DJ Pete Tong: 'People more than ever want to go to a live event'
Pete Tong playing a live set in 2022. Picture: Adam Davy
THE first phone call between BBC Radio 1 presenter and superstar club DJ Pete Tong and conductor and composer Jules Buckley was “kind of a bit of a blind date”.
That’s how dance music pioneer Tong, 64, recalls the call from a decade ago. The brief at the time had been to merge classic and electronic music to do a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, to celebrate BBC Radio 1’s 20-year association with Ibiza.
The result was a resounding succession of hits, including Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now, Eric Prydz’s Pjanoo, and Lola’s Theme from The Shapeshifters, all re-imagined with Buckley conducting and Tong on the decks.
Now, to celebrate that night a decade on, Tong’s Ibiza Classics returns to the Royal Albert Hall for four dates (three in May and one in June).
“I never got to hear what he (Buckley) could do because I was sending him the music that I wanted us to perform, and he was obviously writing the score for all the parts in the orchestra,” recounts Tong.
“But it wasn’t literally to a couple of days before the show that I’m actually in the room with the players. So it’s fascinating, I learned a hell of a lot. I was completely out of my comfort zone.
“I started off like wanting to do 70 tracks, and we whittled it down to about 20 to 22, that first show, and then we went from there. The first show was an appointment, we weren’t on a mission to still be doing shows 10 years later.
“We just thought this was fun. This was a one-off occasion that was going to happen, and let’s go and do it to the best of our ability, and enjoy it and try and create something special.”
And special it was, with demand soaring after clips were shared on YouTube and social media. But for Tong, the music has always been the mission.
He explains: “I was kind of on a mission, because I’ve always said, like a lot of producers, DJs in the electronic space, dance music space, we have a bit of a chip on our shoulder that we’re not taken as seriously as kind of rock and roll or country music or hip hop.
“So, being able to give an orchestra of 65 players some of these tracks that were made and created by one producer in Chicago in 1987 or something, it just added like how important these records were and like how brilliant the music was.”
Music has been a staple in Tong’s life since a young age and he’s one of the most well-known names in the DJ and electronic music space and beyond.
In 2014, he became an MBE as he was honoured for a career in broadcasting and music that has seen him progress from running a mobile disco to launching a record label and becoming an in-demand producer.
While collecting the honour during a Buckingham Palace ceremony, he spoke about his name having become cockney rhyming slang for “gone wrong”.
Speaking at the palace, he said at the time that a fanzine first used the phrase “as an affectionate slap around the head”, but “it just stuck and turned into an amazing legacy — I’ve never had a problem with it”.
The BBC Radio 1 DJ has worked as a producer, supervised the soundtracks for films such as Danny Boyle film The Beach, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, and 24 Hour Party People, and has released a lengthy list of compilations and mix albums.
Born in Dartford, Kent, his musical interest began in his youth as a drummer, but he progressed to DJ-ing and after leaving school he first operated a mobile disco, and then set up his own club night in London as well as booking bands.
Tong’s specialist knowledge helped him to become a music writer on Blues And Soul magazine but after four years he went to work for music label London Records as an A&R man.
After hosting a soul show on a Kent radio station, he went on to land a show on Capital Radio and three years later in 1991 he was given a dance show on Radio 1, the Essential Selection, which helped him to become one of the most in-demand club DJs in the UK and with seasons in Ibiza, and he continues to be a fixture on BBC Radio 1.
While his radio career was building, Tong continued his record company interests with his own label FFRR releasing music by dance acts such as Utah Saints as well as groups such as Fine Young Cannibals and Hothouse Flowers.
Other music acts he signed include Run-DMC, Goldie, and American group Salt-N-Pepa.
In 2021 he was given a lifetime achievement award by the Music Industry Trusts (MITS) Award.
But casting his mind back to how Ibiza became synonymous with the dance music scene, he says the early days were “super exciting”.
“It’s always like the World Cup finals or the Champions League finals.
“It’s like, if you can prove yourself in Ibiza, you’re kind of beginning to make it.
“So I think it’s always been this ultimate destination for a DJ to play there, it still managed to retain a kind of level of cool.
“That’s where it’s different to somewhere like Vegas, you know, Vegas is big and successful and stuff like that, but it doesn’t really have the kind of arty side... kind of championing new DJs and new music that Ibiza still manages to do.”
This year’s anniversary shows will see each night have a unique line-up, and guest vocalists will include Becky Hill, Jacob Lusk, who joined Sir Elton John on stage during Glastonbury, and house and soul singer Barbara Tucker.
There will also be no shortage of impressive DJs, with names like Damian Lazarus, David Morales, and Paul Oakenfold set to appear alongside Tong, Buckley, and The Essential Orchestra.
“I think the thing for me, the crowd reaction has always been the X Factor for this show.
“I can’t stress it enough, the crowd participation makes it all make sense,” he says.
“If anyone worries about where we’re heading with streaming and like, do people care about music anymore, and are people getting too distracted to even care or sit still for three minutes and listen to a song, and I do worry a lot about that, and lose a lot of sleep about that, on the other side, when you see people in a room enjoying the music like that, it’s like, we’re all right.”
He adds: “You know, whatever happens on the way, people are consuming music.
“People more than ever want to go to a live event and stand in a room with 15,000 like minded people and go crazy. So that’s that’s alive and well.”
- Tickets for Ibiza Classics 10 Year Anniversary shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London are now on sale.
