For me this party was and always will be more about the show and the venue, rather than the music, which I suspect Mr Guetta won't be too happy about considering his much featured album on the night is titled 'Nothing But The Beat'. Whilst I suspect you would all gather that the David Guetta sphere of music isn't exactly my number 1 choice of environment to party in, I can see the positives, and I can appreciate the draw of a party like this.
In attending with my friends who were visiting on holiday, and for whom a David Guetta party is like filthy, nasty porn to their ears, you can't help but get wrapped up in the hillarity and fun of it all. We had girls in thongs thrashing around in inflatable balls, more girls in thongs (probably) hanging precariously, and in almost cartoon fashion, from a load of balloons, and more visually entertaining pleasantries based around barely dressed and impossibly toned ladies and gents. Whilst admittedly I spent a fair portion of the time they were performing wondering what it would be like if the balls/balloons popped, it did look good... as you can see from the photos.
Really though, when I think about it, any music could be playing, if you're with a group of friends, sharing a few ridiculously expensive beers, having a laugh, then really... what does it matter who and what's playing? OK, this is more a case for when I'm with people who don't know their Calvin Harris' from their Kerri Chandler's (nothing to do with 'Friends' I'm afraid guys, nice guess though), but the point is the same. I went into this party with an open mind, and I did have a laugh!
Calvin Harris did his usual thing, crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser - my friends knew the words to almost every track. To see their faces light up when Axwell & Dirty South's remix of 'Sweet Disposition' (original by Temper Trap) played out, and they sung along, was a sweet moment. Bless them. The music policy was much the same for both Calvin Harris and David Guetta - two heavyweights of the commercial house scene - throughout the night. Many a Calvin Harris and Guetta track was played, such as 'Louder Than Words', 'Wild One Two', 'I Can Only Imagine', 'Turn Me On', 'Without You' and 'We'll Be Coming Back'. In fact, the whole of Guetta's latest album seems to have been played, track 1 through 10, much to the delight of the 7000 strong crowd. They loved every single second of it and that was reflected in the atmosphere at Ushuaïa - totally electric.
Touching on that crowd then, is one of the major success stories of these parties. Because they are all so intertwined with the culture and music Guetta and co promote, they go absolutely crazy! I mean mad... possessed even! I've seen other parties absolutely go off (such as DC10 to take the polar opposite as an example), but rarely at the level to which these people will lose their minds to a David Guetta chorus. There was an impressive atmosphere and energy in the air, I'll give it that much.
These parties are a collaboration, a triumph of the marriage between Cathy and David Guetta. For his wife is as much responsible for the party as is David. She takes on the role of organising the show side, whilst David presses the buttons on the decks. Kudos to Cathy for putting on such an impressive show, the stage, the dancers, the pyrotechnics, and the general stage production was fantastic. It made Ushuaïa look great, and made David sound even better to the gathered masses. At one point a special 'surprise' was released to the crowd, as hundreds of foam tubes with coloured, flashing LED's were handed out around the venue. Standing at the back with a view of it all was quite an impressive sight, I have to admit.
To see so many of the LED foam tubes still shaking at Cocoon several hours later made me wonder, however. Maybe all these Guetta fuelled parties have a purpose beyond pop music? Something of a grassroot's training scheme perhaps? Whereby the musically uneducated, or perhaps better described as inexperienced, get their first taste of dance music via the cross-genre of dance-pop he and his friends play, only to then be exposed to the 'cooler' and more 'underground' sounds of Adem Beyer and the Cocoon crew, and seal their addiction. If that is the case then I'm cool with that (although I'm sure many won't), for a genre that was supposedly dead or dieing a few years ago, it certainly seems to be growing in popularity...
Having said that, people are entitled to their own opinions and tastes, and there are enough positives at a party like F**k Me I'm Famous to justify it all.
