Windows Phone

Matt recently won our #Groove competition to spend a weekend in Ibiza with three friends courtesy of my kind of phone – and was also equipped with a shiny new HTC HD2 Windows Phone for the journey. Now that he’s back and suitably rested, he’s given us a run-down of his time on a small Spanish isle…

I was super stoked when I realised I had won the my kind of phone groove prize for a trip for 4 to Ibiza – and that it was real. I think until the plane landed I still thought it must be some sort of trick.

We were met at the airport by our driver, Stu, who was a great example of the English ex-pat. That being said, it did feel 100% boss to be met at the airport with a sign saying MATT BAKER.

We stayed at the Migjorn spa apartment complex, and after excessive pre-drinks to warm up (to save some money in the cash vortex that is Ibiza) we goaded Stu into driving us to Amnesia – the mega club that is about 15 mins drive out of Eivissa. However,  Stu wasn’t too impressed about our desired pickup time of 4am… looks like he isn’t used to the 24 hour lifestyle of Ibiza yet.

Laurent Garnier was playing a live set at Amnesia on the Friday which I was excited to see as it involved live keys, sax and trumpet, and since (gasp!) house was not my cup of tea, I thought some instrumentation would augment it. After smashing no fewer than 6 drinks on the floor of the club (the bars are slightly sloped and the bass shakes them onto the floor) to my astonishment Garnier dropped some dubstep tunes. The crowd wasn’t that happy but a few of us were loving it. He segued into about 10 mins of drum and bass before asserting that ‘you guys are scared of drum and bass’ and returning to play minimal techno. I was happy though – I had been saying earlier that if you are as famous as Laurent Garnier you can get away with playing anything – why not play the Thomas the Tank Engine theme as a party banger? Unfortunately, too rarely anything like this happens, but at least he had bucked the trend by playing a few different genres of music.

Saturday was spent extensively swimming and working on getting sunburnt. We also saw the old town and I got some rest while two of our party forged out again.

Sunday was the ‘last day’, and epic in it’s Mediterranean outlandishness. Blue Marlin for a few hours – the jetset overpaid, over-botoxed Armani elders with multiple ladies on their arm. Paco X plays flamenco guitar at 6pm and was solid. The dancers were very not however, but I was content with the prevalence of speedos and gold chains. We finished the night with We Love Space on Sundays – the main event on a Sunday night. The standout for me was Jonathon Ulysses who has been a resident at Space for 10 years but really knows how to get the party cranking – playing a lot of older techno with choral anthems and delivering an early breakbeat vibe. Carl Craig continued this later with some classic ‘cheesy’ techno that relived the 80s magic, and Groove Armada played also. We were endlessly drinking Hierbas, the raki-esque herb drink that is proudly hecho de Ibiza. Unfortunately at this point, none of the bankcard readers in the club worked and we were out of cash so I had the genius idea to drink loads of tap water, which is mixed 50/50 with salt water. While the electrolytes were refreshing, I was, needless to say, quite sick. After leaving the club, chugging some freshwater and taking a swim, I grabbed some sleep.

Monday, last day, furiously packing, sunning, and waiting for Stu, replete with comments about ‘London on a Monday morning ay?’ – despite the fact that none of us live in London and it was in fact a Monday afternoon. Restraining the urge to kidnap Stu and set him on fire we shook hands and said thanks and settled into a sensationally-leg-roomed flight home.

Stu-related jokes aside, I had an awesome time and never would have been able to afford a trip to Ibiza on my own account. It was an amazing opportunity to party with my friends and get in some sunshine, swimming, and swagger. A huge thank you to my kind of phone for the Groove promotion, especially for offering such a cool prize and making it so easy to relax and have fun. They even gave me a Windows Phone HTC HD2 to take some photos while I was out there, which was great!

I never thought I would go to Ibiza, but now I’m thinking of how to go back.

Matt Baker

www.phatmattbaker.com