Pikes Hotel in Ibiza was known for its wild parties and extravagance, having attracted A-list guests including Freddie Mercury, Kate Moss, and Grace Jones over the years
Having set up Pikes Hotel in 1978, Anthony ‘Tony’ Pike’s Ibiza hotel soon became known for its extravagance. Over the years it attracted an array of famous faces, including Freddie Mercury, Kate Moss, Grace Jones, and Jade Jagger – and even now it remains an iconic part of the island. Sadly Tony died from prostate cancer in 2019.
The club – now known as Pikes Ibiza – first rose to fame when British pop group Wham! filmed their 1983 hit Club Tropicana there. Band singer George Michael got on so well with Tony that he even appeared in the video as a barman, The Sun reported. In the 2017 memoir Mr Pikes: The Story Behind The Ibiza Legend, Tony claimed George was “such a good-looking c***” and was “surprised” when they made “tender and passionate” love to each other.
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He wrote: “I said to him that he must pull so many women. He told me he was gay. ‘What a f***ing waste!’ I exclaimed. George roared with laughter. He’d probably heard that one a few times before, although his sexuality was a closely-guarded secret at that stage of his career.”
It wasn’t the only intimate tale Tony would reveal, once describing himself as a “sex addict”. He claimed to have bedded around 3,000 women including 80s Bond girl Grace Jones after the pair met at an orgy. “It was total darkness,” he said “All I could hear was music playing and the smell of sex and marijuana. Big candles had burnt down to give a dark loom of light . . . bodies were everywhere on the floor.”
Tony went on to say that he had the best sex of his life with the “entertaining and warm” Grace during their 15-month fling. “We’d walk in somewhere and the whole place would stop and just stare at her,” he said. “She had such an incredible allure.” In her 2015 autobiography, meanwhile, Grace said that Tony had an “enormous penis” and she was “happy to take care of it”.
Parties like Freddie Mercury’s 41st in September 1987, not long after the legendary singer’s AIDS diagnosis, pulled in a range of mega celebrities, who racked up a gigantic bar bill. Tony Curtis, Naomi Campbell, Spandau Ballet, and Bon Jovi all attend the event that a 1996 People magazine report said saw 350 bottles of champagne drunk, a firework display that could be seen from Majorca, and a dessert in the shape of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
That dessert collapsed and was replaced with a sponge cake two metres long featuring the notes of Freddie’s song ‘Barcelona’. The party ended after three days when the front of the hotel caught fire, leading to a wall collapsing. “Money was no object” for the Queen singer, Tony claimed. He said the rock legend “sought sanctuary in the hotel and wanted a party to remember”.
He added: “When I asked him about the budget he laughed and said there was none… We could freeze the pool and have skating elephants if we wanted. He just wanted it to be wild.”
Drugs were never too far away, Tony also claimed. He claimed he and Freddie would “often lie in bed for hours, talking, doing lines”. He added: “Freddie’s cocaine intake was off the scale at times… I don’t think he even thought about how much he was taking half the time. He’d say, ‘Tony, would you mind racking up again, please?'”
The use of drugs led to claims that cocaine was served up on cornflakes for guests, but Tony later said this would have been a “waste”. Nevertheless, the reputation of the resort grew and soon caught the attention of the authorities. Spanish singing superstar Julio Iglesias sorted it all out, according to Tony, when he invited the local police chief. Tony said: “We were standing by the pool bar next to each other and Julio put his arms around our necks and pulled us together in a headlock.
“Julio said, as he held us in the same position, ‘Now, I want you to be friends. You two are very important people on the island. If you fight, it will be disastrous for Ibiza.’ I was left alone after that, so thank you, Julio.”
In the 1990s, Tony looked to sell the club to Italian TV producer Enrico Forti. However, tragedy struck when Tony’s son Anthony ‘Dale’ Pike flew with Forti to Miami.
Dale was killed in February 1998, dumped in a forest after being shot in the head twice. Forti was convicted of Dale’s murder – but it was seen as a miscarriage of justice in Italy and Forti returned there last year.
