On Saturday nights between 9pm and midnight, our Sunset Terrace and The Pikes Restaurant share a secret weapon of sorts. Well, we’ve tried to keep it on the down low, but over time, the secret has gotten out. So… come a little closer, if you don’t already know, and let us tell you the not-so-secret tale of the one, the only, the inimitable, the unstoppable… THE PIKES HOUSE BAND!
The Pikes House Band are – as the name suggests – our very own in-house talented troupe of musicians and artists. What started as a little jam-style experiment a few years ago has morphed into an all-singing, all-strutting, all-tooting weekly performance that has everyone up out of their seats and on the floor in minutes. Starring the one and only singer and songwriter, queen of banter and owner of the mightiest voice, BLONDEWEARINGBLACK, alongside incredible local award-winning musician and composer, Pere Navarro – who can tinkle the ivories while tooting all types of trumpets, horns and more, all while dressed to the nines in some incredibly curated outfits – plus his talented saxophone-touting compadre, Franco Botto, and DJ du dujour, Antonio Blakstad, who chimes in on keys and bass – the Pikes House Band truly reign the terrace on Saturday nights with their blend of house classics, impromptu jams and original tracks.
The origins of the Pikes House Band hark back to the not-too-long-ago era when we weren’t supposed to mingle or dance, and in order to socialise in public, we had to politely and reservedly eat and drink at tables two metres apart in the open air. Remember that? Well, desperate times called for creative measures, so the team from Pikes invited BLONDEWEARINGBLACK – aka Samantha Smith, a long-time friend of the Pikes family and regular performer here since 2014 – to put her own unique spin on the dinner-and-a-show concept in our restaurant. Alongside the Pikes resident DJs, she’d put twists on blues, soul and jazz covers, throwing in some house classics for good measure and it was a hit, with the weekly performance (dubbed ‘A Night With BLONDEWEARINGBLACK’) selling out repeatedly.
The following year, when restrictions were lifted (hallelujah!), rather than revert back to our usual Pikes House Party programming of DJs, we decided to take the dinner-show concept up a notch. Local duo, Pizza 4 Brkfst (featuring the aforementioned born-and-bred Ibiza musicians, Pere Navarro and Franco Botto), were enlisted – alongside Samantha and the Pikes resident DJs – to collaborate and form the Pikes House Band. We didn’t know exactly what would happen (would it go downhill? Would it go sideways? Would it be chaos? Or would it be magical?) when we put them all in that very first rehearsal session together, but fortunately the result was the latter. Something very special was born that day in 2021… and the Pikes House Band have never looked back.
Over the years, the line-up has evolved and now permanently features talented DJ Antonio Blakstad (another local talent who performs alongside Pere and Franco as the Rhythm & Bliss trio) providing the beats that are the backbone of each performance. The live show too, has evolved – as an integral part of the Pikes House Party experience on a Saturday night, we decided to open it up to one and all on the Sunset Terrace rather than just limit the performances to dinner, which means that now, the Pikes House Band (just like Pikes itself) is for everybody.
Of course, booking a table for dinner in The Pikes Restaurant does guarantee you score the best seats in the house – right in front of the band, with BLONDEWEARINGBLACK stepping out and strutting her stuff (in sky-high Terry de Havilland heels, no less) around the tables when the mood strikes. “We feel so humbled playing at Pikes,” says Samantha of the dream gig. “It’s like walking around a piece of history. You can just imagine Grace Jones, Freddie Mercury and Wham! all being here. I get goosebumps when I think about it. Pikes still has that same spirit and and it attracts all these crazy but amazing people who just want to be a part of it. We make new friends and connections every week (and occasionally end up back in people’s hotel rooms!). I don’t know anywhere else in the world where that happens.”
While we don’t want to give too much away – after all, some of you reading this blog might be first-timers to Pikes (and on that note, welcome!). But if you’ve never had the pleasure of watching the Pikes House Band perform live, perhaps this will serve as the inspiration you need to book a table. The night begins with classic covers you might know, love and remember from the island’s iconic sunset scene many moons ago – think Air’s All I Need, Morcheeba’s The Sea and Zero 7’s Destiny. Even if you’re not old enough to remember them, there’s just something so Balearic about the vibe that it’s impossible not to get swept up in the emotion.
Whether you’re tucking into your starters, or you’re ordering cocktails on the terrace, you can tell you’re in for a treat from the very first bars played. “Every week is different,” explains Samantha of the Pikes House Band’s ever-evolving set list (all the more reason to see them multiple times!). “It’s a journey, starting out chilled and ending with everyone on their feet before they go into Freddies. The music we select is specifically for Pikes – it’s important to us that we play songs that guests know and love, with a nod to some of the most famous guests who’ve ever stayed at Pikes like George Michael, Grace Jones and Kylie – but there’s nothing cheesy in there. There are no rules really. We jam, we ad-lib and we trust the flow.”
As the vibes pick up, so too does the pace as musically, the journey turns to jazzy re-edits – think Kylie’s Slow, Amy Winehouse’s Me & Mr Jones – and then pivots to original material fused with electronic classics, such as Kraftwerk’s Computer Love or The xx’s Intro, both intertwined with original lyrics and vocals by BLONDEWEARINGBLACK. “When you see people put their knives and forks down to start filming, that feels really special – especially when it’s something you’ve written,” says Samantha. “So much of it is improvised too. Sometimes Pere will do an amazing flourish on the keyboard that we’ve never heard before, and I’ll just turn around and be like, wow, that’s beautiful. The guys are always feeling the music – they’re all so ridiculously talented. Pere can have one hand on a trumpet and one hand on the keys and the sounds that flow naturally are amazing. Franco plays an alto sax and a soprano sax, and he just automatically knows exactly which one suits each song’s instrumental needs. And then Antonio flips back and forth between the keys and the bass while he’s Djing.”
Some of the tunes covered by the Pikes House Band also pay homage to acts who’ve graced Ibiza Rocks and Freddies stage over the years, with Artic Monkeys and Groove Armada featured in the setlist alongside Crazy P. And there’s more: Sault, MJ Cole, Toni Braxton, Madonna, Roy Davis Jr, Chris Isaak (notably, Wicked Game, during which BLONDEWEARINGBLACK holds the final note for five bars while her bandmates give her vocal chords a run for their money), Rui Da Silva and others get the Pikes House Band treatment.
Towards the end of the set, the Sunset Terrace is completely full, with the back wall filled with people who’ve been stopped in their tracks by the music as they were on their way to Freddies. “People definitely come back again and again,” says Samantha of the Pikes House Band devotees. “You’ll see them every year, or even a few times in a season. That’s why we change the show each week, we don’t ever want it to feel stagnant. It’s so special to us because we only perform together once a week, but Pikes always feels like a family. It’s so fun and we love getting to share our favourite Ibiza tracks with so many different, new and wonderful people.”
Book dinner at The Pikes Restaurant to find out for yourself – but be quick! Reservations fill up fast, each and every week…
