You’ve seen the film, you’ve read the book… now experience the club. Clockwork Orange atmospheres have been floating around clubs since 1993, and while other larger enterprises are showing signs of struggling, it’s only the beginning for the Orange boys, it seems. Run by Danny Dould and Andy Manson, Clockwork Orange are best known for their Atomic Soirees in Ibiza’s Es Paradis club, for those who don’t know, Es Paradis is the San Antonio club that is famous for its water-logged, fun-filled nights. It’s actually designed like a big paddling pool and on certain evenings, the fountains are turned on to allow the hedonistic punters a bit of an H2O buzz. But it wasn’t always Balearic frolics for our ultra-violet clubsters. In the early days there were four of them, and the setting was the big smoke, as Danny Gould explains….

“Andy Manson had previously done a party at The Paddocks club which is now the Leisure Lounge, and they asked him if he wanted to do another one. We did it for a laugh and it kicked off and went really well. One of our friends thought he was a promoter after that, and got backing from someone to do another party, and fell flat on his face. He dropped out and we just wanted to carry on with the Clockwork Orange name. So we did another party and that really went well, we just carried on from there really. We’ve had our ups and downs. Then we had our first birthday party, that’s when we started getting recognised because we had so many top DJ’s, it was unbelievable”.

That was when The Paddocks was bought out and transformed into the Leisure Lounge, and Danny and friends began the search for other venues. 1994 was the year, and befriending Brandon Block, Danny and Andy were beginning to gain more confidence, and cultivated the idea of a summer jaunt to the Isle of Hedon.

“We wanted to go to Ibiza for the summer, so we rang up Miss Bistro at Es Paradis and she asked us over for a chat. Pepe who owned the club offered us the Wednesday nights, so we flew home and got the flyers and DJ together in about 3 or 4 weeks, and we were back over there towards the end of June. The first year was just a silly boys holiday because we weren’t that professional by then, and when we came back that year, we were really sorted out. That Ibiza summer awareness, and every time we’ve done a party after that, everyone was like ‘oh, yeah, Clockwork Orange in Ibiza!”. That’s how we’re known now”.

The first year Clockwork Orange made it to Ibiza, Manumission had just started up, and Up Yer Ronson had merely done a couple of one-offs, so with Manumission, they are the longest residents in Ibiza. They’ve been offered more nights in Es Paradis next year, and the future is looking pretty damn rosy for the two jet-setting Londoners. Next year they are planning some even madder theme nights, but would Danny take a leaf out of Manumission’s book and get his oats on stage?
“Definitely not! Not even if I was pissed. I’ve seen the pictures of him in magazines and it don’t look too clever. In the back of Muzik with his tackle hanging out – he’s either stone cold raving mad, or he’s a big publicity hound! They’ve had around 900,000 people out there this year, but considering the capacity of Ku against Es Paradis, we’ve done equally as well”.

It is well know that Ibizan clubs are among the most beautiful in the world, so isn’t coming back to the UK a bit of a let down for Clockwork orange parties?

“The clubs out there are lovely. London’s Camden Palace is great, although it does get hot up there. The first Ibizan reunion we did there was brilliant – the DJs, the lasers, the atmosphere. We really go to town on doing the place up these days – moons and stars with UV on them and Es Paradis videos playing.

That is good, but I’ve seen pictures of English clubs coming through that look wicked, like Babylonia in Manchester. They can get about 8,000 people in there. Camden Palace is one of London’s best venues because there’s plenty of seating and different levels with bars. They’ve got wicked lasers down there and the sound system’s excellent, so for London, it’s really good. If you are used to the London club scene, then you may have noticed that something strange is going on there. Nights that would once have been packed are now struggling for punters, and certain promoters who put on one-off events are finding themselves banging their heads against a brick wall, what the hell’s going on? I was talking to the guys at The Cross, and they reckon it’s getting weird in London, people aren’t as interested any more. People are saying that Drum & Bass is going to come through, but I don’t think so. You’re still going to have your mainstream of people who are going out for House music. Drum & Bass is for your crowd who want to stand around and aren’t bang into jumping around, unless it goes a different way and gets a bit more funky, but it’ll still be back room stuff. We did a gig in London recently which went OK and it had a massive line-up, but everyone was still on holiday.

On the 28th September we’ve got a big party at The Cross with Kelly, Brandon and Andy. We know everyone is going to come back from Ibiza and Majorca, and what with their friends, it’s going to be an absolute road block. It’s going to be mammoth and we don’t event do many London venues anymore”.

After the last punters had left Es Paradis, and the night had turned to day, the Clockwork Orange team would entertain friends and the DJs in their luxury San Antonio apartment. This year they managed to send one Seb Fontaine home in something of a mess! “He was walking into doors and he had a lot of trouble negotiating the doorway on the plane. He wasn’t in the mood for it at all!”.

“We had a load of hamsters running around. One of the blokes who works for us is a few biscuits short of a barrel, and he bought some hamsters, and by the end of summer, they were running around an apartment and going wild. People were like ‘what the fuck’s going on here?’. You’re living in Ibiza and you’ve got hamsters!’. We were going to buy some chinchillas, but we knew they wouldn’t get looked after. The hamsters ended up being let out of the balls and cages and they’d pop up left, right and centre!”.

Yes, indeed, those Clockwork Orange guys are crazy! When they weren’t playing with hamsters and spiking DJs, surely they had their heads on the grindstone, right? “You could fly away in Ibiza if you wanted to, but it’s pointless. We had the parties on Wednesday, so we’d have Thursday and Friday and Saturday off, and then Sunday was Miss Moneypenny’s and people will look at your flyers, but not take much notice, and then it’s forgotten about the next day. Monday’s Manumission, and then on Tuesday, because everyone was at Manumission on Monday, the whole of San Antonio was dead. In the day, everyone was battered and stayed in. By about 4 or 5 at night, you’d start to see vast amounts of people everywhere, so that was when most flying was done. Ibiza wasn’t hard graft, but the sun takes it out of you. There are always problems, though.

“Before the first or second party, one of our blokes jumped out of the car, was walking along, and a copper pulled him up and asked what he had in his hand. He said ‘they’re flyers’. So the copper took him to the car, and took all the flyers and posters out. They caused so many problems. The club had to threaten to sue, but eventually we had to pull flyers from another week’s party and send someone back to London to get more flyers made up. The police are probably getting pissed off with clubbers out there. But what would Ibiza be without clubs? If it was like Tenerife, I wouldn’t go”.

Imagine Ibiza without Ku, Es Paradis or Pasha or Space. The island’s revenue would fall dramatically for one thing, not to mention the thousands of disappointed clubbers around the world. It’s quite clear that Ibiza is something that has to be protected, both from the clutches of the Spanish government, and from the British beer boys. Apparently Space is being sold off in a couple of years fro a shopping complex. This is because the owner occupies a high position in the Spanish government, and can no-longer afford to be associated with a building that for several months of the year, houses a culture of repetitive beats and drugs.