We chat with Pete Tong about why Liverpool’s his second home and the big gig he’d love to play here

Legendary DJ Pete Tong has made no secret of his love for Liverpool, and he reveals there’s one particular gig he’d love to play here.

He’s bringing his brand new Ibiza Classics show to Aintree Racecourse on Friday June 16, with him on the decks and a 65-piece orchestra playing some massive club anthems.

And he says it feels like a special homecoming for a couple of reasons.

“Liverpool has always been my second spiritual home in terms of my career as a DJ and it’s touched me in such a unique way,” he explains. 

“Looking back, when I first got onto Radio One in 1991, people didn’t travel that much around the country. If you were in the south, you stayed in the south and if you were in the north you stayed in the north. 

“It was only about that time that DJs started to travel around the country and I was lucky enough to be part of those early Cream line-ups. I never went full residency mode but I was there six, seven, maybe eight times a year, so I built up a special relationship with the city that had a massive influence on me.

“Coming to Aintree, I think we’re going to have an amazing time and there’ll definitely be some Cream and Circus classics in the show. Everyone gets dressed up for the races as well so it’s almost as crazy as a club sometimes, coming on after a day at the races. 

“My late dad was a bookie so I grew up with Aintree and the Grand National being the biggest day of the year for us, which tortured by mother because he’d end up losing a lot of money if the favourite won.

“We’re not quite doing the Grand National this time, but I wish we were one day!”

Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics is on from 9.15pm at the racecourse after a full evening of racing which starts at 5.15pm. It’s unlike any other club classical show, bringing together not just DJ and orchestra but an incredible visual effects and sound production in one enormous celebration. 

In fact, it’s so good it even has a royal fan. Pete was invited to open the Coronation Concert for King Charles in the grounds of Windsor Castle and had a specific request for an Ibiza Classics track list.

“When we started this in 2015 we thought it was going to be a one-off show,” he says. “I think the reason we’re still doing it today and it’s snowballed, lucky for us, is because of the way we put the shows together. 

“Inside the 65-piece orchestra there’s a very contemporary band using a lot of electronics and me firing in a lot of electronic digital stems which create the euphoria around modern dance music. It’s the blend of the traditional and the future that makes it special and everything’s live, created on that stage.

“My original ambition was always to create a very unique tribute to the music, to the songwriters and the performers who made these tracks. 

“A lot of them were made by solo performers in dark rooms in Chicago, New York, Detroit, back in the late 80s, early 90s, on the only one machine that was available to them. Back in the day, with the underground house and techno scene, there weren’t the budgets or the know-how to even contemplate real players on it and in some ways they didn’t want to, it was all about using these new machines. 

“Here we are 30 or 40 years later, and they’re being played by real musicians at scale and I think that just creates a real magic about it.”

Aintree will be the first full Ibiza Classics show Pete Tong has played outdoors for 2023, with a new track listing that he’s keeping under wraps until the night.

“I think if you’ve never seen the show before you get one level of surprise and if you have seen it many times before I like the idea that you still don’t know what’s coming next,” he says. “Our catalogue of tracks is over 150 so every show we can pull from that 150 and put together the 20 or 25 that we do on the day.

“It is different to my usual sets, but really really enjoyable. I always said that DJing on your own is like driving a very nice sports car and playing with the orchestra is like being behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.”

To book your tickets for Pete Tong at Aintree Racecourse click HERE.