Ocean Beach Exposed: The Man Behind Ibiza’s Wildest Club - Tony Truman

0:00Who are you and what problem do you solve? Where was the first time you got the bug and you thought, this is something I really want to do? What does that actually look like behind the scenes with Wayne Lineker? Today's guest, Tony Truman, the man behind Obechi Bisa. I've been a business partner in the best part of 20 years. This persona, he's created for himself and it's been good for the business in many running ways. And again, that's been a role of hosting. You've got all these businesses, you've accomplished amazing things. You still go in, you're trying to break into Dubai now. Is there a point where it'll be enough?

0:34But the real question is, how do you keep Ocean Beach on top?

0:41Hello.

0:43Tony Truman:The sound from the guest's side was compromised for this episode. But if you can put up with it, you'll get so much from this. Enjoy. Tony Truman, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Lovely to be on board. Thank you for joining us. and so i'm going to kick off the same way i always do tony who are you and what problem do you solve what problem do i say um well obviously you know my name i've been a party promoter virtually all my life 42 years now and um i own a number of uh quite well-known hospitality businesses in the beautiful magical island of abeba and now in the sandpit desert of dubai Lovely.

1:27So yeah, that's who I am. I'm just a normal run-of-the-mill bloke with no, not born with a silver spoon in his mouth or anything like that. I've just worked my way up. Up the ladder, down the ladder, back up the ladder, down the ladder. I've never gave such a ladder in my life. Good. I like it. That's the way it should be. And the problems I solve? Yeah, the problems you solve. Constantly, daily, multiple. When you've got like, well, I think we're close to around 22 businesses, 1 ,500 staff. All day, every day, there's a problem. You know, in this industry, you never switch off. It literally is 24-7.

2:06So constantly fighting fires, especially the last few months here in Dubai. So, obviously, Tony, in your lifetime, you've probably lost count of the amount of parties that you've held. What do you think is the psychology behind a good party? Good people. I'm a little shadow of a doubt. I think some people think the bigger the party is, the better it is. But for me, that's not necessarily the truth, you know, because I believe when you do a party and you go above 500 to 1 ,000 people, I think you lose a certain intimacy of the party and it just comes like a concert and it's not really a party. I think for me anything under a thousand people you can really have a great party and with freedom of movement as well I think there's nothing worse than just being packed in like sardines of course everyone likes to be in a busy venue because it creates a vibe it creates an atmosphere but I think some of these places that you go in where you're so packed in you can't even get to the bar to get a drink you can't let the toilet you can't mingle for me that's not a good party I suppose everyone has different points of view on it and everything, but mine is a party where you can mingle and you can meet new people.

3:25Now, that's one of the things I still love about this job and I still get excited about each year is meeting new people. You know, my mum always says to me, you must know enough people by now, meet two wives and still want to meet more. It's a big, bad world out there. You don't know who you're going to meet, you don't know what you're going to know, and you never know what might be an outcome. So, Tony, when you look back then, where was the first time you got the bug and you thought, this is something I really want to do? That's, you know, I've actually said this quite a few times. That night I walked in the original crew club in Ibiza when I was 15 years of age.

4:02And, well, Sam I walked in, went down the dragon and into a pool. It was incredible. It just blew me away. I was a boy from Surrey, a young boy, 15-year-old schoolboy, had just been kicked out, used to doing parties in a youth club or sneaking in the back room of a pub or a rugby club or a local cricket club, football club and stuff like that. I wasn't really a clubbing person, apart from the local ones, which I just mentioned. And then to suddenly go into this metropolis of hedonism and seeing all this and the weird and wonderful characters dressed like I've never seen anything or I shouldn't say dressed actually because most of them didn't have a lot on it so just wow that that moment was a real defining moment it's really weird I can still remember what I had on I can still remember the guys I went with literally what they had on this gorgeous Welsh girl I pulled in the pool that night I can remember her I can remember so much about it and it was like I want to do this I want to do this even when I rolled in, I think about seven o 'clock that morning.

5:10So I've gone on a family holiday. I was like, mum, mum, this is what I want to do. This is that. She was like, oh yeah, do you, mum? I've got to be in the paper for it. That's interesting, isn't it? Because I've been to Ibiza, and like I'm sure a lot of people listening have, and I think there's a big difference between someone going in and being this is amazing to go in, actually, I want to do this and I want to be a club promoter and I want to run nightclubs. And what's the transition? and what was the bit in you that said, actually, I don't just want to go to these things, I want to be behind the scenes and building something?

5:43I think back then I was more like, I want to go to these things. You know, I think, you know, as a young entrepreneur, perhaps I was, because I'd already thrown my first party a couple of months before this, I'd be for holiday. But I was, that sort of gave me more of a, I think, a touch to saying, yes, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do or what this is what I want to be part of. I want to maybe live in Ibiza or work in Ibiza. I didn't have to think about it. I want to run a swimming pool club and that wasn't really on my radar. Nothing in my pocket. That dream was a long way off.

6:22I think it was just more about the lifestyle and just not just that and even going to the West End and San Antonio at that time which was you know the real cool place to be as well. I'm going in the bars up there you know, on the happy hours and things like that. I think just that whole working abroad environment I was seduced with more so than anything. And it's funny because a lot of people now who when I do the employment, which I still do for our group, we go around the country and meet all these people and they're so excited at their, you know, their ages of 18 to sort of 30 that we employ, still so excited to get a job in Ibiza because they think it's going to change their life.

7:02and which it does for many of them you know a lot of you know my friends have like it's really changed their life coming to work in ibiza and that's without probably without the big dream that i had they've got their own dream being a waitress or a hostess or behind the bar or shut girl they just want to be part of the ibiza lifestyle and the ibiza family and you know getting out of their normal monday nights i suppose i love that and then tony when i was when we were like 16 17 18 me and Zach have been best friends for coming up to 17, 18 years now. So when we were younger, every school would have a few different people that would run like nightclubs or underage nightclubs or whatever.

7:40And you'd go to some and some of them would be the best party. And then you'd go to some and there'd only be like 10 people there. So it feels like from an early age, you had some of the traits that could entice people. I don't know what it was, whether it was charisma, a marketing expert. what what do you think some of those early signs were that you had that made people go yeah i want to sign up to this yeah i think um obviously you know you guys are a lot younger than me and uh at that time i when i was like 14 15 16 i didn't know one other promoter i didn't know anyone putting on parties you know it was there wasn't i don't even think there was a thing that promoter parties at that sort of age not that i was aware of anyway um it was for me it was you know i knew I was a pretty popular kid in school, you know, I used to run all the little sort of things going on and whatever, you know, we'd just do all my days and all the football on me.

8:35At lunchtime every day, you know, I'd be in my community. I suppose that organisation was more of a skill set I had and I didn't think, oh my God, I'm going to throw all these lavish parties or anything like that. But I knew it was popular because I was going somewhere at the weekend, a lot of my friends would come or blah, blah, blah. But that was just like a youth club and things like that. remember there was no social media then, there was no mobile phones. If you said to someone, I'll meet you there next Saturday at 1 o 'clock, you would be there. And you had no form of communication to that person apart from your word.

9:08And I think that's one thing that's changed massively in the world now, is people used to give their word then and pretty much stick to it. I think now people are very flaky, they cancel at the drop of a hat and stuff like that. But back in that day, you said something, it's like, like as good as a handshake. I'll be there, you know, old school. Even now when I do deals, I deal with a handshake because I'm old school like that. And I think, so being a promoter wasn't really, again, on my radar. It was literally when I got kicked out of school and I was so desperate to go to the school party. They'd organised it themselves, the teachers, the master and everything.

9:46And then my mum, and I couldn't go. and my mum said, well, you're probably the kid, do your own party. So I think it was literally hard words to me saying, do your own party. You know, I think that was the turning point. And then when I'd done that party and all the kids came to my party, I was like, wow, I'm cool, I'm a leader sort of thing. But again, at such a young age, you know, you don't actually even really think of, you know, you don't think, oh, I'm going to turn this into a business or anything. But it was on the success of that and then after my Ibiza trip I came back and I had done a Halloween party or a New Year's Eve party, something like that.

10:28And then everyone started coming to that and I thought, wow, this is good. And also I was saying, this is a great way to meet girls. I'm not going to lie, there was no money in it. There wasn't for many, many years, but there was plenty of women along the way. And that's what inspired me and all my boy mates. you know what you like at that age you're excited about women and having a small value and things like that really there wasn't the sort of sexual conversations like there are today with the youth market well it wasn't was it it was so so different you saw a girl's food you're like mega excited very very different world we live in now everyone is about half naked yeah the world is ever changing um I I was listening to a study recently talking about uh popular children at school so it's kind of taking me off on a bit of a tangent and it said um a large reason that people were popular at school where they were genuinely interested in other people so obviously you've you've built up an empire we can we can call it an Ibiza empire you've got businesses all around the world what what are some of those soft skills that you are proud of that you feel have actually made you, I guess, the man you are today and the entrepreneur that you are today?

11:46What people say about me is say I'm very in touch with them. And like, you know, being a boss of one of the bosses of the company, I'm very on the floor with my staff. You know, there's that TV show, isn't there, Back to the Floor? I'm very much like that. I think because I've experienced, you know, cleaning, glass collecting, working on a bar, cleaning the crap up and stuff like that. I've been on the street as a promoter. So I think I can understand people on all levels and all walks of life. I think when you're a PR on the street, as long as I was in the canaries many years ago, you know, meeting people from all walks of life and all different cultures and backgrounds and nationalities, I think I learned a real good sense of people skills and judgment of character.

12:33And like you just said, you know, you're talking about you two being friends for a long time. I think if you look at myself, I've still got a lot of the pals I grew up with, friends from school, friends from teenage years, friends from early years of partying, really all my circle, the closest, closest people in my life, people I've known all my life. So when I'm being a prick, they tell me I'm being a prick and stuff like that, you know, and they're not just blowing smoke up my arse because they work for me or something like that. So I think probably my biggest, softest thing thing is my personal personal really I would say and understanding situations because a lot of people have money worries in the world, I've been there, I've been skint I've been there about a few quid, I've lost it again so I understand all those things as well really and I think it's my mum always says stay humble and I think I've managed to try and do that as best as I can I think the other thing that jumps out with entrepreneurs, and I'm sure this will resonate with you, is this appetite for risk.

13:41It's like I'm comfortable in the risky moments. I don't mind putting it all on black sometimes. So what can you tell us about maybe the first big risk you took in your entrepreneurial career that paid off and what made you do it? My first big, I'll tell you about my last one. Yeah, tell us that. My first big risk was not going to college or university or anything like that and getting a trade, getting a trade I would say, because obviously it was very different than education as well. You know, a lot of the boys came out of school and became a plumber or a bricklayer or, you know, my set of good friends did anyway, you know, they weren't anywhere, they'd like to say there was no internet technology like that.

14:28and all the girls became hairdressers or beauticians and things like that in that sort of early 80s period. And a lot of the other people were going off, you know, the people in the higher streams at school and were going off to college and universities and things like that. And I was going, no, I don't want to do any of that. You know, I really wanted to just go and get a job as a labouring so I could have a few bits, you know, a bit of money so I could pay for my next party and things like that. that was really i was i was more interested in the fast but as such back then because where all my friends were doing apprenticeships and getting absolutely shocking money i went out and got a job as a labor on a building site that probably paid me three times what my friends were doing but they were studying and learning and education i just wanted to have enough money to pay for my next venues deposit really and and now even now you know this year we took a massive leap out of our comfort zone.

15:25We've had a very successful business in Ibiza for the best part of probably 20 years now and we took a real risk and gamble going into Dubai. A lot of people say, why are you doing it? You do it fantastic. Do you need the stress? Do you need the risk factor? Do you need to put so much money into it? Do you need to do that? Of course, when you do something like that, you question yourself, you question your partners, you have meetings about it but sometimes you've got to get out of your comfort zone you've got you've got to take risks you've got to take gambles like you say you've got to put it all on and you've got to go for it you know there's many other people who've like opened up businesses overseas around the world and big organizations and you know that was always a bit of a dream of ours and also it tests your brand test your brand and uh like what we're going through at the moment is literally going back to old school promoting here in Dubai.

16:19It's really, really brought us back to the floor. Instead of resting on your laurels, whether I choose to do it again, that's a different question.

16:32But once you're in it, you've got to crack on it and make the most of it yourself the best you can. I'm enjoying this challenge, even though it's been fraught with difficulties in many, many different sectors. sectors, I'm setting this up over here. I'm actually enjoying the challenge and I'm a great believer. I know we can make things work. You know, I think that's one thing you've got to have as an entrepreneur. You're going to have down days, you're going to have up days. You've got to have your self-belief in what you do and what you know and what your brand is. So I suppose when you look at the journey now based on the different risks that you've taken, how different has it been compared to what you expected?

17:10Completely different. Completely different. I'll tell you one of the biggest things about Dubai, I spoke about this the other day, which shocked us. I'm talking about flagship business here at Obeach, and they have lots of sister businesses. Obeach and Ibiza is probably 65 % female who book six months, five months, four months, three months in advance, pay their deposits, book their beds, plan their holidays, and their own hen parties, birthday celebrations, divorce celebrations, you name it, they do break up situations. And all these girls are so super frowned out and efficient, where the guys always loves minute dot com, blah, blah, blah, put their bed a couple of days before they're coming, you know what we like.

17:55But the girls are so meticulous in their planning and everything, and they don't mind spending. Women now have great jobs, a lot of them are too better than men in what they earn and everything like that and good luck to them and they don't mind spending any big but in dubai wow it's shocking really that everything out here for females is free you you can't you can't comprehend you can be a female girl here doesn't matter what age what you look like where you're from your status in life you can go out seven days a night seven days a week literally 18 hours a day to all the top races and all your food and all your drinks for it's insane it's insane i knew when we've done our research and obviously been going to dubai for a long long time we knew that obviously there was a lot of ladies days and brunches and you do the deals and the discounted drinks and happy hours that's always been a thing out here but since covid where the world you know came to a standstill but Dubai didn't it pretty much acted as normal and every single influencer in the world virtually descended on a bit on Dubai during that period all the hotels were giving out freebies to so that they would influence their hotel their beach club their restaurant and literally since then this culture has remained of like everyone thinks they're an influencer everyone thinks they're deserving of free stuff, which is in their entitlement.

19:30You know, to be honest, we had three absolute fine girls. We've got a decent following. Come to the beach club today. You know, we gave them a couple of complimentary platters of food and a bottle of wine and some jugs of sangria. And they still said, oh, we thought we were going to get a five-course free meal and bottles of champagne. It's like, you haven't a laugh. The expectancy out here is shocking and it's very attractive. It doesn't matter, you make me look at these three girls and I'm like, wow, you've just shown your ugly side of you and everything like that. And I think that's something that has really caught us by surprise.

20:09Talking to my other friends who are in venues out here and who are in hospitality, they've said this is something in the last year, obviously it's happened since COVID, but this last year, even six months, it's gotten more and more prevalent. All these agencies have opened up saying, oh, I've got 10 ,000 gallons, I've got 5 ,000 gallons, pay us money, we'll send them all for nothing. You think, okay, yeah, that's great for promotion, but not only do they want to come for nothing, they want to eat and drink for nothing. It's madness. And they're eating up their own hospitality environment and something's got to change about it.

20:45And I'd like to say, I don't know what to do last week I was quite vocal on it and I know quite a few of my friends like as I just said are starting to become vocal about it it's it's terrible it's really not good for the world. So that's as an entrepreneur that's quite an interesting problem so I'm sure that you've sat down with business partners and marketing so like I'm I love like problem solution and firefighting so how do you how do you propose that you solve that problem then what what are the plans in place how are you thinking about that what we're thinking about that is you've got to do it to a certain extent especially when you're a new business um which we don't like but what we're actually doing when we realize the first month these girls were coming in just sitting there not getting in the vibe of the party just sitting there on their phones doing it was all for self gain it wasn't for the help of the business oh lovely this business is giving me food food and drink, I'm going to smother it in posts and social media and tell all my friends to come, fly up with the guys, try and get the rock sale, buy bottles, you know, that's the nature of the business here.

21:51But they weren't even doing that. It was just all about them sitting there, taking the pictures, posing, helping. So now, the way we've done it, we're doing it like, okay, well, if we are giving you that and you are going to do that, you've got to give us this in return. you know we're putting we're putting steeper um bigger bigger uh things in front of them to say okay for this entitlement you get this and gradually obviously we would like to phase it out um but obviously this business is only literally 11 weeks old 12 weeks old so it's still in very early infancy stage so we've got to go with the flow on it a little bit but tone it back and only really give it to people we think are fully deserving i like that i like that fighting fires i mean i'm sure it's nothing you're not used to um tony i i run a business with my best friend we've been running this we're in our fourth year now obviously you've got a business partner who um is also in the public eye what what does that actually look like behind the scenes with wayne lineker um i think i've known wayne a long time we've been business partners best part of 20 years now and i obviously knew wayne back then i was the person to get him on social media so it's partly my fault and uh but you know what he's created for himself and it's funny when the other day i was looking at some early pictures of ho beach and stuff like that when he did it he used to go on the stage he didn't have any tattoos he didn't have any cosmetic surgery He looked like a total different fella and the way he was and everything.

23:33And this persona he's created for himself and we've let him run with it with the business because it's been good for the business in many, many ways. And again, that's been a bit of a roller coaster because obviously when we get a bit of flack here, there and people digging us out and stuff, Wayne tends to take that track. So for him, he's very thick-skinned and with Wayne, his intentions, you know, I'm not an inside out, his intentions are always at heart. He's got a very good, very good, kind heart. I know a lot of people are slagging for the young girls, but if they actually do it, he's not off with young girls.

24:11He has pictures with loads of girls, loads of guys, everything. But just when things come out in the press, I think people, you know, it's a lot of our We love to build people up and bring them down. Wayne doesn't do anything particularly wrong, he might do the old stupid immature thing, but again, he's known a lot of immature people in this business, people who are drunk and you know what and stuff. In general, he's a top fella, you just, all he wants to do, he doesn't care about money, he just wants to have a good time, he wants to have a laugh and he wants to enjoy himself. I don't think there's any harm in that and it's just a shame really the things that get said about him because if you've actually got to know him he's a lot different from this portrayal in public.

24:57And I'm sure that I'm fascinated because me and Zach we will have our own disagreements behind the camera and we'll have words. I guess when it comes to business partners and conflict and making the right choices how do you how do you approach those situations and how do you solve them if you've got one idea and Wayne's got another um well the thing is Wayne's involved in the business as like uh as an owner and obviously this uh public face he does with the social media and everything he's not involved in any of the operations and any of the the nuts and bolts of the company that's his son Dwayne who's absolutely unbelievable and myself and him you know there's five of us in our partnership myself and Dwayne who run the business from you know I always say he's the spreadsheet on the dance floor but it's you know we're in that position but it's a team effort there's Gemma there's George there's Maxie our other partner who's very heavily involved there's Tony at the wheelchair our other partner um they're more in the background but obviously and any key decisions, anything that's big or impactful in the company or anything new going forward, of course that all comes down to owners having their own meetings and we have the odd fallout or disagreement and stuff like that.

26:17But in the end I think we've all been in it for too long and we know what's right, we know what's wrong, some of us make the wrong decisions, we let them roll with it and you know partnerships, partnerships about it you know you've got to listen to each other and understand each other and not one person's a leader of that partnership you just all got to sort of guide each other along the way so yeah you know it's it's a team it's a massive team like say it's from the hostess at the front from the head of security everyone's involved in it you know it's not just all about one person and it's funny because i I know a lot of people think Wayne runs it and stuff like that.

26:57And, you know, he's got his thing going on with the Beach Club, which is very, very good. But in the actual everyday realm of it, it's myself and Dwayne and Maxey a lot more in the last few years as well. So, yeah, thought times at many occasions, but lots of happy times as well. So it swings around about slightly, isn't it? You sparked a thought before that I thought you'd have the best insight of probably anyone we've spoken to. status and the status game so people will have come in before and wanted to play a i'm the guy tonight i'm either for the girls or i'm just the alpha male in the club tonight what are some of the maddest ways some people say i'm i'm the vip this evening and trying to assert that that status and that dominance we don't really get that if i'm honest we don't get people coming thinking and it's the big shot or anything like that i think they all do in their own little things i think when you come to ibiza it's so for so many there's always a gangster there but there's a not a bigger gangster over there there's always a beautiful girl but there's a even more beautiful girl there's a rich guy but there's a rich guy there's you know it's so full of people from all from being men to billionaires i always say like they you don't really no one is no one is better than anyone.

28:18I always say, you know, a big advocate of this is if you're paying£5 to get in the club or you're paying£500, you're the same, you're treated the same, everyone's stripped there, everyone's an equal. Okay, obviously, you know, when you get your big celebrities in like the Red Sheerans and Lewis Carpenter and Connoburgators, of course, they're more like iconic things, so that's that's different being your average day-to-day customer but there again ed comes in ed's normal ed wants to pay for his drink ed wants to have a drink with us he wants to go nimble with the crowd and have a beer with boys he doesn't know you know it's people i don't know it just over each other sense of just speaking people on social media they look you know they pose with the big bubbles and the tattoos and all the big watches most of them are faithful anyway to go along with the teeth and everything like that but you know it's uh it's people you know people want to be a millionaire today they sort of live the day and stuff and they live out this fantasy you know we all want to try and uh you know get out of our own zoning online sometimes don't we so they want to act um charlie big potato someday happy days there's a few different ways i I could take that, but we'll have to take a little quick detour to Conor McGregor when he came.

29:38So you said Ed Sheeran came and he was wanting to get amongst the people a bit and have a drink with you. Conor McGregor the same? I don't know where you saw it, but he was jumping off the stage, diving in the crowd, doing shots with random people. And just like, you know, walking the front door, didn't want to come around the back. And same with Conor McGregor, didn't want to come around the back. He wanted to walk through the front. But that was like, that was more of a ring ball. He was actually like a superstar that day. The fair playroom had just had the biggest fight of his life and stuff like that.

30:11But we try to treat these people just as normal as well. But sometimes it's hard to do. But we get a lot of footballers, pop stars, rock stars. Everyone comes to Ibiza with the same common denominator. Unless you have a good time, get away from them. all your life, meet new people and have a good crack with like-minded people. But there's some mental situations as well, people getting in such a mess and stuff like that. It's hilarious. I love people watching. I swear to God, you sit at my table in a club, you spend half the day talking about laughing at people, not laughing at them, you're laughing with them because it's just like, oh my God, I've done that, I've done that, we've done that, she's done that.

30:58It's just like people on their first holiday, you can see what's going to happen. They're going to get burnt. They're going to be in the medical room like four in the afternoon and just like they're going to lose their shoes. Everyone's saying they're being spiked. Yeah, really. It's just it's madness. It's madness. That goes on for everything really. It's got a lot of experience. And you've been doing this for 20 years. So I guess what are some of those, when you look back on it all, what are some of those core memories that just jump straight to the front of your mind the core memory is probably my uh obviously the ed sheeran was a very very proud moment actually having someone like ed in the club up on the stage drinking with him singing looking at his phone the words and just chilling having a laugh totally unscripted that was a very special moment but me personally well i've been doing my True's Do's parties for 30-40 years.

31:56I had my 30th anniversary of True's Do's in there and my daughter was about seven I think at the time and she came to swing, hanging down from the crane singing a song and all my family there, very very proud moments that was like really took me back to why I wanted to come to a beat in the first place because of the way I'm Club in 1983 when I walked in the pool and seeing all I had 2 ,000 of my best friends in there that had literally come out specially for that party. And I was like, wow, I've cracked it, not cracked it in a business sense, I've cracked it in how I feel this is my dream come true.