It’s been a while since our last Music Masters blog post, we must have been having too much fun. To restart the series we’re getting to know one of the true pioneers of the Ibiza party community and one of our closest confidants Ryan O’Gorman. Here’s what brother Mark has to say about our Irish friend:
MARK BROADBENT – I feel like I’ve known Ryan all my life when in fact it’s not actually that long. I guess it must seem that way due to the time spent together being extremely concentrated. Time spent after hours in gardens around the island, in hotel rooms and villas, or back at ours when the hangers on have departed for more lively (and coke fuelled) venues. Anytime past midday would inevitably see myself and Ryan talking at each other in a manner which to the untrained eye may have looked rather heated but despite both of us being cut from similar cloth, having quick tempers and a propensity for drunkenness we have maintained a very close and fruitful friendship that carries on to this day.
On first meeting Ryan I guessed that we should probably work with him, I’d heard about the parties he was involved and knew he had good ties with the ‘workers’ on the island and the fact that he spent an awful amount of time in clubs and other nefarious places on the island meant that he also had good connections with Europeans outside the usual British contingent that made up the majority of our crowd at the time. We needed somebody to host the morning sessions at Space and back then it was mainly the British San Antonio workers and Spanish / Italians who stayed up once the clubs shut down Saturday night / Sunday morning. His people.
Back then my wife Sarah used to open Space on Sunday mornings and deal with Ryan and everything else, we would literally cross paths like ships in the night as she returned home to catch up on lost sleep and I made my way into the club for the afternoon session. Sometimes we’d grab some food together and she would always regale me with stories on what kind of state Ryan had turned up for work in. But the thing was, she always told these stories from a happy standpoint and not of one pissed off because somebody had arrived totally off their face to start the working day. There is not one other person I can think of that could have gotten away with this! Our party at the time ran for 22 hours and that first year mine and Ryan’s paths did not cross very often and it wasn’t until a season down the line that we became friendly. A year or so down the line and some changes at Space meant Ryan became involved in our night time activities, we got to spend time together at the club and our friendship blossomed.
Unlike the majority of people you might come across as a night owl, Ryan is incredibly honest, genuine, and most importantly interesting and I found him to be a true breath of fresh air. He has enlightened me on many points and helped me see things from other prospectives. Ryan has always worked tirelessly within our ‘industry’ often carving out a niche market for himself within it so as to keep on keeping on. He is a true torch bearer of the house music genre and has stuck to his guns throughout the many changing musical moods on Ibiza, he makes and plays the music he believes in without deviation to fads or Jonny-come-lately popularity and this is why Ryan O Gorman is this weeks Music Master.
MARK BROADBENT – So Ryan let’s start with the classic Acid House greeting. Where are you from and what are you on?
RYAN O’GORMAN – I’m from Ireland and I’m on a roll.
MB – You were both in South Ireland but moved North to Derry. Why would you do that?
RO – Yes I was born and raised in the sunny South East but ironically I moved north to stay out of trouble. They had just built The Nerve Centre in Derry and they had a sound engineering and multitrack recording course that I thought would resonate with my interest in music, I spent most of my time as a seventeen year old playing records, I clearly haven’t developed much as a human since then.
MB – From Derry where did you move to next and what turn of events led you ultimately to Ibiza, an island you have called home for many years now?
RO – I came to Ibiza from Derry in 1999, I’d finished my sound engineering course and while I had a lot of fun in Derry I’d had enough of it at the same time. It was actually my girlfriend at the time who told me about Ibiza, she had been and, as is often the case, never shut up about it. So we booked the flights and rolled the dice.
MB – When I first heard about you you were running a weekly ‘workers’ party in San Antonio. Theses were good times for you but to many people San Antonio has always been associated with Brits on the piss and tasteless trouble makers. How did you fit in with this?
RO – Well San An was my jumping off point (as it is for most english speaking kids arriving in Ibiza), I was lucky enough to get a good bar residency at Itaca in San An in my first year. This was the making of me as a DJ, it paid the rent, they fed me and I played about eight hours a day, more some days. This was in the days of vinyl too, that’s a lot of b-sides. Once the rent is paid and your belly is full all you have to think about is playing music, you inevitably get good at anything you practice eight hours a day. This is where I met Andy G (and also Andy Baxter who’s first residency was with us at Itaca) who I went on to start Electricsex with. We were lucky enough to have musical freedom to play what we liked at Itaca which is a pretty fantastic luxury to have with any bar residency. Myself and Andy started to get into a more electronic sound about 2002, I remember being really heavily influenced by Andrew Weatherall’s “From The Bunker” mix Andy gave me. We started doing this rave in a boozer called Inigo in Clapham on a Sunday afternoon in the winter of 2004 playing this new electro sound that was emerging (hence the name Electricsex) the parties were raucous, lots of sweaty bodies dancing on tables etc (Geddes, Jamie Jones, Tim Sheridan, Colin Peters, Will Saul, Secretsundaze etc played for us there). We got offered the back room of Eden for Norman Jay’s Dusted off the back of those parties and the rest as they say is history.
MB – Was there a golden age for clubbing on Ibiza in your opinion and if so where really tickled your fancy back then?
RO – I think the golden age of clubbing in Ibiza is when ever you personally discover it…. however, I am very grateful that I experienced things like Manumission, The Manumission Motel, Bora Bora in it’s prime, Sunday afternoons on the Space terrace, Sunday nights at KM5 with Tania Vulcano, Monday morning raves at The Jockey Club, the birth of DC10, Coccon after parties at S’Estanyol… Endless parties, too many to mention.. It’s difficult for people to understand the levels of hedonism and freedom we enjoyed and I guess that probably wasn’t sustainable when you look at how many people visit ibiza now. But yeah the crazy days when there were little pockets of organic culture to be found at every turn and the scene wasn’t run by corporations, that was my own personal golden age for Ibiza clubbing.
MB – Who has been your personal favourite and how do you think has been the most constant DJ to play regulary on Ibiza over the years?
RO – Tough question but in terms of consistency I’d have to say people like Clive Henry, Dan Ghenacia, the two Fioritos, Sven at the afters (not so much at the club). There’s people like Andy Baxter, Jem and Jason Bye who I always felt comfortable with when I was paired with them at Space knowing that they are consummate pro’s and things would flow. Then theres people like Colin Peters and Doris who went out and carved out their own unique style or people like Blevins of Scott Martin who always introduced me to interesting new music, these are always good people to have in your life. There have been many more over the years but for the sake of simplicity these are guys who were there at the start and are still doing what they do consistently well.
MB – Ibiza has it’s detractors (myself included over the years) but you have always remained faithful to her, what is it that you love so much about the island?
RO – Whats not to love? I live in a beautiful place with a great climate, amazing nature, enough weird people to keep me entertained and with a bit of luck enough work to sustain my life and my interests, what more do you need?
MB – What would you change on Ibiza given three wishes?
RO – I’d give myself some highly paid position of authority and then I’d diversify the tourism and reduce the cost of living. The how of that is a whole other interview, lets save it for my political campaign.
MB – You have access to a time machine for a long weekend and are allowed to visited a historical musical happening, you are also allowed to change shape and or sex. Where are you going and what are you going as?
RO – I’d probably go to Woodstock as a shape shifter, give Hendrix a piggy back as a black panther and smoke a bong with The Grateful Dead as a moose.
MB – We met through a mutual friend Joe Upton but quickly became quite close friends. I like your directness and honesty and penchant for good times. What is it that you like about me?
RO – Ah now I see what this is all about, it’s like one of those tests where they tell you to read all the questions first, then you answer them all and get to the last question and it tells you none of the other questions were on the test and that you need to write a thousand word essay on xyz… very crafty 😉 Ok so I think it’s the element of danger, the “whats he going to do now” factor, your unpredictability and lack of respect for authority. I think there’s probably some shared values on whole life thing too, most importantly you have good chat.
Thanks very much to Ryan and Mark for the fantastic read. You can catch them both DJing at Pikes this Sunday along with a whole host of other fine characters. See you by the pool!
pikesonsundays.wordpress.com 