Club Yellow sees its last dance, with Francois K

Club Yellow sees its last dance, with Francois K

8 July, 2008 | 8.47AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Yuko Asanuma

Here are some facts about Club Yellow’s closing party:

It started at 11 PM on Saturday 21st of June 2008.

The entrance fee was 10,000 yen (approx. US $100.)

It was hosted by Francois K.

Find out more surprising facts and what actually happened after the jump!

Because I knew it was going to be a long party—at least 24 hours long—I cheated.

After coming home from the night before on Saturday afternoon, I slept for 20 hours(!) and got up at 8 AM on Sunday morning.

I headed to the club knowing I was not late for the finale.

At 10:30 AM, it was a fine Sunday morning and I opened the door that leads to the stairs into a dark basement.

The entrance was gorgeously decorated with yellow and white flowers and balloons. 

When I reached the bar area next to the main room, the space was not as badly crowded as I thought. This was because the club controlled the amount of people allowed to go inside so they made sure that people who had paid a lot of money had a pleasant time.

Which means there were a lot more people who wanted to be there but couldn’t get in. I heard that they had to shut the doors all night until around 6 AM.

I saw many familiar faces there, some of them sweaty, some of them exhausted, and some of them refreshed.

In the DJ booth, Francois K was still DJing by himself after 11 and a half hours. He didn’t look tired at all.

Along with carefully selected tracks, he played the recorded comments made by other DJs that he had collected prior to this occasion. Those voice messages by Louie Vega, David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Derrick May, Carl Cox, Gilles Peterson, Kerri Chandler and many more made Francois’ set even more special and touching.

However, right behind him, I found a familiar face which I saw 20 some hours ago in the same spot.

It was Laurent Garnier.

He looked like he was fully charged for another long night. It was apparent that he was there to take over, and in that moment, I knew the party was going to be even longer than I expected.

Francois put his headphones down at around 11 AM, and Laurent carried on the deep house vibe with some garage classics, and mixed it into more electronic sounds.

So I missed Francois’ 12-hour set almost completely… but I heard it was ‘an awesome set’ from a reliable source - Yuka Noguchi, the Cisco Records’ chief house buyer, who is one of the regulars at Club Yellow.

She had been there from the beginning of the night, and I saw her dancing until the very end.

There were many local and international DJs on the dance floor too.

Many of them hurried to the club after finishing their own gigs.

Among them were Alex From Tokyo (Tokyo Black Star/ Innervisions), Foolish Felix (Cynic), DJ Nori, Ko Kimura, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Moodman, Toshiyuki Goto and many more.

During the intensive Garnier hours, I found two more recognisable figures right behind him. Danny Krivit and Joe Claussell. I noticed Joe wearing his trademark scarf over his head, so it was clear that he was there to DJ.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and Danny and Joe together were representing the original ‘Body & Soul’ vibe at Club Yellow, as the party used to be held on Sunday afternoons in NYC.

They played party classics back to back for a few hours, and Francois joined them after coming back from a few hours of sleep.

Then, there was a sudden surprise.

I think it was around 6 or 7 PM the stage was lit, and there appeared Kenny Bobien, a gospel vocalist very well known among house heads.

His incredible falsetto voice on tunes like ‘Brighter Days’ ‘Why We Sing’ and ‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ overwhelmed the audience as it was a completely secret show—none of us including myself were informed about his guest performance.

The party just kept going and going non-stop.

Francois played for a while, and then again the three others would take over from time to time.

When it passed around 1 AM, I could finally feel that the end was near. I personally felt it most when Francois played Sade’s ‘No Ordinary Love’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Another Star.’

They brought tears to my eyes, and for the first time, I realised that my favourite club would be no more.

I think everybody there was sharing the big big love for the club and for the music.

I saw many of them crying while still dancing. None of them seemed like they were ready to go - including the DJs.

Nobody was leaving even after the club’s manager made his speech to thank the audience for supporting the club and for making such special parties possible in the closing week.

All the bar staff, doormen and the security guys gathered on the dance floor, and danced together with us. Crying. 

Because nobody was leaving, the DJs had to keep on playing more music.

After 31 hours, at around 5 AM on Monday morning, the last drum finally beat.

Francois made a speech in Japanese, calling Club Yellow his ‘home.’ He expressed his love for his home, love for his family he had there, and his hope for building another place like Club Yellow.

Yes, we all definitely need another home now.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Club Yellow and all the professional and music loving staff there, as well as all the DJs and performers I saw there at the countless magical moments.

I’m very proud to say, “We partied at YELLOW!!”

Photos by Kenta Fujiki
Photos of the bar staff by Iwao Ohtake

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