WE WANT SOME CHAOS AGAIN! Manumission´s Mike & Claire reveal Summer plan!

You always seem well ahead of the game, Burlesque is making a huge comeback in the UK, and Lipstick Lesbianism is still in fashion.
Claire: Yeah, well the Burlesque thing for us has always been a major part, and we did Lipstick Lesbians 9 years ago! There was a club called Juicy in New York, which was huge on the lipstick lesbianism tip! You would only get 1 guy for every 3 girls that went in.

Mike: It was Juicy that inspired the whole sex show thing for us. Ibiza already had the wildness and international crowd and energy, and we came here with our show. Ibiza is a melting pot and we concentrated all of this and put it into Manumission.

So Manumission starts in 1 week time – Monday 4th July. But on top of that you have Bar M, Ibiza Rocks and Carry on at Space, so you got 4 parties on the boil...
Mike: Manumission is basically where Claire & I  are on a trip of our own, and each year we take our ideas based on current world affairs or situations, mould them into a show and basically throw the kind of party we would like to throw for a few of our friends, make it how we would like to see it – and basically say “Hey everyone is welcome!”

Claire: We spend all winter cooking up ideas for the next year’s party. Each year is a constant evolution, based on our experiences of the world. Things we are inspired by...

Mike: Yeah, for instance the year we did The Hitchcock Year – The Phantasmagorical Manumission Mystery – that was very political. All about dropping the debt, free trade, the hole in the Ozone. All these things we blamed on "HELP ME OUT HERE!!!" Last year was the Story of  M, and was on a much more of a spiritual tip. There are all these global issues, which looked pretty dire from a political viewpoint. Then I read a book called “Autobiography of a Yogi” – and it makes you see that, actually, there is hope and we have a lot more power than we actually think. All this was put into last year show...



This year is all about Metamorphosis....

The stage is going to be very much alive. Constantly changing colour, things birthing from it. This will be punctuated by Fisherspooner coming out with their own blend of visuals and the Manumission girls choreographed on stage. 

Claire:  The stage is based on a surrealist house of fun Dali did for the 1939 NYC Trade Fair. It’s very mad and completely off the wall. It’s going to be  insane!!! This year we are also introducing colour therapy...

The whole club will be bathed in changing colour light, which will work with your 9 Chakra points. So every half and hour the whole colour of the club and stage will change. This will be linked with musical notes, and smells, so hopefully by morning as the sun is coming up, everyone will be completely blissed out!

Mike: We hope to stimulate all the senses this year. To list off all we have planned would take away from the excitement, but lets just say we have a lot of chaotic and crazy stuff going on for the whole night! We want to keep a little mystery there for the readers, so they don’t quite know what to expect!! One thing I can tell is that Harmon Pro have given us the most amazing JBL sound system – a million € of sound equipment!

Just out of interest – Why Fisherspooner? They are not necessarily the most well known Electro band. So what’s the reasoning behind this?
Mike: It was weird because we really liked the album and a lot of people told us that we should work with them. At the same time Fisherspooner were being told that they should really work with Manumission. So we were in a way bought together. Everyone was saying, “ You´ve got to have Fisherspooner” and to start with we were like, how is this going to work? We make films, you make films – you get choreographers in to do things, we get choreographers in to do things – we make shows, they make shows, so it has been quite tricky!

Claire: Yeah, we went over to NYC for a few weeks and Fisherspooner came over here, and we have worked together on the show and we think something very special has come out of it. We are not used to collaborating, we are very much used to doing our own thing, so it has been a learning experience as well. However, the party´s going to be incredible this year!

So we´re 1 week from the opening, and yet you guys seem super relaxed. How?!!
Claire:  That’s funny, earlier today we were like “AAHH!!!” but, we generally don’t panic. We get nervous, but on the night we can´t panic, we just let it flow and so far it has always run smoothly, well almost!!!

So let’s talk about the USA, and the rumoured tour that never happened? Why was that?
Mike: We were going to go during off-season to do a tour, but in a way we´re glad we didn’t – USA is just too repressed. You can’t even smoke in clubs; it was like being back at school! We live in Ibiza, one of the free-est places on the planet where you can live a nice life with nice people – Ibiza is fantastic & unique!

Claire: It was a nice idea, but the more we thought about it – the more it just didn’t seem right.

Mike: The thing with Ibiza is that you can be who you want to be, without being judged. It’s the place where all the characters wanted to get, away from the suppressed society there were from (Franco dictatorship as example), or didn’t fit in, they just came here...

Claire: Ibiza is class and age free. It’s great!

Mike: Class is more likely to go against you here. All the things you need to prove yourself in the UK, Cell phones, cars, etc... are meaningless! 
If you wanted to do a really good process of natural selection – Ibiza is a good model! There are more nationalities here than anywhere else in the world. Everyone intermingles, no racism or barriers.

So if I said to you guys – here is £5million – you can live anywhere else in the world you want, or you can stay here without the £5 million, what would you do?
Mike: We would live here!!! We will live here till we die. It is THE best place in the world to live.

But let’s say Privilege, Manumission, all the parties ended tomorrow. No more clubs on the Island, what would you do?
Claire: Well we love what we do, but we love the Island more. We live on a farm, and we often speak about just being farmers, we would be perfectly happy just doing that!

So, any plans of a world tour, or to take Manumission back to the UK?
Mike: Only if the right offers come in, the Oscars or something ! We only do 12 parties a year... And we don’t want to filter the brand or dilute the quality of the party. If we were touring all winter, we wouldn’t be able to put the same level of work into the parties here on Ibiza, and for us that isn’t good enough.

What about The Manumission Motel. The Legendary, now demolished! Do you miss that time (read all about here  )?

Manumission and Ibiza are way beyond their level of coolness. Ibiza is a fusion and melting pot of THE cool people. If you don’t come you don’t know what you´ve missed!

Claire, Mike, thank you ...!!! for sparing me some time –
I know you are super busy! See you on Monday at Privilege!