Gustavo Palmer
never wore a T-shirt with the name of the
mega-disco that he created in the 90s
and that
marked the pulse of the night
for three decades in Pinamar.
He swears and says "excuse me", that
the name Ku is "in his heart"
.
He will be arrogant or he will not want to break tradition, but this season has something different for the 64-year-old DJ, who has just gotten out of a Mercedes and who will end up giving in at the last minute.
It was a few days ago.
She was sunbathing in the pool of the hotel where she is staying, almost facing the sea, in Ostend, when a plane passed by the beach announcing the arrival of a show.
"Can you believe what he was saying?
'Luxor Circus, Luxor Circus, don't miss it, opposite the Ku'.
Del Ku!, that we closed it 7 years ago.
Look, I get goosebumps
”, he asks.
It was not the only thing that happened.
On December 31, the
Energy Group
, associated with the lawyer Víctor Stinfale - who was dismissed for lack of evidence in the
Time Warp case
- and owner of the white mass where Ku worked for three decades, reopened a small nightclub for 300 people, "Mirador Santos", where the VIP used to work in Palmer's time.
The headlines in the media spoke of
the "return" of Ku and the "new Ku"
, but the truth - Palmer will explain - is that "Víctor bought the building,
but not the brand
".
Palmer says he's hosting a matinee under the Ku name again to bring teens closer to their parents.
Photo Germán García Adrasti / Special envoy
Let's rewind: the mega-disco, which opened in 1992, was located in what today appears as a white building that
occupies almost an entire block
on Quintana avenue and Guerrero street, a few meters from what is now the Boutique.
It had a
capacity for 10,000 people
, almost double what is admitted today, for example, in the Pueblo Límite bowling alley, but it was not all Ku, but
a complex with three parts
.
The first of them was
El Alma
, on the north side, the only sector that has been exploited in recent years, but not with a night venture.
It is
an escape room
called "Escape Room Pinamar" and can be visited during the day.
The white mass where, from left to right, were El Alma, Archie and Ku.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special envoy
The second part, more in the center, was
Archie
.
It was a sector more oriented to gastronomy, explains Palmer, "more to go to dinner at night than a place to dance."
That is also why many do not even remember this name, but
perhaps they do "Ku/El Alma"
.
The third part, needless to say, had the entrance to the southern side of the building and
was called Ku, a mark that would quickly eclipse the others
.
That was
"where everything exploded"
, says Palmer and defines it as "the center of the electronic scene on the Coast", where international figures such as Anthony Pappa, Richie Hawtin or Roman Kauder played and where many couples, who are now families,
met they met for the first time
.
Seen from the corner, the escape room in the building where Ku worked.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden
It was also the sector where Palmer had his booth and moved crowds with his sets.
“All the Ku crouched down”,
he ordered with “World hold on” in the background
, and the 10-something kids obeyed.
“Once Charly García came, and he was there in a VIP box watching everything, and I told him 'Come, Charly' and he sang a cappella 'I'm not going by train, I'm going by plane.'
Ku was magical
, ”he recalls.
Palmer works out every day and it shows when he takes off his tank top.
"I do
calisthenics
, which is gymnastics in which instead of weights you have to lift the weight of your own body," he tells
Clarín
.
A group of boys line up to enter Mirador Santos, at the back of the building where Ku was.
Photo German Garcia Adrasti
Meanwhile, he poses from Pink, the bowling alley at Avenida Bunge 1622 that he has had for a few years with two partners in Pinamar, with the short-sleeved T-shirt that he himself had sublimated and that big advertises “Ku Teenagers”.
It's the turn, he explains,
not of a building, but of something of the spirit of Ku
.
Let's go back, again.
Palmer graduated as an agronomist, but he says that the profession bored him and it did not pay off financially.
From a very young age he started as a bartender, got used to the night and continued with music, as a DJ.
He traveled the world, but he fell in love with Ibiza
.
“When I returned to Buenos Aires and the project for the Pinamar nightclub came up, where I was a partner and manager, I decided to pay homage to the Ku bowling alley in Ibiza.
Here in Argentina it didn't exist, so I
went and registered the Ku brand in items 41 and 42 in my name
, ”says Palmer.
Mirador Santos is the new bowling alley.
It opened where the VIP of the former Ku worked.
Photo Germán García Adrasti / Special envoy
Pinamar became small over time, and came to have
35 franchises throughout the country
, details the businessman.
Also, "Ku Station", a bar on Bunge and Libertador.
But in 2016, after years of financial hardship and the deaths of five youths at Time Warp bowling alley,
Ku was on the decline
.
--Did you have offers for the brand since then?
--Yes twice.
But for me Ku is like my second son.
Gustavo Palmer with his two partners, at Pink, where he will do the Ku Teenager matinee.
Photo Germán García Adrasti / Special envoy
--And if you received a proposal to redo Ku where the original building was?
--I have a good relationship with Víctor (Stinfale), but no, I am already over 60 years old and I would not like so much responsibility.
Think that here in Pink with 800 people I have the place full, there I had to make sure to put 7,000 so that it was not empty.
He ended up very stressed.
--Why do you come back now with a matinee with the name Ku? Why not another name?
--I like doing something to bring parents closer to their kids.
I see that in general they don't talk much and I think it's giving them the opportunity to have a chat, to tell them that they also went out dancing, to tell them what music they listened to or how they hysterically or felt nervous about talking to a girl or a boy.
The kids are very camouflaged with technology now.
The "Lion Messi de Ku", with which Palmer promotes his matinee.
Photo: Courtesy
It is the first time, since the closure of the Ku, that Palmer
will once again hold an event with its historic brand
: the first editions will be this Wednesday and on January 20.
The event
will recreate what was Ku's matinee
, parties that he did a few times per summer.
They will be from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., there will be activities for the children and it will also include dinner.
"And parents will also be invited to stay for a while or recreate while the kids have fun, who knows if they don't make new couples," he is excited.
“At this stage of life, I want other things.
I believe that if you throw away good energy, it comes back to you.
I don't think I'm any king of the night.
I am a worker and I teach my daughter that too, not to become bourgeois, to work while she studies, in her case publicity for her.
She is 18 years old and it is the most beautiful thing that happened to me in my life.
She now makes music and I love it ”.
Tourists pose with the promoters of the "new Ku" in the center of Pinamar.
Photo: Courtesy
Palmer shows videos on WhatsApp.
A few days ago, she began to publicize the "return of Ku"
on the beach and downtown streets
, in its matinee version, with
an employee dressed as a giant lion
.
“People saw it and came up to see if the bowling alley was coming back.
'Is Ku coming back?
Is Ku back?
´, they asked, "says the businessman and his hand goes to his chest by itself. "It is incredible what a name generates ”, he says.
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