For as far as the eye can see (or at least can focus on) there seems to be swarms and swarms of people, armed with fluoro shirts, tight black jeans and stripy scarves ready to kick the ‘07 party season off with a bang, and this year instead of Parklife becoming the cornerstone that marks this event, Fuzzy have introduced a Parklife warmup, a one-week pre-festival event hosted at Sounds On Sunday where one could sample some of the international delights offered by Parklife in a slightly more intimate setting. Or alternatively, manage to catch the artist that they can’t really be bothered missing the M.I.A. set for on Sunday.

German techno based DJ Delicious was initially met with a dissociative sea of blank faces as he crafted a fine tech-electro set, not really receiving the welcome that he rightly deserved. That was before he switched to that well-known Boy’s Noize bootleg of Bloc Party and combined it with the latest Killing In The Name Of electro remix, to much fanfare. The whole sudden change was almost too painful to witness, but I did anyway cause I’m a glutton for idiocy. It was nice to have a taste of the ‘Phunkwerk guy’ before Parklife, particularly because I’m sure he wasn’t bringing his A-Game, instead saving that for the main event.

French speaking Yelle could be mistaken in believing that most Sydney-siders were multilingual on Sunday as they shouted the chorus lines to some of her most well known French-language electro pop songs, but as she conversed with them in between songs all she received were blank faces. Which is not to say they didn’t enjoy the whole spectacle! Reminiscent of Debbie Harry of Blondie fame, Julie Budet had summoned this whole kind of 80s pop spectacular, clutching the mike stand and dancing on the spot; the only difference was that she was singing in French and was also, not blonde. The similarities were striking though.

When she finally made her way on stage, in true diva style (though not quite warranted) it was already well over halfway into the allotted time for her set, and although many claim it’s quality not quantity, there is something to be said for turning up to your gig on time. Moving through crowd favourites like A Cause Des Garcons and Je Veux Te Voir and still having time to go, the group which consisted of Yelle, her producer Grand Marnier on drums and backup vocals, and some other guy called Tepr on keys who decided to run through Je Veux Te Voir once more. Yawn.

Cajuan was disappointingly average, and that’s not even counting the failed mixes and badly looped electro-house hooks. Hype and all, he was very apathetic, which leads me to believe that the artists who got slated for the Parklife warmup probably weren’t adequate to hold a top headlining spot at the festival and were merely phoning in the Sounds on Sunday performance. Whilst it was weird seeing The Greenwood not completely overflowing with bouncing punters, it seemed as though most people were there to see Yelle and Yelle alone, because once she finished bouncing around and being all cute and smart and French, most people left, including myself.

Were you at the Parklife warmup last Sunday? If you’re a fan of France’s Yelle, check out her video below for her single A Cause Des Garcons.