The Next Experimental Wave For The Tastemaker DJ

The British super-DJ Pete Tong has maintained his status as a leading dance music tastemaker over several decades. But now the upfront BBC Radio 1 identity is tapping into clubland nostalgia. Come November, he'll join conductor Jules Buckley and The Heritage Orchestra to perform Ibiza Classics in Australia.

The 'DJ with orchestra' micro trend has emerged at a time of hyper-hybridisation and generational flux - attracting the likes of Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills, Flight Facilities and Australia's Ministry Of Sound crew. Tong's Ibiza Classics concept specifically accentuates the symphonic qualities of classic house and rave anthems. "There's a lotta love for this music - and the scene has evolved over the last 30 years," Tong says coincidentally from Ibiza. "I think the desire to just experience this music in new ways is higher than ever and that will account for why people are starting to experiment with this [format]."

The Kent soul boy was DJing in the late '70s. Today the multi-faceted Tong is most renowned for his various Radio 1 programs and as the founder of FFRR Records. He inspired the cockney rhyming slang, "It's all gone Pete Tong". Recently, Tong transplanted to Los Angeles for "a life change" - capitalising on America's EDM boom.

Tong partnered easily with Buckley's Heritage Orchestra - touted as a "renegade ensemble" - back in 2015. "They're quite hip guys, they're not 'classical' guys - they hate that term. They are modern symphony orchestra guys." They staged the Ibiza Prom (in tandem with The BBC Proms) at London's Royal Albert Hall, engaging vocalists Ella Eyre and John Newman. Tong and co subsequently developed it into a touring "arena production". Last November they issued the UK #1 album Classic House, featuring epic renditions of records by Fatboy Slim, Moby (the Twin Peaks theme-sampling Go), Frankie Knuckles, Inner City, Faithless and Rudimental - plus Rachel's Song from Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, as per Paul Oakenfold's Balearic re-imagining.

Tong's role in Ibiza Classics is that of a DJ, curator and creator director. Live, he provides what can't be reproduced by the musicians - "the euphoric elements that only exist on the record; some of the studio trickery." The Australian spectacular will entail a 65-piece orchestra, with Tong hinting at "guest stars". And, he assures, it's "very likely" that they'll air Robert Miles' dream trance hit Children from Classic House - the Italian's passing in May prompting emotional social media tributes. "So no worries on that score."

Tong is aware of his peers' orchestral manoeuvres. But, while respecting Mills' endeavours as an artistic "extension", Tong's approach is more accessible. "What I'm doing I think is completely different because it's celebrating the whole scene. I'm playing other people's tracks in a way that has never been done before. So that's part of the appeal of it. No, I haven't necessarily checked out people doing what I'm doing - and I don't really want to, 'cause I don't wanna be influenced by that," he laughs. "But I was among the first to do it, for sure. It's kind of flattering that other people have effectively copied the idea. Good luck to 'em!"