About The Book
The Motel is a love letter to a lost paradise: Ibiza in the 1990s. It's a celebration of all those people from around the world who came to a small Mediterranean island and became part of the swashbuckling adventure that was Manumission.
In 1998, with Manumission going into its fifth year, Mike and Claire borrowed a large amount of money from an armed German cocaine dealer and against all odds took over an abandoned brothel on the outskirts of Ibiza town and turned it into a 24-hour party destination – the most notorious venue of the decade – The Motel.
This is the story of the Motel but it’s also the story of Manumission. Over its fourteen-year history, over 1.5 million people attended the club, it was the biggest weekly party in the world earning it a place in the Guinness World Records. On the dancefloor young ravers rubbed shoulders with supermodels, rock stars, fashion designers, drug dealers, and the sporting elite – sharing a universal feeling of ecstasy – with zero violence – everyone partying in complete harmony.
With much of club culture currently under the spell of VIP service, corporate sponsoring and branding, The Motel is a timely reminder that life wasn't always that way.
The cover image of Claire at the Motel is by kind permission of the photographer Franck Sauvaire.
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