Lord of the dance
Fresh off the stage from the King’s Coronation, Pete Tong talks to Catherine Scott about bringing his Ibiza Classics tour to Temple Newsam in Leeds later this month.
THERE was probably no one more surprised that he was asked to open the King’s Coronation Concert in front of Windsor Castle than DJ Pete Tong. “We were going backwards and forwards about which track to play. Initially we were talking about Insomnia but we ended up with Feel The Love, by Rudimental – and then they said would we open the show. It was a real honour to be chosen to play for the new King and Queen at the Coronation concert.”
Tong will perform the same song to Leeds crowds on June 18 as a nod to this special Coronation year.
“I'll bring that slice of the Coronation to Temple Newsam in Leeds, when we bring
Ibiza Classics and our Jules Buckley Orchestra to town. When that track plays, I think it'll be a Great British celebration of our new King Charles III all over again.”
For one special evening, the tranquility of Temple Newsam will undergo a midsummer Ibizan takeover, as the pioneer of global-change in house music, rediscovers those banging underground classics. Featuring the 65-piece The Essential Orchestra, which is produced, arranged and conducted by Jules Buckley, (alongside a host of guest DJs and singers), the evening will bring the worlds of classical and club together, with reimagined versions of classic house tracks including Rhythm Is A Dancer, Café Del Mar, Insomnia, You Got The Love, Free and of course that special Coronation track Feel The Love.
He may be 62 but the man who is acknowledged as one of the first celebrity dance DJs can still be found mixing into the small hours in the some of the world’s best clubs, and he is also enjoying the day time and evening summer festivals.
Initially conceived as a one-off for the Proms classical music festival in 2015, translating some of the most loved dance music anthems for an orchestra to celebrate 20 years of Radio One in Ibiza, the way that Classics caught the imagination shocked even Tong.
“I went to Manchester to go on breakfast TV to launch it. And by the time I came back on the train to London, we’d sold 18,000 tickets.” The original core of the idea was to reach those ravers for whom going out to clubs all night was no longer a realistic option.
“Life catches up,” admits Pete. “But it doesn’t mean you fall out of love with the music. Those songs; Promised Land ,or Your Love, Cafe Del
Mar: to some people they’re just as important as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. If you were there on the dance floor at, say, Space in Ibiza, they’re in your soul for the rest of your life.”
He still has to pinch himself however, that what started out as a one-off is still going eight years later to sell out audiences. He performs his summer gigs everywhere from stately homes (he plays Blenheim Palace the night before heading to Leeds) to race courses and iconic dance clubs like Pacha in Ibiza – a venue very close to Tong’s heart.
Growing up in Kent, young Pete Tong was always fascinated by music; his dad collected vinyl records and it is a love that has stayed with Tong to this day.
At 14, he saw his first DJ at a school party – and life changed forever. He became an obsessive listener to radio DJs like Emperor Rosko and specialist shows from Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards.
After a stint as a mobile DJ playing weddings and school parties, and a residency at a local pub, Tong and a friend decided to start their own club night. An encounter with Nicky Holloway led to gigs in London, where by 1987 the founding fathers of the UK dance scene were coming together.
“Danny Rampling was Nicky’s best friend. I met Paul Oakenfold, who ran a club in Streatham, and Carl Cox, who did his soundsystem, and started doing parties with the Boy’s Own crowd: Andy Weatherall, Gary Haisman and Terry Farley.”
As a DJ, Tong was playing rare groove and soul, mixed up with some early hip hop and electro, but “when those first house records arrived, it was like year zero, like everything before had ceased to exist.”
He was determined to become a DJ on BBC Radio 1.
“When I left school I applied for a job at the BBC as an engineer. I thought if I could get my foot in the door I’d have a better chance of making it as a DJ. I went to the interview full of confidence and they took one look at me and my lack of experience and sent me packing.”
After a stint as a journalist – even then he was mainly writing about music – and presenter across various radio stations, including being given 15 minute feature on Peter Powell’s Radio 1 Drivetime show at 19, Tong was hosting Saturday nights on London’s Capital Radio in 1991 when Radio 1’s Jeff Young quit his show – and was the obvious candidate to take over. He arrived at the station at a time of monumental change. Newly appointed controller Matthew Bannister and his deputy Andy Parfitt were seeking to bring the station up to date. The target market was to be youth, and the pair realised they might have the perfect advisor already on hand.
“I went from no one talking to me to feeling like I could have a real influence there,” says Tong. Not only was he in the right place to help create the station’s new specialist output, it was also the right time. “Dance music was exploding. Cream and Ministry of Sound were starting, there was so much great music coming out – and I was the only one playing this music to the nation’s youth. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Tong began his Friday evening show, branded as the Essential Selection for its first 15 years, on BBC Radio 1. The show still continues every week, now names Essential Mix, making him the second longest serving DJ at the BBC, second only to Annie Nightingale.
Today, the Pete Tong and Essential Mix shows he devised in those meetings are still the flagship of underground dance music on the station, and new show, The Month In Dance ,a vital anthology on BBC Sounds. Tong himself remains a sounding board for the station’s management and an occasional mentor to a new generation of presenters.
He says it is much harder for today’s DJs coming through.
“There are so many more things fighting for people’s attention. When I started out we were the only station really playing dance music, in 2023 every radio station is a dance station.”
But it doesn’t sound like he is planning on hanging up his summer festival decks any time soon. “We’ve talked about carrying on until we hit ten years in 2025, but I think we might just see how it goes. We are appearing to a whole new generation of dance music enthusiasts, not just those who remember it from the Nineties.”
Pete Tong Ibiza Classics will be at Leeds Temple Newsam on Sunday 18 June and Scarborough Open Air Theatre on August 19. For tickets and more information visit www.petetong-ibizaclassics.com