How Amnesia Changed The World

Ibiza clubbing institution Amnesia takes over Egg for the third time on February 6th, bringing with it a line-up plucked from house music's hottest labels. Guests Hector and Hector Couto (Hot Creations) join Amnesia resident Mar-T and his Wow! Recordings label mate Luca Donezelli.

The club is one of Ibiza's biggest brands, with Sven Väth's Cocoon, Marco Carola's Music On and the Loco Dice affiliated Hyte amongst the parties there every week last summer. But its history is even more impressive, not only defining the island but helping kick off the 1988 Summer of Love in England.

Watch the videos below of the club's closing party in 1989 and you'll get an insight into the early days of Amnesia, when its now celebrated resident DJ Alfredo was spinning what would become know as Balearic beat – an internationally flavoured mixture of early house, disco, rock, funk, reggae and pop.

Now operated by Cream, Amnesia was originally a family-owned farm house which later opened as a disco in 1976. First called 'The Workshop of Forgetfulness' by founder Antonio Escohotado, he later realised its current title summed up his aspirations: to have a place where people could forget their everyday troubles by dancing and listening to music.

While Amnesia became well know amongst the European party crowd who frequented the island though, it was soon to change the world. In 1987 Paul Oakenfold, Johnny Walker, Danny Rampling and Nicky Holloway visited Amnesia from the UK, having been invited to Ibiza by two friends, Ian St Paul and Trevor Fung. Discovering ecstasy for the first time, and dancing under the stars to Alfredo on the then open-air dancefloor, as he played everything from Kate Bush and Bob Marley to early Trax Records from Chicago, the four shared a magical experience that they were determined to bring back to London's then soul-obsessed club scene.

Back at home, Oakenfold started Spectrum, Rampling started Shoom and Holloway started The Trip, three clubs, that, along with the arrival of the new dance friendly drug they'd tried, laid the foundation for the birth acid house in the UK and created the huge youth movement which today has conquered across the world.


Buy tickets for Amnesia at Egg here. 

Watch the rest of the rare footage from Amnesia's 1989 Closing Party on Test Pressing's YouTube.