Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics at Sandown

Liz Nicholls

Pete Tong

Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics with the Essential Orchestra promises a hedonistic night of fun and nostalgia on Friday, 26th July.

A day at the races promises to be more exhilarating than ever before, combining a nail-biting evening of racing followed by full headline performances from some of the UK’s biggest music artists. The line-up this year includes Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics returning with a new set for 2024, legends Madness and beloved pop band McFly.

The iconic DJ Pete Tong reimagines your favourite club tracks with the 65-piece orchestra, coupled with incredible visual effects and the latest in music technology.

Fresh from the triumph of their latest album becoming their first studio UK chart No.1 earlier this year, Madness will headline on Wednesday, 31st July. As well as performing tracks from their new album, their set will include their greatest hits from a career spanning an impressive four decades.

Last but by no means least, McFly will make their long-awaited return to the green, having last visited the course in 2010. Celebrating 21 years as a band, they prepare to play all their hits and fan favourites on Thursday, 8th August.

The world-class racing coupled with the informal, relaxed and inviting open-air setting makes Sandown Park the perfect location to spend a summers evening with your nearest and dearest. To top it off, Sandown Park Racecourse features an array of award-winning restaurants that cater for all tastes, from dine dining through to delicious bistro food.

Founded in 1875, Sandown Park Racecourse has provided the backdrop to some of the greatest moments in horse racing history. A day at the races at Sandown Park has it all with top-level racing throughout the year including the bet365 Jump Finale, Coral-Eclipse Summer Festival and Betfair Tingle Creek Meeting, well as the popular Music Nights.

The much-anticipated series presented by The Jockey Club Live showcases the best in British music in the heart of Esher. Tickets for all shows are available now via https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/live/


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Picture special: Hampshire’s Victorious Festival shines

Round & About

Pete Tong

Independent music photographer Peter Nicholson shares his pictures of Southsea favourite Victorious last weekend

With many festivals in 2023 having to endure unseasonably bad weather, Victorious enjoyed a small window of summer over the final weekend of August. With an enviable line-up, and its position on Southsea seafront, the festival promised to be a seaside musical spectacle.

The weekend certainly lived up to that promise. This year’s festival was the biggest in its history. The area on Southsea common had been opened up even further, and all the stages were open for all three days. With up to 70,000 people attending each day of the weekend, it has certainly become one of the region’s biggest and most anticipated music events.

The headliner on each of the three days, could have graced any stage in the world and not been out of place. Jamiroquai, Kasabian, The Kaiser Chiefs, Mumford and Sons, Pete Tong, Alt-J, Ellie Goulding and Blossoms among the biggest names on the line-up.

Jamiroquai closed the main stage on Friday evening with a superb nostalgic trip through his 30 plus years of touring. Now in his fifties, and joking with the crown that he was heavier than he was in the 1990s, the feather headdress – wearing front man, showed no sign of wanting to slow down. His energy and stage presence were as evident as ever.

The Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian and Mumford & Sons were the headliners on Saturday and Sunday. All of which received a fantastic welcome from the huge crowds. The light shows, sound systems were as impressive as the performances.

One of the other things the Victorious team seem to get right every year is how they support smaller and local artists. With a collection of stages across the site, the biggest challenge for any attendee is planning a route so as not to miss any of the acts they came to see! This challenge was mitigated by the excellent app that was available for the event. It allowed you to plan where to be and when. However, being late for a stage time, probably meant you were side-tracked by one of the on the other stages on your route! The World Music stage was one of the busiest areas, as was the acoustic stage. Both of which boasted a line-up that had talent enough for the main stages.

The whole weekend was a credit to the organisers and to the city of Portsmouth.

Racing and raving at Sandown Park

Round & About

Pete Tong

Michelle Miley reviews: Superstar DJ and Ibiza veteran Pete Tong and Jules Buckley’s genre-smashing Heritage Orchestra headline an evening at the races with an iconic collaboration that pays homage to over twenty years of era-defining, dance music tracks encapsulating the spirit of the White Isle.

As the last horse race of the evening concludes with a steward’s enquiry, racegoers jockey for position at the open-air stage in front of Sandown Park’s grandstand in anticipation of legendary DJ and producer Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra’s Ibiza Classics concert. The stage begins to fill with musicians whilst the 65-piece orchestra is packed onto the tiny platform.

With a thunderous rumble, the unmistakable string melody of Fatboy Slim’s Right Here Right Now starts up and resonates across the concourse. A spotlight illuminates Tong as he takes up his place behind the decks. It doesn’t take long for a cosmopolitan crowd of racegoers and party people to begin whooping and clapping to the familiar dance hit that is amplified with classical instruments deftly conducted by Jules Buckley.

Blue lasers pour out from the stage and the Heritage musicians instigate a round of hands-in-the-air clapping as the xylophonist takes on the Eric Prydz, keyboard-based Pjanoo with fantastic dexterity. Tong seamlessly flows in Lola’s Theme accompanied by the first singer of the night who, along with most of the spectators, belts out the chorus “I’m a different person, yeah. Turn my world around.”

Dance-floor filler Children by the late Robert Miles follows in the mix as lasers shoot streams of coloured light across the sky through a cloud of smoke reminiscent of dingy, underground nightclubs that epitomise the 90’s party scene. The crowd go wild when ATM’s Balearic beauty 9AM (Till I Come) drops and is elevated by the orchestra’s keen drummer. Everyone on stage (and off!) is fully immersed in the magic of the moment.

Tong takes to the mic and asks racegoers if they “Backed any winners?” to which two punters aptly reply, “No. It all went Pete Tong!”

Arman Van Heldon’s You Don’t Even Know Me follows a vocal rendition of Rui Da Silva’s Touch Me. The audience do not hold back when red lasers cut through the air and the heavy bassline of the Chemical Brothers’s smasher Galvanise blasts from the stage.

Guest vocalist and rising-star Becky Hill is a highlight, dressed in an orange two-piece outfit, killing it with her performance of the Robin S belter Show Me Love as everyone watching jump along and sing the words in harmony.

The orchestra shine as the nostalgic journey continues through largely instrumental tracks including Café Del Mar, Strings of Life, Knights of the Jaguar and Yeke Yeke. Daft Punk’s beloved tune One More Time is followed by the return of Becky Hill for her superb rendition of Sing It Back. People are ecstatic when the distinctive riff of Donna Summer’s 70’s disco anthem I feel love is skillfully blended with Moloko’s 90’s single.

“Want to go to Ibiza?” is the next question posed by Tong as he drops Underworld’s bass thumping Born Slippy. The track is reworked with the inclusion of a guest MC who recites poetic lyrics of familiar sights and sounds evocative of the “magical land”.

Jubilant onlookers bob along to Swedish House Mafia’s Miami to Ibiza until the iconic drum sample featured in the Faithless dance music staple Insomnia kicks in and once again gets them throwing their hands in the air, repeating “I can’t get no sleep” to the sound of the hypnotic beats.

The night culminates with one last appearance from Becky Hill who blissfully sings everyone’s favourite cover song, Candi Station’s You Got The Love, while racegoers and ravers alike sway in unison and holler the lyrics at the top of their voices in appreciation.

An encore is a sure-fire bet as a chant of “one more tune” reverberates around the showground. Tong is swift to respond as he pulls out old school rave crowd-pleaser Out Of Space by the Prodigy. In true Ibiza fashion, the night triumphantly finishes on a euphoric high with everybody jumping up in elation as the pounding bassline drops and fingers point firmly towards the sky.

A final flourish sees the Heritage Orchestra serenade Tong for his birthday with a stellar delivery of the Happy Birthday song!

Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra will be back out on the road with a brand new Ibiza Classics tour in December 2019 climaxing with two nights at London’s O2.