa in the Ibizan hills, which he shares with his second wife, Brazilian model Carolina Acosta, who accompanies him tonight in the DJ booth.

"I do have one crippling vice, though: private jets," he says.

"The luxury is you get through the airport quicker.

"Private jets aren't even comfortable – that surprises everyone. But you're not set to a time schedule.

"If someone wants to fly me somewhere I'll always try to negotiate a jet, but I'll often end up paying for a large proportion of it myself.

"And if I can't do it, I'll go EasyJet – they're the next quickest thing through the airports.

"Whenever I'm going away somewhere, my kids [he has four, aged from one year to 17] ask, “EasyJet or private jet?”"

Throughout the evening in Pure Pacha, Tong is accompanied by his "fixer", Simeon, who ensures the DJ and his wife have a bottle of Jack Daniel's beside them, and that whenever Tong runs low on £15-a-bottle Sol beer, a fresh one appears.

"I don't get much sleep during the summer – July and August are insane.

"My family are out here too then, so you want to spend the day with them, not sleeping. I'll get an hour “disco nap” at about midnight on a Friday, before I head to the club, but that's it.

You have to keep on partying, otherwise you miss the tunes other DJs are playing.

In an 18-week season at Pacha, I'll probably spend eight weeks solid in Ibiza, during which time I'll be going out to other clubs as much as I can.

"I do still have my moments of drunken carnage – it's hard not to in this job. The only thing to remember is that you have to be extremely well-behaved before and during your gig."

Many of the crowd in Pacha seem lively to say the least – and throughout my visit, drugs are visibly present.

"I don't mind if the crowd are high," says Tong.

"But to be honest that's more likely to happen in England than Ibiza.

"Out here, people come because of the music not the drugs. Ibiza is the only place where people come to see you."

This is an understatement. Here the girls throw themselves at Tong with an insistence that makes the groupies who pursued Seventies' rock stars look tame.

In Pure Pacha, the club's professional dancers vie to catch his eye throughout the night, and two Spanish girls clad in cowboy hats and hot pants on the dancefloor try to grab Tong's attention by kissing and fondling one another in front of him.

The happily married Tong ignores them – easy to do with his formidable wife on his arm – but it can be hard.

"It can be pretty full on," he says.

"We can sit down and have a beer like this now but tomorrow, when the clubbers arrive for the weekend, it'll be hairy and I could get mobbed.

"Be ready to save me! Being a DJ might be the best job in the world, but I guess Brad Pitt has fun, too."

Tong, with his Radio 1 show, his former record label FFRR, which he sold four years ago for £12 million, and his 21 years working as an A&R for London Records, is no mere DJ.

After our night at Pacha, he's generous enough to show me what DJs do to earn such enormous amounts by letting me behind the decks of his residency at daytime club, Café Mambo – a favoured haunt of Fearne Cotton, Jo Whiley and Vernon Kay. For a start, he rarely uses vinyl any more. "It's hot, records can melt in Ibiza," he says as I stare at his needleless decks.

"Think about it: MP3s have probably changed your life – of course they are going to change a DJ's life, too."

Tong now uses computer software to mix the music.

In fact, he could DJ with just his finger on a mouse, but he plugs a traditional mixing unit into his USB port "just to keep my hands busy". It is easy to get to grips with, but standing in front of the decks at Café Mambo with Tong and watching my first selection be greeted with complete indifference, it's obvious what is the real trick to modern DJing.

You need an affinity with the crowd – and that takes years to forge.

"The secret is knowing what record is going to drive a crowd of lunatics over the edge, and when to play it," says Tong, pointing to a different tune in the playlist.

The atmosphere is visibly lifted as it comes on. "Turn it up, Tongy!" screams a Cornish girl at the front of the room.

"I've been doing this out here for so many years, but I don't feel too old," says the 46-year-old as we leave Café Mambo.

Two years ago, dance music bible DJ Magazine made a vicious and personal attack on Tong, calling him an "old codger".But Tong is adamant that he is still as fresh as any younger contender.

"All my records are boxed up in storage, so I only play new material and that keeps me fresh – I hope," he says.

"I have two scouts who listen out for new music for me, and I get 100 tracks sent to my email inbox every day.

"I look at Ibiza as a business and like any business you're going to have peaks and troughs.

"The fact that Ibiza is still going strong is a testament to the people involved.

"You've got to give credit to everyone on the island, from the entertainment side to the environmental.

"We could have destroyed this place, but it's still here – and so are a select few of us."

I try to joke that it could have all gone "Pete Tong", but my gag bombs worse than my DJing.

It is now almost 24 hours since my day with Tong began, so I guess I can be forgiven that one. Where's Mick Jagger? He'd have laughed...

Pete Tong will be on the island for part of Radio 1's Ibiza Weekend, August 10–12; he also plays at Pure Pacha each Friday until September 28



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=469784&in_page_id=1889

jonny68

Carl Cox would still be the biggest name in dance music along with Sasha.

I actually met Pete Tong briefly before when he played an an MTV party in Dublin and unlike some some DJ's who have a massive chip on their shoulder after they have made it big Tong was friendly and courteous which i found to be really cool that he still has time for his fans who made him what he is today, Carl Cox is the same an absolute gentleman.

Madness though 20k a gig for spinning a few records in a club, makes you wonder doesn't it, some people would be happy with that a YEAR anyway good luck to Pete Tong i always liked him even when others slated him,seen him a few weeks ago at the Beach Party ands he was rocking as usual.

It's crazy sh*t thesedays with the amount of money involved, when you think of the halcyon days of Acid House and Warehouse Raves,i don't think anyone would've predicted the scene would become as big as it has.

Riesen_Meal

I dont think he's getting 20K sterling a gig, them days are well gone and he's always madoutofit at his gigs, can barely string mixes together, surely Tiesto is the highest paid muppet nowadays?

Cant diss what he's done for Dance music with the essential mix though, I think its safe to say we'd be lost without it and wouldnt hear a lot of new music....

dubmick

Fieldog wrote:

he's always madoutofit at his gigs, can barely string mixes together

I've never seen him 'madoutofit' at a gig

jonny68

dubmick wrote:

I've never seen him 'madoutofit' at a gig

No neither have i as it goes and ive seen him a few times, and his mixing has always been top notch too.

Agree about the essential Mix though,some amazing mixes over the years,while on the subject does anyone have that link which contained every single essential mix from day one,it was on here before but there must have been thousands downloading as i could only download a few.

shanahap

I know you can get them from this site
http://www.freshlymixed.com
but you have to pay a small subscription fee (e.g for one month's access it is 5USD)

All the tracklistings are at
http://www.essentialmix.nu with a few reviews there as well.

jonny68 wrote:

No neither have i as it goes and ive seen him a few times, and his mixing has always been top notch too.

Agree about the essential Mix though,some amazing mixes over the years,while on the subject does anyone have that link which contained every single essential mix from day one,it was on here before but there must have been thousands downloading as i could only download a few.

jonny68

shanahap wrote:

I know you can get them from this site
http://www.freshlymixed.com
but you have to pay a small subscription fee (e.g for one month's access it is 5USD)

All the tracklistings are at
http://www.essentialmix.nu with a few reviews there as well.

5 dollars is fu*k all cheers for that mate

Riesen_Meal

dubmick wrote:

I've never seen him 'madoutofit' at a gig

Creamfields Liverpool 01 - So funny you could see his jaw gurning on the big screen and the mixes were waaaaay out

MTV Party Redbox 99 - He was like a bag of frogs at this, and all over the place aswell

Vodafone private party back in 02/03 at the Kitchen (yes, after it was shutdown!) - He was out of his neck

So yip, Ive personally seen him wired a few times!

dubmick

Fieldog wrote:

MTV Party Redbox 99 - He was like a bag of frogs at this, and all over the place aswell

that the one with Carl Cox? I was at that and I don't think he was doing anything. I really don't think he does drugs.

jonny68

Fieldog wrote:

Creamfields Liverpool 01 - So funny you could see his jaw gurning on the big screen and the mixes were waaaaay out

MTV Party Redbox 99 - He was like a bag of frogs at this, and all over the place aswell

Vodafone private party back in 02/03 at the Kitchen (yes, after it was shutdown!) - He was out of his neck

So yip, Ive personally seen him wired a few times!

I was at that MTV party in the Red Box/POD that nite, tried to chat up the lovely June Sarpong if Tong was madoutofit then i don't remember namely because i was madoutofit myself:D

jonny68

dubmick wrote:

that the one with Carl Cox? I was at that and I don't think he was doing anything. I really don't think he does drugs.

Come now man while i don't think he's as much a caner as say the likes of Sven Vath or Brandon Block there can be no denying that Tong like the vast majority of DJ's does indulge from time to time.;)

scitpo

Pete Tong is a nothing dj. No personal style or anything He brings nothig to the table. Why even waste the 1s and 0s on this board posting up about him.

jonny68

scitpo wrote:

Pete Tong is a nothing dj. No personal style or anything He brings nothig to the table. Why even waste the 1s and 0s on this board posting up about him.

Yes of course he got to where he is today by pure luck didn't he :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: