Pikes Hotel, now known as Pikes Ibiza, is a luxury hotel in
Ibiza, in the
Balearic Islands of Spain.
It is located in the countryside, to the northeast of the town of
Sant Antoni de Portmany
Sant Antoni de Portmany (, es, San Antonio Abad) or San Antonio is a town on the western coast of Ibiza. It is the second-largest town and municipality in Ibiza; an island described by ''Time Out'' magazine as "arguably the clubbing capital o ...
, and to the northwest of
Ibiza Town
Ibiza (; officially in Catalan: Eivissa ) is a city and municipality located on the southeast coast of the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands autonomous community.
Overview
Although called Ibiza in English and Spanish, the official name ...
. A 15th-century stone mansion which was a ''
finca
In English usage, a ''finca'' (; ) refers to a piece of rural or agricultural land, typically with a cottage, farmhouse or estate building present, and often adjacent to a woodland or plantation.
Overview
Especially in tourism, the term has r ...
'' (farm estate), it was converted into a hotel in 1978 by British-born Australian Anthony Pike.
The hotel, cited as one of the most famous or infamous hotels on the island,
developed a notorious reputation for
hedonism in the 1980s, and is associated with being a playground for the rich and famous.
It is best known for being the location of filming for
Wham!
Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling mor ...
's 1983 hit "
Club Tropicana
"Club Tropicana" is a song by English pop duo Wham!, released in 1983 on Innervision Records. It was written by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
History
"Club Tropicana" was written in 1981 in Ridgeley's living room, before the ba ...
" and for
Freddie Mercury's 41st birthday bash in 1987, cited as one of the most lavish parties ever to be held on Ibiza.
By the 1990s the hotel had fallen into difficulties and after Pike's son was murdered in 1998 attempting to sell the hotel, it was later sold to the
Ibiza Rocks
Ibiza Rocks Hotel is a hotel operated by Ibiza Rocks in the centre of the town of Sant Antoni de Portmany, on the Spanish island of Ibiza. The hotel is built around a central courtyard with a pool, bar and stage for events in the center. Formerly ...
organization, which also owns clubs on the island and the
Ibiza Rocks Hotel
Ibiza Rocks Hotel is a hotel operated by Ibiza Rocks in the centre of the town of Sant Antoni de Portmany, on the Spanish island of Ibiza. The hotel is built around a central courtyard with a pool, bar and stage for events in the center. Formerly ...
in the nearby town. Today it has 26 rooms, and the restaurant, named ''Room 39'', has earned critical acclaim on the island.
History
Tony Pike arrived in Ibiza in 1978. Yachtsman
and former hat maker Pike led a very colourful life, which had already seen him
shipwrecked in the Caribbean, injured in a
bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...
accident, serving in the military, indulge in heavy drinking, and married and divorced three times.
Pike had rented a ''
finca
In English usage, a ''finca'' (; ) refers to a piece of rural or agricultural land, typically with a cottage, farmhouse or estate building present, and often adjacent to a woodland or plantation.
Overview
Especially in tourism, the term has r ...
'' for three months during which time he met his next partner Lyn.
Together they bought a derelict ''finca'' called ''Ca’n Pep Toniet'' in the countryside east of
Sant Antoni and they decided to renovate it into a hotel.
Tony, along with Lyn and his two sons, did most of the work themselves.
Bo Palk, the managing director of
MGM Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, checked into the hotel just as Pike was finishing the last bathroom of the hotel. An acquaintance of Palk’s,
Simon Napier-Bell
Simon Robert Napier-Bell (born 22 April 1939) is an English record producer, music manager, author and journalist. At different times, he has managed artists as diverse as the Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Japan, London, Ultravox, Bon ...
, visited him at the hotel whilst scouting for a video shoot location.
As a result,
Wham!
Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling mor ...
's "
Club Tropicana
"Club Tropicana" is a song by English pop duo Wham!, released in 1983 on Innervision Records. It was written by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
History
"Club Tropicana" was written in 1981 in Ridgeley's living room, before the ba ...
" was shot at the hotel in 1983.
The video was directed by
Duncan Gibbins
Duncan Gibbins (13 October 1952 – 3 November 1993) was a British film and music video director, as well as a screenwriter. Gibbins was known for his romance film, romance and Thriller (genre), thriller films as well as for the various music vi ...
with scenes shot of
George Michael, the lead singer of the band and his fellow band member
Andrew Ridgeley
Andrew John Ridgeley (born 26 January 1963) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for his work in the 1980s in the musical duo Wham!.
Early life
Ridgeley was born in Windlesham, Surrey, England, to pare ...
and their backing singers
Dee C. Lee
Diane Catherine Sealy (born 6 June 1961), known as Dee C. Lee, is a British singer. Born to Saint Lucian parents, she grew up in south east London. Early in her career, she was a member of the British band Central Line under the aliases Dee Sea ...
and
Shirlie Holliman
Shirlie Kemp (née Holliman; born 18 April 1962) is an English singer, who found fame in the 1980s with Wham! and as part of the duo Pepsi & Shirlie.
Early years
Shirlie Holliman was child four of five born to Arthur and Margaret Holliman and ...
. The scenario saw George Michael "floating about on a lilo in his
Speedo
Speedo International Limited is a distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England, known for its swim briefs. The company has roots in Australia but is no longer based there. Founded in Sydney in 1914 by A ...
es and shades", relaxing with the boys by Pike’s pool sipping
cocktails
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...
.
The scene of the
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
-playing took place in the pool itself. Tony Pike got on well with the band and he was persuaded to take a small part in the video as the barman in one of the scenes.
The success of the video and Wham!'s status at the time firmly placed Pike’s Hotel in the circles of the music industry and within a short time the hotel was attracting other stars and people connected to the industry.
In the 1980s, the authorities on Ibiza grew very concerned about the wild orgies and drug use which were taking place at the hotel. They showed particular concern over the extensive
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
use at the hotel.
In 1987,
Freddie Mercury celebrated his 41st birthday at Pikes, several months after discovering that he had contracted
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
.
Mercury sought much comfort at the retreat, and was a close friend of Pike.
The party, held on 5 September 1987, has been described as "the most incredible example of excess the Mediterranean island had ever seen", and "the most lavish party even Pike had ever thrown."
It has been cited as a legendary party, with a celebrity guest list of some 500 people and up to 700 people in total which included
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...
,
Grace Jones,
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the ag ...
,
Kylie Minogue,
Nigel Benn
Nigel Gregory Benn (born 22 January 1964) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1987 to 1996. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title in 1990 and the WBC super-middleweight ti ...
,
Anthony Quinn
Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...
,
Bon Jovi,
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singer ...
,
Five Star
Five Star (also styled as 5 Star) are a British pop group, formed in 1983 and comprising siblings Stedman, Lorraine, Denise, Doris and Delroy Pearson. Between 1985 and 1988, Five Star had four top 20 albums and 15 top 40 singles in the UK, ...
,
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...
,
Robert Plant,
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
, and
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European D ...
.
A notable feature of the party was its thousands of gold and black helium balloons which reportedly took three days to inflate, and a grand firework display at the end which was reported to have been seen on
Majorca.
350 bottles of
Moet & Chandon champagne,
and a cake in the shape of Gaudi's
Sagrada Familia Cathedral were provided for the party, although the original cake collapsed and was replaced with a 2-metre-long sponge with the notes from Mercury's song "Barcelona".
The bill, which included 232 broken glasses, was presented to Queen's manager,
Jim Beach
Henry James Beach (born 9 March 1942), known as Jim Beach or "Miami" Beach, is a British lawyer and band manager, best known for being the long-time manager of the rock band Queen, its individual members and the comedy group Monty Python. He ...
.
By the 1990s the hotel was beginning to lose its reputation and a slow decline in popularity began. In 1998, Pike had put the hotel up for sale. He signed a deal to sell it to the Italian TV producer
Enrico Forti. His son, Anthony Dale Pike, flew to Miami to deal with Forti in person, since Tony had been diagnosed with AIDS-related dementia. Dale was killed on February 15, 1998, shot twice in the head and dumped in a secluded forest at
Virginia Key beach.
The police arrested and questioned Tony's longtime friend and Forti's neighbor,
Thomas Heinz Knott, who was later convicted of running up $90,000 on Tony Pike's credit cards. In June 2000, Forti was convicted of murdering Anthony Dale Pike in Miami. Forti is now serving a lifetime prison sentence at the Everglades Correctional Institution in Florida. In Italy the verdict has been viewed as a miscarriage of justice, because of the lack of a valid motive and solid proof.
Pike estimated that the hotel was worth $5 million (£3.2 million) in 2002.
He later sold it to
Ibiza Rocks
Ibiza Rocks Hotel is a hotel operated by Ibiza Rocks in the centre of the town of Sant Antoni de Portmany, on the Spanish island of Ibiza. The hotel is built around a central courtyard with a pool, bar and stage for events in the center. Formerly ...
in 2008. A television documentary, screened on
Sky Living
Sky Living was a British pay television channel owned and operated by Sky. The channel's programming was aimed mainly at women and young adults. It originally launched as UK Living in 1993 and closed 25 years later, being replaced by Sky Witnes ...
that same year, also showed him and the hotel in an unfavourable light, and it appeared to be living on its past reputation.
In the summer of 2011, Pikes Hotel was re-launched as Ibiza Rocks House at Pikes Hotel. The hotel has been restored under the ownership Andy McKay, the man behind the Ibiza Rocks, Ibiza Rocks Hotel and Mallorca Rocks brands, with new décor, whilst trying to maintain its rock'n'roll image of its most glamorous years. The new owners made Tony Pike the first full-time resident of the hotel and he lived permanently in Room 25 until his death in 2019. Ibiza Rocks publicizes the hotel and its chain as "After sex and drugs, comes rock and roll." Scottish rockband
Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band that formed in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, composed of Simon Neil (guitar, lead vocals), James Johnston (bass, vocals), and Ben Johnston (drums, vocals). Currently signed to 14th Floor Records, they have r ...
and Australian pop singer
Kylie Minogue stayed at the hotel during the Ibiza Rocks Festival in 2011.
Features
Pikes Hotel is a luxury hotel,
set in a 15th-century stone mansion,
a ''finca'', which was a farm for centuries. It is accessed off a long lane leading off the main road from
Sant Antoni de Portmany
Sant Antoni de Portmany (, es, San Antonio Abad) or San Antonio is a town on the western coast of Ibiza. It is the second-largest town and municipality in Ibiza; an island described by ''Time Out'' magazine as "arguably the clubbing capital o ...
. Stuart Husband of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' describes Pikes Hotel as "a notorious Ibiza hotel where anything goes".
It is considered to be one of the most famous or infamous hotels on the island and has been cited as one of the "world's true spiritual homes of rock n’ roll hedonism".
Iain Stewart of ''The Rough Guide to Ibiza'' considers Pikes Hotel to be an "almost legendary, relaxed and idiosyncratic rural hotel, popular with visiting celebrities".
Anthony himself said: "it's been claimed we break every law, but I wouldn't be in business if that was the case."
Boy George referred to Pike as the "
Hugh Hefner of Ibiza".
Pikes Hotel has 26 rooms with king-sized beds, one restaurant named ''Room 39'' which has received much critical acclaim,
and two bars.
As of 2009 it costs £157 to stay at the hotel.
The rooms retain the sense of the original farmhouse, and are furnished in the Moroccan style with some heavy dark wood furnishings.
The rooms each have different themes, including "Honeysuckle" and "Sunset", the latter of which is set behind the middle of three dark wood doors on the second floor of a small outhouse.
According to author Stephen Armstrong, this room had a "modest sitting room with a huge antique mirror, plush sofas and a CD player which didn't work". The bedroom was enormous, and the bathroom was decorated in a vaguely Moroccan style with a curtained bath nestling behind a low arch.
A wide range of entertainment is put on at the hotel, from flamenco shows to costume balls.
The hotel also offers a VIP card to visitors to many of the notable clubs, bars, and casinos in the town.
The garden has a memorial to Anthony Dale Pike (1955-1998), which says, "In loving memory of eldest son Dale. Here a portion of his ashes are laid to rest while the remainder flow within the currents of his beloved Pacific Ocean. May his spirit strive no more but rest within this tree in peace and tranquility. I loved you, my son."
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial Autobiography of Tony Pike - The Story of an Ibiza Legend
{{Hotels in Ibiza
Hotels in Ibiza
Hotels established in 1978
Spanish companies established in 1978