Ten of the best... Ibiza Memories

In the Fifties, the island was a haven for Hollywood stars. Errol Flynn was a regular in Ibiza Town, dodging sex scandals back home. Elizabeth Taylor and Ursula Andress were also regular visitors at this time. Andress even bought a house on the island.

Bob Dylan took over a 200-year-old windmill in the small town of El Pilar in the 1960s and inhabited it for some time. Or so the story goes. You won't find any photographs, but what you will find is a depiction of the very same windmill on Pink Floyd's 1969 'Soundtrack From The Film More'.

In 1970 a bare-footed Joni Mitchell ran away from her lover and ended up in Ibiza. Dipping her toes in the water, she breathed in the Balearic air and breathed out her soul-defining record 'Blue'. Her lover, Graham Nash, will hear her farewell letter when the album is released a year later in 1971.

Pike's Hotel owner Tony Pike was a backpacking Aussie, who fell in love with an English girl he met while visiting Ibiza. They settled down on the island and built a hotel. Almost as soon as it was finished, a music industry type called Andrew Napier Bell came scouting for a video location. Bell loved Tony's hotel and decided to film the whole thing there. His band was an up-and-coming British duo called Wham! and the video was for their single 'Club Tropicana'.

Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder flew to Ibiza with best friend Bez for the first time in 1987, and after a drug-fuelled fortnight that they still can’t remember much of, they returned to Manchester with a brand new club sound; an influence that would last for the rest of their career.

When Queen legend Freddie Mercury decided to fly to Ibiza with 80 of his closest friends for his 41st birthday in 1987, you could tell it wasn’t going to be your average party. He threw a lavish party at Pike's Hotel that began with Flamenco dancers, midgets, snake charmers, nude dancers, a 20-foot long cake and fireworks spelling out his name, and it didn’t stop for the next 24 hours. Every September 5th, Pike's continue this tradition and throws a big party to commemorate the event, even recently renaming the hotel's bar ‘Freddies’ following its recent refurb.

In July 1988, The Velvet Underground's poet and muse, Nico, arrived in Ibiza for a holiday with her son. Having successfully curbed her 15-year heroin addiction she headed out on her bicycle to take in the scenery. Unfortunately she suffered a minor heart-attack and hits her head as she fells, dying instantly. Her name Nico came from the island itself when photographer Herbert Tobias re-named her on a modelling assignment in Ibiza when she was just 15 years of age.

Lily Allen went to Ibiza on holiday with her parents when she was just 15. As her family prepared to leave, she told her mum she was going to stay with friends for an extra week, and ended up living in a hostel in San Antonio for another month, working in a record store, and - as revealed by the singer in a 2006 interview with Uncut - dealing drugs.

Kate Moss was embarrassingly ejected from the DJ box in Amnesia after trying to show off her ‘skills’ during Zane Lowe's set in 2008.

Jordan (Katie Price) escaped for a holiday in Ibiza following her break-up with ex-husband Peter Andre. The professional party girl faced a barrage of criticism for her boozy antics on the Spanish isle. After leaving the kids at home, she allegedly went wild on the beaches with topless photo shoots, regularly ran away from the TV production team that was meant to be following her around for her new show, and went on an incredible booze bender. She ended the week with a trip to a tattoo parlour to remove the word ‘Pete’ from her wrist.

Words: Jo-Anne Waddington

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