Guy Cuevas

Guy Cuevas is a Cuban-born writer, musician, and Paris disc jockey. Born Guillermo Cuevas Carrión, he worked the turntables at Club Sept, and Le Palace before becoming the artistic director, first of Les Bains-Douches, then the Barrio Latino.

As a DJ, he was known for a mix featuring the funk and soul of the Philadelphia Sound, along with his connections to the world of high fashion.

Cuban Origins Guy Cuevas, (Guillermo Cuevas Carrión) was born in Havana, Cuba in 1945. He was awarded a scholarship to a playwriting workshop created shortly after the 1959 revolution. The workshop was held at the National Theater of Cuba directed by Fermín Borges, other students included Eugenio Hernández, Gerardo Fulleda León, Ana Justina Cabrera, Santiago Ruiz and José Mario Rodríguez, many of whom have made names for themselves as playwrights and authors.

Fulleda León remembers the group hanging out for long hours after class in cafes or street corners to talk about essays, plays, ethnographies, stories and poems, or whatever they were working on.

While still attending the workshop, Cuevas published a collection of short stories, "Ni un Sí, ni un No" with Ediciones El Puente founded by fellow student José Mario Rodríguez.

In 1964, Cuevas immigrated to France where he continued to write, sleeping on floors and working odd jobs until he got his first job DJing at club Nuage. His big break came shortly afterward, when he was discovered by the openly gay impresario Fabrice Emaer, who hired him as a DJ at Club Sept, his restaurant-discothèque at 7 (sept) Sainte-Anne street.

Career: Disc Jockey

Le Sept

In Paris you got to be seen at Maxim's The Palace The 7 and then go Chez Regine Champagne Caviar Haute-couture Expensive cars Saint Laurent and Loulou Rich ladies with a few bijoux.

—Amanda Lear, Fashion Pack, 1979

Situated in the middle of the gay neighborhood near the Palais-Royal, Le Sept had a restaurant on the ground floor and a small dance floor in the basement.

One writer has called the Sept, "the epicenter of disco with DJ Guy Cuevas at the turntables.

He played the O'Jays, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye, as well as Salsa and Latin American music, and sometimes, "stuff that wasn't at all danceable, like Marilyn Monroe or bird sounds or tam tam, whatever passed through my head."

He spent his days listening to records at, Chez Givaudan. At night he'd put on his new discoveries.

Paquita Paquin, a journalist and former club goer wrote in her recent memoirs: "At the end of the night, he would sometimes agree to put on some of our requests, but if not, would explain about balance, strength, and the rhythm he was looking for in his program that didn't always leave room for our endless hits. Guy Cuevas is a genius.".

The Palace

Le Club Sept was only a rehearsal for what was to come. From the opening night, Le Palace reflected the arrival of disco with Grace Jones surrounded by dry ice and shining roses, singing La Vie en Rose atop a pink Harley Davidson. It was the temple of a new style of music that caught the world by surprise... Guy Cuevas had followed Emaer to the Palace, and there his selection was the same: flamboyant. For the first time people danced all the time, not leaving the dance floor except for a quick trip to the toilets or the bar. The music was so sensational that it gave the impression that the Palace was a trampoline in the middle of the Atlantic : Let's All Chant by the Michael Zager Band was a hit in France at the same time as the U.S. Suddenly dancing became a lifestyle. He chose Le Palace as a French response.

The theater space, where the balconies were left intact, allowed le Palace more flexibility than Studio 54. The club sometimes held live concerts (Prince, Bette Midler, Divine, Tom Waits...), premiered films or showed clips during the music. Balls were organized by designers like Kenzo and Karl Lagerfeld.

In the 1990s, he had his own fashion line and boutique in St. Germain, encouraged by many of the designers that were his personal friends.

Publications

Ni un Sí, ni un No. Ediciones El Puente. Ochún en el Sena

Filmography

Target of Suspicion (1994) (TV) Cómo ser infeliz y disfrutarlo (1994) Nefertiti, figlia del sole (1994) L'enfant lion (1993) Ne réveillez pas un flic qui dort (1988) Les frères Pétard (1986) Under the Cherry Moon (1986) The Jewel of the Nile (1985) Un été d'enfer (1984)

Discography

Releases Ebony Game (7") Gaumont Musique 1981 Obsession (12") Island Records 1982 Gallo Negro (12") Island Records 1984

Tracks Appear On Funky Nassau - The Compass Point Story 1980-1986 (CD) Obsession (Nassau Mix) Strut 2008

Unofficial Releases Acoustic Boogie EP (12", EP) Ebony Games (Lexx's Iv... Tracky Bottoms 2008