Rik and Ben in Ibiza 1985 – Update

Rik Ben and Andy in Ibiza

Thank You to: Andy Palmer

Andy got in touch with me, he had been browsing the website and was extremely thrilled to see the post about Rik and Ben performing in Ibiza. Chris’ photos from the original post brought back some very happy summer memories for Andy, as he was lucky to be at one of the shows himself. Here is what he remembers:

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I am 100% sure it was August 1985. My parents had friends who lived on Ibiza for a while and that was the last year I went away with them.

I can remember reading a tabloid paper on the flight going out and reading a snippet in the show biz pages that said Rik was playing some shows in Ibiza and was so excited when I saw it was while we were there. 

Everyone knew Rik from his Kevin Turvey and Young Ones appearances, but Ben was known by name only as co-writer of the Young Ones. It wasn’t until 1986 when he made his debut on Saturday Live.

I was 16 at the time. Our friends had a son, Simon, who was my age and his best mate Jonathan from England was staying too. I don’t know which night we went but there was quite a few people there, maybe up to a hundred. The club, the Heartbreak Hotel was in Port des Torrent, on the outskirts of San Antonio. A little club with a stage and a dance floor.

I can remember the support band being a terrible rock covers band doing lewd covers of Bruce Springsteen songs and getting heckled. It was really late before Ben came on, well passed midnight and the crowd was getting a bit tetchy. We nearly left! I’m so glad we didn’t.

As I mentioned Ben was unknown at that time and he bounced on, straight into his motormouth routine. We were crying. I’d never seen anything so funny. He must have done most of the material he used on the first series of Saturday Live.

Then the main event. I can remember Rik as Kevin pretending not to come on as he was scared. Maybe this was the giraffe bit and then he came on. I’d forgotten he was dressed in a rabbit suit. He did a set as Kevin, before he unzipped and had dressed as Rik. I can remember him snorting at us and sticking to fingers up at us. 

I can’t remember the routines but it was so funny that it hurt. Crying laughing, so much that we asked Rik to stop so we could breathe. It really was that funny. After the show we grabbed some posters off the walls of the club, sadly I’ve lost mine. 

The whole holiday was spent repeating one liners and doing Rik impressions. 

Such happy times. 

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Wonderful happy summer memories from Andy there. Please get in touch if you were there too, what do you remember?

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Rik, Ben and Chris in Ibiza

Thank You to: Chris Marks

It’s always very exciting to see pictures of Rik I’ve never seen before. Especially when they are from the early days of Alternative Comedy and capturing a moment in time, that was only seen by a handful of people.

So when Chris got in touch and sent me a few photos of what he’d recently found hiding at his Mum’s, from he thought 1980/81? ish, he wasn’t too sure when. I got very excited. He knew there were also other photos hiding in his loft too and said he would dig them out for me.

In the early 80’s Chris had gone on holiday to Ibiza with some friends. He’d seen Rik on TV as Kevin Turvey and was also aware that there was a buzz about this ‘Alternative Comedy’ scene breaking out. He saw the poster and thought, let’s go!  He recalls them not coming on stage until about 2am, but thankfully was fit and sober, and glad he stayed. Luckily for us he also had his camera with him, was sat right at the front on the floor with, can you believe only about 20 or so other audience members! Ben performed first, then ‘Kevin’ who stood behind the curtain talking as Kevin Turvey, trying to convince the audience that he was dressed as a giraffe, before then coming out in a rabbit costume, later Rik then stripped off and performed as ‘Rick’.

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What was Rik thinking, wearing a fury rabbit costume, it was the middle of August in Ibiza. Look at their sunburn!!

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2019

Chris, like me, had tickets to see Ben Elton on his 2019 tour and was planning to take the poster and some of his photos, in the hope of catching Ben before or after the show for him to sign. Chris got lucky again and bumped into Ben before the show – he’d just been to Sainsbury’s for his tea!! Chris told me that they had a good chat, especially about the show in Ibiza, where Ben said it was ‘crazy’ and though it was from 1986. Ben loved the poster and photo of Rik and very happily signed them both for Chris.

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Big big thanks to Chris for unearthing these photos that have been hiding away from view and for letting me share them here for all you fans around the globe to now see and enjoy.

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