Music review: Pete Tong Presents Ibiza Classics


Hydro, Glasgow ***
Step up Ibiza Classics, a touring tribute to the club classics of the 1990s which grew out of the Ibiza Prom, and teams veteran DJ Pete Tong with the trendy 65-piece Heritage Orchestra, conducted by Jules Buckley, and a host of guest vocalists.
The eddying strings, bolstered by a live drummer, created an immediate impact on the momentous fanfare of Fatboy Slim’s Right Here Right Now with Tong triggering the vocal samples and declaring that “Wednesday is the new Saturday”.
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Hide AdThe orchestra held their own against the booming beats, pounding house piano, marimba flourishes and lazer lightshow, then it was straight into the euphoric disco strings, pert brass and live soulful vocals of Lola’s Theme.
Ninety minutes passed in a flash thanks to the mixtape structure of the concert though the chillout lulls, so intrinsic to a club set, really just marked time between crossover classics such as The Chemical Brother’s Galvanize, with its intoxicating Indian strings hook, and the regal swell of Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, before this warehouse party in a concert hall climaxed with the one surefire singalong, You Got the Love and, in the clubbing parlance, one more tune – the epic rave anthem Insomnia.
FIONA SHEPHERD