The world's first superclub promoter, one of the Ibiza Famous 4, Nicky Holloway tells all...
As I recall, you started your DJ skills by waiting for your mum to go to work so you could borrow her hi-fi and hook it up to yours where you would practice your early sets.
"I was the original bedroom DJ, I invented it. We are talking 1975/6, I would hide in the bushes in the garden and wait for my mum to go to work and then slip back in and unplug her music centre from the living room and join it up with mine, so what you had was two hi-fi's (as they were known then) next to each other on a wallpaper table with two sets of speakers and in the middle an upright Hoover thing (the 70's equivalent to a Dust Devil) with a little square microphone selotaped to it that recorded onto a separate cassette machine. I think I was severely scarred by the fact that for six months I thought my parents were going to get me a set of FAL double decks and a rope light. In the end they bought my sister some skiing equipment for her school trip. I still hate them both for it."
Your 'Special Branch' parties in paved the way for clubland London... Pete Tong spinning hip hop, rare groove and early house alongside Gilles Peterson mixing up, simply, an eclectic mix of all things jazzy. Cool huh?
"I have managed to keep all my diaries and all the flyers for everything I have started to put together a book - and I honestly had forgotten how many gigs we did before Acid House came along. Some of them were really groundbreaking and it was all so innocent. We hated the high street - it was proper underground, We did 16 parties in London Zoo, Thorpe Park, Chislehurst Caves, the Natural History Museum and took 300 people to Ibiza in 1985. I was fearless back then. The company name was 'Starship Enterprises' and our motto was to boldly promote where no man has promoted before - myself, Gilles Peterson and Tongy, we were kids getting paid for playing music, we loved it - there was no game plan."
Your weekenders were legendary. I remember one particular event where you sang the Crystal Water anthem on the mic to 5000 people on stage. What were your best weekenders?
"The five Kaos weekenders we did between 89-92 where brilliant, you have to remember that back in those days 3000 people was regarded a a big deal - more by luck than judgment. Crystal Water 'Gypsy Woman' came out on import the weekend of one of the Kaos events and just became the anthem of the weekend. But we had been doing weekenders at Rockley Sands in Dorset through the 80's, in fact the leisure company we used (Bourne Leisure) rang me up and asked if I fancied doing one at their Berwick on Tweed site. I said no but hooked them up with Alex Lowes who was from Newcastle and that's where the first UpNorth Weekenders came about later moving to Southport."
Tell us about that first trip to Ibiza...
"Every year I get all these requests to talk about Ibiza - here are two answers - make your own mind up which one you think is true...
Answer A:
There's something magical about the place, where else can you go to such fabulous clubs and enjoy the freedom and that Balearic feeling and listen to music you have never heard before? It's so spiritual. Have you been to the Atlantis rocks?"
Or
Answer B:
It's turned into the Tesco's of clubland. there is no freedom, getting into Space is like going through customs, you pay £15 a drink and £40 to get in a club that shuts three hours later. We used to come back from Ibiza with inspiration - someone please tell what was the big tune in Ibiza this year - as I haven't a clue.
So, I can't help thinking we have turned a load of farmers into yuppies and now they no longer need the hand that fed them. I think I'm entitled to have an opinion bearing in mind I have been going there since 1982 and had a Milk Bar in Pacha 16 years ago long before any UK promoters turned up. I put the Z in Ibiza - Alex Gold stuck a poster up outside the airport."
Trip at The Astoria - I had to call Lisa Loud to ask you for a guest list because your night was the biggest in the UK and I sort of shitted myself. What a night! Memories...
"Again, the thing about those day's was that none of it was planned, there was no marketing plan, no sponsorship money, we were all just 23-26 year old kids doing something that we loved - any financial gain was a byproduct. Imagine it, there I was at 24 promoting the biggest night in London, completely twated on little fellas, DJing and walking out the door with six grand in readies in my pocket - what the fuck did I know about VAT? I just wanted the big house the big car and at 24 you never think it will end. Of course it did and I paid a heavy price. I have just dug out a load of old video footage and have got a ton of stories to tell about The Astoria that I'm saving them for my book."
Okay, here we go. Oaky and Rampling obviously saw their pot at the end of the rainbow as DJs - you saw that you could be locking up your own nightclubs at the end of a night with a bulging pocket of cash by being a promoter/club owner. Why did you want to go down this route?
"Never really had a choice, Paul is one of the smartest guy's I know. He parties but he also knows when it is time to go home. Danny caught / created a wave that I don't think anyone else since has ever managed with 'Shoom' which in turn lead him to the Radio One show. Given a choice, I would much sooner just have been just a DJ than a promoter, but it just fell that way."
Did you ever see house music exploding around the world when you were starting these nights?
"Absolutely, it was like a tidal wave."
What record do you dance around in your kitchen to that you probably wouldn't want us to know about?
"'So You Wanna Be A Boxer?' - Bugsy Malone."
The Milk Bar. Coolest EVER nightclub London has seen?
"At the tiime yes we had a line up like this...
Mondays : Myself and Darren Emerson
Wednesday : Danny Rampling
Thursday : Live bands, highlights were Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies and The Farm
Friday : Myself and Paul Oakenfold
Saturday : Pete Tong and Dave Dorrell
Sunday : Brandon Block and Lisa Loud"
What's your favorite ever record?
"Too many to mention, but if I had to nail three albums off all time, Marvin Gaye - 'What's Going On', Stevie Wonder 'Songs In The Key Of Life' and Pink Floyd 'Dark Side Of The Moon'."
Ibiza - maddest party you've ever been to on the White Isle?
"My 'Kaos' party in a quarry just outside San Antonio in1992 with 808 State, Rozalla, Sasha, NJoi etc. Cost me my car and my house as everyone just bunked in without paying - but what the fuck, it was a good party! Mad, because I must have been mad to do it in the first place..."
What are you up to at the moment...?
"Desert Island Disco - www.desertislanddiscos.com . By this time next year it will be a household name."
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